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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Microsoft Dynamics GP is an enterprise resource planning system, essentially an accounting system on steroids, designed for mid-sized organizations. The implementation of Dynamics GP is usually considered to be complex, and people often realize there must be more efficient ways of working with the system. This book will show readers how to improve their use of Dynamics GP and get the most out of this tool quickly and effectively.
"Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Cookbook" picks up where implementation training leaves off. Whether you are new or experienced you will find useful recipes for improving the way you use and work with Dynamics GP. The clear recipe steps and screenshots make implementing these solutions easy for users of any level and will be sure to improve your efficiency with the Dynamics GP 2013 system.
The book starts with recipes designed to enhance the usefulness of Microsoft Dynamics GP by personalizing the look and feel of the application. Most of the recipes are designed to give tips for a typical installation of Dynamics GP, including core financials and distribution modules. The book then moves through recipes that include automating Dynamics GP to allow users or administrators to focus on value adding tasks, harnessing the power of SmartLists to leverage both simplicity and power, connecting Dynamics GP to Microsoft Office 2013, exposing hidden features in Dynamics GP, and much more!
Through the final chapters, the book covers system maintenance and extending Dynamics GP with the Support Debugging Tool and Professional Services Tools Library.
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Seitenzahl: 397
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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Table of Contents
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Cookbook
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Cookbook
Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: July 2010
Second edition: May 2013
Production Reference: 1170513
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-84968-938-0
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Sandeep Babu (<[email protected]>)
Credits
Authors
Ian Grieve
Mark Polino
Reviewers
Vaidhyanathan Mohan
Jivtesh Singh
Joseph R. Tews
Acquisition Editor
Kartikey Pandey
Lead Technical Editor
Susmita Panda
Technical Editors
Prasad Dalvi
Worrell Lewis
Amit Ramadas
Varun Pius Rodrigues
Project Coordinator
Kranti Berde
Proofreaders
Lawrence A. Herman
Linda Morris
Indexer
Monica Ajmera Mehta
Production Coordinator
Aparna Bhagat
Cover Work
Aparna Bhagat
About the Author
Ian Grieve is a Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM certified consultant specializing in the delivery of Microsoft Dynamics GP and CRM projects. He is a senior consultant at Perfect Image Ltd., a Microsoft partner and VAR in the North East of England.
Ian has worked with Microsoft Dynamics GP since 2003 and, over the years since, has dealt with all aspects of the product life cycle from presales, to implementation, to technical and functional training, to post go-live support and subsequent upgrades, and process reviews.
Alongside his work with Microsoft Dynamics GP, he has fulfilled a similar role dealing with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, with a special emphasis on project delivery and training of end users on the management of sales, marketing, and service.
In his spare time, Ian runs the azurecurve | Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant (http://www.azurecurve.co.uk) blog dedicated to Microsoft Dynamics GP and related products and tries, often unsuccessfully, to squeeze in extra time for the Dynamics CRM-related blog coralcurve | A Consultant's Dabblings in Dynamics CRM (http://www.coralcurve.co.uk).
Acknowledgment
Thanks to my parents for their support through the years, especially my dad who got me into computers when I was young; it's turned from a hobby into a good career.
Thank you to Rob Hankin and William Morris at Perfect Image Ltd., for your openness to my writing this book; without your support this project would never have been started.
Thanks also to Dave Staples who, despite my initial reluctance, first got me working on Financial Management Systems and then working with Microsoft Dynamics GP; first on the helpdesk and then progressing into a consultant's role. Without you I'd never have been in a position to start this book.
Thanks must also go to Andrew Cooper (AGC, never AC) with whom I worked alongside on Dynamics GP for a number of years as we not only learned the system, its flaws, and imperfections, but also its depth, breadth, and capabilities.
Finally, thanks to the people at Packt Publishing who I worked with through the course of the project and, not least, to Mark Polino for the predecessor version of this book and for his efforts in the wider Dynamics GP community.
About the Author
Mark Polino is a Microsoft MVP for Dynamics GP, a Certified Public Accountant, and a Microsoft Certified Business Management Solutions Professional. He is the author of the premier Dynamics GP related blog, DynamicAccounting.net, and the creator and presenter of the successful series Getting More Out of Microsoft Dynamics GP: 50 Tips in 50 minutes. Mark has worked with Dynamics GP and its predecessor, Great Plains, for more than 10 years.
