Tales From a myGPcloud 14 Day Journey – Step 5

Picture.jpg

Picture

I’ve been really impressed so far in setting up the system. The performance is great and the default setup is enough to get things going fairly easily. I did noticed my user wasn’t added automatically to the DEFAULTUSER modified reports and forms security. You may want to add that setting to your user ID in Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Setup>>System>>User Security.

image

I’ve heard a lot of buzz from the academic community wanting to use myGPcloud for classroom instruction. The Dynamics Academic Alliance at Microsoft gives universities freebie licenses to get them hooked on their software and Dynamics GP is no exception. I’m actually using myGPcloud in my classroom where I teach at a local community college. If you’re a college or university myGPcloud is the way to go.

Step 5 – Setting up Inventory and Purchase Order

Looks like we are to the heavy lifting. Setting up inventory and Purchasing isn’t too difficult but there are a lot of things to consider. Whether or not the company has inventory items stocked in a warehouse or if there’s just a list of service items billed to clients, setting up these modules correctly is critical to the future usage.

Inventory setup

I don’t see anything regarding this. Maybe this will come with version 2 but you really should do some thinking here. Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Setup>>Inventory>>Inventory Control.

The default Decimal Places and Segment ID for Sites should be identified here. When you select a Segment ID for Sites at this point you are stuck with using that segment forever. That is used to link posting account defaults for different sites.

image

If you don’t enter a segment ID here you will get this error when trying to set up different sites.

image

Skip if you don’t want to go cross eyed (or are not an accountant):

For example regarding posting account defaults, if you want COGS and Revenue to have different posting accounts for each site you should select this segment of your chart of account to be the determining factor. I.E. Segment 2 has all your divisions of 000, 100, 200, 300, etc. When entering transactions to the site the posting accounts will have the 000-4000-000, 100-4000-000, etc. variable.

image

Unit of Measure

The documentation looks good. I would mention the setups done in inventory are difficult to change to say the least. Think the setups through and how the business may like to do things in the future. I’d consider using the term “each” like it shows in the documentation as a base. Another silly thing in Dynamics GP is this Unit of Measure is case sensitive. If you don’t want to capitalize EACH each time you could make it all lower case or at least proper case. This will be defaulted in pricing setup so it’s not that big of a deal.

image

Side story: One of our clients called and wanted to change the base unit of measure. They had the unit of measure schedule set up in “Cases” of 12, 24, etc. They now wanted to take a few items from each case and create a variety case. Since the items were not inventories in a “Each” (meaning 1 unit) fashion we had to totally reconfigure the system to meet their current needs.

Creating a Site

The documentation shows the site screen I showed you above. It’s not required to set things up with different sites so if you don’t have more than one location you may want to set it like the documentation says. I try to make things too difficult some times.

Item Class Setup

I agree with setting up a default class. I also usually set up all the different types of inventory items I have as well. It speeds up entering new items a lot (unless you import items and then it doesn’t really matter).

Items

Another version 2 thing. Items don’t have a bolded heading so I didn’t realize I was onto something else. Picky me.

imageSo I sell my hugs for big money. Don’t judge me. I take paypal, credit card, etc.

I usually do as the documentation says and use the GO TO button on the Item Maintenance window. This gives all the steps needed to get through setting up an item.

image Price List setup

I set up a default price so I don’t have to enter the price manually each time. My hugs are expe
nsive as you can see.

image Site setup

Unless you do what I say in the above in inventory control, site setup will not be available.

Purchasing setup

image

Nothing much to say here. What unit are you purchasing the product in.

Purchase Order Processing Setup

I’d say you need to go to the POP setup window first. Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Setup>>Purchasing>>Purchase Order Processing. There are a few options on this window that may apply.

imageThe documentation goes through this ok but I’d suggest some good night time reading by looking at the POP manual if there are any questions.

imageClick on the ? at the top right and choose printable manuals. I better make that clearer on my next blog. That’s where you find all the printable manuals for GP.

Here’s my PO for my hugs.

imageAnd here’s my invoicing of that PO. It should be easy but there are a lot of issues that come up in this process. I’d contact your partner if things are not clear on this front after reading the user guide.

imageFor example, the distributions cannot be changed in the receivings summary window. The distributions need to be changed on the line item. I circled it in the above screen.

