FRx SP11 and 0 budget amounts

We have now discovered a slight difference between sp11 and sp10 and it revolves around the way they deal with column layouts and the use of the Base-1 feature in the column.


It would appear that if you use the base-1, base-2, base-3 etc. feature in the period column and this takes you into the prior year it will look into the prior year for the budget when the year column is set to base (previously in SP10 it did not do this and the year remained constant).

For example if you run a report for January 2010, the period column is set to base-1 and the year is base. It should go back one period which is December but as the year is set to base you would expect data in the budget column for December 2010. What we are getting is zero.

This is because the base-1 in the period is now changing the year as well and trying to display data from December 2009. As there is no data for December 2009 in this budget (yearly budget) it is returning zero.

The workaround is to hardcode the periods 1 through to 12 rather than using the base-1 functionality. We do have this logged with Microsoft at the moment, however a lot of people have just completed their year ends or are in the process of doing so, which means this issue is likely to be more obvious as people change the years in which they are processing.

Dynamics (GP) First Aid (MR MUM)

I have spent the last three days on a St John’s ambulance First Aid at Work course and I am now fully qualified to deal with those all too common work place wounds, you know the kind of thing, QWERTY shaped bruises on the forehead etc.


Anyway the First Aid procedures started me thinking that this is very similar to what we do on the helpdesk when trouble shooting an issue with Dynamics.

Within First Aid there are loads of handy acronyms to help you remember what you’re looking for and what takes priority. For instance there is DR ABC. This stands for Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing and Circulation. I thought that we could benefit from something similar to make sure all the bases are covered when investigating a Dynamics issue and after several minutes of deep thought I have come up with MR MUM.

M = Multiple Instance: Does it happen all the time, is this the first time , has it happened before?

R = Replicate: Can you replicate it?

M = Machine: Is it machine specific, does it only happen on one workstation, does it happen on the server?

U = User: Is it user specific, does it happen for one user or all users or just users in a specific role or users in a specific Company?

M = Modifications: Are the screens or reports modified , does it happen if you take away access and use the unmodified objects is there VBA attached?



The answers to the above should provide the consultant with a firm basis to start trouble shooting the rest of the issue, in fact, if the answers to these questions were given at the point of case logging the resolution may present itself straight away, it would certainly speed up the triage stage of a support call.

FRX SP11 we are happy with it now.

The code for FRx sp11 has been re released and we have tested this in house. We are happy to report it does what it says on the packet and we are now happy for our clients to install this service pack.

Dynamics (GP) 2010 early findings

Hi folks.

We have a couple of clients on the early adopters program from Microsoft for Dynamics (GP) 2010.

We have hit our first issue, this only effects non U.S. installs and is a re occurrence of an issue from version 10.

The problem is installing Business portal. It won’t install on non U.S. regional settings. You need to change your regional settings to U.S., install BP and then change them back to U.K. or where ever else you are in the world. This was a problem in BP4 for version 10 and its still there in BP5 for version 2010 (beta).

How to Create SQL Scripts in Integration Manager without hardcoding the database

Here is a handy bit of code. Have you ever wanted to run a sql script in Integration manager after the task completes but you don't want to hard code the company database so you can use it against multiple companies?

Well here is the code to do this (in version 10), in the script window within Integration manager start off by setting the ADODB connection.

set MyCon = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

Then use the connection string to bring back the inter company ID

MyCon.Connectionstring = "database=" + GPConnection.GPConnInterCompanyID

Open your connection

GPConnection.Open(MyCon)


You can then construct your SQL statement, the below is an update statement

updatecommand = "update PM00200 "
updatecommand = updatecommand & " set PHNUMBR1 = 'xxxxx',"
updatecommand = updatecommand & " PHNUMBR2 = 'xxxxx',"
updatecommand = updatecommand & " PHONE3 = 'xxxx',"
updatecommand = updatecommand & " FAXNUMBR = 'xxxx'"

Then close the record set and exercute the command

recset = MyCon.Execute(updatecommand )

This becomes a very powerful tool when you combine it with before scripts which will enable you to fill out blank fields with place holders etc and then remove the place holders after the integration completes.

Top 5 New features Dynamics (GP) 2010 (Beta release)

The beta release of Dynamics (GP) 2010 is here.

Our Dynamics (GP) Product Manager is currently in the process of testing this new code so its to early to give you our findings as yet. However I thought I would take this opportunity to wet your appetites with some of the New features that caught our attention.

2010 is rich in new features so we thought we would do our top 5 and as is traditional with these count downs we will start at 5 and work our way up to 1.

So coming in at number 5

5.Collections Management: View unposted cash amounts

This has been one of those annoying little over sites for credit controllers , well from version 2010 unposted cash amounts are now displayed in the collections main window.

Another new entry (quite literally) at number 4

4.Receivables Management: Enter negative cash receipts

You can now decrease a deposit by entering a negative cash receipt. This shows as a deposit with a negative amount (we have had a few support cases in the past that would have been easier to resolve with this functionality).

A simple piece of functionality at number 3 , however it is one that will make a lot of people happy.

3.Exclude inactive accounts/customers/creditors/sales people etc. from lookups

If your bogged down in active accounts etc. this should make lookups and data entry so much quicker.

At number 2, the word template comes of age

2.Word templates

Predefined word templates come with 2010 from purchase orders to invoices, I have included the list below of the Report writer reports that can now be done with word templates. Good bye to those clunky report writer reports.


Report Writer report name:
SOP Blank History Options Quote Form
SOP Blank History Quote Form
SOP Blank Options Quote Form
SOP Blank Quote Form
SOP Blank History Options Order Form
SOP Blank History Order Form
SOP Blank Options Order Form
SOP Blank Order Form
SOP Blank History Options Invoice Form
SOP Blank History Invoice Form
SOP Blank Options Invoice Form
SOP Blank Invoice Form
SOP Blank Packing Slip Form
RM Statement on Blank Paper
MC Statement Blank Form
Receivables Sales/Invoices
Receivables Debit Memos
Receivables Finance Charges
Receivables Service/Repairs
Receivables Warranties
Receivables Credit Memo
Receivables Returns
POP Purchase Order Blank Form
POP History Purchase Order Blank Form
POP Purchase Order Rollup Blank Form
POP History Purchase Order Rollup Blank Form
Payable Invoices
Payable Finance Charges
Payable Miscellaneous Charges
Payable Credit Memo
Payable Returns
Check Remittance

and we have saved the best till last top of the new features list is:

1. E-mail Functionality
The new email functionality allows you to embed documents into the body of an email or send as attachments. You can send single documents , batches or multiple document types using lists.
The following document types can be sent in an email and you have the choice of HTML, XPS, PDF or DOCx formats.

Documents:
Sales quote
Receivables finance charges
Sales order
Receivables warranty
Sales fulfillment order
Receivables service/repair
Sales invoice
Standard purchase order
Receivables invoice
Blanket purchase order
Receivables return
Drop-ship purchase order
Receivables debit memo
Vendor remittances
Receivables credit memo
If this has wet your appetite then keep watching this blog as we will be posting the initial findings of our testing on 2010 soon.