As more and more of our customers are now using Management Reporter with Microsoft Dynamics GP we thought it would be worthwhile to assemble a list of key Management Reporter resources.  So without further delay, read on…

USER GUIDE

The official user guide for Management Reporter is available for download here.

MICROSOFT VIDEOS

Microsoft has published a number of videos highlighting features of Management Reporter to YouTube.  For a broad list of videos go here  >>  http://www.youtube.com/user/msdyncomm/search?query=management+reporter

The following is a list of some of the videos other customers have mentioned they have found useful.  Each of these videos are included in the previous link above.

Overview:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNbHBwLQCNU

Report Viewing:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLt-Z4aKvaQ

Drill to GP:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju_0TZ1h0oA

Snapshot Reports:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMCwe7vIIg

Rolling Forecasts:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ8A2MzZqrc

Report Comments:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lysv7jyvWyk

Report Library:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgzIJYbLAZ4

Web Viewer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AQLmazViHo

Lync Integration:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIrWWs51XZI

Charts:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiPkUM3Glro

More Charts:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX4DIQjc7Yg

Opening Reports in Excel:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAgx0udqqd0

MICROSOFT RECORDED TRAINING *

CustomerSource E-Learning

* Note:  A Microsoft account (formerly known as Windows Live ID) is required to access this secure site.  If you don’t have an account you will be prompted to create one when accessing this site.

OTHER RESOURCES

Another great resource is the official Dynamics Corporate Performance Management blog.  Read it here  >>  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dynamicscpm/

Feel free to call us at (407) 677-0370 to speak to an Integrated Business Group representative.  We are here to answer your questions, including ways to successfully solve reporting and analysis gaps in your organization by taking advantage of features in Management Reporter for Microsoft Dynamics GP. 

In addition to over 125 new enhancements in GP 2013 all customers will receive licenses for several GP modules that in the past were additional license fees from Microsoft.   We thought you would like to find out more about some of these modules, just in case you wanted to implement any of them when you move to GP 2013.  The first one we want to talk about is Fixed Asset Management.  Fixed Asset Management will allow you to track your depreciation for company assets like buildings, machinery and equipment.  Fixed Asset Management allows you to track and depreciate by calendar or fiscal year with methods including MACRS and many others.  It lets you track your depreciation for tax liabilities for the most common tax books.  There are many other features in Fixed Asset Management for GP.  If you want to see more of the fixed asset features, watch these two videos below.  The first is an 8 minute video on GP 2010 Fixed Assets.  The second is a longer video that shows all the new features added to Fixed Asset for GP 2013.  If you would like a quote to upgrade to GP 2013 contact us at rullyot@ibgnet.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urd-wb54f_k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPhvaDvKgGw

SmartList Does The Heavy Lifting… So You Don’t Have To

SmartList is well-known as one of the most flexible ad-hoc tools available for analyzing your GP data.  But did you know this powerful tool is designed to leverage another feature of GP known as Reminders?  Gone are the days of running a SmartList query three or four times during the day only to receive zero results.  Instead, the integration of Reminders with SmartList serves up proactive notifications to the GP desktop saving users the hassle of multiple daily queries.

Let’s say an organization is looking to monitor those customers to whom it has extended credit in excess of the customer’s established credit limit.  The old way of doing this would have been to run the SmartList object named Customers Over Credit Limit.  Of course, a few disadvantages inherent in this method are:

1. This is a manual process.  Someone must remember to run the SmartList object in order to receive results

2. Occasionally the SmartList results indicate no customers have exceeded their credit limit.  Most likely that is good news, except that some level of effort was required to initially run the SmartList only to learn no customers had exceeded their credit limit

On the other hand, integrating Reminders with SmartList eliminates both of these shortcomings.  Here’s how it works using the Fabrikam, Inc. sample company:

1. From the To Do section of the GP Home Page select the New Reminder hyperlink

2. Create a Custom Reminder by selecting the New button

3. Using the lookup icon beneath the SmartList Favorite option select Customers Over Credit Limit

4. Mark the radio button next to Number of records, then select the option “is greater than”, and enter the number zero in the adjacent box

5. Select the OK button to save your settings and close the Customer Reminder window

6. Select the OK button to save your settings and close the Reminder Preferences window

7. Refresh the GP Home Page

A new entry named Customers Over Credit Limit appears in the Reminders area of the Home Page.  Notice the number eight appears in parentheses at the end of the new reminder name; this number identifies how many customers match the rule.  To view the list of customers whose current balances are in excess of their credit limits, single-click the hyperlink named Customers Over Credit Limit.  Viola!  The SmartList window automatically opens directly to the corresponding SmartList Favorite displaying the eight customers whose current balance exceeds their credit limit.

Keep in mind the Reminder results are updated every time the Home page is refreshed.  This eliminates the manual tasks involved in running the SmartList.  Users are notified only when a condition warrants further review and are not interrupted when action is unnecessary.  Nothing could be better.