Summary

This is a big step in Dynamics. Inventory effects many modules and Purchasing is the basis for any distribution type company.

I’d spend some time reading the printable manual as a night time story. You might learn something. And if not you’ll surly fall to sleep soundly.

Tales From a myGPcloud 14 Day Journey – Step 8

Picture.jpg

Picture Reporting and BI is really what makes a system valuable. Collecting the data is fine but if it’s not accessible or available in the format required the data is mostly useless. Dynamics GP is pretty good with reporting and is getting even better with each version release. In GP 2010 you can even use word templates for invoices etc.

Other sources of reporting besides the standard reports in Report Writer is SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and Crystal Reports (check out Victoria Yudin, the queen of Crystal). If you chose the myGPcloud version that has Smartlist Builder you can also do innumerable queries right to the SQL tables.

If you are not familiar with any of these reporting tools I’d suggest staying with the default reports until a need arises.

**Note – Default reports can be modified using the Report Writer tool to add many fields that are desired but not on the report out of the box. Send any report to the screen then press the modify button and it will go to the Report Writer tool. (Much cussing and swearing has come from this tool. Use it with caution and do a backup before messing with any report in question). MyGPcloud has a nightly backup run on the modified reports file so contact the support line if a restore is needed.

image

Step 8 – Accessing the over 200+ standard reports

I’ve looked over the documentation on reporting. I didn’t really believe there was over 200+ standard reports but after looking further I suppose this is correct. Each module has quite a few options and each option has several variables.

Running reports is pretty straight forward and the documentation leads through generating reports.

I never like printing reports to the printer first. I usually go to the screen but this can be annoying to click on destination each time and change it from printer to screen. I often do something like this post says.

I never print posting journals either. I turn them off in the posting setup window (Microsoft Dynamics GP>>tools>>setup>>posting>>posting>>uncheck the reports in the process you are doing.)

image

Some of the most useful reports are listed below:

Financial

  • Trial Balance – GL trial balance in summary and detail
  • Cross-Reference – Where to reprint posting journals
  • Checkbook – Checkbook register found here
  • Bank posting journals – Any bank related reprints

image

Sales

  • Trial Balance – AR trial balance. Choose the one with options. I hardly ever use the one without options. Historical report can calculate back to a specific date. Should tie to GL Trial Balance AR amount.
  • History –  Sales transaction history etc. I often use Smartlist over this option
  • Analysis – Sales doc analysis etc. Same as history
  • Posting Journals – Reprint any sales related posting

imagePurchasing

  • Trial Balance – AP Trial Balance both Historical and open. Should tie to GL Trial Balance AP amount.
  • History – Any purchasing or AP history. I often use Smartlist over this option
  • Analysis – Cash requirements (what AP transactions are due for payment), Received / Not Invoiced report (should tie to Accrued Purchases account at GL),
  • Posting Journals – Reprint AP posting journals

image

Inventory

  • Item – Any item setup information
  • Serial/Lots – Anything related to serial and lots (thus the name)
  • Activity – Stock Status Report and Historical Stock Status report, Historical IV Trial Balance (New to 2010 so don’t really know how well it works)
  • Analysis – Turnover report
  • History – Transaction and Distribution history
  • Posting Journal – Reprint any transactions related to Inventory

imageDon’t go cross eyed or get overwhelmed. I suggest going through each module looking for reports you need. If a report is similar to the requirements consider using it as a base then modifying in Report Writer. Before using Report Writer make a backup of the report by going to Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Customize>>Customization Maintenance. Select the report then choose export. You’ll be glad you did.

image

If you try to use Report Writer and get errors…call me and I’ll cuss with you. Then we can figure it out together.

Tales From a myGPcloud 14 Day Journey – Step 7

Picture.jpg

Picture A couple of thoughts mid way through this journey. I’m making this whole get up and going in 5 minutes sound like that’s all there is to using GP. That’s not entirely true. With some experience with Dynamics GP this may be all you need. If this is the first time using GP, help with the system may be necessary. In all honesty I learned GP on the fly. Here’s my Dynamics GP story. Probably similar to a lot of folks. Along with this story I add several ways you can be fully trained on Dynamics GP.

