With the weather getting a little colder, we all know the Holidays are fast approaching.  It is around the Holidays that many, like myself, begin to travel to see loved ones.  This year in particular, I have a lot of travel lined up.  This got me thinking about how popular Dynamics is around the world.  So with that said, here are some quick facts about Dynamics GP's worldwide popularity …

• Dynamics is most popular in North America, the Middle East, Singapore, UK, Australia & Ireland.
• Dynamics GP, originally called Great Plains, was developed in Fargo, North Dakota by Great Plain Software.
• There are currently over 300 000 Dynamics customers around the world, spanning 41 languages

Adam MacIntosh is the Senior Project Manager with WebSan Solutions Inc., a professional services consulting firm specializing in helping companies get the most out of their ERP systems. You can contact Adam at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at 416-499-1235 ext. 213.

New on the Dynamics GP2010 home screen is the "Connect" window. This widget dynamically populates with Microsoft Dynamics GP support information, user groups and links to general information.

One thing we noticed is with any of our test companies we always saw this error:

Well it turns out this is caused by special characters in the company name.

As many of you know, when you put the tag "<TEST>" into the company name you get a nice warning on login that this is a a test company. See this blog for details...

Unfortunately, the angle brackets cause the URL to the Dynamics Connect site to get malformed.

We had an interesting support call the other day. One of our Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 customers was having sporadic issues with adding users to Business Portal. When trying to add new users and assign MBF roles, occasionally the wizard would not show any domains in the Windows domain drop down. Other times it would show the wrong domain(s) – this client has a number of trees in their forest, and sometimes it would work fine.

Our support team was perplexed, so we did some investigation to determine how Business Portal interacts with the Windows domain -  the answer was Component Services.

Business Portal uses the “Microsoft.BusinessFramework.Identity” component to interface to AD and thus retrieve the domains and users. By setting the Identity on this component to a specific domain service account you can ensure it retrieves the proper AD info.

From the control panel on the Business Portal server, go to Administrative tools -> Component services.

Then expand Component Services -> Computers -> My Computer -> COM+ Applications and look for the Microsoft.BusinessFramework.Identity component.

If you're a business owner and frequent user of Dynamics GP, you might think, "I have a lot of data in my Dynamics GP system. I need to analyze my data, extract a new knowledge from it and make decisions based on this analysis. I want to see  the KPI of my business in real time mode to drive my business better. I want to have a tool which will help me see hidden trends in my business and industry...". If you already have these thoughts, there's good news - the Business Intelligence technologies (BI) will help you.

Basically, you need to have three things:

1. The data warehouse. It is a special data base which has a star-schema data model (info cubes). Also, this database is in read-only mode for users and it is optimized for reporting and multidimensional analysis.
2. Extraction, loading and transformation  process (ELT) which loads your data from OLTP system like Dynamics GP to your data warehouse. Generally speaking this ELT process "cleans", transforms and loads your daily operation data from Dynamics GP into your data warehouse.
3. Tools to create analytical reports and KPIs based on data from your data warehouse.

There are alot of BI tools which can help you to create a whole process of these 1-2-3 steps. However, if you have ERP based on MS SQL Server (i.e. Dynamics GP - you have a simple way of studying the system and pretty powerful BI tool right out from the box! It is SQL Server Reporting Service (SSRS) which actually is the part of MS SQL Server installation.

So, let's see what SSRS can provide you:

• Simple access to your Dynamics GP database and use it as a data warehouse, you just need to write a bunch of SQL-statements and SSRS will transform on the fly the results of these queries to BI reports
• Loading and analyzing data from MS Analysis Services which is more powerful solution to build data warehouse from Microsoft
• Special tool for building in drag-n-drop mode you BI reports - Report Builder 2.0 It is free and can be downloaded from Microsoft site
• Creating beautiful graphic dash-boards with KPI's in Report Builder 2.0
• Different filters for your BI reports
• Access to your reports, dash-boards and KPIs via Web, you can see all your BI stuff just in your internet browser
• Generating your BI reports in off-line mode and sending them via e-mail on a schedule. (Do you want to see some daily reports every morning in your inbox? No problem, SSRS will do it for you. Just create your reports in Report Builder, then publish and schedule them)
• Integration with your MS Share Point portal, yes you will be able to build reports and analyze data right in your portal
• Built in export of reports to Word, Excel, PDF and TIFF-format

MS SQL Server Reporting is very simple for installation and studying. You could get BI tool and start analyze your data in Dynamics GP in two or three days. Simple, powerful and ready for use right out from the box.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 was recently released earlier than expected on April 27^th with rave reviews since the product launch.

The updated GP 2010 R2 expands upon the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 solution with key themes of Enhancing Insight, Making It Easier and Extending Connections.

Overall highlights of GP 2010 R2 include:

• Industry leading business intelligence with enhancements to SQL Reports, Word Templates, and Email
• Release of Business Analyzer – a tool that helps enhance business decisions by viewing Dynamic GP reports and extends the reach of ERP to everyone within the organization
• Additional 50 features added to overall platform to build on advancement and use

Let us show you how we can help your organization implement the right Dynamics GP solution.

