Free Tool - Back Up Dynamics GP to Azure Server

Figure 1 – Slide showing that you can backup the GP database to Azure

Backing up data is one of the most important functions that companies can do on a daily basis. Most companies will back up their data to a local server on premises.  If there is a major issue such as fire or flood, that backup may not provide the safety net that companies believe that they have.

Many Dynamics GP users do not realize that they can backup their Dynamics GP directly to an Azure server thereby having a secure copy of their backup in the cloud.

Here is how it works.  Only the system administrator can open the Back Up Company window to make backups. The Back Up Company window is only available when using a Microsoft Dynamics GP installation on the SQL Server.  The administrator may choose to back up either the Company database or the System database.

Figure 2 – Back Up Company Window from Dynamics GP 2015 R2

Here is a list of the data that should be backed up.

Figure 3 – Dynamics GP files and databases that should be part of the backup

Please contact us for more information on managing back ups or contact us about  how we can help you with a Dynamics implementation or upgrade.

Send an email to Support@dynamicsmct.com or call us at Toll Free:  +1.780-555-6144.

Submitted by Judith Hirst CPA, CMA MCP Senior Financial Analyst

www.dynamicsmct.com

Jet Reports 2017 R2 Has Been Released With New Features

Figure 1 –  Income Statement by Month from Jet Reports

Jet Reports 2017 R2 represents significant enhancements for how you can manage, run and view your business reports in Jet Professional and Jet Enterprise. 

The following information comes from the Jet Reports publication on the new features in release 2017 R2.

New Features Available in Jet Reports 2017 R2

Figure 2 – Jet Web Portal Scheduler

Web Scheduling - Jet Professional 2017 R2 introduces a web-based scheduler for reports. Jet Web Portal users can now easily set
their Jet reports to run on a monthly, weekly, daily, or even more frequent basis and be distributed via email.  Users can create a schedule, and then set up one or multiple reports to be run and distributed via email.  The scheduling capability is quite flexible, and makes it easy to set up schedules for:
• The last day of the month
• The first Monday of the month
• Every hour between 8am and 5pm
• And much more

New Drilldown Features… 

Drilldown Available in Web Portal Reports -   When a user downloads a report from the Jet Web Portal they can now click on a cell to see the underlying data.

Drilldown for Dynamics GP GL function - Dynamics GP users can now drilldown into their GL queries to see the underlying financial transactions. This allows users to quickly get a deep understanding of their finances.

Report Options tool

Designers can use a new Report Options tool to quickly create and manage user-selectable parameters/filters on their reports. This speeds up report creation and makes it easier to learn how to the report options window feature.

No longer do you need to add tags for ‘title’, ‘value’, ‘option’ etc. to create a report options window. A simple tool now takes care of this for you.

Does your finance team have an interest in Jet Reports?  Contact us.  The team at Dynamics MCT Consulting  provides a full range of Microsoft Dynamics services.  For more information on Jet Reports or to ask questions about how we can help you with a Dynamics implementation, send an email to Support@dynamicsmct.com or call us at Toll Free:  +1.780-555-6144.

Submitted by Judith Hirst CPA, CMA MCP Senior Financial Analyst

www.dynamicsmct.com

New Features in HR and Payroll in Dynamics GP 2016 R2

 

Figure 1 – how to get to the new employment history window in GP 2016 R2 – US Payroll only

A very simple, but powerful improvement made to the payroll and human resource module is the new ability to track history on termination and rehire dates for employees. Any time a hire date, adjusted hire date, date inactivated, last day worked or termination date is updated in the system, that information will be saved and can be viewed through the employee history inquiry window. Tracking employee history with the company has now become simple.

Other payroll and human resource improvements include:

• Vendor addresses and accounts can be established in the payroll vendor setup window, allowing for a different distribution than those currently assigned to the vendor.
• A warning is now available for potential double deductions for mandatory arrears deductions due to a previous posting.
• Tip tax amounts are now included in distribution pre-posting reports for viewing before posting.
• An option is now available to exclude inactive pay codes from lookup windows throughout payroll.
• An enhanced payroll posting accounts setup now exits with navigation lists having filter and sort capabilities along with excel export and import functionality.

