On March 31st, 2011, Technology Management Concepts (TMC), held a free Training Class on Microsoft Dynamics GP (formally Great Plains) FRx and Management Reporter. The class was open to all interested and aimed at educating Dynamics GP users to fully utilize the powerful reporting tools, and in doing so, bringing a better understanding and control to the financial process within their organization.
The class was organized by Pat Quimby, TMC’s Client Account Manager, and was a huge success with over 48 people attending. The free class was held at the Microsoft Office in Downtown Los Angeles. The class was presented by Julie London, TMC’s Senior Implementation Specialist. Julie has been with TMC for over 12 years and has been involved in countless Dynamics GP implementations. The class was split over two sessions: beginners and advanced.
Dennis Jones, CFO of Hof’s Hut who attended the class said “The Controller and I attended an FRx reporting class conducted by TMC in an effort to learn how to optimize our use of FRx. The training session was very professional and definitely exceeded our expectations. We already had a good working knowledge of FRx and considered ourselves intermediate/advanced, but we cam e away with several new concepts, shortcuts and time-saving tricks that will allow us to take our Financial Reporting to a whole new level. I would recommend this class to any user of FRx, even if they think that they are at an advanced level”.
The morning session covered FRx basics, which involved creating both a Balance Sheet and Income Statement. The class was fully interactive with all attendees given access to a PC with a virtual image to create a balance sheet and income statement for themselves during the class. This enabled all attendees to practice what they were learning enabling them to take back what they learned to their organization.
The afternoon session focused on the advanced topics and covered some tips and tricks when using Microsoft FRx. Some tips and tricks that were covered were:
Adding variance columns and print control in reports. Specifically, when including Budget to Actual columns and being able to get your variances coming out in the correct direction for both revenue and expenses;
Being able to create one report using multiple column layouts. By using the ‘Effective Dates’ a user is able to control the number of columns printed based on the report date;
Creating dynamic actual to budget reports. This allows the user to have one report that will, based on the reporting date, report the actuals for your date, then prefill the remainder of the report with Budget information;
Using conditional if, then, else statements. A good example of this is when showing the intercompany account as an asset when the balance is a debit or as a liability when the balance is a credit.
The afternoon session finished with Dynamics GP’s new financial reporting tool, Management Reporter. Management Reporter is a powerful corporate performance management solution, which provides real-time financial reporting for midsize businesses. Going forward, Management Reporter will replace Microsoft FRx. It is a comprehensive financial reporting and analysis application available to Microsoft Dynamics ERP customers. The afternoon session explained the main differences between these two reporting solutions.
“The participants left the training course with very satisfactory comments and an extremely positive view towards Management Reporter,” said Jennifer Harris, Director at TMC.
As a part of TMC’s continuing commitment to providing high-quality training classes, they are proud to offer board approved classes for CPA’s. TMC’s FRx training course and webinars allow attendees to earn CPE (continuing professional education) credits. Each of the attendees who completed the FRx Class earned six credits for the day.
TMC continues to offer webinars on various topics, each earning CPA’s one credit per webinar. The next webinar is on Smartlist Builder, scheduled for April 20th, 2011 at 10am. Future webinar topics are on SalesPad, Formatting Excel & Word Templates and GP Light Users. Please check the webinars page on TMC’s website for future class times and topics.
For more information on TMC’s training classes and webinars please contact Pat Quimby pquimby@tmc-la.com.