The Setup Checklist in Microsoft Dynamics GP is a great little tool to guide you in the configuration of a new client on the system because it provides a systematic and efficient list of tasks for a complete deployment. I found the tool to be excellent in ensuring the proper setup tasks were completed in the right order because many latter and complex tasks such as in modules such as Sales and Project are dependent on initial setup such as GL account creation and Currencies to be finished first.

When opening up the checklist using the path Microsoft Dynamics GP -> Tools -> Setup -> Setup Checklist, you will find a nifty Setup Guide that pops up right beside the Checklist. I found this to be very helpful in the explanation of the task at hand and how to find more information in the related links below the task description. Here is the Guide that appears when configuring System Security:

As you can see, after the brief task description follows a list of more information that the user can click to further learn about the task and its relationship and effect on various other functions. Since System Security is related to users directly, you would find links for personal security and security roles in links. I noted in my first entry that the Help menu does a superb job of providing necessary information when stuck on a task and it continues to be as I am continuing with my configuration duties.

One complaint that I do have so far is the inability to maximize every single setup window when doing configuration. Usually the first window in a path can be easily maximized (i.e. Account Maintenance) but say if you wanted to Lookup the accounts, the results list must be manually enlarged instead of using the window maximize button. Although a small complaint, I believe that one-click window maximization should be found on every drilldown window in the system for added convenience.

My next issue will cover the concept and handiness of Smartlists and how they can help you with your production in Dynamics GP. I will be sure to provide an example of a custom one and the type of data that can be derived from it.

As promised from my last entry, I will be discussing SmartList functionality this time – how to use them to your advantage and how to build/modify your own.

SmartList in a nutshell is a powerful means of accessing your Dynamics GP data in simple to read form for reporting and analysis. They can be found right in the Microsoft Dynamics GP dropdown menu. There are predefined SmartLists for all modules, which means there is one for everybody. Examples of a few that come with the system are PA Cost Categories found in the Project Accounting folder and Open Purchase Orders, which is located in the Purchasing folder. Using a SmartList is as simple as clicking on the SmartList icon in the desired module. After the data is generated, you could then export to Excel for further data manipulation. There is also an option to export to Word if required.

If the standard SmartLists do not satisfy all of your analysis purposes, there is an add-on tool called SmartList Builder that allows you to customize the standard SmartLists as well as create your own to query a customized set of information. If available, the tool can be found in Micrsoft Dynamics GP-> Tools-> SmartList Builder->SmartList Builder. SmartList Builder allows you to link up to 32 tables in the system and configure your own column headings to suit your reporting needs. I will go through the steps of creating a new SmartList for my own purposes: Contract ID with Project ID and Project Name. To begin, name your SmartList and choose the Product that the data will come from. Project details are found in Project Accounting so that was the product I selected.

To start adding tables, simply click on the “+” symbol on the left panel and select “Microsoft Dynamics GP Table”. From there, you can choose and/or link up to 32 tables of your choosing to incorporate your desired set of data. There will be some research to be done in order to link the right combination of tables for your own purposes. The information I need is found in the PA Contract Master File and PA Project Master Files so I need to first add the PA Contract table and then link the Project Master table based on a common field (Contract ID):

I can then select the fields I require to be displayed in my dataset:

When making payments in GP 2010, users will be given additional restriction possibilities in Select Checks window.  New restrictions can be place on the following fields:

• Vendor IDs
• Vendor names
• Class IDs
• payment priorities
• voucher numbers
• document numbers
• due date\discount date cutoffs
• document currency

Adam MacIntosh is the Senior Implementation Lead with WebSan Solutions Inc., a professional services consulting firm specializing in helping companies get the most out of their ERP systems and Supply Chains. You can contact Adam at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at 416-499-1235 ext. 213.

As the newest member to the Dynamics GP Consulting practice at WebSan, it is my responsibility as a junior analyst to learn how the system works through Microsoft E-Learning and actual hands-on practice in QA environments. My goal with my blog entries is to take you through my learning process with the system. It is my intention to provide any new users or potential future users of the system an objective view of how I perceive and adapt to Dynamics GP.

Coming from a systems background with experience in ERP and warehouse management systems, the first thing that came to mind when interacting with Dynamics GP initially was how easy it was on the eyes. This is an attribute that many software developers neglect because they fail to think like a user. I personally believe that more appealing GUI’s are successful than their bland counterparts in the efficiency department. Nobody likes monochrome work environments.

I’ve also found the navigation to be very intuitive. I have been able to get where I need to go in my basic training exercises in usage and configuration. The help menu has been doing a great job covering any questions I had. Any challenging issues I have definitely had to inquire a senior analyst. Although the software has an accounting backbone and I don’t come from an accounting background, I did not have much difficulty accomplishing basic tasks such as setting up GL accounts or running reports.

I am currently working through the configuration of a new WebSan client on Dynamics GP. My next blog entry will describe my experience with it, including any challenges and lessons learned. Stay tuned!

Steven Lu
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
416-499-1235 x.209