Step 7 – Learning the power of Smart Lists

This should be a good one. As I’m introducing Smartlist to clients I usually get a whole bunch of oooo’s and ahhh’s, at least from accountants. If I show Smartlist to my accounting students they usually say “so, shouldn’t it do that anyways”. (Punk kids…they take all technology for granted).

So the documentation tells how to change, modify, add search criteria etc. but it doesn’t really go through the best part of Smartlist. After you have developed your Smartlist you can click the Excel button and it does a little dance and sends all the data over to excel.

imageThat is super cool if you’ve lived in the dinosaur age like me before the internet, computers, calculators, the wheel, etc.

Another thing to add to Smartlist, its a  little touchy when exporting. Don’t do anything on your computer while it’s sending the data to Excel. I’ve seen it skip a few rows from time to time if it’s not left alone to do it’s own thing.

I’d also recommend changing the default search criteria on a favorite to more than 1000 rows. It’s fine when figuring out the right reports but the data will often be more than 1000 rows in total.

imageAnother insight into finding your data. Most modules have a Smartlist for transactions and one for rows on the transactions. See below with sales transactions and sales line items. If you only want the transaction information and the row information is not needed use the transaction object.

image  Smartlists can also be added to the shortcut menu as shown below.

image

Well, I guess that’s about it for Smartlists. I was thinking I’d have more to say on them. This tool is really one of the best features of Dynamics GP. I’m always amazed when I talk to long time GP users and find out they don’t really use or know how to use Smartlist.

On to Smartlist Builder

Tales From a myGPcloud 14 Day Journey – Step 4

Picture.jpg

PictureI’ve been trying to figure out how much time it’s taken me to get to Step 4 in this journey.

  1. Provisioning – maybe 10 minutes
  2. Setup Multicurrency, Chart of account, Fiscal periods – Another 10 minutes if you choose the defaults
  3. Setup Navigation – Probably another 10 minutes
  4. AP and AR setup – 5 minutes

So we are at Step 4 in just over half an hour. That is cool stuff. Think of what the normal process for getting Dynamics GP up and going is.

  1. Identify several partners
  2. Onsite visits by Partners or at a minimum several phone calls – Sales team and solution consultants dance around doing magic show, card tricks, and flashy demos. Discuss how Partner is the best fit for them, etc.
  3. Get a quote from at least three partners (sometimes competing products as well)
  4. Sign off on quote and sign Master Service Agreement (MSA)
  5. Partner orders reg keys from MBS, etc.
  6. Schedule onsite visit with consulting team to plan implementation
  7. Consultant comes out to install Server and all workstations
  8. Commence implementation and training

Some variation of the above can take weeks if not months. The absolute fastest I’ve heard a deal closed and implementation started is in a week. With myGPcloud you skip 6 or 7 of the above steps. Implementation planning and execution is still a huge step but the sales process is now a fraction of it used to be. And you can have Dynamics GP installed, reg keys entered, users setup, basic setup done within an hour.

Holy Cow!!!!

Side step before going on to step 4: Before doing Step 4 I would consider entering beginning balances at the GL so the cash account doesn’t immediately become negative.

image

Navigate to Transactions>>financial>>General Ledger. Nothing out of the ordinary here. As long as your debits equal credits you are good to go.

Step 4 – Setting up Vendors, Accounts Payable and Check Writing

Can we use this system finally. It’s been like and hour and I’m tired of setup already. Looks like we are onto entering Vendors, inputting invoices for those vendors and then cutting a check.

