Convergence 2012 saw the first public previews of Dynamics GP 2013, the next version of Microsoft Dynamics most popular ERP system.  While some of us had had a few brief glimpses previously, at Convergence Microsoft took the wraps off and really gave Dynamics GP 2013 a great kick-off.

Internally known as GP 12, Dynamics GP 2013 is the successor to Dynamics GP 2010, a very successful and popular offering.  (Strangely, there will be no GP 13, the development team is referring to the next version, already under development, as GP “14”.  I would not have thought developers were superstitious, but I guess so).  Breaking with previous releases, however, GP 2013 offers a truly revolutionary change in the user interface.  Sure GP 2010 looked a lot like GP 10.0, and 10.0 looked a lot like 9.0, but no more!  With GP 2013, Microsoft has jumped ahead in the way the product looks and feels.

Most of the focus on GP 2013 has been on the Web Client, and I think that is for a very good reasons.  With the Web Client approach, Microsoft has split the Accounting Logic layer (the software code) from the Presentation layer (the display code), and allowing GP to take to the clouds.  This is a very exciting development, and I will be talking about it in much greater detail in my next post.

For this post, however, I wanted to focus on some of the over 100 functional changes made to GP 2013.  Here are my favorites:

• Prepayments on Purchase Orders.  One word here: FINALLY!  This has been a long wanted feature for GP.  Create a Purchase Order AND apply a deposit or prepayment to it, and keep that link between them through receiving, matching and paying the Vendors.
• Ship To Address has a Different Company Name.  This is not an unusual occurrence for many distribution companies.  Company A buys a product and needs it drop-shipped to a different location care of a different company.  With GP 2013, you can now specify the name of the Ship To Company if it is different compared to the Company getting the invoice.
• Encumbrance Cost Difference Notice.  Many companies use Encumbrance Management to maintain over their purchasing and budgets.  Prior to GP 2013, if there was a discrepancy between the “encumbered” amount on the Purchase Order and the “Final” cost on the Vendor’s invoice, the system provided no alert to that difference.  Now, you will get a notification that there is a discrepancy between the final cost and the encumbered amount.
• Fixed Assets integration with Analytical Accounting.  Now you can bring the advanced Analytical Accounting module to your fixed assets.  Analytical Accounting offers an additional level of analysis beyond your General Ledger Chart of Accounts, but until GP 2013, Fixed Assets was never integrated with Analytical Acounting.

These are just 4 of my favorite new features in GP 2013, and there are many more.  Some are major (like the Web Client) and some are much more technical (Application Changes for Consuming Multi-Tenant Web Services), but in aggregate they add up to an exciting and enhanced Dynamics GP.

TMC is pleased to welcome two new members to its team this year:  David Laumonier & Brett Hensley.

David has joined our Technical Team and will be working on development and programming, bringing with him over 7 years of experience in Dexterity Customizations, VB.Net, Custom Data Integrations, Integration Manager, and SQL Reporting Services in the Microsoft Dynamics GP World.  David has a BS in Computer Science from Pace University and enjoys fitness and motorcycle riding in his spare time. 

Brett has joined our Sales Team as the new Marketing Manager. He will manage and coordinate all marketing, advertising and promotional activities as well as having an integral role within the sales team to help generate new revenue. Brett has over 4 years of experience in Sales and Marketing since graduating from the University of Missouri with his BS in Marketing. He enjoys ice hockey, snowboarding, surfing, traveling and cheering on all St. Louis sports in his spare time.

Please join me in extended a heartfelt welcome to both David & Brett to TMC!

TMC’s one hour webinars include content designed to ensure you have full exposure into how you can maximize and extend your current ERP investment.  They review specific functionality within all of TMC’s product range:  Dynamics GP, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics CRM and NetSuite.

Please visit our Webinars Page for a full list of upcoming live webinars. 

If you have missed one of these information sessions, they are recorded and available for viewing.  Please contact John Hoyt at jhoyt@tmc-la.com, along with the details of which webinar you are interested in viewing and we will send you a link to view at your leisure.

Below is a list of available recorded webinars.

Dynamics GP:  Light Users

Microsoft Dynamics GP Light User is a cost-effective solution that makes it possible for users to access business management solutions in a familiar Microsoft Office interface.

By using the Microsoft Dynamics GP Light User license, employees can interact with Microsoft Dynamics financial, human resources, and operational information within the Microsoft Office software they use daily. Using Microsoft Office desktop productivity tools, such as Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office Outlook, and Microsoft Office Word, helps reduce the time required for training and gives your employees time to focus on what matters most. Microsoft Dynamics GP Light User provides users direct access to the business-critical information they need.

TMC’s webinar focuses on how to use Dynamics GP Light Users in Business Portal, Employee Self Service, Requisitions and Order Entry. 

Below is a full list of where your Microsoft Dynamics GP Light User License will work. 

• Business Portal Employee and Customer User capabilities
• Analysis Cubes
• Analysis Cubes Library
• Management Reporter Viewer (formerly FRx Drill-down Viewer)
• BI Components
• Executive Centers & New Dynamics GP 2010 Dashboards
• Out of the box Excel Reports
• Excel Report Builder Reports
• SSRS Reports (out of the box or newly created)
• KPIs
• Order Management
• PO Requisition Management
• Project Time and Expense
• Human Resources Management Self Service Suite
• Workflow Approval and Actions

Dynamics GP:  Excel-based Budgets

The Excel-based Budgeting tool in Microsoft Dynamics GP allows you to export a range of accounts – for example, all the accounts in a department – to Excel, along with historical years and the current year’s actual amounts so that each department manager can develop his or her budget.

