Microsoft Dynamics Corner

Dynamics GP Payroll Tax Round 3 Update

Payroll Round 3 Tax Update Tax Update Info

Microsoft has released Payroll Round 2 and Round 3 for Dynamics-GP rather quickly.  The two tax updates affect District of Columbia, Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and EIC.

This is just a tax table update and is not a code change so if you have already performed your year end tax update you can just do the tax table update on the server.

Windows Virtualization

 

Some of you may have been hearing about virtualization either on web sites, trade magazines, or from your IT department.

Well what is virtualizatoin and why should I care?  Virtualization was introduced several years ago by couple of software companies most noteably VMWare.  Microsoft soon followed with their version of virtualization software in 2005.  What virtualization gives you is the ability to consolidate multiple servers onto one physical machine.

One of the main benefits you get with Virtuaization is cost savings.  Consider an environment where you have three servers.  A SQL Server, email server, and terminal server for remote access.  Each one of these servers can cost between 6 and 7K each.  Now consider consolidating those servers onto a more robust server between 10 and 11K.  That is a real savings of almost 10K on hardware. 

Those are the hard costs, now lets look at some of the soft costs.

With a virutalized environment you can see a reduction of IT support costs for things such as:

• Software Maintenance
• Disaster Recovery
• Restoring previous states
• Increased performance of applications

Click  here for a great white paper on the benefits.

Extracting SQL Resources

Many of you have noticed that you no longer can find the SQL source code to stored procedures, tables, and other components.

If you are still interested especially the econnect procedures you can get this information by entering the following entry in the DEX.INI file

duExtractSqlResources=TRUE

Save the DEX.INI file

Launch Dynamics Utilities and after you log in you will see a progress bar extracting SQL Resources.  After it completes you will see all of the Sql Resources in the SQL->Install folder

What is xRM?

I came across an amazing video that sums up exactly what xRM is.  Click here for the YouTube link before you continue reading. 

As you can see, xRM is the natural progression of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), where "x" is a true variable, we can make it ANYTHING you need it to be.

With the nature of our economy and the demand on businesses to perform at 110%, it is vital for companies to have a full 360-degree view of the relationship between themselves and their Customers. 

Businesses cannot afford to not have a unified platform that connects to every aspect of their business. From Sales, Marketing, Accounting, Operations, and Human Resources, they all need to be able to see the same data in the same place, but in ways that make sense to each department.

With that in mind we look at xRM.  It is important to know that xRM is not a product sold, but a strategic approach taken to understand what makes a business flourish, what information needs to be seen by a particular employee, and how the information needs to be seen and understood to make better business decisions.  Because every business is different, flexibility in a software solution is supreme.  And it is because of these unique features that make all businesses different, that xRM is evolving.

To learn more about Dynamics CRM, and how KTL Solutions and help create your own xRM environment contact KTL today.

Windows 7 Review

After much anticipation, Windows 7 was finally released on October 22nd!  We had given you a brief overview of the improvements to the new OS and how they would impact Dynamics GP on an older blog post, but we wanted to make sure you could find all the information you needed to help you determine when it will be the right time to upgrade your system. 

One of the best reviews I found was from Engadget (which is a technologies news blog).  If you want to read reviews, need help on picking the correct version of Windows 7, or if you are looking for walkthroughs on how to upgrade, this post will help you out greatly.

If you are part of the Windows XP crowd who opted out on Vista, here is a link to CNET, which goes over what it takes to make the move from XP to 7.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Service Pack 4 has been released

Install Guide Install Guide
Supplement Supplement

 

Microsoft has release Service pack 4 and is available for download.  This is an exciting new service pack that not only resolves issues such as the ones outlined below but also adds new features to the Dynamics-GP system.  Extender has some great new enhancements that increases it’s value to the end user and makes it a more productive tool.

Payroll has some significant fixes that anyone using the payroll module should apply as soon as possible.

 

Service Pack 4 is all inclusive of prior fixes released for 10.0.  Attached is the documentation that has a inclusive list of all fixes.

Service Pack 4 will bring the Dynamics.dic version to 10.00.1368

The files will be available at the links below

CustomerSource

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/downloads/servicepacks/mdgp10_patchreleases.htm?printpage=false

Human Resources

HR/PR Area Page doesn't show up first when select navigation button for HR/PR

An error appears stating that the table is locked or another user is editing the batch after posting a COBRA manual check batch

If you posted a COBRA payment, the manual check in Payroll doesn’t have the correct posting date if you are posting by transaction

When you use the browse buttons, you can view all employees, including the employees that you don’t have access to when using Human Resource filters

The mailing address information is incorrect on the VETS 100 form.

If you have marked the Automatically Update payroll benefits and deductions option, the information that is changed during roll down is more than expected.

Benefit and deduction setup is rolled down to Payroll as well as Human Resources.

Payroll

A payroll lifetime maximum on a deduction is ignored after installing Microsoft Dynamics GP Release 10.0 Service Pack 3

You may see payroll degradation during building checks if you have numerous employees setup in the company

Multiple local taxes don’t calculate correctly for tax-sheltered annuities.

