Rose Business Solutions Dynamics GP

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The Luddites railed against the Industrial Revolution. They thought the Industrial Revolution would leave them jobless and change their way of life.

We scoff at Luddites and barrel forward with new technology, gadgets, and new habits. We love it. How fun!

OK, well it’s not that fun. We recently made some system upgrades and service enhancements, and quite frankly, the results have been disappointing. Several trusted business tools are not performing well. Here is the status:

These are the current avenues for inbound communication:

1.) e-mail (<10% chance we’ll get it)

2.) telephone (>50% chance you’ll reach the person you’re intending to contact)

3.) USPS mail (unless the US Congress de-funds the Postal Service out of existence)

4.) You can walk or drive to: 11512 El Camino Real, Suite 310; San Diego, CA 92130 (If you’re on a spaceship with Ron Paul, here are the geographical coordinates:

Lat. 32.927616 – Long. 117.239044)

The Luddites are criticized for their lack of vision and disdain for progress. But maybe they deserve more credit than they’re generally given.

The Luddites also didn’t have the Robert Palmer Models. Now, things seem better.

Ok, the title it’s a bit demanding but when someone asks you this question regarding inventory here is a hint that will help you on your quest of finding all the “stuff”.

Dynamics GP has several reports built in as well inquiries concerning inventory items, the most important in my career so far are the following:

Back-Ordered Items Received Report

I have seen in the past (not so distant) where customers are more into “Integrating” orders from various external systems or Web stores, when they integrate data into GP via Web services, a customization using eConnect, integration manager or any other type of magic we have to deal with items that we do not have in stock. We need to quickly identify which Items in order to make sure that our shipping process is on time to the customer.

This particular report contains information for sales documents that were linked to a purchase order, with cost information up to date and those quantities allocated and fulfilled on sales orders.

• Go to Reports > Purchasing > Analysis
• Once the Purchasing Analysis Reports window opens, from the drop down choose Back Ordered Items Received.
• Create New or modify if existing reports are available
• If you created a new report, make sure you enter a report name
• If you need, you can filter the Item Numbers for this report, if you want to report on all items do not enter an Item number range
• Select your destination (Printer, Screen, File)
• Print the report.

Item Inquiry Options

The item inquiry window allows us to view inventory related transactions, it provides a nice summary window for all sites of inventory or a particular site id.

The item transaction inquiry window allows us to view any posted transaction for a particular item from any GP module.

If you are using FIFO (its not limited but it’s the best fit) the Purchase Receipts Inquiry window should be your best friend because it brings all the purchase receipts that exist for a particular item.

I do personally work very well with Item Allocation and Item Stock inquiry windows.

• Go to Inquiry > Inventory
• Choose the desired inquiry window

A cool feature that you might find great is that some inquiry windows allows you to go into a deeper level using the Go To windows, or they might have a printer icon, which allows you to print your current view.

Stock Status Report

Last on today’s post is the Stock Status report, which provides us with up to date information on each update like:

1. Inventory Value
2. Quantities on Hand, Allocated, On Order, Back Ordered, Requisitioned
3. Current cost

How can we get this report?

• Reports > Inventory > Activity
• From the reports drop down choose Stock Status
• Create new or modify existing
• Choose sites or all
• You can select to include serial numbers/ negative quantities / Zero quantities
• You can filter by item, description, class, manufacturer, bin and much more
• choose your report destination and print it.

So here you have a few options that will help you on your quest finding “stuff” if you are on GP 10 SP5 or greater you have an additional tool at your fingertips and its called "HITB: The Historical Inventory Trial Balance” it depends if your organization has this tool enabled and setup it will provide you with additional information.

Thanks

Francisco G. Hillyer

A customer called in trying to install analysis cubes the first error was “Microsoft Dynamics GP client must be installed in order to complete the Microsoft Dynamics GP Analysis Cubes installation”.

 

I would like to mention that this client had installed the spanish version of GP, after the customer followed up the instructions on KB949152 still was getting the error.