He works as a Principal Consultant with I.B.I.S., Inc. and spends his days helping clients implement Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Acknowledgment
To my wife Dara and my children, Micah and Angelina, thank you for your support in this project. You've patiently endured this obsession without complaining or killing me in my sleep. To mom and dad, thanks for the cheerleading even though you had no idea what this book is about.
Thank you to Andy Vabulas, Dwight Specht, and Clinton Weldon at I.B.I.S. for your support of this book. Without your openness to this project it never would have happened. To Abby, Troy, Ross, and all the other I.B.I.S. consultants who listened to me drone on about how the book was progressing, you have both my apologies and my thanks for your encouragement.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the kind folks at the Hampton Inn in Mt. Airy, NC. The majority of this book was written there while working on a Dynamics GP project. The hotel is staffed with some of the nicest people that you will ever meet and they were happy to fuel this book with great rooms and Diet Mt. Dew.
Much of this book was written on an Acer netbook. Without the small size and long battery life of the netbook, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Cookbook would never have been finished on time.
To everyone else who has offered encouragement throughout this project, you have my thanks. To those who have been less than encouraging, I hope you someday decide to write a book.
About the Reviewers
Vaidhyanathan Mohan is a Microsoft-certified freelance Microsoft Dynamics GP consultant with expertise in Microsoft Dynamics GP and related technologies. Starting his career as a GP developer, he slowly and steadily enhanced his skills on Microsoft Dynamics GP, both on the product and technologies, and became a complete product consultant.
He has worked on various challenging customization developments and Dynamics GP implementations. He is an active participant on all Microsoft Dynamics GP community forums and Microsoft Dynamics GP technical blogger, namely Dynamics GP – Learn & Discuss (http://vaidymohan.com), which is listed on Microsoft's official Dynamics GP blog space. He is also one of the technical reviewers of the book, Developing Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Applications by Packt Publishing.
He is who he is now because of his devoted parents, his brother and family, his wife and his daughter. He is an avid photography enthusiast (http://500px.com/seshadri), music fanatic, coffee addict, and immensely fond of anything about Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Jivtesh Singh is a Microsoft Dynamics GP MVP, and a Microsoft Dynamics Certified Technology Specialist for Dynamics GP. Through his blog, which is widely read in the Dynamics GP community, he covers Dynamics GP tips, tricks, and news.
Jivtesh is a Dynamics GP Consultant and Systems Implementer, and has been associated with the Microsoft Technologies since the launch of Microsoft .NET Framework. Jivtesh has over 10 years of experience in development and maintenance of enterprise software using best coding practices, refactoring and usage of design patterns, and Test-driven development. Jivtesh recently built a Kinect interface to control the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 Business Analyzer with gestures. Later, he built a part of the GP Future demo for Convergence GP Keynote.
Jivtesh has set up a custom search engine directory for Dynamics GP blog at www.gpwindow.com to help with easier access of Dynamics GP resources for the GP community. With MVP Mark Polino, he has also set up a Dynamics GP product directory www.dynamicsgpproducts.com.
Jivtesh's blog on Dynamics GP is www.jivtesh.com. Jivtesh's custom search engine for GP blogs is www.gpwindow.com. Dynamics GP Products website is www.dynamicsgpproducts.com.
Joseph R. Tews is a Microsoft Dynamics and SharePoint Professional, and Microsoft Certified Trainer, with experience as both a Microsoft partner and customer. Joe's experience is varied from implementations and upgrades, to product administration, support, and training delivery to end users and other Microsoft partners. He specializes in working with Microsoft SharePoint Technologies in Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics GP installation and administration, as well as working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft SQL Server, and Business Intelligence.
Joe teaches Microsoft Dynamics GP and other specialized classes across the country and the world for both customers and partners, and has also been identified as a Lead Trainer for the MCT program. In recognition for his work with Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft SharePoint Technologies in Microsoft Dynamics GP, Joe has presented multiple sessions on these topics at Microsoft's Convergence, GP Partner Connections, and GPUG conferences. Joe has also been a contributing author to multiple courseware offerings from Microsoft learning.
