What’s new for HR/Payroll in GP 2010!
The following are a couple of cool new features in the HR/Payroll module in GP 2010!
Reprint Payroll checks and earnings statements
• You can now use the Payroll Check Inquiry window to reprint paystub and direct deposit earnings statement information
• The Payroll Check Inquiry scrolling window also includes a new check box that lets you select any combination of individual paycheck transactions to view and print.
– If you select multiple paychecks, a separate report is printed for each paycheck.
Excel-based reports for Certification, License and Training Manager
• Give managers and other company officials who are not GP users, to have access to this data for decision making purposes.
• Use Microsoft Office Excel reporting for viewing and sorting certification, license and training data and for customizing the presentation of data to satisfy their requirements.
Exclude inactive employees in Employees lookup
• You can now exclude all inactive employees from the Employees lookup window.
• You also can set a default view.
Assign employee secondary status codes
• You can create secondary status codes to provide more detail about an employee’s status
• You can set up separate status codes for active and inactive employees, and print a report listing all available status codes.
– why an employee is inactive or isn’t being paid.
– set up codes for inactive employees
– You can assign the new codes using the Employee Maintenance window, and view assigned codes using the Employee Inquiry window.
eConnect HR Adaptors
• HR eConnect Adaptors are now available
– This means you can create Scribe integrations to write directly to HR tables
– No custom code is required
Pay policy management “Use Add-On” functionality
• Allow the mass updating of employees using a Pay Policy Manager add-on
I Have A Dream: Microsoft Inspires a Global Community in D.C.
In a few short days, Microsoft’s senior leaders and thousands of Microsoft partners like us from over 100 countries will come together in our nation’s capital for the 2010 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. For partners, WPC is a fantastic annual opportunity to start the new (fiscal) year informed, connected and in sync with one another. But I think it’s much more than that.
To me, the theme this year, Infinite Possibilities, conveys the mindset that Microsoft would like to inspire its partners to take on. Microsoft thinks big and has an incredible vision of what’s possible in the world. But having a great idea or creating a phenomenal plan for the future will only go so far. You need to engage those that surround you and have them touched, moved and inspired by that possibility in order to create an environment that’s conducive for the fulfillment of that dream.
So Microsoft brings together partners from across the planet, conveys its vision and strategy, celebrates the latest product innovations and accomplishments, and provides hands-on-labs, training and discussions to give people essential capabilities and knowledge. Microsoft not only gets people out of town and out of the office, it gets people out of their short-term, constrained and limited ways of thinking. Microsoft not only sees what’s possible for software and technology, Microsoft sees what’s possible for people, businesses, non-profits, and governments around the world. But rather than keep that beautiful vision locked up, they want to bring us all together in the capital of the United States of America, share it, and empower us to achieve what we can now imagine.
Personally, I’m a fan of people from around the world returning to their state, city or village filled with a sense of infinite possibility, hope and power. Let freedom ring.
CRM 4.0 Installation Considerations with SQL Server 2008 and Windows 2008
CRM 4.0 Installation Considerations with SQL Server 2008 and Windows 2008
1) Installation will fail get to the final step and will fail checking requirements with the following error:
Error| Check FullTextRunningValidator : Failure: Service msftesql was not found on computer ‘Computer_Name’.
This occurs because the fulltext search service that existed and was required for CRM on SQL 2005 has been incorporated into each database on SQL server 2008. This error should be resolved by choosing “Update installation files” at the beginning of the install process. If you selected this option and are still getting an error, then the installation update is being blocked by a firewall!!! (this was the case for me) To get around this you will have to install CRM via command line and and install config xml file. To do this start by manually downloading the updated install files from MS and borrowing the XML config details from the CRM installation documentation.