After rebooting the virtual machine he tried once again but now he got an unhandled exception.

unhandled exception has occurred in your application.
InvalidArgument=Value of ‘0′ is not valid for ‘SelectedIndex’
Parameter name: SelectedIndex
See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.
************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: InvalidArgument=Value of ‘0′ is not valid for ‘SelectedIndex’.
Parameter name: SelectedIndex
at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.set_SelectedIndex(Int32 value)
at Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.AnalysisCubes.fMain.LoadReportingCurrencies()
at Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.AnalysisCubes.fMain.ProcessSelectedCompanies()
at Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.AnalysisCubes.fMain.bNext_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

 

How do we fix this you may be asking, here is the solution for this dilemma:

The company that is getting the error we need to…

1. At least have one transaction posted
2. At least have configured a functional currency Tools > Setup > Financial > Multicurrency, field Functional Currency
3. Configure multicurrency access for company Tools > Setup > System > Multicurrency Access and verify each company access.

At least for this customer that was the solution.

 

Thanks

Francisco G. Hillyer

Great day in San Diego the morning traffic was smooth as a chocolate no issues at all, arrive to the office and I see on my email “Support Request FRx Error 5”.

I called in the customer, we did a remote session if the customer generates a report for September everything is great, but if it generates for october then we have an issue.

Microsoft says that an incompatible version of MSXML.DLL was registered, but it works for a month and not for another? that doesn’t seem to be right.

I followed up the instructions to re- register the XML file but still getting the issue.

 

There is a KB from Microsoft called “The Special Characters that are NOT supported in Microsoft FRx”

https://mbs2.microsoft.com/Knowledgebase/KBDisplay.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;941691

 

Microsoft states that FRx can query several different databases each DB has its own specific requirements.

The complete list of characters not supported is as follows:

• /
• [
• ]
• ;
• =
• \
• :
• ,
• .
• !
• .
• -
• (
• )
• *
• &
• ^
• #
• @
• $
• %
• ?
• +
• {
• }
• |
• <
• >
• .
• ~

The Microsoft FRx engine must reserve the following special characters to use in an account description:

• (
• )
• ^
• *
• /
• %
• \
• +
• -
• >
• =
• <
• &
• |

When these special characters exist in other fields, the special characters may interfere with report generation.

Back to the customer we searched October transactions in the DB and we found 4 journal entries that had a combination of the special characters on the Journal Entry Reference field as well on the Distribution Reference. Once corrected FRx worked as a charm.

Thanks

Francisco G. Hillyer

Yesterday it was a cloudy day here in sunny San Diego, everyone here at the office busy as always all of the sudden an email came to support. The customer could not generate their report book from Report Manager in FRx.

 

The error in question was found after FRx Service pack 10 was released and it was fixed on FRx Service pack 11. But our customer is on 10, and it worked the previous month so something changed between last month and current month that triggered this error.

 

The error says: “FRx Error 988672 Access denied because another caller has the file open and locked”, my first reaction was to ask the customer if in fact they had the file open, but it was not, my sherlock holmes identity came out and I went to their server, pulled out Task Manager, verified all open instances of excel (found none), then I went to my toolbox and pulled Process Explorer from sysinternals, I tried running the report book again, same error.

This time I searched for all open handles for that particular file, being found once while FRx was showing up the error, the handle was released after I clicked OK button to make the error go away. I reached out to my toolbox again and pulled Process monitor, I placed some filters around the user instance on the server I tried again the report with error results.

Process Monitor did not gave me the solution either, I went to my default search engine (BING) and found a case on the SL community, Microsoft states that this error is resolved by installing FRx SP11, but it was working before… and my client was not on the mood for a software update at this time.

To aid in my investigation I did the following tests:

• Open Frx Designer and run the report –> Result: Report Generates
• Open Report Manager: On the book definition, right click and Generate –> Result: Report Generates
• Open Report Manager: On the book definition, Generate the reports automatically –> Result: Report Fails

 

After almost being done with all the report ID’s that made the Report book, I found 1 report that was not valid, I searched for the catalog id in report designer but I couldn’t find it. Once I changed it to the correct report I was still getting the error.