Feature of the Week

With all of the new features in GP 2013, we thought we’d share a weekly feature with you to specifically show you three things:

Why the Feature is Cool ?

What the Feature Looks Like ?

Who the Feature is Targeted To ?

Click Below to Access This Weeks Feature PDF:

Add The BAI Format to Electronic Reconcile

A Different Method to Add Additional Documents to Vendors
Article for Dynamics University magazine – December 2012 edition
Microsoft Dynamics GP Tips and Tricks
By: Jackie Smith, Integrated Business Group

Many of you already know that you can add an additional document that is located outside Dynamics GP to a vendor’s card using the OLE functionality.

There is another way you can do this and I have found many of the customers that I work with prefer it. I will show you an example of adding a vendor’s W9 to their vendor card. The same functionality can be applied to employees, customers etc.

Step 1: On the home page select the Administrative button, expand the Company Setup menu and select Company……… click on the Internet User Defined button at the bottom of the window. You can use any of the labels on this window, I typically will pick one of the User Defined fields………. in this case I selected Label 7 and changed the field name to Vendor W9.

Step 2: Select the Purchasing button and open the Purchasing area page. Expand the Cards menu and choose Vendor…… click on the lookup button and select Advanced Office Systems……… select the “i” icon to the right of the primary address id.

Step 3: The Internet Information window for Advanced Office Systems opens up and notice that Label 7 says “Vendor W9”. Select the yellow folder to the right of the field and navigate to the place on the server where the W9’s are kept; specifically, path the field to Advanced Office System’s W9 form. There are two ways to access the vendor’s W9 form……… the first one is to select the zoom field Vendor W9 (blue words). Once selected, the system will “zoom” to the W9 and open it.

Step 4:Save and close all of the windows including Vendor Maintenance.

Step 5: There are two ways that a specific vendor W9 can be accessed……… we discussed the first one in step 3. The second one requires a custom link be setup…. on the home page select the Administrative button, expand the Company Setup menu and select Custom Link….. choose “New”.

Below is what the link should look like once it is complete:

Step 6: Open any vendor related window where “Vendor ID” is a zoom field……. on the Purchasing area page…… expand the Inquiry section and select Transaction by Vendor…… choose Advanced Office Systems. Zoom fields are either blue and underlined (assuming default colors) or if a required field, then red or black and underlined. Select the “Vendor ID” zoom field and notice you now have two choices…. either Vendor Maintenance or Vendor W9. If you select “Vendor W9” the system will open the vendor’s W9 form on the server.

This same functionality can be applied to the employee card……… think I9 and W4.

Just like OLE links this works fine as long as the documents stay in the same place on the server. If they are moved, then the documents location (path) will have to be changed.

Mismanagement of exemption certificates can be costly. In an audit, even a single error can lead to a large assessment if the results are extrapolated. Employee productivity can suffer if staff is spending time trying to chase down the proper documentation from customers. Customer satisfaction declines if you accidentally charge sales tax to an exempt customer. And last but not least, having to stop and scramble for a current certificate before an order can be processed can bring the sales cycle to a halt!

The iterative process of creating/obtaining certificates, using them to make billing decisions, and tracking expiration and renewal is known as the “exemption certificate lifecycle”. There are three tools that, when used together, can minimize non-taxed transaction audit exposure, increase staff efficiency, and improve the customer purchase experience:

1. 1. ECM (Exemption Certificate Management) software: At a bare minimum, these programs digitally store certificates and allow for tracking of expirations and renewal requests. A good ECM software can also automate the collection process, ensure completeness of certificates, and even provide auditor tools allowing them to quickly access requested certificates. Certificates can be looked up and collected in real-time for direct, e-commerce and tele-sales sales channels so sales are not disrupted.
   2. ERP or billing software: Your ERP software is typically where you store the information about your customers. So when customers are added or modified, ERP software can notify the integrated ECM, which can then in turn send certificate requests to the customers proactively.
   3. Tax decision software: The decision on how much, if any, tax to collect on a given transaction is made by the tax decision software based on a number of factors in the transaction including product taxability, jurisdiction information, and exemption status (as communicated by the ECM).

Integrated Business Group can help you select and implement the right ECM and tax decision software to complement your Microsoft Dynamics GP system.

Download our free white paper: Automating the Exemption Certificate Lifecycle to learn more. Or contact Integrated Business Group at 407-677-0370 or info@ibgnet.com.

There is a misconception when customers are seeking inventory management that Microsoft Dynamics GP does not support inventory management and that a separate system is required to achieve accurate inventory control. In actuality, many organizations can add the inventory management benefits by adding a robust data collection solution and continue to use their Dynamics GP as the host inventory database.

Here, we will offer key inventory management features that are already supported in Dynamics GP that you many not be taking advantage of because you do not have mobile data collection tools in place. When you add mobile and bar code technology, the door will open for you to incorporate all of inventory management functionality Dynamics GP has to offer and add inventory control practices under a fully integrated system.

