About Steve Chapman

Solutions Consultant at Rose Business Solutions.

Dynamics GP Inventory Items

June 17, 2013 By Steve Chapman Leave a Comment

Dynamics GP allows you to add inventory items to track physical items and non-stock items. Creating an item record for non-stock items is handy because you can:

include an extended description
add pricing schedules
identify specific GL account numbers for transaction processing

If your tracking inventory quantities, you have 5 inventory valuation methods to choose from. You can have different inventory valuation methods in your inventory. It’s not a system-wide setting. These are the methods:

Average Cost
Actual Cost – FIFO
Actual Cost – LIFO
Standard Cost – FIFO
Standard Cost – LIFO

You will want to take advantage of the Inventory Class ID. This makes it easier to group items for reporting, inquiry, and update.

Make sure you mark the items or the Inventory Class to “Maintain History”. Why this is not s default setting, I don’t know:

Here’s a quick video that shows this in action:

If you’re interested in trying out Dynamics GP, you can start a free trial here:

Filed Under: Dynamics GP Tagged With: actual cost, average cost, Dynamics GP, FIFO, inventory, LIFO, standard cost, valuation

5 Reasons ERP Implementations Fail

June 12, 2013 By Steve Chapman Leave a Comment

ERP implementations are big projects. There are a lot of people involved as project resources and as system users. Managing the people is the biggest challenge.

Ziff Davis put together a nice white paper that addresses key reason that cause ERP implementations to fail. Here’s my comments on their points:

Setting unrealistic expectations at the outset – ERP systems are not magic. They take a lot of planning, execution, and training. And in the end, it’s software; pretty complex software. It has to be implemented properly and match your requirements, or it is pretty worthless. It’s hard work and will not be as easy as it looks at the start.

Failure to manage organizational change – My experience is that most users of a new ERP system are not involved in the selection process. Their exposure and perhaps their first knowledge of the system is when user training begins. This is not good. An ERP system affects not only users but other employees, vendors, and customers as well.

Not involving key stakeholders – If you don’t include a good sample of users in the selection process, don’t expect that users will be more than minimally cooperative when you go live with the new system.

Poor project management – You don’t often implement new ERP systems so it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to effectively manage an implementation project. Hire an expert.

Failure to manage business benefits – This is actually the most important point. You need to identify concrete reasons for implementing a new ERP system. The reasons should be the benefits you expect to receive from making the investment. If you can’t identify the benefits, don’t start the project. After the ERP implementation go back and make sure you are realizing the benefits you were expecting. If not, figure out why, and fix it.

You can download the white paper here: top-5-reasons-erp-implementations-fail-and-what-you-can-do-about-it.

Image via: http://www.elogicasolution.com/

Filed Under: Business Management, ERP Implementation Tagged With: ERP implementation

Dynamics GP 2013 PO Prepayments

June 10, 2013 By Steve Chapman Leave a Comment

Dynamics GP 2013 includes new functionality to create prepayments for purchase orders and apply them to specific purchase orders. This will really increase the control you can have over down payments for purchases.

You can create the payments manually or set it up so that the payments can be automatically created in a check run.

Here is a video that shows this new functionality in action:

Filed Under: Dynamics GP Tagged With: Dynamics GP 2013, prepayment, purchase order processing

Cash Flow Statement with Management Reporter

June 5, 2013 By Steve Chapman Leave a Comment

Cash flow statements are tricky to create. There are beginning of the period balances, period activity, and end of the period balances that have to be correctly queried and reported. You also have to make judicious use your chart of accounts to accurately account for transactions that will make cash flow statement reporting easy to do.

Ryan Sandness at Microsoft has created a nice video at the Dynamics Corporate Performance Management blog. He covers the most difficult part of creating a cash flow statement. You still need to make sure that the accounts you use will give you the correct information. Fixed asset purchases and retirements can be problematic.

Ryan keys in on these three important points:

Account modifier in the Row Definition to return beginning balance or year-to-date amounts for the cash accounts rows
Non-Printing rows and columns used for calculations
Advanced cell placement for calculating the beginning cash balance

From a finance point of view, a cash flow statement is crucial. It’s an early warning system for future problems. If you can make it easily come out of your accounting system, that’s fantastic.

Here’s a picture of a cash flow statement from Management Reporter:

Ryan’s full blog post is here.

Image via http://greggkerr.wordpress.com/

Management Reporter is part of the standard Dynamics GP reporting package. You can start a free 30 day trial at myGPcloud. Check it out here:

Filed Under: Business Management, Dynamics GP Tagged With: cash flow, Management Reporter

Dynamics GP 2013 for myGPcloud

June 3, 2013 By Steve Chapman Leave a Comment

Dynamics GP is coming to myGPcloud this Summer. Dynamics GP 2013 includes many enhancements that you may find useful.

