launching a product at Convergence! Wow. What a whirlwind of a few days for the entire Microsoft Dynamics GP team! For anyone who wanted to “follow along” with us on the blog while at Convergence, we have to apologize for our lack of regular updates. Trust me when I say it wasn’t because we didn’t have anything to share! The last few days have been jam packed with many sessions, demos, 1:1 and 1:many meetings, press and analyst events, prospect luncheons, Customer & Partner receptions, and much, much more.  And the buzz we are hearing at all of these events around GP 2010 is absolutely phenomenal!

This has easily been one of the most successful Convergence events for Microsoft Dynamics GP in recent memory. While I will not go into all of the details, here are some of my favorite “highlights of the day” from the week…

Day 1 (Sunday):

• Significant coverage of our GP 2010 release in Stephen Elop’s keynote address to around 8 thousand attendees, including a prime-time demo showcasing MANY of the great new features coming in this new version!
• Immediately after the keynote, we held our GP General Session to a very full audience…Errol and team did a great job showcasing GP 2010. And if you love Dogs, I’m sure you loved the session (you had to be there!).

Day 2:

• LOTS of activity at the Expo stations and great attendance for many of the GP sessions.  All Conference long we’ve had Customers, Partners, and Prospects visit our booth asking to see the new features of GP 2010. It is fun to watch people “Oooh” and “Aaaah” when they see some of the great things this release delivers!
• I personally got a chance to sit in on 3 GP sessions on Monday (a rarity that I REALLY enjoyed) and each one was packed with many people standing in each session. Our GP presenters were awesome and deserve a ton of credit for all the hard work they put into these presentations.

Day 3:

• With a shorter Expo schedule today, there were lots of people scrambling to get in those last minute questions, demo requests, and seeking what was left of each booth’s “trinkets and trash!” Even though it is the last day, I still saw full rooms in sessions and interactive discussions…these attendees are SERIOUS about learning all they can about GP before they leave here!

We want to thank all of the Customers, Partners, and Prospects who came to Atlanta for Convergence this year. We realize that for many, the thought of passing on the conference and saving some budget was a very real and possible scenario. THANK YOU for giving up your own time (and your company’s money!) to learn more about what Dynamics GP can do for your business.  We hope it was valuable and that we’ll see you next year when Convergence returns to Atlanta!

AndyW

PS: If you were at the conference, please comment and let us know what you liked or did NOT like so we can make next year’s event even better!

The good news is, a bunch of us got here . . . the bad news is, not everyone can say the same thing.  The weather has been challenging for some.  We hope that everyone makes it in time for the Dynamics Keynote session (8:30 am) and the Dynamics GP General Session tomorrow starting at 11:00 am.  We are really excited to show everyone Dynamics GP 2010 in both sessions.

I’m back stage right now in the keynote room . . . there is so much technology here it looks like we are launching the space shuttle.  Hope to see you all tomorrow!

Errol

As most of you already know, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 hit the important Release to Manufacturing milestone last week, and we announced the release in press and our blog yesterday! With those announcements, we are officially closing out the very successful Feature of the Day posts to focus on launching this great product in the next couple of weeks leading up to General Availability on May 1st. 

The BIGGEST piece of that launch is of course Convergence Atlanta where we will celebrate with THOUSANDS of Microsoft Dynamics GP Customers and Partners and begin the complete unveiling of all things Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010! Through this blog and our Feature of the Day posts we started back in January, you’ve already gotten early insight into almost 70 unique features coming in this huge release.  Well, there are many more features where that came from! Want to learn more? At Convergence, you’ll have access to almost 60 Concurrent Sessions, over 30 Interactive Discussions, and MANY hours to visit with our product experts in the GP Expo area!  We are bringing a very large team with us to Atlanta and we cannot wait to talk about this great release with all of the attendees.

Our team has had a blast the past few months with the different pre-launch activities, from the Partner Road Shows around the globe, to the many Webinars we’ve hosted for Partners and Customers, to reading all of the great comments that came along with our Feature of the Day posts, and much, much more. It is only going to get better once our Customers start deploying Dynamics GP 2010 in mass starting this May!

Thanks for coming along on the ride with us so far…but hang on tight because this ride is FAR from over!

AndyW

New ERP solution helps companies take business insight and connectivity to the next level!

This is the tagline from the announcement that went out this morning at 8 a.m. CDT located here.  Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 released from development on April 15th, and will be Generally Available on May 1st for new customers.