Bin Tracking

With Microsoft Dynamics GP, you have the ability to set up multiple site locations. You also have the ability to make a single bin assignment for each item for each site. For companies that have a place for every item, this works great. Adding a mobile data collection solution will give your workforce access to which bin the item is located, whether transferring, using or picking the inventory.

Multi-Bin Tracking

For many organizations, there may be a primary location for an item, but a need for an “overflow” or optional bin locations. Enabling multi-bins provides the abilities to track inventory in a variety of bin locations. Bin assignments can be identified for the primary receiving and picking locations. Adding mobile data capture adds the ability for the users to access bin locations and the quantity on hand and available, adding efficiency to the workflow. Priority bin set up can be set up to add even greater inventory control and can also add minimum and maximum level recommendations.

Manufacturer Item Number Cross Reference

Many customers ask how to get the “bar code” into Dynamics GP. You can actually use your own Dynamics GP item number. Create an inventory label with your GP item number represented as a bar code and you are ready to go. If you have inventory that you receive with a manufacturer or vendor  item number already represented in a barcode, you can store this as a cross reference in Dynamics GP Manufacturer Item Number Maintenance table. If scanned in a solution like PanatrackerGP, the cross reference number is automatically translated to your GP item number.

Serial & Lot Tracking

Many customers turn to bar code technology when they have identified the need to track their inventory by serial or lot number. Serial numbers tend to be long (and usually are represented on the inventory item in a bar code already). Scanning is a more efficient and accurate option to manually recording these numbers. Dynamics GP supports both serial and lot tracking. Lot attributes can natively be capture on lot tracked inventory include expiration date, manufacturer date and up to 5 definable attribute fields (3 text, 2 dates). Mobile data collection provides immediate real-time validation when selecting serial and lot details for inventory-related transactions.

Item Resource Planning

Within GP, reorder levels can be set for items by site. Faster entry to transactions provides more immediate information to maintaining stocking levels and purchase requirements.

Allocations

Allocations for inventory provides an additional layer of management to inventory stocking levels. A “soft” allocation can be done on sales orders (allocation is done on an item level, no serial or lot number specified), to update “available quantity” to manage inventory quantity levels. Using a bar code data capture solutions, specific serial and lot numbers are collected at the time they are picked.

[source]

For more information about Inventory Tracking Features in Microsoft Dynamics GP, contact us at 407.677.0370 or info@ibgnet.com

To learn more about Microsoft Dynamics GP check out our website!

Integrated Business Group is Central Florida’s leader in the business financial software industry.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is great for ANY industry, especially non-profits. CRM can help your business improve your employees’ efficiencies in managing the relationships with your customers, clients and business partners.

In addition to providing great functionality for Sales, Marketing, and Service departments, Microsoft CRM can also help organizations manage other relationships that are integral to success–employees, partners, suppliers, distributors, vendors, clients, donors, volunteers, and many other critical stakeholders in your business, making Microsoft Dynamics CRM a great fit for non-profit organizations!

Some common needs that many non-profits share are:

• The ability to track and generate funding opportunities from private donors, corporate, or government  agencies.
• A system to track resources and supplies.
• A system for screening, training, and scheduling volunteers.

Below are some benefits of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Non-profit organizations:

1. Improve your external communications. Regular communication keeps your organization “top of mind” and can generate substantial long-term support. With CRM, you have the ability to create a diverse set of marketing lists and develop targeted email campaigns directed at just those members.

2. Provide a central location to store data:

• Identify and track government grant deadlines, the status of applications, and award history.
• Track your resources. This can include equipment and companies that donate tangible materials such as construction or medical supplies
• Pull relevant reports. Use this data to identify top donors to build stronger relationships or track which programs are generating the highest contributions.
• A system for screening, training and scheduling volunteers. Many times non-profits have a lot of potential volunteers to sort through, but ensuring they are screened, trained, and coordinated can be a challenge. A well designed CRM system can simplify your processes to track the status of your volunteers and their availability.

Please contact Integrated Business Group with any questions you may have on how Microsoft Dynamics CRM fits your business at 407-677-0370 or info@ibgnet.com

Click here for a FREE TRIAL!

Integrated Business Group, a Microsoft Dynamics CRM reseller sells, implements, supports and provides training for customer relationship management software solutions through the South Eastern United States.

Take a look at this great video on Microsoft SharePoint!

Contact Integrated Business Group for more information on Microsoft SharePoint!

Integrated Business Group is Central Florida’s leader in the business financial software industry.

Last month, Integrated Business Group held a Meetup Event that gave further insight into Management Reporter, the next generation, interactive reporting application that financial and business professionals can use to create, maintain, deploy, and view financial statements.

This event was presented by one of our senior consultants Darren Hunt and for those unable to attend, we have provided the PowerPoint that was used in the presentation:

Below is what was covered:

• Introduction to Management Reporter
• Report Viewer & the Report Library
• Report Designer
• New Features
• Security
• Reasons to Switch
• Migration Tips

If you have any questions regarding Management Reporter, feel free to contact us at              407-677-0370 or info@ibgnet.com

Join our Meetup Group today!