Here are some of the enhancements. At the bottom of this post is a video that shows some of this in action:

System

Home Page Changes
General Journal Batch History
Select Printer at time of Print
Ability to Print SSRS Reports from forms
Excel Export Using Open XML
Enhance the AltMod windows with a mark all/unmark all functionality

General Ledger

Journal Entry Inquiry for History
Reconcile Bank Reconciliation
Reconcile Inventory
Year End Close options
Currency Translation Average Exchange Rate calculation

Fixed Assets

Historical Depreciation Reports
Reset History in Detail
Restrict Displaying Reset Transactions
Lock Fixed Assets Year
Process Progress Bars
Mass Depreciation Reversal
Independent Fixed Assets Calendars
Auto generate Next Asset ID
Intercompany Asset Transfer
Fixed Assets Transactions Batches
Post in Detail to General Ledger
Analytical Accounting Integration with Fixed Assets
Documentation Updates for MACRS

Inventory

Item Standard Cost adjustment post to GL
Multi-Serial Number select
Inactivate a Site and Item Site
Reason Codes for stock movements/adjustments
Inactive Item
Bin Transfer History

Receivables Management

Ability to rename the User Defined fields on
the Customer Address
Multi-Currency apply in Cash Entry
Ability to Email RM Statements using Word Templates
Ability to save the default sort order for Customer
(and Vendor) Lookups

Payables Management

Void of Check returns applied credit documents
Vendor’s Credit Card Invoice automatically voided
when credit card payment voided
Settlement Date added for EFT payment
EFT Length and Delimitation Options
PM Reprint Checks and Remittance Forms
Added 1096 Form
Edit Payables Transactions: Remit To Address and 1099 Information

Sales Order Processing

Additional Word Templates for SOP
Print Button on Pick List Shortage Inquiry in Manufacturing
Ship to Address has different Company Name
Relate / Link Items for suggestions on Sales
Consolidated Invoicing
Integrate AA with Copier Series SOP

Purchase Order Processing

Document Attach
Tolerance Handling
Track Serial Numbers for Drop Ship items
Allow prepayments on a PO
Prevent PO close prior to Invoice Match
Integrate AA with Copier Series POP

Here’s the GP Roadmap that will give you a glimpse of where Microsoft is going with GP:

Filed Under: Dynamics GP Tagged With: Dynamics GP 2013, fixed assets, general ledger, payables management, purchase order processing, receivables management, sales order processing

Sunk Costs and Expected Returns

May 28, 2013 By Steve Chapman Leave a Comment

Sunk costs and expected returns are two subjects that come up quite often in business. They’re also two subjects that are frequently analyzed inaccurately.

Sunk costs relate to unrecoverable costs that have been invested in a project. They may have value and may still provide a return. But the mistake that business people can make is to become too emotionally attached to those sunk costs and not accurately consider optional projects for future investment because they think they should take advantage of their previous investment.

Expected returns are sometimes less obvious to analyze because probabilities about future outcomes can be difficult to quantify.

Here’s an example of these two subjects in a test question from a Microsoft Sales Specialist Assessment test:

This question really has just one correct answer. Which do you think it is?

Let’s analyze the possible answers:

Answer A – It is true that Prospect A has a higher probability of closing, but you need to analyze the expected return. You need to consider the dollar value of the sale and the probability of closing.

Answer B – This is the sunk costs issue. The sales person and his manager might be emotionally attached to all the effort they’ve invested in prospect A. But it’s all unrecoverable costs. The only accurate way to evaluate the two opportunities is to consider future costs and forget past costs. The investments of the past mean nothing.

Answer C – This is a pure expected return issue. Which opportunity has the highest expected return? Expected return is simply calculated as (the probability of closing) x (the value of the opportunity).

Answer D – You may have to spend more time to close Prospect A. It doesn’ t matter what you’ve already spent. When comparing this opportunity to the other does it make more sense to invest additional time and money in Prospect A or Prospect B?

The correct answer is C. The expected return of Prospect B is greater than the expected return of Prospect A.

Image via: http://cassreflections.com/tag/sunk-cost/

Filed Under: Business Management Tagged With: expected return, sunk costs

Hire an Expert for ERP Implementation

May 13, 2013 By Steve Chapman Leave a Comment

People are often reluctant to hire an expert. They think they can do it themselves. Often times this makes sense. You can use TurboTax instead of using a CPA for your tax returns. You can hire a contractor to fix some plumbing fiasco in your house or do it yourself. If you do it yourself, for first time home owners, it’s going to take some education and trial and error. But you’ll probably eventually fix the problem.

