Directions and User Group Summit 2018 Takeaways
Over the last three weeks, I have spent two of those weeks attending two major conferences in the Microsoft Dynamics Channel.
First up was Directions North America in San Diego. Directions NA is a partner-driven event which was historically the go-to conference for Microsoft Dynamics NAV Partners but now has morphed into the Microsoft Dynamics Partner event serving the SMB market.
This year Directions NA had its largest ever attendance of nearly 900 attendees and we were excited to be part of that and return for our second year in a row.
For me personally, it was an honor to be selected to be part of three (3) different sessions. The first session I delivered was on Leveraging Microsoft to reduce your sales cycle with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Next up was a panel session with Errol Schoenfish Director Product Marketing of Microsoft where we discussed how to add a Microsoft Dynamics 365 practice to your on-premise practice. This was an enjoyable session where I could share with other Microsoft Dynamics Partners our journey of taking our successful Microsoft Dynamics GP practice and add a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central cloud practice.
My final session of the Directions NA event was another panel session where I shared my experiences as a VAR (Value Added Reseller) with other panelists George Brown, Jonathan Cooper and Peter Zenter about AppSource on how to utilize it from a pricing, recurring revenue, and service offering strategies standpoint.
When I wasn’t busy with my sessions I spent my time learning about all the new features, functions and announcements around Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. And when there were no sessions happening and the expo was open I spent my time identifying new ISV’s that would be beneficial to our clients and future clients around Dynamics 365 BC.
After Directions NA I came home only to unpack, throw my clothes in the washer, catch up on work, pack a bag, then turn around and head back out the door for Phoenix to attend the User Group Summit Conference.
The User Group Summit conference is an end user focused event which covers multiple Microsoft Dynamics products including Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations (AX), NAV/Dynamics 365 BC, Dynamics Sales (CRM), GP, as well as PowerBI. This year saw over 6,000 end users and partners in attendance at the Phoenix Conference Center. That conference center is huge!
Prior to the User Group Summit kicking off the Partners got together for the Partner Exchange event which I was part of because of my role within the CMA (Channel Marketing Alliance).
To top it off it was an honor to be able to award the first Brooke Webb Smith Memorial Award at the Volunteer Award Ceremony on Sunday and be part of helping to raise money for #PenniesforTaylor.
Wow, and my brain is full of all the new things I learned.
What does this mean to you, our customer?
Well, I and the rest of BCS (Bond Consulting Services) team learned TONS and we are ready to share!
Here are some of the highlights:
- We got to see and learn about the new features and functions available. So, we are ready to help you take the next steps to take advantage of them by helping you upgrade.
- We dived into how Intelligent Insights is going to provide an additional cloud value to Microsoft Dynamics GP on-premise customers. Call us and we can set up a demo to show you.
Microsoft Dynamics GP
- Two ISV’s we felt would be very beneficial and would be a lot of value to our clients are ActivReporter and SanaCommerce
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
- Chargelogic, Pacejet, and NAV Payroll were three ISV’s that we will be recommending to our D365 BC Customers or Prospects
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales
- From a Marketing Automation solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, we found a great add-on with Emfluence
As you see it’s been a busy three weeks for myself and the BCS team, but we are ready to share with you now, so call us or contact us on our website to setup time to learn more.
Lastly look out for more blogs where we go deeper on products, features, and functions.
Thanks for reading
David
David Gersten
Vice President, Sales & Marketing
dgersten@lime-falcon-860444.hostingersite.com
Adding a new user in Management Reporter
*** A user must be set up as an Administrator to add new users in Management Reporter ***
Startup Management Reporter Report Designer from within the All Programs list.
Management Reporter - Add New User Within Management Reporter, click on the drop-down menu next to the ‘New’ button and then click the User option.
Within the New User window that appears, click on the Search button and type in the new user’s name within the section that reads “Enter the object names to select (examples):”
For our purposes, type in ‘Administrator’ in the Select Users window and click the OK button.