2) After installation you may get an error when you go to the CRM website that says:
HTTP Error 401.2 … You are not authorized to view this page due to invalid authentication headers
This occurs because IIS 7.5 no longer has Windows Authentication as part one of the default authentication methods when a site is created. To resolve this, go to the Control Panel and nder Programs click “Turn Windows Features On or Off”. On the console that opens, expand “Roles”. Right Click “Web Server IIS” and choose “Add Role Services”. On the new window that opens, scroll down to “Security” and check the option that says “Windows Authentication”
After this is installed, the CRM site should function as expected.
Manufacturing Cost Rollup Discrepancies
During a recent implementation of the Dynamics GP Manufacturing module for one of our clients, we noticed significant differences between the existing current standard cost and the proposed or pending standard cost for several finished goods items after performing our first cost rollup. There are several possible reasons for this, some of which include:
- The existing standard cost on the finished goods and/or materials item cards are over or under valued
- Labor and/or machine rates are over or under stated
- Routing times are invalid
- Components are missing from the Bills of Materials (BOMs)
Upon closer look, it appeared that the pending material costs were less than what they should be according to how the BOMs were set up and what the client knew their material costs to be.
Upon an even closer look, with our Item Cost Revaluation report and calculator in hand, we were able to review several BOMs and identify specific components that were not being included in the cost rollup even though they were included in the BOMs. These same components were also excluded from backflusing during the posting of Manufacturing Order (MO) Receipts; i.e. the component quantities were not being relieved from inventory and component costs were not flowing to the GL.
It turns out that records for certain inventory items were missing from one of the costing tables in the company database. But how? What could have caused this? Microsoft had a couple of possible explanations for the missing records:
- If items are imported via SQL
- If items start out as a perpetual valuation method and are later changed to periodic
The latter seems to be the most likely cause in this case. We performed the following steps to resolve the issue (after first testing in a test environment). The referenced scripts should be obtained from Microsoft Dynamics Support… Read the rest of this entry »
Terminal Server 2008 Together With Dynamics GP
After deploying several Dynamics GP customers using the new Windows Server 2008 Remote Desktop Services (old Terminal Services), I must say that I have been quite impressed with the new functionality. It is now a viable option to use, and much more cost effective, then the traditional school of thought that Citrix is the way to go.
The previous limitations of past implementation seemed to have all been addressed, namely:
- Printing on client computers without having to install every print driver – Thanks to Easy Print
- Training user on how to manage two desktops – Use of Remote App
- Providing access to external users without the dependency on a VPN connection – Accomplished through the RDGateway
With limited exceptions, we now recommend the approach to all of our customers that are deciding the best method to deploy their new Dynamics GP solution. It is the best of both worlds in that IT no longer has the challenges in maintaining several desktop installations while the users get the rich application experience they prefer.
Anyone else had similar successes or challenges in using Remote Desktop Services?
Top 10 Products Dashboard for CRM Accounts
Dynamics CRM users like “At a glance” views of their customers including the products they have purchased in the past.
In this article I will walk you through the steps to create a Top 10 Products dashboard and integrate it with the Account form via IFrame, in order to create a view such as this:
Missing Parameters in SSRS
For you SSRS report developers out there, have you ever received the error “Must define scalar variable @<variable name>” and then drove yourself crazy trying to troubleshoot it? You probably even checked your Report Parameters a dozen more times to make sure you weren’t crazy or blind?
I have experienced this issue on several occasions while working in SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio. I have yet to zero in on exactly what causes this to happen, but it appears to happen during times when I am making several changes to a report in fairly quick succession, toggling between the Data, Layout, and Preview tabs.
In this example, I received the error “Must declare scalar variable @StartDate”
I looked at my input parameters (Report >> Report Parameters) and all parameters were defined. I looked at my SQL statement and all parameters were included in the query and had the correct names. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I then checked the Dataset settings and on the Parameters tab noticed that all of my parameters were missing. They just disappeared!
All you have to do is re-enter your parameters in this window, and your report should run just fine.
Scribe Insight 7.0 supports multiple targets
Scribe Software recently announced the availability of Scribe Insight 7.0. One of the most important features of this release is the ability to connect to more than one target in the same DTS.
