Month: October 2014

Where is Everyone Going?

Do you commute to work? Do you sit in traffic during that commute? Do you sit in an unreasonable amount of traffic? Do you feel your time can be better spent being more productive? If so I’m with you. Anyone else feel it’s crazy to pay $13.50 to go 10 miles slightly faster and then still have to sit in a jam after those 10 miles?

This is life in the DC area and it can easily be that same case for any major metropolitan city. I have heard comedians make the joke that to get ride of all the traffic, if only the people going north could change jobs or homes with the people going south everything would be fine (it goes something like that). Traffic is a plague to the issues like fossil fuels and ozone. There is a 21^st century solution to all these problems; work remotely.

October 29, 2014

Responsibility vs. Blame

In the many organizations and projects I have been through, I always hear someone saying these words, “We must have more accountability around here.” But, in reality what they ‘really’ mean is, “I want to know whom to blame when something goes wrong”. We assume that by early identification of a scapegoat you have put the fear of blame in you or at least the fear of consequences related to that blame and further assume that fear is an effective motivator.

October 28, 2014

Part 5 of 5: Power BI, Sharing the Wealth

We have put a lot of hard work into this blog series with building a patron analysis so now it’s time to share the wealth of our analysis insights with the rest of the company. Power BI’s web site and mobile approach with the deployment of Office 365 and refreshable data through a Data Management Gateway, is the perfect solution. The Data Management Gateway has come a long way since the first version and with version 1.2 it now supports many data source types from Power Query connections.

October 24, 2014

How to Add a ‘GO TO’ to a Custom Smartlist

When you open a SmartList and double-click on a line item Great Plains will take you to the transaction screen that is associated with that specific line item. This is a functionality within SmartList called a “GoTo”. This function works for all standard GP SmartLists.

October 22, 2014

KTL-etc: Your Cloud, Your Way.

Over the last several years we have heard a lot about the cloud: How easy it is to move business applications to the cloud; how IT departments are making this part of their strategic business plans; and the different initiatives coming about on how to save companies money and gain efficiencies. IT is now able to off load hardware and software administrative and resource overhead to hosting providers. This is empowering them to not only concentration on, but to be a PART of, strategic technology planning efforts for their organizations. This is an overall benefit to the organization, and I believe an unexpected but welcomed result of the cloud movement.

October 22, 2014

Ways You Can Benefit from Your MSFT Partner Relationship

In my last blog, I discussed how to get the most out of your ERP system. The key elements presented were: have a maintenance plan; train, re-train, cross-train your users; understand your business Model; take advantage of what the ERP system has to offer; and develop a strong partnership with your Business Partner. In this blog, I wanted to dig a little deeper into the relationship with your Microsoft Business Partner and how your organization may benefit from this relationship. Your Microsoft Business Partner can be key to the future success of your ERP system.

October 20, 2014

We have an App for you!

KTL Solutions has been creating customizations for Microsoft Dynamics GP since before there was a Microsoft Dynamics GP. Dynamics GP was originally Dynamics by Great Plains Software and some of our products go back that far. These add-on modules for GP have been designed to fill a need that the core functionality of GP does not provide. We will be looking at 3 core products that KTL offers as add-ons to GP. These are AP Fast Entry, Payroll Security, and Advanced Distributions.

October 14, 2014

Integrative Technology Improvement – Diagnose Before Prescribe

From the time the innovative General Hannibal implemented new technology (elephants) to enhance his ability to wage war, technology improvements affect the way we do things. Unfortunately, some technology adoptions have had piecemeal, rather than strategic approaches. To quote a new colleague (discussing a recent company who is looking for a new accounting system), “they currently have a Franken-system”, a monster of mish-mashed technologies that absorb vast resources and lull an organization into thinking that technology is addressing its real needs.

October 10, 2014

How to UnApply – ReApply a Cash Receipt in GP

Three reasons why a user may need to Unapply or reapply a cash receipt.

The Customer has payment, credit memo, or return that was applied to the incorrect invoice.
The Customer has payment, credit memo, or return that was applied to the correct invoice, but the amount was applied incorrectly.
The Customer has an outstanding payment, credit memo, or return that can now be applied to the correct invoice.

So how do I do this?

October 8, 2014

Not Your Parent’s Accounting System

Acumatica is one of the new solutions in the game and the fastest growing Cloud ERP in the world. They were incorporated in 2008 and started by ex-Microsoft Dynamics executives. The goal being to improve on all that is wrong with MSFT systems. MSFT accounting is good for what it is, but it has a hard time doing what people need to do with computing today. The point of this is not to bash MSFT, but point out where Acumatica is: years ahead in technology; just like your Mac Book is to the IBM 650.

October 7, 2014