But, What I’d really like to talk about is how proud I am of the entire Dynamics GP team that delivered on this monumental release.  I’ve been involved with this product for almost 23 years and this is the most excited I’ve seen the team, partners, customers and prospects when they see the incredible insight, ease of use and connectivity that is delivered in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010.

The Dynamics GP team would also like to thank our partners and customers for the passion and dedication they’ve shown on evangelizing GP over the years.  We can’t wait to excite you even more at Convergence next week.  I hope to see you all there.

Errol

Analytical Accounting Integration for U.S. Payroll

Module: Payroll, Analytical Accounting

Why this feature is cool!

In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, Analytical Accounting is now integrated with U.S. Payroll! Now you can enter AA dimension codes for posting account distributions along with Payroll data.  You can setup defaults in posting account setup, assign transaction dimension codes in transaction entry to enable the Payroll system to use when you calculate payroll checks.

You now can post U.S. Payroll information in greater detail to the General Ledger and use the Payroll Posting Edit List window to display the GL accounts that will be used during the posting process before printing checks and posting.  This lets you edit distribution accounts and add dimension information prior to posting. 

Posting with Detail and Payroll Posting Edit will be available whether Payroll and Analytical Accounting are integrated or not.

What does it look like?

Transactions > Payroll > Transaction Entry

Transactions > Payroll > Posting Edit List

Electronic Signatures Workflow

Module: Electronic Signatures in GP 10.0, Risk Management Suite in GP 2010

Why this feature is cool!

Electronic Signatures applies preventative controls on changes to fields or windows by requiring an approval by another user. In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, the person who is authorized to sign the electronic signature does NOT have to be a Dynamics GP user! Adding workflow to Electronic Signature will allow any user to approve the change on the Microsoft Dynamics Workflow site whether they have a login to the system or not. 

These Electronic Signature workflows can be set up on virtually any field or window in Dynamics GP, giving you a basic one-step user-defined workflow anywhere in the system!

What does it look like?

When the Signature Entry window opens prompting the user for approval, the Remote option will be selected. A new button on the Remote Sign window will allow the user to Submit the item to workflow. (Navigation to the form is dependent upon the field or window on which Electronic Signature is created.)

Electronic Signature: (Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Setup>>Company>>Electronic Signature>>Signature Setup)

After selecting Submit, the Submit for approval window opens allowing the document to be submitted to workflow.

Once submitted the document will appear on the Microsoft Dynamics Workflow site.

Fiscal Year Tracking in U.S. Payroll

Module: U.S. Payroll

Why this feature is cool!

In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, you can now track Fiscal Year payroll information in addition to calendar year data.  Those companies or organizations that need to see Payroll data aligned with their fiscal year can turn on fiscal year tracking.  In addition, deduction and benefits can be setup to apply maximum limits based on the fiscal year amounts. Users will be able to switch between calendar and fiscal year information in U.S. Payroll inquiry windows.

What does it look like?

Tools > Setup > Payroll > Payroll > Options > Enabled

Tools > Setup > Payroll > Deduction

Inquiry > Payroll > Employee Summary Inquiry

General Ledger Reporting Ledgers

Module: General Ledger

Why this feature is cool!

Reporting Ledgers in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 lets you assign a Journal Entry to a specified reporting ledger.  You can select a reporting ledger for each General Ledger Journal entered with one of three options: Base, Local or IFRS. 

When viewing Inquiry or printing a Trial Balance, you can select one or more reporting ledgers to have a consolidated view of your financial data.  All transactions from sub-modules such as Receivables Management will automatically be assigned to the Base reporting ledger. 

What does it look like?

Tools > Setup > Financials > General Ledger

Transactions > Financial > General

Inquiry > Payroll > Employee Summary Inquiry

Purchase Order Returns Enhancements

Module: Returns Management

Why this feature is cool!

With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, PO Returns enhancements have been added to give more options for returns processes.  First, you will have the option to choose whether you want the returned items to be replaced by the vendor.  Second, you will have the option to determine how the invoice match will be handled. 

If you choose to replace the returned goods, the PO line quantities will be adjusted and the PO line opened if necessary to reflect that you are expecting additional quantity of the item.  If the Purchase Order has been moved to history, a new PO will be created for the vendor, with the item and the replacement quantity.   If you are using Encumbrance Management, when the quantity is set for replacement, the amount will be encumbered. 