Within the Management Reporter assigned role section, select the appropriate role for your user. There are four user roles available, they are as follows:
- Viewer—Views reports published to the Reports Library
- Generator—Generates and exports reports
- Designer—Creates building blocks (rows, columns, trees and report definitions), as well as, generates and views reports
- Administrator—Completes all activities in Management Reporter, including user administration
In this example, we will select ‘Administrator’ from the drop-down menu.
If the user you are setting up is not an Administrator, you will need to select the company databases that they can access.
Click the OK button at the bottom-right side to complete the setup.
Bond Consulting Services is a national consulting firm that empowers organizations across the United States to thrive in a digitally transformed world. We operate out of Long Beach, California, where our expert team assists clients with their ERP and CRM needs.
Visit us at www.BondConsultingServices.com or just pick up the phone and call 562.988.3451.
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How-To Create a Personal View in Dynamics 365 Sales
Views are an essential component of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales. Every entity that displays information has its own set of views whether they are out of the box views or views that have been created by a system administrator for their users to use. Each one of these views presents a different way to view information within an entity. For example, the Contacts entity has views such as; Active Contacts, All Contacts, My Active Contacts, etc. Each one of these views presents filtered down information for the user to view. A feature that is useful for users is the ability to create their own view in order to be able to view information needed for a particular task a user may need to execute whether on a regular basis or sporadically.
To create a personal view:
Click on the Advanced Find icon located on the Navigation Bar. This will prompt another window where you will begin by taking a look at the “Look for” drop-down.
There, you will select the Entity that has the information you are looking to access and filter down. It is important to note that you may not access information for your view across more than one entity as the Views are simply a way to filter information within a single entity.
After the Entity is selected within the “Look for” drop-down, you may then begin to filter down as needed within the “Select” icon located right below the “Look for” drop-down. You may filter down the search based on the different fields that exist within the entity and may also refine those fields as well to particular values within the filter as well. A “Group AND” and a “Group OR” function exist where you may group different fields together as needed to more accurately display the information that you would like to see.
Once the filters have been finalized, you may then click the “Edit Columns”. Within the Edit Columns, you are given the ability to choose what fields you would like to see for this view. You are given the ability to add columns, remove columns, change the properties of a column, and rearrange the columns as well. Clicking on an existing column will give you the ability to move it, delete it, or change its properties.
After all the columns have been edited and fit to what you are looking for, then you may click “Ok” to finish editing the columns.
To verify that the view will display the correct information, you may click the “Results” icon to see if any changes need to be made to the filters or columns. If the information displayed is correct after seeing the results, you may click the Advanced Find tab and then click the “Save” icon.
Then, another window will prompt you to name the view and provide a description, which is not necessary.
Once that is completed, click “Save”.
Lastly, you may go to the entity where you created a personal view under and when you click on the drop-down next to the name of the current view, you will be able to find the newly created personal view. If you would like to pin this view so it becomes the default view for that entity, then you may click on that little pin icon located to the left of the view.
A view presents a method of viewing information that is filtered down. The creation of personal views is a useful way of having the ability to create a view that pertains to what you as a user are looking for. It is important to note that these personal views may only be viewed by the user who created them. No other user can access these personal views. The only way for another user to view the view created by another user is to have that user share the view to them otherwise a personal view may only be viewed by the user who created it.
Note: This is the Advanced Find tool where you may filter down the results based on the fields you would like to have for your new personal view
Note: When clicking on the Views drop-down within the entity where you created your view, the new View will appear under My Views.
Clicking the pin will make this personal view the default view the next time you access the entity.
Bond Consulting Services is a national consulting firm that empowers organizations across the United States to thrive in a digitally transformed world. We operate out of Long Beach, California, where our expert team assists clients with their ERP and CRM needs.
Visit us at www.BondConsultingServices.com or just pick up the phone and call 562.988.3451.