The blog post on Scribe’s web site describes various scenarios where this feature can be valuable. These include:
- If the source record was triggered via a publisher, then the update source feature is not available since the source for that DTS is a message queue and not the original application which triggered the integration.
- The source system uses an adapter which does not support the update source feature.
- The source query is a complex join which update source cannot not support.
- You need to be able to update multiple fields on the source record.
The scenarios 1 and 2 above are applicable in most closed-loop integrations between Dynamics CRM and another ERP system.
For example, because the previous release of Scribe Insight did not support multiple target connections in the same DTS, Dynamics GP to Dynamics CRM template has to use two separate DTSs for CRM to GP Sales Order integration as follows:
- OrderToERP.dts: Sends submitted orders from Dynamics CRM to Dynamics GP
- OrderToERP_Result.dts: Updates the Sales Order in Dynamics CRM based on the result (success or failure) of the OrderToERP.dts
Now, with Scribe Insight 7.0, you can combine both of the above steps in one DTS using both Dynamics GP and Dynamics CRM as targets.
This new feature will be very valuable for addressing many Dynamics CRM and Dynamics GP integration needs as well as the other closed-loop integration scenarios such as the above.
SmartList Builder Etiquette
I admit it. I love SmartLists in Microsoft Dynamics GP. Some folks even call me a “SmartList guru.” And I realized the other day that I’m a bit of a SmartList snob, because I think it’s important when you create a SmartList to take the time to add those simple finishing touches which make a GP user’s job that much easier.
So I thought I would share a few SmartList tips which are like the whipped cream and cherry on top of a delightful sundae. I’ll use Microsoft Dynamics Human Resources & Payroll for my examples (the bullet points). Read the rest of this entry »
Microsoft GP 2010 Released
Now that Convergence and the GP 2010 launch events are behind us, it is time to focus on reasons to upgrade. Below are the top 10 features of GP 2010 as listed by the ERP Software Blog (www.erpsoftwareblog.com).
1) Get Better Insight Into Your Data Using Dashboards And KPI’s With Drill-Back. There are now customizable dashboards built of SQL Reporting Services (SRS) reports. Each user can decide which ones they want to display, create their own and drill-back to GP from these reports.
2) Get More Out Of Excel With Predictive Modeling And Analysis. Tools integrating to Excel include the Excel Reports ,which are in GP 1o, but now there are additional ways to use them including Power Pivot tables and drill-back from Excel Reports to GP.
3) Work With Over 90 Built-In SRS Reports. An additional 20 SRS reports have been added that can be used in SharePoint, Outlook or within the dashboards.
4) Create Professional External Documents Using Word Forms. Users will be very excited to be able to deliver Word Forms and customize external (customer and vendor facing) documents within Word.
5) Tailor Your List Pages With Navigation List Builder. Those list pages that were underutilized in GP 2010 will be customizable with the new SmartList Builder tool – Navigation List Builder.
6) Create Mini-Applications With Extender. Building on the Extender functionality added in GP 10, SP 4 users can create their own free standing Extender windows, report on them with SmartList, and integrate to them with SmartConnect.
7) Connect More Easily With People Using Communicator Integration. Detecting presence of customer and vendors contacts will allow you to work faster and more directly. You can send instant messages and share your desktop and email documents right from your desktop using these tools integrated to GP.
8) Integrate Systems Better With Web Services. More web services are available in the Human Resources Self Services Suite in Business Portal as well as other tools on SharePoint.
9) Leverage Other Technologies Such As 64 Bit And Workflow On Windows SharePoint Foundation. Management Reporter (FRx replacement) will take advantage of 64 Bit technology and the workflows will be able to be run on SharePoint Foundation.
10) Upgrades Are Much Easier. Beta customers experienced very few problems.
Definitely some compelling reasons to check it out! I look forward to sharing these great new features with our existing and future clients.
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