I'd like to thank my family, most importantly my parents Bob and Nancy, and my sisters Corrie and Jenna, for all of their support throughout my professional career. I would also like to thank my friends and coworkers for all the help and support throughout the years. I wouldn't be where I am today without all of them.
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Preface
Tens of thousands of Microsoft Dynamics GP users keep the accounting functions of their firms running day in and day out. They ensure that vendors get paid, customer payments are tracked, and the financial statements balance at the end of the month. In short, they provide the information critical to corporate decision making.
Of the many tens of thousands of people using Dynamics GP, the majority of them only ever use a small subset of the available functionality. They may get basic training when Dynamics GP is implemented, or when they join the company, and learn enough to do their job but never look beyond this set of skills for ways to improve processes and become more efficient.
On top of this, many users start working with a particular version of Dynamics GP and continue to use the system in the same way as the years pass and upgrades are installed with many new features available.
The work gets done but good employees are left with a nagging feeling, an itch, that there must be a better way. This book is designed for those people who want to scratch the itch and learn how to get more out of Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Many of the ways to get more from Dynamics GP do not require extensive knowledge of the system, merely a desire to learn and make Dynamics GP easier, faster, and simpler. These features, tips, and techniques have been compiled into a set of recipes designed to let Dynamics GP users cook up solutions to their problems.
Like any good cookbook, the recipes are laid out into simple, sequential, steps optimized for quick application and be easy to follow and get right on the first attempt. This easy gratification is designed to draw users deeper into the recipes with the goal of improving efficiency, allowing the time saved to be put back into other finance activities, or the simple pleasure of wrapping up the day and going home early.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Personalizing Dynamics GP, includes recipes designed to enhance the usefulness of Microsoft Dynamics GP by personalizing the look and feel of the application.
Chapter 2, New in Dynamics GP 2013, includes recipes demonstrating some of the key new features of Dynamics GP 2013 from the Financial and Supply Chain Management series.
Chapter 3, Organizing Dynamics GP, includes recipes that are designed to help administrators get more out of Dynamics GP for their users by changing the way Dynamics GP is organized.
Chapter 4, Automating Dynamics GP, includes recipes that focus on efficiency and automation, and are designed to be time savers across the system.
Chapter 5, Harnessing the Power of SmartLists, includes recipes to harness the power of Dynamics GP's ad hoc reporting tool and ways to leverage the reporting power of SmartLists.
Chapter 6, Connecting Dynamics GP to Microsoft Office 2013, includes recipes that help to connect Dynamics GP with Microsoft Office 2013 and ways to use Office to improve processes in Dynamics GP.
Chapter 7, Exposing Hidden Features in Dynamics GP, includes recipes on techniques that are often well-known to consultants but missed by users. It contains hidden settings that can help save a lot of time.
Chapter 8, Improving Dynamics GP with Hacks, includes recipes that are used to hack existing features in Dynamics GP so as to improve.
Chapter 9, Preventing Errors in Dynamics GP, includes recipes for administrators and users to help prevent errors in Dynamics GP. It also includes ways to fix erroneous transactions that managed to make it to the general ledger.
Chapter 10, Maintaining Dynamics GP, includes recipes for an administrator or power user to help maintain Dynamics GP.
Chapter 11, Extending Dynamics GP with the Support Debugging Tool, includes recipes that make use of the Support Debugging Tool to improve efficiency and error tracing in Dynamics GP.
Chapter 12, Extending Dynamics GP Professional Services Tools Library, includes recipes which use PSTL to ease company and data setup and to modify data in an existing Dynamics GP implementation.
What you need for this book
You will require the following software for this book:
Who this book is for
This book is for Dynamics GP users and Microsoft Dynamics GP partners and is primarily focused on delivering time-proven application modifications. This book assumes that you have a basic understanding of business management systems and basic knowledge of Microsoft Dynamics GP. All of these recipes are real-world tested and designed to be used immediately.
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Chapter 1. Personalizing Dynamics GP
In this chapter, we start with recipes for users of Microsoft Dynamics GP where we will look at ways of:
Introduction
This chapter explores recipes designed to enhance the usefulness of Microsoft Dynamics GP by personalizing the look and feel of the application. These recipes provide the first few steps in harnessing the full power of Dynamics GP. They are designed to improve productivity today so don't wait to put them to use.
