Tag: Dynamics

CRM Service Module: Part 1

Often when discussing a Dynamics CRM it is not uncommon to think of the application solely in the terms of how it can be used for the Sales and Marketing departments. As marketing to prospects and building potential sales are the first interactions companies usually have with a customer it is easy to see why these tend to be focal points for a CRM system. However, critical interactions with those companies do not stop after the sale, they continue on well beyond closing the opportunity and invoicing the order. If you have heard the adage, “It is easier to retain current customers than to acquire new ones,” you know I am speaking of customer service. The customer service module in Dynamics CRM is often forgotten in conversations when speaking of the capabilities of the application yet it is quite a robust piece. To bring light to this often overlooked module of Dynamics CRM over the next few articles we will highlight some of the features.

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April 1, 2015

The Cost of Upgrading vs. The Cost of Fixing Problems

Upgrading an accounting system can be a daunting task for some. I often here from clients that they feel as though they have just implemented a system and now there is a new version to upgrade to. Unfortunately, this is sometimes the case. Dynamics, for instance, now does 6 month cycle releases for their new versions. Meaning there will be a GP2015, GP2015 R2 and then GP2016. So what is the point in trying to keep up? Is there really that much value in upgrading? 

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March 30, 2015

How To: Modify Dynamics GP with Modifier and Dot Net

For years I have been creating customizations for Microsoft Dynamics GP using a combination of Modifier and VBA. This has always worked well for me in the past with a few quirks and hiccups in VBA from time to time. I have created simple additional fields on screens, complex logic to enhance our customers business and many other types of projects. All of this has worked well, been easy to upgrade to the next GP version and been basically stable code for many years.

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March 26, 2015

Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) Tools Can Jumpstart your BI Initiative

I often get asked about Business Intelligence and related tools, as dashboards and data integration have become so common today, and everyone wants “instant information”.  After all, aren’t we all information workers today?

Since my company is a Microsoft Partner, doing Dynamics (GP, SL and CRM) business applications, my first recommendation is to “look close to home”.  You may be surprised how much existing BI you already own and are not utilizing if you use Microsoft products.  (Dynamics, SQL, SharePoint, Office)  The Microsoft BI toolkit is not a lightweight player in the BI market, as you can see from the 2013 Gartner’s Magic Quadrant graphic below.

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March 19, 2015

Project Budgeting and the Questions You Should Ask

Budgets are one of the 3 pillars that hold-up a project and they ensure that there is enough of “it” to support the other 2, viz. scope and time. All three are just as important but for a successful project implementation a smart budget is at its core.

The PMBOK talks about several methods we can use for budgeting but the one that is my favorite and is most accurate is “bottom-up estimating”. When using this method we break down each task into a smaller component and such a component can be assigned anywhere from 8-16 hours to complete. We then work our way up into estimates of higher-level deliverables.

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March 11, 2015

4 Ways to Maximize excel based budgeting in GP

Do you report actual to budget variance and always have a difficult time getting your budget into GP? Below are some suggestions on how to best use excel based budgeting within GP. There are options for users who have budget workbooks outside of GP and just need to load the data as well as users that are just starting the budgeting process and how to build templates and get historical data out of GP for budgeting.

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March 5, 2015

Where do Value Based Enable Rules get their data for the CRM 2013 ribbon?

A recent request tasked me with adding functionality to the form ribbon of an Order in CRM 2013. The goal was to capture information from two fields on the Order’s associated Account and based on that information enable or disable a button on the ribbon of the Order which for the purposes of this article we can call Has_Value. I was not able to pass the values to the Order when it was created as these values could change some time after it had been created. Additionally, if the associated Account were found to be a duplicate, it would have to be merged and updated on the Order that could also change the results of the information I was capturing. This left me with having to query for my information using Javascript when the Order form loaded. With this Javascript query, I then updated a hidden Boolean field on the Order if the criteria was met or left it blank if it was not. This might not seem important now but having to take these actions in order to meet the requirements affected how this customization had to be modified at later steps in the functionality.

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February 18, 2015

Entering a Fixed Asset in Acumatica

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines a Fixed Asset as a “tangible object of a permanent or long-term nature. Businesses of all sizes purchase and maintain equipment, computers, machinery, furniture, tools and other items to assist in running their enterprise. Tracking the cost, current value and the depreciation expense of these items is a vital exercise of the accounting department of a business. The accurate accounting of assets is important for annual overall profitability of the business and for accurate income tax calculation. Large organizations, as well as some smaller ones, will use some sort of fixed asset tracking software. Asset tracking software allows companies to track what assets they own, where they are located, how much they cost, the monthly or annual depreciation expense and their current value.

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February 12, 2015