If you choose that an invoice is expected, the invoice match process will match the invoice quantity against the received quantity.  The line item will remain open until the entire quantity is invoiced. 

What does it look like?

Transactions > Purchasing > Returns Transaction Entry

Transactions > Purchasing > Edit Purchase Orders

Payables Select Checks Enhancements

Module: Payables Management

Why this feature is cool!

With Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, you will find a number of new options to increase the flexibility and control when building your Payables Check batches! You can restrict payables invoices by a range of Vendor ID’s and their payment priority.  You can also apply multiple filters at the same time when you build your payables check batch.  You also have an option in Payables Setup to exclude all expired discounts from payments when you are restricting by due date/discount date.

Enter the selection you want to make and insert it into the selection window, and the system will apply all the filters entered in the order entered against the outstanding payables invoices. 

For example:

• Vendor ID and Vendor Name
• Class ID and Payment Priority
• Voucher Number and Document Number

Transactions > Purchasing >Select Checks

With multiple restrictions entered:

U.S. Payroll Re-Print Checks/Earnings Statements

Module: Payroll

Why this feature is cool!

In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, you can now re-print a pay stub or earnings statement at any time. In U.S. Payroll Check Inquiry, when you view the checks for an employee, there is a new checkbox that will let you print a duplicate report for the employee. You can mark one or more checks to print.

What does it look like?

Inquiry > Payroll > Check History

Reprint Pay Statement

The E-Learning for What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 is live!  What’s New is available in the Element K Catalog for partners and customers on a service plan.

Pam

Hello everyone,                                            

It’s here!  The new Management Reporter web seminars! 

The Management Reporter Overview web seminar includes demos of the business benefits and key features. 

The What’s New in Management Reporter web seminar provides demos of the exciting new capabilities and features including migration of existing FRx building blocks .

The Management Reporter Installation web seminar reviews system requirements, installation procedures and configuration.

The Management Reporter Landing Page has links to these training and more collateral, please add this as a favorite and keep checking for more information.

Thanks,

Pam Misialek

Benefit Self Service – Benefit Confirmation Statement

Module: Benefit Self Service

Why this feature is cool!

In Business Portal – Benefit Self Service, an employee can view and print a report showing the status of their enrollment selections. 

You can see which processes have or have not been completed regarding a benefit enrollment using the following reports.

• Benefits Confirmation Statement
• Benefits Selected Statement
• Benefits Not Yet Selected Statement

What does it look like?

Business Portal > Human Resources Center > Benefit Self Service Center Pages > Benefits Summary

Benefit Self Service – Benefit Enrollment Summary

Module: Benefit Self Service

Why this feature is cool!

Benefit Enrollment Summary will give managers the information they need to see and print which processes have or have not been completed regarding a benefit enrollment.  You can see summary metrics with totals for annual and employee enrollments.

You also can print enrollment metrics:

· Employees who have not made a benefit selection for an Annual Enrollment or Employee Enrollment Period

· Employees who have made benefit selections, but not submitted final for an Annual Enrollment or Employee Enrollment Period

· Employees who have submitted final benefit selections, which have not been posted for an Annual Enrollment or Employee Enrollment Period

What does it look like?

Business Portal > Human Resources Center > Benefit Self Service Center Pages > Benefit Enrollment Summary

Receivables Electronic Funds Transfer Enhancements

Module: Receivables Management, Electronic Banking

Why this feature is cool!

In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, we have integrated Receivables Management with the user defined EFT file format functionality so customers can match the files they transmit for electronic receipts to their specific bank requirements (if an out of the box format isn’t supported by your bank). Now, users can process electronic receipts more efficiently.

· If Use EFT Numbers is selected, the EFT number will default as the check number in Cash Receipts

· Select a file format for all EFT payments or base the file format on the file transfer method set on the customer record

· Start with defined formats and modify the formats based on bank specific needs   

· Create a user-defined format from scratch, if needed.

· Apply bank specific options, such as adding pad blocks or creating an auto-settlement line for each payment

· Combine multiple EFT cash receipt batches into a single EFT file for transmittal

What does it look like?