In almost all cases, the recipes in this chapter do not require an administrator and are available to the average user. The ability of each user to tailor these items to their own needs is what makes them so powerful.
By personalizing Dynamics GP, users get the opportunity to fine tune the system to the way that they work. There is something incredibly satisfying about tailoring a system to make it more efficient and we'll cover some of those personalizing options here.
While the nature of these recipes makes them useful right away, it is strongly recommended that these items be attempted in a test environment first.
Improving visibility by setting required fields to bold and red
Microsoft Dynamics GP provides an option for each user to identify required fields on any form. By activating this setting, users can get an obvious visual cue indicating the minimum required fields on any form. This recipe shows how to turn Required Fields bold red and what the end result looks like.
Getting ready
Prior to changing the appearance of required fields, the feature Show Required Fields needs to be turned on. To activate this feature:
How to do it...
To improve visibility of required fields, follow these steps:
How it works...
Dynamics GP contains identifiers behind the scenes to mark fields as required. Dynamics GP uses these identifiers to change the color of the field name. Highlighting required fields provides a quick visual cue to ensure that at least the minimum amount of data is entered prior to saving a form. This will save hours of time by preventing annoying messages indicating that required fields have not been completed, especially since there is no indicator as to what field is missing.
There's more...
By default, activating Show Required Fields simply sets required fields to black and regular. That is, it doesn't distinguish them at all. This is important because if Show Required Fields is off completely, Dynamics GP 2013 will prompt users to turn it on but it won't appear to have any effect.
There are some areas in Dynamics GP where required fields are not marked in red and bold despite this feature being properly applied. In almost all cases, these required fields occur in the grid section of a transaction entry form. This area of a form has a heading at the top and a grid that allows multiple entries under one heading. The nature of the programming behind the grid format prevents Dynamics GP from properly highlighting these fields and, unfortunately, there is way to force a field inside the grid to reflect the Show Required Fields setting.
When a user receives a warning that a required field is missing but all required fields appear to be correctly filled in, they should examine the fields in the grid for missing information. The most common culprits are Unit of Measure (U of M) and Site ID fields.
Modifier with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
With the available Modifier with VBAutility for Dynamics GP, an administrator or developer can make additional fields required, and in most cases Dynamics GP will properly apply the red and bold formatting automatically. More information on Modifier with VBA is available from the manuals in Dynamics GP or from an authorized Microsoft Dynamics partner.
Getting faster access to data with the shortcut bar
The shortcut bar provides fast access to Dynamics GP's windows and SmartLists along with web pages and external applications. Often, external shortcuts are used for quick access to things such as currency websites, budget spreadsheets, shipping sites, or other applications. Almost anything used to improve a user's productivity can be linked to via the shortcut bar. In this recipe, we'll spend some time looking at how to get the most out of it.
Getting ready
The vertical area to the left side of the Dynamics GP Home page is known as the Navigation Pane. Select Home on the Navigation Pane to make the shortcut bar visible on the top left side.
Selecting other Navigation Pane sections makes other navigation options available. Only the Home selection makes the shortcut bar available.
There are six types of items that can be added to the shortcut bar:
How to do it...
The most common use of the shortcut bar is to add a Dynamics GP window for fast access. The simplest way to do that is as follows:
How it works...
The shortcut bar in Microsoft Dynamics GP works a lot like shortcuts on the Microsoft Windows desktop. Dynamics GP places a pointer to the window or file inside the shortcut and launches the appropriate selection when the shortcut is clicked.
There's more...
Typically, users simply accumulate shortcuts on the shortcut bar but to really get the most out of the Shortcut Bar requires are a few extra techniques.
Use external Shortcuts for greater flexibility
For web pages and external shortcuts, right-click on the Shortcut Bar. Then select Add followed by Add Web Page or Add External Shortcut.
Selecting Add Web Pageprovides the option to enter the location (URL) along with a button to test that the link works correctly.
Selecting Add External Shortcutprovides an option to browse for the external file on your system. This can be an application file such as an Excel spreadsheet or a Microsoft Word document. It can also be a link to an application such as Microsoft CRM, budgeting software, or Solitaire for a much needed break.