Vendors

I owe my mom a lot so decided to enter her as my first vendor. Since I already added the DEFAULT class I have accounts already setup and that speeds up entry significantly.

image

Click on the Accounts button at the bottom and make sure you have an account listed in the Purchases field. This is where the expense account will default from. I would also keep the “Use Cash Account From” the Checkbook. Seems to be easier that way. As you can see my expense is listed as “Shrinkage and Waste”. Kind of appropriate in my case.

imageMake sure you go to the Options button and identify the Tax Type. This is important for 1099 vendors.

image

Identifying payment terms are also important. The window is pretty straight forward.

image

Side Note: I’m not sure if the navigation is quite as intuitive as MBS would like to proclaim. The above screens have a magnifying glass next to fields usually placed on the right. Clicking on the glass will find all the items setup already for that field. So clicking the magnifying glass (or looking glass or eye glass. All terms I’ve heard used) next to payment terms will pull up all payment terms in the system. Choosing the blue underlined field on the right will bring you to the payment terms window where you can set new payment terms up.

Everything looks good on the vendor side. I like the suggestion in the documentation to come up with a systematic numbering system. I also use this approach when naming batches. Something like Initials followed by date.

Another thought is if you already have your vendor list you might consider using Integration Manager to import all your vendors into the system.

Invoicing

I entered in an invoice for my vendor “DOUGS MOM”. I clicked on the distributions field to make sure my correct expense account came up. Looks good.

image

Save this transaction to the batch. Then open the batch. (Transaction>>purchasing>>Batches).

image

The batch is often saved as a single use batch. Changing the frequency will make this batch recurring. Also notice the posting date should be watched.

Looks good. Post away.

Five PM posting reports pop up and one GL posting report defaults so you can print those or cancel out if you don’t want to kill anymore trees than is n
eedful. Reports can be completely turned off at Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Setup>>Posting>>Posting. Choose the series and origin on for any process and you will see how things are setup to post.

image Printing Checks

The invoice is entered and posted. Let’s pay my mom for all her hard work.

I’d use the path listed in the documentation. Way easy to cut checks this way.

imageI don’t know if I have enough money in the back but I’m going for broke. ($97,987,980 is probably not enough to make up all the pain and agony I caused in my youth.)

Selected the checkbox and pressed Print checks.

Check number should have been set correctly. I left it at a gazillion zeros and a number 1. That should have been changed in the setting up checkbook step but if that wasn’t done navigate to Cards>>Financial>>Checkbook and change it there.

image

I’d put the check stock in the printer at this point. If it’s a shared printer…spend $100 and get a dedicated one for checks. If that’s not an option yell really loud “Nobody Print, check are coming out”. Silly process but lots of businesses still do it.

I’m ready. I press Print and bomb’s away.

imageI sent it to the screen instead of a real check. I know, cheap skate. Maybe I’ll send this really to my mom and see what she says.

The Post Payables Check window pops up. If everything printed right I can process the checks. If it didn’t work out don’t post. Choose the drop down button next to Process:

image

Reprinting here is way easier than having to void out after the batch is posted.

The deed is done. I posted the check and feel a lot lighter of my obligation to my mom.

The documentation goes through this process in great detail.

Onto Step 5

Tales From a myGPcloud 14 Day Journey – Step 3

Picture.jpg

Picture Looks like we’re still in the setup phase. Accounts payable and accounts receivable setup is pretty straight forward. I guess we are skipping Company and GL setup. There’s not much to setup in those area’s but I’d still look at Tools>>setup>>company>>company and Tools>>Setup>>Financial>>General.

Another topic not discussed in any of these steps is security in Dynamics GP. Seems like whenever I get a call from a frantic owner regarding someone stealing money from them it always relates somehow to AP, Bank Reconciliation and the GL.

Side Story – An owner (“Marco”) of a small business called me a few weeks back and asked if I had done anything with “Mary” (name has been changed to protect the…guilty) with some GL entries. I indicated that I worked with Mary the week before and found several transactions that had been deleted from the AP sub module. Marco cussed a lot and said “My bank is $70,000 off”.

To make a long story short the AP/GL/Bank Rec/Accounting lady had been making manual check payments to herself. She’s only worked there for the past 5 years so who knows the actual ramifications. She reconciled the bank account each month so was able to cover her tracks. Also, in the past few months she had moved a considerable amount of money from the company credit line to the operating account to cover for the missing money. Marco found out about it when he tried to use his credit line and no credit was available.