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Selecting a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Partner? Free 2-Hour Assessment
When companies embark on replacing their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software, the emphasis (quite naturally) tends to be on the software selection process. That process can be arduous, time-consuming, even confusing. So by the time you’ve made your choice, you (quite naturally again) just want to move forward as quickly as possible.
But hold on! You’re not quite ready to dive into the implementation of your new software. Because you’ve overlooked another selection process that’s equally important:
The Partner Selection Process.
And while you can go out on the Internet and find hundreds of articles about the ins and outs of selecting the right software for your business, there’s a glaring absence of material available to guide you through the process of finding the right partner. Perhaps that’s because finding the right partner is so subjective, and often boils down to “chemistry.”
But let’s not trivialize the importance of chemistry, because you and the partner you choose are about to enter into a long-term relationship.
One important criterion for choosing a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central partner is an experience. While experience is of the utmost importance when choosing a partner to work with on any ERP software implementation, when it comes to Dynamics 365 experience is critical. This is because Dynamics 365 was launched less than 2 years ago. So it’s relatively new, for you and for any partner you might choose.
Some Microsoft partners, like Bond Consulting Services (BCS), embraced Dynamics 365 immediately and has already built a strong practice around Dynamics 365 Business Central. Other partners sat on the sidelines for a while to see how the new solution played out. Those partners are now scrambling to establish a practice, recruit and hire, and garner experience.
BCS is in an ideal position to be your Dynamics 365 partner and help you choose the modules you need to take your business to the next level:
- Dynamics 365 for Sales
- Dynamics 365 for Marketing
- Dynamics 365 for Customer Service
- Dynamics 365 for Field Service
- Dynamics 365 for Retail
- Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation
The very best way to figure it all out and to get to know us is by taking advantage of our free 2-hour assessment. So let’s get started!
Visit us at www.BondConsultingServices.com or just pick up the phone and call 562.988.3451.
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Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 | Watch for It on October 1st
Microsoft Dynamics GP customers will delight in the knowledge that the newest release is scheduled for October 1st. But before we tell you about all of the cool new features, we want to show you the official Microsoft roadmap for Dynamics GP. If you’ve been worried about the life of GP, this should boost your confidence:
Now, let’s look at the new features and functionality you can expect to see in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 on October 1st. They come in 4 flavors.
- Enhancements to Core Financials (These are our top 3 picks but there are many more.):
- Transaction level posting to the General Ledger (GL)
- The ability not to display inactive checkbooks in Lookups
- The ability not to allow duplicate check numbers for Bank Transaction Entry
- Enhancements to Purchasing (Again, these are just our top 3 picks.)
- The ability to allow partial purchase on a purchase requisition from a Purchase Order (PO)
- Display the Vendor Hold Status
- The ability to email PO Other Template from PO Entry
- Sales Optimization Enhancements (Just our top 3 picks)
- New Sales Transaction Workflow
- New SmartList for Deposits on Unposted Sales Transactions
- New sort options on SOP Item Inquiry
- Top Requested Features (These are features that users have requested from Microsoft)
- The maximum password length has been increased to 21 characters
- New password expiration notification
- SmartList Designer Favorites can now be displayed in the Nav List
With all of these features coming your way on October 1st, now would be a great time to think about upgrading to GP 2018. The benefits are many. Think about the increased in productivity and the features that will make your day-to-day life and work so much easier.
Bond Consulting Services (BCS) has a team of experts to help you implement, manage, extend, and support your Microsoft Dynamics GP software. Over the course of the last 17 years, we have helped hundreds of small and medium-sized companies get the most out of Microsoft Dynamics GP.
We’d like to help you, too.
Visit us at www.BondConsultingServices.com or just pick up the phone and call 562.988.3451.
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Yes! A Fixed-Fee Upgrade for Microsoft Dynamics GP Is Now Available
There’s nothing more perilous than runaway costs! Nothing more frustrating than watching your budget crash and burn! Scope creep can be public enemy number 1!