Setting a keyboard shortcut allows the use of a set of keystrokes to launch a shortcut. For example, this means that Ctrl + Shift + J could be setup to launch the Transaction Entry window for a journal entry or F2 to launch Microsoft Office Excel.
Organize with folders
Right-clicking on the Shortcut Bar and selecting Add | Folder provides an option to add a folder to the Shortcut Bar that can be used to organize entries. For example, a Month End folder can be used to hold links to windows, routines, and reports that are used as part of the month end closing process. This is a great place to start organizing shortcuts.
Complex shortcuts
Microsoft's Developing for Dynamics GP site provides additional information on dealing with complex shortcuts for scenarios such as launching an application and opening a specific file. More information is available at http://blogs.msdn.com/developingfordynamicsgp/archive/2009/08/24/creating-external-shortcuts-with-parameters.aspx.
See also
For information about activating shortcuts when Dynamics GP starts, look at the Reducing clicks with start-up shortcuts recipe. For more information about folders, take a look at the Remembering processes with Ad Hoc Workflow recipe in Chapter 3, Organizing Dynamics GP.
Reducing clicks with start-up shortcuts
For users who want the same set of features available every time Dynamics GP opens, the shortcut bar supports automatically opening a window, SmartList Favorite, web page, macro, or external file when Dynamics GP starts.
For example, someone with heavy accounts payable responsibilities would regularly use the Payables Transaction Entry window. Adding that window as a start-up shortcut would open that window immediately after Dynamics GP starts without the user having to do anything. In this recipe, we'll look at how to activate a shortcut automatically when Dynamics GP starts.
Getting ready
To use this recipe, users need a basic familiarity with shortcuts. Since that was covered in the last recipe, everyone should be in good shape.
How to do it...
To set shortcuts to open automatically, complete the following steps:
How it works...
The Startup folder on the shortcut bar is designed to open items when Dynamics GP starts, providing consistent, quick access to regularly used items in the system. These are unique for each user.
There's more...
The Startup shortcut folder is designed for more than just windows in Dynamics GP.
File example
Another option to add items to the Startup folder on the shortcut bar is to right-click on the folder and select Add | Add External Shortcut. Name the shortcut and select Browse. Find the external file in the menu system and click on Open.
Optionally add a keyboard shortcut then click on Add.
Drag and drop
Experienced users will comment that it is also possible to select the shortcut with the left mouse button and drag it to the Startup folder. That works as well except for a bug in Dynamics GP that prevents dragging and dropping the first shortcut onto the Startup folder. If there is already a shortcut in the folder, dragging and dropping works fine, but until the first one has been created, dragging and dropping a shortcut onto a folder is impossible.
Interestingly, dragging shortcuts to folders worked correctly in Version 9 and seems to have broken with Version 10 and has not been fixed in either version 2010 or 2013.
See also
For more information on how the shortcut bar works, refer to the Getting faster access to data with the shortcut bar recipe in this chapter and the Improving consistency with shortcuts and user classes recipe in Chapter 4, Automating Dynamics GP.
Personalizing the Home page by selecting the right role
Since Version 2010 of Dynamics GP, Microsoft has placed a strong emphasis on a user's role in both the organization and the software. Selecting the right role in the system presents many of the best Home page options by default.
A role is usually selected by default when a user is created and it's often wrong because at setup the focus is placed on job titles, not on tasks the user performs. Additionally, user's roles evolve and change over time. Fortunately, changing a user's role is easy, so we'll look at how to do it in this recipe.
How to do it...
To change a user's Home page role, complete the following steps:
Changing the role resets any customizations that a user has made to their Quick Links or Business Analyzer settings on the Home page; the user is prompted with a warning that their customizations will be lost and given the choice of cancelling the change of role.
Click on OK to indicate an understanding of the consequences of changing a role. Select an industry at the top. Changing an industry simply adds or removes available role options below. Selecting Other as the industry provides all of the role options.On the left side, select the role closest to a user's responsibilities. As a role is highlighted, a description of that role's tasks is included on the right side. Click on OK to accept the role.See also
Further personalizing the Home page by customizing the layout
The customization possible on the Home page has been enhanced further in Microsoft Dynamics GP from the options that were available in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010.
