Welcome to January 2012!  Ready to start the New Year?  With Dynamics GP, the next few steps are easy. For many professionals, the first day of the New Year signals the beginning of a long and difficult period in their work lives.  Perform the Year End close, then prep for the auditors visit, and then tax season.  Of course, for those professionals using Dynamics GP as their ERP system, these three steps are quick and painless.

If you don’t already have Dynamics GP, well, maybe next year?  Most Dynamics GP implementations can be completed in 3 – 4 months, so you have plenty of time to make the switch.

Three steps to go:

Begin by closing out 2011.  This process is straightforward, and trouble free, just be sure to follow all of the steps, in the correct sequence.  For a detailed step-by-step process guide, click here.

Here is the summary:

–      US Payroll Close

–      Inventory Close

–      Receivables Close

–      Payables Close

–      Fixed Assets Close

–      General Ledger Close

Be patient, follow ALL of the steps, even for those modules you are not using.  It won’t add much time to the total process and your Dynamics GP system will be that much happier starting the New Year.

Prepping for Auditors

As you begin to prepare for the annual visit from the Auditors, Dynamics GP can make this process much smoother and more comfortable.  First, rest assured that no auditor will give you stink eye for using Dynamics GP, which cannot be said for all of the various shrink-wrapped packages that are available.

Second, make use of the Reports Group function in Dynamics GP.  You know that the auditors will always want to see the same basic documents every year:  Trial Balance of the General Ledger, AP aging report, AR aging report, Inventory reports, etc.  With Dynamics GP, you can create a Report Group that includes all of these basic reports, and then print them for the auditors as a single exercise.

Third, use the Risk Management Suite to provide superior internal controls to protect the integrity of the data in Dynamics GP.  The Risk Management Suite consists of the Audit Trails module and the Electronic Signatures module.  Audit Trails allows you to monitor the critical data elements within your system, tracking the changes made to specific data fields, and recording whom made the change, date and time stamped, and preserves the former data value for reporting and auditing.  Electronic Signatures can be deployed to require a second approval to a change before it can be finalized and saved.

Finally, at Tax time, you can rest assured that Dynamics GP is ready to help you with your various tax filings and reportings.  From Sales and Use taxes, 1099 and W-2 filings, Amortization and Depreciation, property tax filings, and the back-up materials for income tax filings, Dynamics GP provides a smooth and efficient tool for meeting your needs.

Integrating external data into Dynamics GP 2010

Microsoft Dynamics GP is commonly used as the system of record and principal accounting system for restaurants and similar enterprises.  Microsoft Dynamics is selected for its robust features and functionality, ease of use and familiar interface, and outstanding reporting and business intelligence.  In this environment, the key to leveraging the Dynamics GP system to achieve its highest capabilities, the restaurant Point of Sale system (POS) and the restaurant’s Back of the House system (BOH) will need to be integrated with Dynamics GP.  Integration of the systems will allow for the seamless sharing of information, the elimination of manual duplicative data entry, and reduce the time needed for POS and BOH data to be visible in Dynamics GP.

A typical integration scenario would be as follows:

Restaurant Integration diagram

In this scenario, the various POS terminals (which can either be multiple registers in a single location, or multiple locations each with their own BOH system) are linked to the BOH system.  At pre-determined intervals (which could be one per night for example), the BOH system prepares a data extract of the new data received by the BOH from the POS system since the last data extract was completed.  This data extract is typically in the form of a .csv file or similar.

Once the BOH system has completed its data extract, and has saved the .csv file to a specified network location, Microsoft Dynamics GP’s integration tools can begin the process of moving the BOH data into GP for processing and reporting.

Dynamics GP Integration Suite

The Integration Suite for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 offers two tools for integrating data into the system:  Integration Manager and eConnect.

Integration Manager is designed to move data into Dynamics GP from an external source.  This is done in a batch mode, where the batch consists of multiple transactions of a single type.  This could be done at the General Ledger level, creating balanced Journal Entries to be posted in GP, or it can be done to some of the sub-ledgers in GP, creating unposted transactions in GP that can be reviewed and posted by a GP user.

eConnect is designed to move data into and out of Dynamics GP.  eConnect can work in either a batch-mode, processing transactions either “on-demand” or on a schedule, or eConnect can work in a “real-time” mode, processing transactions from the external source as soon as they are presented to eConnect.  (Real-time is commonly used in eCommerce environments, while batch-mode is frequently used in restaurant integrations).  Econnect can also wortk with multiple types of external data, including .csv, .xml, and others.

Restaurant Integrations

When integrating a restaurant BOH system and Dynamics GP, data can be exchanged at various levels.  A typical restaurant integration might include the following types of transactions:

• General Ledger – Direct integration to a GL Journal Entry.
• Accounts Payable – for payables due to the restaurant’s vendors.
• Inventory – linked to Purchasing, inventory valuations in GP can be adjusted from the BOH data.
• Purchasing – requests for equipment and fixtures might originate in the BOH and then be submitted to GP for processing.
• Accounts Receivable – Balances due from corporate events or other “on-account” activities can be submitted to GP for collections and cash applications
• Payroll – time sheet information form the POS can be transferred to GP’s payroll module for processing in GP.

Integration Manager compared to eConnect:

With the upcoming release of Dynamics GP 2010, scheduled for May 1, 2010, Microsoft has added many new features designed to allow Dynamics GP 2010 to be used by international / multinational companies.  Among the new features are:

General Ledger Reporting Ledgers - this feature allows for the creation of multiple “reporting ledgers” as part of the normal General Ledger / Chart of Accounts.  Three ledgers can be created:  Base, Local, and IFRS.  All transactions originating form the various sub-ledgers (Accounts Payable, Sales Order Processing, Project Accounting, etc.) are automatically posted to the “Base” reporting ledger.  General Ledger journal entries, however, can be posted to one or more of the Reporting Ledgers, allowing for differing treatment for reporting purposes.  For example, the Base ledger may show a transaction as resulting in an expense, while in the “local” reporting ledger, this expense is re-classed as a capital item.  During the printing of financial statements and trial balances, simply indicate if youwant to report against the Base ledger, or the local or IFRS ledgers.

Management Reporter – Microsoft is releasing Management Reporter 2.0 along with GP 2010.  MR now includes support for XBRL reporting (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) to make the process of creating and filing financial statements in XBRL formats an “out of the box” feature.

For more on GP 2010, please see our “Feature of the Day” page.