Micro Force -Velosio Newsletter July 2020 - Dynamics GP, COVID-19 and Working From Home

Greetings!

As we navigate the changing world the Covid-19 virus pandemic has brought about, we hope that you have still had a chance to enjoy the summer! We look forward to continuing to provide you with various offerings and tips to help you and your team get the most from your Microsoft Dynamics GP business software system.

New “Free Software” Offer From Microsoft for All Dynamics GP Customers

A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced a new offer for all Dynamics GP customers. Starting July 1, when a Dynamics GP customer renews their Microsoft annual maintenance plan, they can opt to also get additional software at no additional charge. This additional software is named Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (hereinafter named Business Central) is a robust cloud-based business management solution that would permit your employees secure access from anywhere they are, at any time, and from any web-based device. It is Microsoft’s newest Dynamics offering, which was created from Navision, another Dynamics product like Great Plains that is feature rich due to being on the market for 20+ years. But Microsoft created a new user interface for Business Central that permits seamless integration to their other products such as Office 365. Microsoft Dynamics GP customers can continue to use their system but use enhanced reporting that has been built into Business Central. This reporting includes dashboards that can be created from your GP data, due to synchronization functionality that can be deployed between both systems. Jim McCann or one of our customer service reps who handle licensing will be reaching out to you prior to your renewal to help you understanding the offering and assist you in taking advantage of this promotion. And as noted above, this is being offered as part of your 2020 Microsoft annual renewal fee for your Dynamics GP system. Starting in August, we will begin to offer monthly Lunch N Learn webinars to introduce you to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central program. The first one will be held on Tuesday, August 18th, starting a noon. To register for this presentation, please click here.

Word Integration for Dynamics GP Users

Most Dynamics GP users send data to Excel either from SmartList or Management Reporter on a regular basis. But you may not have used the feature to integrate GP data to Microsoft Word.

There are many business cases that can benefit from this functionality. Here are examples of a few.

Due to the pandemic, we have helped many users pay their vendors electronically versus via computer checks. There is a form letter named EFT Authorization that can be used to send to your vendors to get their banking info as well as authorize this method of payment.

Another typical task is to get updated W-9 forms from your vendors.

You access this from a vendor record by clicking on the Write Letters button in the ribbon. This feature, which is named Letter Writing Assistant, can be used for one vendor at a time or for a group or all your vendors. The examples above are 2 of the 7 “out of the box” form letters for vendors that are included in this functionality, which are listed in the image below.

This functionality is also available for Customers. As the diagram displays below, there are 13 “out of the box” form letters that can be used for one or any group of customers. If you would be interested either in training or assistance to learn how to use this functionality, our support team can be reached at support@micro-force.com.

Learn About the Many Enhanced Reporting Tools for Your Dynamics GP System

Join us for our next Lunch'n'Learn session to learn about some of the reporting options that you have for your Microsoft Dynamics GP business software system. These reporting options will include tools named Excel reports, Power BI and Jet Reporting. Dashboards will also be discussed. This was the same session that we offered in June. But due to technical issues that prevented us from recording the session, we will be offering this free presentation once again on Thursday, July 30th, from noon to 1 pm EST. Please click here to register.

If your AP vendor check remittances appear to have too much info on them, read this article

This is a situation that has been prevalent during the Covid-19 pandemic due to processing electronic payments at the bank. Then subsequently entering a manual payment in your Great Plains system.

As people returned to their offices and began printing checks again versus manually updating payments in your Great Plains system, you may notice additional information on the printed check stub. Namely all of the wire payments that were made to that vendor during the remote working period are now appearing on the first check stub for that vendor. This will take place once for each vendor that was paid manually.

If this is occurring on your system, this was due to a setting in your payable management setup window. This will occur if the "Print Previously Applied Documents on Remittance” is checked. If this option is checked, any computer check printed will show all payments and credit memos applied since the last check was printed for the same vendor. For example, if a check is printed, then a wire transfer is entered and a credit memo is applied for the same vendor, the next check to this vendor will show the apply detail for the wire and the credit memo on the check stub. So you may want to uncheck this setting to prevent this situation from occurring in the future.

Referral Program

Perhaps a relative, friend, one of your vendors or clients that you talk to on a regular basis may be burdened by an inefficient or outdated business software application? Maybe they are not aware of what today's systems can provide? Or maybe they are not realizing the efficiencies of the software that they are using because they are not receiving the needed assistance from their software provider? If you know someone who would possibly like to improve their use of their business software, we would truly appreciate speaking to them.

As we have stated in the past, we can support ALL the Dynamics ERP product lines along with NetSuite. We also can offer expertise for all the leading business intelligence data warehousing reporting systems, namely Microsoft Power BI, Jet Reporting and Solver BI 360.

Our valued customers have proven to be valuable advocates for our services in the past. We want to continue to encourage all of our customers to help us to assist companies that may be ready to make improvements to their business software systems. Please email us at sales@micro-force.com or call Jim at his extension at x302, to pass along contact info. A brief call typically determines if we could possibly be of assistance to them in this effort. In doing so, we will be delighted to send you a small token of our appreciation for thinking of us and making this effort.

For more info about your GP system and business software in general, visit our blog site at https://www.micro-force.com/blog

Thank you once again for choosing Micro Force, we truly value our partnership together and the opportunity to serve your business solution needs! Sincerely, Jim McCann Partner, Senior Sales Analyst and Software Consultant Micro Force, A Velosio Affiliate Phone: (631) 421-1030 x 302 / (212) 777-7029 x 302 Email: jmccann@micro-force.com