Moral: In all businesses, especially small businesses where there are little separation of duties you must have someone other than the person receiving and cutting checks do the bank reconciliation.

You can limit security to any GP windows by navigating to Microsoft Dynamics GP>>tools>>setup>>system>>User Security.

Step 3 – Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable Setup

Accounts Payable

Here is the payables setup window.

imageThe setup guide says you can have up to seven periods but note that the trial balance is defaulted to 4 periods so you have to modify the TB if you want any other periods you create to show up on that. It’s kind of a pain. If you really don’t need the aging periods I would leave the number of aging buckets the same. 

The check mark on Previously Applied Documents on Remittance often causes issues. Un-checking  that box will take off previously applied credit memos from your check stub.

image The Vendor Class setup is a good suggestion. This allows you to add vendors quicker and makes reporting on classes easier. I usually at least start with a Vendor Class called Default.

Accounts Receivable

AR is similar to Payables as shown below.

imageI’d leave the aging periods the same for the same reasons as AP. One option to consider is the Due Date aging versus the Document Date aging. This option affect when which aging bucket the customer invoice will be sent to.

In the options window I usually leave the numbering the same but you can change it if you like.

image A Customer Class is good to define. The documentation discusses this well.

Conclusion

I think we are ready to start inputting vendors and customers. Now the real fun begins as Dynamics GP really starts to take life.

On to Step 4.

Tales From a myGPcloud 14 Day Journey – Step 2

Picture.jpg

PictureI should have pointed to this blog we host before now so you can bookmark for future use. In one of the blogs I talk about the new language you are learning and will use for many years to come. Dynamics users have their own dialect and I mention a good core of learning here.

Step 2 of 10 looks to be related around being efficient in Dynamics GP. If you are an old school Dynamics user you are still using palettes and navigating by saying “go to Cards>>financial>>checkbook”. Still easy to tell people where to go by doing that but Microsoft has spent billions of our tax payer dollars trying to figure out how to make navigation easier in GP. (just kidding about tax payer dollars, the amount of money is probably right).

Lets see if I can change my inefficient, archaic ways by using this setup step.

Step 2 – Making it easy, quick, and personal

Navigation

The documentation gives a good overview of how to get around the system. I’m sold on the area pages as a way to navigate. Being a naturally efficient person (A.K.A. lazy) I like having all the palettes available on my page.

Side note- The other day I was showing an “old school” person how to use the area page but they fought vigorously to continue using the palettes. She hadn’t used Dynamics GP in over 2 years before the area page break through. It was quite entertaining for me to yell “AUGG” as the clicking began. Trying to retrain the ingrained “Transactions>>payables>>transaction entry” clicking is sometimes a lost cause.

Shortcuts

I love shortcuts. I have my whole keyboard coded to the windows I want to open. I’m not really that geeky, just really lazy. Trust me, you can really impress your co-workers by clicking F2 and having your desired window pop up.

image

image

You can also limit the area pages on by going clicking on >> (blue circled button)>>navigation pane options.

image

Here’s another way to speed up entry. Right click on the menu bar at the top. Then you can add any palette you want want to the top menu bar.

image

One last bit of advice to do as little work as possible. Set your user preferences for Dynamics GP at Microsoft Dynamics GP>>User Preferences.

imageSend all reports to screen. Change your desired default for SOP processing. I like setting my display options to have required fields bold and blue or something like that.

Conclusion

Efficiency is a good thing. So if you want to limit your clicks, time and frustration I’d set this up before processing transactions.

Man, I’m on a roll. I bet I could get done all 10 steps in one day. You’ll still get the myGPcloud emails every day for 14 days to make sure you are on track. But we should be well done the steps before then.

On to Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable setup.

Tales from a myGPcloud 14 Day Journey – Day 1 continued

image.png

PictureI’ve heard lots of discussion on what setup should be automatically propagated for  myGPcloud as we want Dynamics useable as quickly as possible. Some setup is required to start using the system but a lot of it is the same from company to company. 

I like automatically having the basic setup that is always necessary completed (I.E. functional and reporting currency, although if you need another currency be sure to choose the MC checkbox so you can select the currency you want when you get into Dynamics). I see some defaults such as checkbook ID,  check format, basic payable and receivables setup etc. is done so that speeds up this process.