Cards > Financials > Checkbook > EFT Bank > Receivables Options

Transactions > Sales > Cash Receipts

Transactions > Sales > Generate EFT File

If you are a Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner, there is a really good chance you have likely converted at least one former Peachtree by Sage customer to Microsoft Dynamics GP.  And if you’ve been paying attention to the resources Microsoft makes available, hopefully you have even used some of the great collateral we have posted up to www.asmartmove.com to help out during the sales cycle (all of which you can download for yourself on PartnerSource here). Well, today I am VERY excited to announce we have a brand new tool in our arsenal for helping to move Peachtree customers to Microsoft Dynamics GP!

I’d like to introduce the 2.0 release of the Rapid Implementation Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0! With this new release, Partners can now leverage the Rapid Migration Tool to quickly and efficiently migrate not only Intuit QuickBooks customers, but also Peachtree by Sage! Every year we have many customers who come to Microsoft Dynamics GP after outgrowing one of these two solutions, and we now have ONE tool to help quickly convert both of them! We’ve even had a couple of Feature of the Day posts about this release to give you a sneak peak at the tool (here and here).

You can download the new release on the Microsoft Download center, but be sure to check out the new on-demand Partner readiness webinar we created to help educate Partners about the great new features and benefits of using the Rapid Implementation Tools for your next customer deployment.  There are live product demonstrations in the webinar, and tips for how you can use the Rapid Tools for ANY customer implementation (regardless if they are moving from Peachtree or QuickBooks).  You can also download the presentation from this webinar here.

I firmly believe that tools like these can help our Partners differentiate themselves in the market, deliver effective and repeatable implementations, and allow you to deliver a higher value deployment to your customers. Check it out today and let us know what you think!

AndyW

Payroll Multi Build

Module: Payroll

Why this feature is cool!

In many companies, there can be multiple users who have responsibility for processing Payroll. In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, we have added multiple user functionality by merging the core code of the Payroll Multi Build support tool. 

Now, more than one user can be building a payroll and calculating the paycheck information and the application will keep it in order.  The maximum calculation wait time and retry interval will automatically queue the next payroll calculate process when the previous run calculation has completed. 

What does it look like?

Multiuser Payroll Setup (Setup > Payroll > Payroll > Multi user)

Personnel Maintenance Workflow

Module: Payroll

Why this feature is cool!

In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, a Personnel Maintenance workflow is available which helps a business institute controls around employee data.  The workflow submit process has been added to Payroll Personnel Maintenance.  You can configure the employee record to require workflow for sensitive employee data.  

Now, for example, if an employee’s supervisor is changed, a workflow event is triggered and the change will be routed through the Personnel Maintenance workflow.

• Onboard tasks are displayed in Microsoft Dynamics GP, Outlook and SharePoint.
• The edited employee can be routed to one or more people for approval or to complete an actionable task.
• The conditions in which an edited employee can be routed can be specific to each business. 
• If users are out of office, their approval tasks can be automatically routed to another user to act on their behalf.
• The workflow history of an edited employee is consolidated and easily visible within Dynamics GP or SharePoint.
• When an edited employee is approved, the person submitting the edited employee (an originator) will receive a notification that the employee has been approved.
• If a user does not take action on their task, there are various options for escalating the edited employee for approval.

What does it look like?

Employee Maintenance window (Cards > Payroll > Employee)

Employee Onboard Workflow

Modules: Human Resources & Payroll

Why this feature is cool!

When an employee is added to Payroll, there are a lot of setup steps and many departments involved.  There are tasks within Human Resources and Payroll, from pay codes to benefits as well as tasks outside of HRP such as building security, ordering a computer or scheduling new employee training. 

In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, an Employee Onboard workflow has been added which can be configured to leverage the step workflow functionality to notify all departments about the new employee.  The workflow submit process has been added to both Payroll Personnel Maintenance and to the Human Resource Applicant Hire window. 

• Onboard tasks are displayed in Microsoft Dynamics GP, Outlook and SharePoint.
• The Onboarded employee can be routed to one or more people for approval or to complete an actionable task.
• The conditions in which an Onboarded employee can be routed can be specific to each business. 
• If users are out of office, their approval tasks can be automatically routed to another user to act on their behalf.
• The workflow history of an Onboarded employee is consolidated and easily visible within Microsoft Dynamics GP or SharePoint.
• When an employee is approved, the person submitting the Onboarded employee (an originator) will receive a notification that the employee has been approved.
• If a user does not take action on their task, there are various options for escalating the Onboarded employee for approval.

Workflow List in SharePoint:

Cards > Human Resources > Applicant > Hire (Submit for Approval button)

Cards > Payroll > Employee (Submit for Approval button)