Sadly, because of these dangers, the approach many Microsoft Dynamics GP clients take is often “delay, delay, delay.” This causes clients to be stuck on older versions of Dynamics GP far longer than is healthy for their business. This also means that GP users are missing out on all of the rich features and functionality that become available with every new release.
Over our more than 100 years of combined business software experience, the Dynamics GP team at Bond Consulting Services (BCS) has seen this happen far too frequently. That’s why we decided to do something about it. Instead of watching our clients languish on outdated software, we’ve made it feasible and economical for them to upgrade on a reasonable cadence.
With our Dynamics GP Fixed-Fee Upgrade, you keep getting the most out of your software investment.
We’ve established one low price for every upgrade: $7,500.
What does that include?
Here’s the scope:
Modules included are: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Sales Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing, and Inventory.
Also included are:
- Up to 2 Versions – Limited to no more than a two-version upgrade (i.e. 2013 upgrade to 2015)
- 2 basic/executable third-party, ISV applications
- up to 2 GP databases
- 1 SQL Server and 1 Terminal Server upgrade
Certain terms, conditions, and assumptions apply. Read the details: Dynamics GP Fixed-Fee Upgrade
If you think our Microsoft Dynamics GP Fixed-Fee Upgrades are the best thing since sliced bread, you might also like to read about our Fixed-Fee Unlimited Dynamics GP Support Plan. It’s all part of the effort we make at BCS to better serve our clients.
Forward Thinking
Fixed-fee upgrades and unlimited support are just the beginning. BCS is constantly exploring new ways for our clients to benefit not just from their GP software, but from the trends that are transforming business around the world.
For more information, visit us at www.BondConsultingServices.com, complete this contact us form or just pick up the phone and call 562.988.3451.
How-To Make a Dimension Required in Business Central
Dimensions in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central are different analysis categories that allow users to track and analyze transactions. A common request with dimensions is the need to make these required in any transaction. To make a dimension required, you would have to set the dimension within the G/L account card.
Please find the steps below:
Search for the Chart of Accounts window and select the highlighted option below.
NOTE: In our example, we will make the dimension “STORE” mandatory for our Income accounts.
Select the account(s) that you will be assigning a dimension code.
If assigning to multiple accounts use the “Select More” option to mark the necessary accounts.
Go to Navigate > Dimensions
Select Dimensions-Single if you are only assigning a dimension setting to one GL account
Select Dimensions-Multiple to assign the same dimension settings to multiple GL accounts.
In the Default Dimensions window, click on New to set up the dimension requirement.
Select the Dimension Code that you want to make required for these accounts.
Leave Dimensions Value Code blank and set the Value Posting field to “Code Mandatory”.
Click “OK” to save the change.
Once this change is saved, all sales transactions will need the dimension code “STORE” to be populated in order to post. If the dimension is missing, they will receive the following message.
Bond Consulting Services is a national consulting firm that empowers organizations across the United States to thrive in a digitally transformed world. We operate out of Long Beach, California, where our expert team assists clients with their ERP and CRM needs.
Visit us at www.BondConsultingServices.com or just pick up the phone and call 562.988.3451.
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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central | Edit in Excel
How-To Edit Business Central Data in Excel
Since Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite1, there are many great features included with the Office products. One of these features is the Edit in Excel functionality. Edit in Excel allows users to export data from Business Central into Excel to either mass update or analyze transactional data.
For example, if you need to update the payment terms for several customers you can use the steps below:
Open the Customers window.
Select “Edit in Excel” under the Home Tab.
Open the downloaded Excel sheet “Customer Card”.
Click on Enable Editing within the Excel sheet.
Authenticate with your Office 365 login.
The data will be retrieved and your customer list will be populated.
Here you can go ahead and find the field that you would like to update and make your change.