As you start using the system I would go through the default settings and change them if you’d like. I’m guessing most of these settings will be ok but you should decide for your business if my assumption is correct.

Step 1

Here goes my setting up Dynamics GP for the first time. Looks like three events are in line first.

  1. Chart of accounts
  2. Fiscal periods
  3. Multicurrency

 

Chart of Accounts

This aspect of setting up GP is always a pain. Not that it’s hard to get the accounts into GP but it usually takes weeks (or months) for the meticulous CPA mind to finalize a C of A. I’m glad there’s a default chart preloaded in the system. The documentation shows how to blow that out of there if you already have a chart decided upon. I’d use Integration Manager to import your new chart.

I’m ok with using the generic default chart as a starting point but would add you can expand the chart by using the mass modify tool at Cards>>financial>>mass modify. This tool allows you to add different combinations of accounts based on the existing accounts.

(Skip if you don’t want to read a boring explanation)

For example, if you have 4000-000-000, 4001-000-000, 4002-000-000 as your set of accounts you can add 4000-001-000, 4001-001-000, and 4002-001-000 in one step. For three accounts it’s not that big of a deal but if you want to add location 001 or department 012 to all P & L accounts it’s an easy way to expand your chart.

Here’s a picture of how you would do this:

image

(Start reading again if you skipped the above)

One other note is the predefined myGPcloud financial reports use the default chart of accounts. If you want your own chart you will have to create your own financial reports using management reporter (MR). I’ve spent the past little while creating these reports and have come to like MR. Only a few cuss words were said in the process. (OK, maybe more than a few).

Fiscal Periods

This is a silly process in GP. I’m sure this adds some insane options like if you want 366 periods in a year. But come on now. Who in there right mind needs that.

However, you get to select the fiscal period setup according to your needs. Type in the fiscal year and choose tab. It will default to the date field which you would want to make sure is the first day of your fiscal year. Verify the number of periods you want (most often 12). Then push calculate. Your fiscal periods will be created. I’ve seen users change the starting dates for individual periods which you can do if you like. You will need to do this process again at year end or you can create lots of years now and close all the periods so no one posts incorrectly to those periods.

 image

 Multicurrency

Deciding on predefined multicurrency setup has been kind of a pain. Most users starting at this point with myGPcloud will use a US functional currency. But on the off chance there are some Crazy Canucks wanting this system right off we have the option to use MC in the initial setup phase.

You need a functional currency assigned really before anything else. If you don’t choose the MC option in the original provisioning process Z-US$ is set as the default functional currency.

This allows myGPcloud to continue setup for checkbooks, RM, PM etc. You can go in and add multicurrency access as pointed out in the step one documentation.

Miscellaneous

I noticed the company address is not populated by default in the company creation process. I would go to Microsoft Dynamics GP>>tools>>setup>>company>>company and fill this in. Some of your forms use this address. Since the beginning of GP time the address ID usually is something like PRIMARY. Why break the trend.

image

Conclusion

Day one is complete. You’ll find most of this setup is done for you but you should go through and verify it’s how you desire.

I’ll probably go onto step 2 right now as I did the above in way  less than a days worth of work. Or maybe I should tell my boss I already did a days worth of work. It might work as long as she doesn’t read this blog.

Tales from a myGPcloud 14 day journey- Introduction and Provisioning

image.png

I thought it would be both educational and entertaining to personally follow the 14 day/step program myGPcloud offers to both provision and setup Dynamics GP. I’m pretty excited about this offering. As a long time user of Dynamics GP I was a little skeptical about this whole “be ready to use GP in 5 minutes” pitch. After doing it myself I am very impressed and am a believer. “TAKE ME TO THE CLOUD”. I love it.

I’ll make a bold prediction and state myGPcloud is the future of Dynamics GP.