SUTA error - A get/change operation on table ‘UPR_Distribution_WORK’ failed. A record was already locked

Linked deductions are not included in the ACH file when the employee has a garnishment that is included in the payroll build

Garnishment is calculated incorrectly if you use percent of earnings and tips pay codes. 50369

A message doesn’t appear when processing checks if the Include Auto-Settle-Line option is marked in the Direct Deposit Setup window and a checkbook isn’t assigned in the Payroll Setup window.

Canadian Payroll/Human Resource

When the estimated net income and commission percentage are entered in the Payroll Quebec Tax – Canada window, the

Quebec Provincial tax is calculated incorrectly for the commission income.

Position Control

If you select to make a plan current, the position’s year-to-date summary amounts aren’t updated based on the budget scheduled start date for the position.

If you make a pay rate change, you are prompted that a pay code link for the position doesn’t exist.

If you unmark the Enable Position Control in Sample Company option in the Position Control Setup window and restart Microsoft Dynamics GP, you can’t open the Position Control Setup window.

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Extension and Advanced Products Service Packs at this location

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/support/downloads/servicepacks/hrp_bp_addon.htm?printpage=false

Advanced Human Resource

Employee Health and Wellness codes may be inadvertently deleted when choosing the clear button.

Advanced Payroll

Transaction Auto Split may overstate employee hours if you use automatic overtime functionality in Payroll.

PTO Manager

PTO Manager does not advance correctly to the next schedule when using accrual by anniversary date with years worked and variable maximums.

Payroll Extensions

Payroll Integration to Payables does not populate the Remit to field in payables when a payroll is posted.

Overtime Rate Manager incorrectly calculates the overtime rate when using a Salary pay code that is not set to unit of pay of annual.

When you void a payroll check it does not affect deduction in arrears transactions.

Windows 7 and Dynamics GP

With the launch of Windows 7 just around the corner, many of you have been asking when Windows 7 will be compatible with Dynamics GP.

Are you ready for this…it already is!!!

You will be able to run Dynamics GP 10.0 on Windows 7 the minute you are able to update your operating system.  Microsoft’s test team has already completed compatibility testing, and have recently updated the system requirements page posted on CustomerSource.

The system requirements states that Dynamics GP 10.0 will be compatible with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

However, for all those users who are not currently running GP 10.0, Microsoft has yet to release any plans of making Windows 7 backwards compatible for older versions of GP.  So if you cannot wait to upgrade to Windows 7, be sure that you are planning ahead for an upgrade to Dynamics GP 10.0.

Let us know what you think.  Are you going to be upgrading to Windows 7 by the end of 2009?  2010?  Would the release of Windows 7 be a deciding factor to finally upgrade your GP system?

Statement of Direction for Dynamics GP

Interesting read about where Microsoft plans on taking Dynamics GP.

Some topics I found noteworthy:

• Timeline for future Dynamics GP releases will cycle around future MS Office releases.
• Rapid Implementation Tools
• XML source adapter for Integration Manager
• Business Intelligence/Reporting in GP 11
• Improved Supply Chain Management in GP 11
• And lots more…

Here is a link to download the 15 page document from Microsoft.

What are you excited about seeing in the next Service Pack Update?  How about Dynamics GP 11, what are you looking forward to using?

SmartLists and Analytical Accounting

I came across a great post from a Blog series developed by the Product Management and Marketing Team of Microsoft, which can be found in the Microsoft Dynamics Community.

Through the use of SmartLists, you are able to create customizable inquiries to provide easier (and faster) access to information stored in Dynamics GP.

In order to pick the SmartList folders you would like to include, navigate to the following.

• Tools –> Setup –> Company –> Analytical Accounting –> Options (Click the SmartList Integration Button)

The additional SmartList objects (and Excel reports) available are: Analytical Accounting Transactions and Analytical Accounting Dimension Balances.

Did you give this a shot?  How do you like using SmartLists with Analytical Accounting?

Applying a Dynamics GP Service Pack Issue

I ran into an issue today while applying the latest patch release for Microsoft Dynamics-GP version 10.  I installed the patch and everything seemed to be fine.  As usual I was required to launch the utilities to update the tables for the schema changes.

I stepped through the screen and then I got to an odd looking screen that had the normal information but the Data Device was set to zero and the Database size was set to zero.  It also did not have the name of the database that was being updated DYNAMICS.  I thought that was odd but I continued.

Then the next screen gave me a blank screen.  I tried this process a few times without success.  I ran the infamous DEXSQL.Log and saw no errors.  I ran through the process of removing the orphan SY01500 records, SY60100 records, and DB_Upgrade records.  Still no success.  Then I noticed that it kept asking me to create the DYNSA account.

I then logged into SQL Enterprise and looked at the security and noticed that the DYNSA account was missing.  I manually created the login and set the role to db_owner and DYNGRP for the DYNAMICS database and the Company database.

I then logged back into utilities, I wasn’t prompted to create the DYNSA account and the service pack applied properly.  There appears to be a problem with the system creating the DYNSA account but no error was returned.

This environment consisted of:

Windows 2003 Server

Dynamics GP version 10

SQL 2000 SP4

I know they are still on SQL 2000 but I thought the information would be valuable.