Are you a Dynamics MCT client interested in installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 R2? Contact us first. Dynamics MCT Consulting - email to Support@dynamicsmct.com or call us at Toll Free:  +1 780-555-6144.

Submitted by Terence Graw CPA, CMA – Consultant   www.dynamicsmct.com

Dynamics GP 2016 R2–Saving an new Fixed Asset with a Suffix Greater Than 1

Figure 1 – Asset Card showing new asset with suffix of 05

The Dynamics GP Fixed Asset module is improving with each release of Dynamics GP.  In the current release, Dynamics GP 2016 R2, users are able to save the Asset ID with a suffix other than 1. 

New assets can now be listed as:

• Forklift 1040 Orange-12 instead of Forklift 1040 Orange-1
• Toyota Camry SSE Grey-10 instead of Toyota Camry SSE Grey-1

Here are the reasons that this change will make life easier for the fixed asset manager:

• This change will make creating new assets easier/faster
•   If a company buys a block of assets from another company, they no longer have to change the asset id if the suffix is not a 1
• Importing assets will be easier without the suffix being 1
• Companies can create suffix lists for certain assets for easier tracking

To see a short video of all of the GP 2016 R2 features, check out Microsoft's video HERE.

If you want more information about  Dynamics GP, contact us at Dynamics MCT Consulting.  Send an email to Support@dynamicsmct.com or call us at Toll Free:  +1.780-555-6144.

Submitted by Judith Hirst CPA, CMA MCP

Dynamics GP 2016 R2–Accounts Receivable Module Improvements

 

Figure 1 – Cash Receipts entry window in Dynamics GP 2016 R2

In an attempt to streamline accounts receivables processes, functionality has been added to Dynamics GP that will allow the deposit of cash receipts in a batch to occur automatically. If this option is enabled, a single deposit will be created that includes all cash receipts in the batch, or if receivables are posted at the transaction level each cash receipt will result in a separate deposit being created and posted. This functionality will save steps and time in dealing with cash receipts.

Other Accounts Receivable improvements include:

• Batch approval workflows now have default word templates for edit lists to be emailed to approvers and supply them with complete information about the transactions in the batch.

Talk to us, at Dynamics MCT Consulting, about upgrading to Dynamics GP 2016 R2.  Contact Support@Dynamicsmct.com.

Submitted by Terence Graw CPA, CMA – Consultant

Dynamics GP 2016 R2 – Sales Order Process Module Improvements

The all in one document view now exists for sales and inventory transactions! This gives a SOP user quick access to all documents related to a given sales transaction in a single window. See information flow from quote through to credits/returns for transactions for a given customer with ease.

Other sales order processing improvements include:

- Credit Limit warning calculations will now take into account unposted credit documents giving a more up to date credit situation for customers.

- Historical tax percentages are displayed at the correct historical rate at the time of the transaction when viewing sales transaction details.

If you want to see a demo of Dynamics GP 2016 R2, please contact us.

Submitted by Terence Graw CPA, CMA – Consultant

Dynamics GP 2016 R2 - Accounts Payable Module Improvements

 

The Accounts Payable module has seen some great improvements in the handling of company credit card payments. Dealing with credit cards is often one of the more challenging aspects of working in accounts payable. The new functionality available in Dynamics GP for use with credit card payments will help with this.

A payables batch credit card payment option will allow the payment of cheque batches with a credit card. An invoice will be created for the credit card vendor and a remittance form will provide access to detailed data on the vendor invoices paid using the credit card. A link between the credit card invoice and the original vouchers is established making it easy to trace credit card payments in the system.

Other accounts payable improvements include:

- The prepayment of a purchase order can now consist of the total amount including taxes, freight, and misc. charges instead of being limited to the subtotal amount of the PO.

- The SafePay file now uses the actual vendor name printed on the cheque when the payment was made and not the default name from the vendor maintenance window which will ensure the correct data is relayed to the bank for payment presentation.

- Batch approval workflows now have default word templates for edit lists to be emailed to approvers and supply them with complete information about the transactions in the batch.