So there are a lot of things you can do for yourself. An important first decision is to consider two things:

Do you have the time to devote to the task and is it a good use of your time?
Do you have the expertise to complete the task with a reasonable level of success?

To the first concern, is the task really worth your time? You have to consider not only the time you will devote to the task, but also the opportunity cost of pursuing this particular task instead of the myriads of others you have to choose from. If you’re running a business with day to day demands, taking on another task probably doesn’t make sense. You will want to delegate it to others or outsource it.

And now competency. Do you have the ability to accomplish the task? If you don’t have the ability are you willing to invest in acquiring the ability? Some skills are easy to pick up and the downside of failing in the task isn’t that great. Simple HTML coding is a good example. Other skills take a great amount of time to acquire and failing in the task can be very bad. Handling your own defense in a criminal trial is an extreme example (but people do it).

ERP system implementations can be done by the end user organization. People do this with QuickBooks all the time. We even set up an entire product/service offering to provide this for Dynamics GP at www.myGPcloud.com. Check it out. If you choose the do-it-yourself method to set up an ERP system you will certainly experience some trial and error scenarios and you will have to educate yourself about a number of things. But it can be done. We have lots of people who have.

But if you don’t have the time nor the expertise for mid-range ERP system implementations, hire an expert. It will be worth it. An expert knows the software and how people use it. They are familiar with dozens of different business processes other have used the software to enhance.

This is why an expert is worth it:

An expert will make sure that the software is set up to best meet your needs. This ensures that you will receive the most benefit from your investment. That’s why you decided to implement a new ERP system in the first place.
An expert will complete the project in less elapsed time. This means you will start receiving the benefits of your new system earlier. This shortens the time to an ROI.
An expert can train you and your staff on how to use the new system. Not only do they know how the software works they are also good at transferring knowledge to others. It’s part of the job. This means that you and your staff will be able to take advantage of the benefits your new system can deliver.
An expert will also keep your system implementation on track and in scope. This means that the project will actually be completed and you can take advantage of the benefits of your new ERP system.

Hire an expert. If you’re still looking for a new ERP system contact us here:

Image via Open Source ERP Site

Filed Under: Business Management, ERP, ERP Implementation Tagged With: ERP, Implementation

ERP Implementation Success

May 7, 2013 By Steve Chapman Leave a Comment

ERP implementation success is attainable. It’s just not as easy as one might think.

Eric Kimberling, in his post at panorama-consulting.com identifies three key things you can do to help your ERP implementation project succeed:

Clearly define success – It’s pretty normal that when an organization evaluates a project to implement a new ERP system, they don’t specifically identify what it is that they want to accomplish with the project. Incremental changes in functionality and process efficiency just don’t support a new ERP project. You have to be specific about the benefits you plan on receiving from the project. “The business case should be an important mechanism to not only justify the investment in the ERP system but also to define what will constitute ERP success.”

Articulate expected process improvements – A new ERP implementation project must have the commitment of upper management. This commitment must be well communicated to everyone in the organization that will have an interest in the system, will be impacted by it, or be in a position to help ensure the success of the project. “Your people – not the ERP software – will ultimately determine whether or not the process improvements stick…”

Conduct post-implementation audits – This part is almost never done. But it may be among the easiest to do. If you have properly identified specific benefits the project was designed to deliver, the analysis of the actual benefits realized should naturally appear. This step will help you realign components of a new ERP system to meet your previously identified objectives. Variations may be personnel related or system related. You won’t know unless you do this step.

Eric’s full article can be viewed here.

You may also want to down load the white paper available on the post, “Ten Tips for a Successful ERP Implementation”

For more information about ERP systems, check out our Resource Library here.

Filed Under: Business Management Tagged With: ERP system implementation

Dynamics GP Series Post

May 6, 2013 By Steve Chapman Leave a Comment

Dynamics GP Series Post allows you to see all pending batches in each functional area in GP. The functional areas would be Purchasing, Sales, Financial, etc.

Batch posting in Dynamics GP can be a slight mystery for new users. The Series Post options in each area can be helpful to review the statuses of batches within the system.

Here’s a screen shot of the Sales area Series Post Screen:

Here’s a quick video that shows this functionality:

Filed Under: Dynamics GP Tagged With: batch posting, Dynamics GP

About Steve Chapman

Dynamics GP Inventory Items

5 Reasons ERP Implementations Fail

Dynamics GP 2013 PO Prepayments

Cash Flow Statement with Management Reporter

Dynamics GP 2013 for myGPcloud

System

General Ledger

Fixed Assets

Inventory

Receivables Management

Payables Management

Sales Order Processing

Purchase Order Processing

Sunk Costs and Expected Returns

Hire an Expert for ERP Implementation

ERP Implementation Success

Dynamics GP Series Post

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