Day 1 of 14

Let’s get this journey started

I started at the home page www.myGPcloud.com.

image After browsing around the website I decided to try the BE offering. I’m cheap and don’t really need the manufacturing or project modules so opt for the $165 per user Business Essentials (BE plus) offering. I like all the modules offered. I really like Integration Manager being available to import master records, history, etc.

image

Next I come to a company information window. The business organization is used as the company name for the Dynamics company. You can change it afterward if you like.

image Opps, forgot to click accept to the end user license agreement. I read the whole thing for some reason and see you have to be 18 years old and can’t use Dynamics GP to keep track of any criminal or illegal activities. I’m on the boarder for both requirements. ha.

After clicking next I see the user setup window. The first user is set as a power user which means they have full access to all windows and functions in Dynamics GP. I like being the power user. I wouldn’t give all users power user access. I won’t tell you how but you can delete all data in around 5 clicks. Scary. I set up my own user and my wife’s “operations manager” account.

image I’m pretty sure this next window is for marketing purposes but it also helps set homepage defaults. If you are using a Mac I think you are charged $25 additional dollars per month as a punishment for your loyalty to Apple. Just kidding, kind of.

image Lastly the summary window. Everything looks good.

image Here’s where I ran into a snafu. The validation email ended up in my spam folder. If you don’t get an email within like 2 mins check your junk and spam folders. The email comes from myGPcloud support or support@mygpcloud.com. If you can’t find the email call 858-794-9401 or after hours at 888-987-1234.

image Nothing happens on the back end until you validate your email. So don’t be sneaky and give a faulty email. You can lie about your age, birth weight etc. but give a valid email and preferably a non hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc. email. I have been told there are more validation requirements for those email types. Click on the validate button in the email you get. 

OK, I have to confess something here. I got an error when I hit validate. I created the company Doug’s Doughnuts but it seems that the single quote (‘) in “Doug’s” threw off the code. I went back and took that out and it worked fine. So don’t put single quotes in your company name. You can always go back and add it after.

After I fixed the above I got two emails from myGPcloud. It was immediate so once again, if you don’t get automatic emails check your junk folders. The first email has the 10 step process that I’m following. Then next has the login credentials for both of my users. Pretty sweet.

You can choose the “Click Here to login” link in the email and it takes you to the login window. My user ID and password work and I get this window.

image

I clicked on the Microsoft Dynamics GP icon and after entering my password I can choose my company.

image

I’m in to my company. And have verified the users are in there as well.

So I have an active, ready to use Dynamics GP system in roughly 10 minutes. If I did it again I could probably cut it to 5 minutes.

On to company setup.

What Does ERP On-demand Mean?

“On-demand” in regards to ERP systems has different meanings.

To me it applies to the acquisition, deployment, setup, and use of the system.  Further, “On-demand” should be seen from the perspective of the end user.

This is how the concept plays out, from the end user’s perspective:

Acquisition

  • I like the product
  • I like the pricing
  • I like the service provider
  • I’ll get it

Deployment

  • I can get access to the system now, right after I decided I wanted it

Setup

  • I can set this up myself
  • I can use pre-defined templates to help me get it done
  • I can get helpful documentation as soon as I need it
  • I can easily get help as soon as I need it

Use

  • As soon as I set it up, I can use it, and other people in my business can use it
  • I can use it here, or I can use it there, and I can use it anywhere

That is “On-demand“!

On the other hand:

  • If the end user has to endure a tired out sales process
  • If the end user does not know the full solution cost upfront
  • If the end user has to wait to get access to the new system
  • If the end user has to wait for someone else to setup the new system
  • If the end user has to wait to use the system

That is not “On-demand”.

Plenty of Power

QuickBooks Online again experienced a loss of power at its data center today, which caused a disruption of service to their customers.

myGPcloud is a new hosting option, launching August 1, 2010.  But we’re powered by RoseASP which has been successfully hosting Dynamics GP since 2000.  So we know that we’ll be able to deliver Dynamics GP to you when you want it, and where you want it.

RoseASP incorporates redundant system components and emergency power sources to help ensure an optimal up-time experience.  In response to QuickBooks Online’s earlier outage, RoseASP specifically outlined the means they use to minimize outages.  And their 11 year history shows that it works.

We’re excited to be offering Dynamics GP on-demand, and know that you can feel confident that your business data is safe, and accessible.