Submitted by Terence Graw CPA, CMA – Consultant

Key2Act Adds New Features to Service Management in Signature 2016 R2 for GP 2016 R2

 

If your company is using Key2Act's Signature Product for Service Management, you are going to love the new features added in Signature 2016 R2.  Some of these features will help accountants close the month more quickly – look at the Service Call Status Window.

Service Call Status window

• The Service Call Status window allows you to view unposted, committed and actual costs as well as anticipated billable information. The costs displayed are all costs for the service call, not for a specific invoice. Margin information is also displayed although tax information is not included. The Service Call Status window also provides zoom capability to the cost categories and cost types for the service call. Inquiry > Signature Service Management > Service Call Inquiry

Service Call Lookup by Customer window

• Added the ability to filter the service calls displayed by technician.

Expansion Go To button for service call inquiry windows

• In the Service Call Inquiry window, an expansion button has been added next to the Service Call field that opens the new Service Call Status window. An expansion button is also available in the Service Call Status window that opens the Service Call Inquiry window.

Assignment Status field added to the Technician Reassignment Utility window

• The ability to choose a status when reassigning a service call or appointment has been added in the Technician Reassignment Utility window. This field is enabled when the duty selected is Service Call/Appts. The default status is UNASSIGNED.

Added email capabilities for purchase orders

• Added the ability to email a purchase order to a vendor from the Signature Purchase Order window. See the Microsoft Dynamics GP documentation for information and requirements for sending purchase orders in email as well as how to set up the document options for vendors. You can set this up individually for each vendor or you can assign email settings to multiple vendors.

Word templates for Signature service invoices

• Pre-defined service invoice Word templates are available in the Microsoft Dynamics\GP2016\Signature location that you can set up to use with service invoices.

Attachments to Additional Work

• MobileTech technicians can attach a file to Additional Work and can synchronize them to the Mobile Additional Work Inquiry window in Service Management.

Add Service Customer window

• A quick add customer option has been added to the Service Manager Additional menu. This window can be used by limited and full users to quickly add a new service customer with the essential data needed to create a service call. We've also added a SmartList that displays the new service customers added so that the full user can add additional customer information from the Customer Maintenance window. Users can only add or edit the quick add service customer record.

Contact Dynamics MCT Consulting Ltd. to see the new features (Support@dynamicsmct.com)

Submitted by Judith Hirst CPA, CMA MCP

GP NEXT ARRIVES Q4 of 2017

Microsoft has started talking about GP NEXT, set to arrive in the late part of Q4.  The details of GP NEXT will be released  at www.gpugamplify.com in March.  Microsoft will stream the customer keynote the morning of March 21 for those who can't attend in person and will share the recording.

Here is what we know about the offering:

GP Next Pillars

A. Bringing Two Worlds Together:

   - Cloud Opportunities

B. Enhancing the Core Application and Platform:

   - Ease of Use has been a strategy for many years and it will continue. 

   - Adding deeper functionality from www.connect.microsoft.com

C. One Microsoft:

    - Other Microsoft Technologies.

 

Posted on March 7 2017 by Judith Hirst

Dynamics GP 2016 R2 Released

The newest release of Dynamics GP is GP 2016 R2.   The Microsoft Development Team has announced the following release features.  

• Power BI on Web Client home page
• Smartlists available in Advanced Look ups
• SmartList Favorite Protection
• Show user name in message batch is edited by another user
• Purchase Order Processing - Cancel Purchase Order When linked to a Requisition & Visual indicator if quantities not fulfilled.
• Sales Order Processing - Display Tax Percent for Historical Transaction
• Safepay file pull the CHECK NAME on actual check not from Vendor Master
• General Ledger - Distribution line to open expanded, also for RM, PM and Cash Receipts transaction entry
• Bank Reconciliation history tracking and transaction remove capability which = better performance!!
• Fixed Asset ability to save Asset ID with suffix other than 1

The two features for Bank Reconciliation and for Fixed Assets are definitely going to improve fullfiling the accounting tasks of bank rec and adding new fixed assets.

Thinking about upgrading?  Talk to our specialists.  Set up an appointment using Support@dynamicsmct.com.

Judith Hirst BA CPA; CMA, ERP Consultant and Analyst at Dynamics MCT Consulting Ltd.

www.dynamicsmct.com