Dynamics GP:  Management Reporter in GP 2010

Management 

Management Reporter extends the proven functionality of Microsoft FRx and enables people to quickly and easily create, generate, help secure and publish professional-looking financial statements, such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow reports, and will allow them to take advantage of the following:

• Custom reports without IT assistance. These reports reduce the burden on the IT department by empowering the finance team to create its own financial statements.
• Deep cross-functional analysis. Management Reporter provides easy and accurate financial reporting, intercompany reconciliations and eliminations.
• Reduced training time and increased productivity. A familiar user interface and reporting tools minimize training time since users will easily be able to transition from Microsoft Office applications to the similar navigation pane and toolbars in Management Reporter.
• Strong data integrity and report accuracy. Management Reporter supports regulatory requirements, such as generally accepted accounting practices and international financial reporting standards.

Dynamics GP: 2011 Year-end Closing

This webinars takes you through how to prepare for your year end close in Dynamics GP, to make the process a smoothly one and jump-start a successful new year.  It also highlights the changes made to 2011 year-end.

Dynamics GP: Excel Reports in GP 2010

The Smartlist Builder tool now includes the ability to create and publish Excel-based reports on the data held within Dynamics GP.  Once published, these Excel reports can be opened and refreshed by the end-user, without having to go back into Dynamics GP and re-run the report.  The data connection within the Excel report allows the data to be refreshed on demand, allowing employees access to up to date information.

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.

Technology Management Concepts (TMC), the leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Southern California, has been selected by Goodwill of Orange County as their new consulting partner. Goodwill of Orange County has recently selected Dynamics GP (formally Great Plains) as their new ERP solution. TMC is extremely excited by the partnership and looks forward to a successful implementation.

Goodwill of Orange County provides people with disabilities and other barriers the opportunity to achieve their highest levels of personal and economic independence. In order to continue to provide these levels of services to their program participants, they have decided to streamline their systems. To that end, Goodwill of Orange County has an initiative for 2011 to reduce costs and increase efficiencies by replacing as many of their disparate systems with one integrated system as possible.

The organization turned to the comprehensive functionality of Microsoft Dynamics GP to integrate its point-of-sale systems and leverage their world-class business intelligence and reporting functionality.  They have selected TMC to provide implementation services.

Some immediate goals include: (more…)

E-mail overview

By using the e-mail functionality in Microsoft Dynamics GP, you can embed document into the body of an e-mail or send documents as attachment. You can send a single document, batches of documents, or multiple documents from sales and purchasing transaction lists. When setting up the e-mail functionality, you can select which documents to send and which customers and vendors should receive their documents in e–mail. If you are using Word templates for Microsoft Dynamics GP, you can send predefined or customized forms. For more information, see Word templates in Dynamics GP 2010 help.

You can send the following documents in e-mail.

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In October 2010 Microsoft made a major change to its partner program and the criteria by which partners are ranked.  The new Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) accreditations were introduced as well as new partner logos.

The two main changes that took place with this switch were:

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TMC (Technology Management Concepts) is very pleased to announce the availability of a new product offering:  Microsoft Dynamics NAV.  TMC has long supported Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains), and has now expanded their Dynamics Business Solutions sales and services to include Dynamics NAV.  TMC is recognized by Microsoft for their commitment and experience, and has awarded TMC a GOLD Competency in Enterprise Resource Planning, a recognition that is made to less than 2% of Microsoft partners worldwide.

Dynamics NAV is a fully-featured Enterprise Resource Planning system, emphasizing an easy to use interface, full end-to-end integration, strong analytical tools and business intelligence capabilities, and robust integration and development tools.  Dynamics NAV leverages Microsoft SQL Server as the database engine, and extends SQL server’s reporting tools.

With Dynamics NAV 2009, you will benefit from a role-tailored experience designed to promote those features and capabilities that are suited to an employee’s job requirements, and then either minimize or hide those features that are irrelevant or sensitive.  Dynamics NAV provides important tasks and reminders direct to the Home Page, providing rapid access to those critical situations.  Dynamics NAV includes 21 pre-defined Role Centers, and variations on these are easy to do.

TMC will also bring their highly experienced team of project managers and consultants to deliver the consistent results we have always provided to our Dynamics GP clients.  TMC has also supplemented the staff, bringing on certified Dynamics NAV team members.  Count on TMC to offer our best in all implementations.

Contact Pat Quimby for more information.

310.559.3982 x 784 or

pquimby@tmc-la.com

For a very limited time, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and Microsoft Dynamics AX customers can receive up to 15% off when purchasing additional user licenses or add-on module licenses.  Offer valid from May 1, 2010 to June 25, 2010

BRL and MBL customers can receive discounts of:

• 10% on the purchase of additional user licenses and add-on module licenses between $5,000 and $19,999
• 15% on the purchase of additional user licenses and add-on module licenses above $20,000

For More Information
Contact TMC at (310) 559-3982  for more promo information and information on how to submit an order.

Microsoft Dynamics GP continues to offer enhancements and updates to meet with ever changing regulatory environments.  By providing a rapid response to these shifting business conditions, Dynamics GP provides their customers with the tools they need to remain compliant while minimizing their costs for meeting the regulatory requirements.  These updates and enhancements are all part of the Microsoft Business Ready Enhancement Plan.

The Microsoft Business Solutions group is advising customers to be aware of changes to European Union (EU) tax law that will come into effect Jan. 1, 2010.
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