Ex: We are changing all the customer payment terms to “30 DAYS”
Once you are done making your changes, click on the “Publish” option in the Microsoft Dynamics Office Add-in window.
The system will retrieve the changes and write back to the Business Central. Once completed, you should receive the message below.
You can then close the Excel workbook and confirm that the changes have been made within Business Central.
Bond Consulting Services is a national consulting firm that empowers organizations across the United States to thrive in a digitally transformed world. We operate out of Long Beach, California, where our expert team assists clients with their ERP and CRM needs.
Visit us at www.BondConsultingServices.com or just pick up the phone and call 562.988.3451.
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1 Disclaimers:
This functionality is only available in Microsoft Office365 for Windows
How-To Reverse a Purchase Order in Business Central
Use the PO Returns procedure to return inventory shipments from vendors or to back out shipments that were incorrectly received with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.
**Note: For the steps below to work, the inventory quantities received must remain available and not used in another transaction.
Go to the Purchase Orders window
Open the Purchase Order with the incorrect receipt.
Select Navigate > Receipts
Open the Receipt that is incorrect or needs to be reversed.
Select Functions > Undo Receipt and click Yes to confirm the receipt undo.
The system will process the reversal and add a line to the shipment to back out the original amount.
Close the Posted Purchase Receipt window
Now you can go back to the purchase order and make changes to the amount to receive and process a receipt again.
Bond Consulting Services is a national consulting firm that empowers organizations across the United States to thrive in a digitally transformed world. We operate out of Long Beach, California, where our expert team assists clients with their ERP and CRM needs.
Visit us at www.BondConsultingServices.com or just pick up the phone and call 562.988.3451.
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3 Easy Ways to Implement Dynamics 365 Business Central
The average supermarket stocks 150 kinds of breakfast cereal on its shelves. Why?
Because in our consumer-driven society, a premium is placed on choice. There may be some detractors, but for the most part, we like having choices. We like having the ability to choose. It means we’re in charge. That’s the psychology behind the choice.
In the ERP software world, one of the uncertainties that clients face is the cost and timing of a new implementation. But that doesn’t have to be the case. At Bond Consulting Services (BCS), we want our clients to have the power to choose. That’s why we offer 3 Microsoft Dynamic 365 Business Central implementation packages, each with a fixed scope and a fixed price.
Dynamics 365 Business Central Implementation Packages
Business Central Base: 2-Day Implementation
Our Base Implementation Package is perfect for organizations that are interested in handling the lion’s share of the implementation on their own and have previous experience with configuring financial solutions. Learn More
Business Central Standard: 2-Week Implementation
Perfect for organizations with an experienced Controller who has implemented financial systems in the past and only needs minimal assistance and training. Learn More
Business Central Preferred: 6-Week Implementation
Our Preferred Package builds upon the Standard Implementation Package and is perfect for organizations with an experienced bookkeeper or CFO/Controller who requires core financial processing. Learn More
How Do You Decide Which Package Is Right for You?
BCS makes that easy, too, by offering a free assessment. Here’s what that looks like:
Business Central: Free 2-Hour Assessment
An evaluation of your business needs to determine how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central can help you manage your finances, increase sales, and streamline your operations.
This free 2-hour assessment consists of an interactive discussion to gain insight of your organization to ensure business success for today and tomorrow.
Agenda
- Identify current pains, needs, and requirements
- Review internal business processes
- Define the objectives of your organization
Deliverable: Deliver a recommendation for optimized use of Dynamics 365 Business Central Essentials
Getting Started
That’s easy, too. You can go online and sign up to schedule a free assessment. In fact, you can do that right now if you choose to. Or you can reach out to us.
Bond Consulting Services is a national consulting firm that empowers organizations across the United States to thrive in a digitally transformed world. We call and operate out of Long Beach, California home, and it’s from there that our expert team assists clients with their ERP and CRM needs. Visit us at www.BondConsultingServices.com or just pick up the phone and call 562-988-3451.