 

So I had the user do the following:

• Log out from GP
• Log out from FRx
• Close Report Manager
• Log out from Citrix
• I was still in citrix as administrator and deleted the users profile temp folder
• had the user log back in and everything worked.

 

Please give it a try, let me know if this temp solution avoids the install of SP 11 when you can’t do it, but eventually install it.

 

Thanks

Francisco G. Hillyer

 Over the years, you learn where to obtain good, useful information.  You also learn who provides consistent, accurate and helpful commentaries on difficult subjects.  Terry Heley, Escalation Engineer, at Microsoft is one of those people.  Terry has been managing Microsoft Dynamics GP payroll code and tax updates for a long time.  She is also the most knowledgeable person I know of when it comes to Microsoft Dynamics GP payroll issues.  I recently had a difficult garnishment setup situation for one of our customers.  After a considerable amount of frustration and trial and error, I reached out to Terry for any insight she may have on our garnishment problem.   She provided me with a set of examples outlining garnishment setups for tax levies, child support, creditor garnishments, garnishments taken before child support and multiple garnishments with previous marked.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.  Well, when it comes to garnishments, an example is even better than a picture.  Below is the first of a series I will be posting about setting up garnishments in Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Thank you Terry.

Garnishments-Tax Levies:

A federal tax levy is accomplished by ‘garnishing’ an employee’s wages to the extent that they are not exempt from the levy.  For example, there may be a tax levy that is for $25,000.  The tax levy deduction will be taken from the employees ‘take-home pay’ until it reaches the exempt amount.

The exempt amount is an amount that comes from the table (after looking at form 668-W that the employee fills out – (according to the number of exemptions, the pay period, and the filing status)). 

The ‘take-home pay’ will be calculated as Wages, minus all Taxes and Deductions (both voluntary and involuntary) that were in effect at the time of receiving the tax levy.  Once an employee’s take-home pay has been determined, all but the exempt amount is subject to the levy.

Any new payroll deductions that are initiated by the employee after the levy has been received by the employer must be deducted from the exempt amount when determining the employee’s net pay, unless they are required as a condition of employment.  (This also includes increases in elective deductions such as a 401k.)

It looks like Tax Levies are always an amount (by looking at the form 668-W).

Ex:  Employee Arthur receives $1,211.54 every two weeks.  On Aug 1, 2010, the employer receives form 668-W stating that a federal tax levy was being issued against Arthur’s wages for $25,000.  Arthur claimed married filing jointly with 3 personal exemptions on Part 3 of the form.  (The exempt amount taken from the table is $657.69.)  As of Aug 1, Arthur had the following deductions:

Federal income tax	$44.44
Social security tax	50.88
Medicare tax	17.57
State income taxes	30.00
401(k) plan (3% of salary)	36.35
Health insurance (after tax)	45.00
Total:	$224.24

 

Prior to the Tax Levy, Arthur’s take-home pay is $987.30 ($1,211.54 – $224.24).  The exempt amount of Arthur’s take-home pay (taken from the table) is $657.69.  Therefore, the amount subject to the tax levy is $329.61 ($987.30 – $657.69).  And the take home pay after the Tax Levy is $657.69.

How would we set up this deduction?

In Employee Deduction Maintenance
Deduction Type:	Garnishment
Original Amount	$25,000
Method:	Fixed Amount
Garnishment Category:	Tax Levy
Amount	$25,000
Percent	N/A
Earnings	N/A
Maximum Deduction Codes
Federal	FEDLEVY (this is just an example)
State	N/A

 

In Garnishment Maximum Setup
Code:	FEDLEVY
State/Fed	FED
Method	Percent of Earnings
Max Withholding Percent	100%
Max Exempt Amount	$657.69 (This is the amount taken from the table)
Min Wage Rule Amount	$0
Earnings Code	FEDLEVY

 

In Earnings Setup
Code:	FEDLEVY
Include in Earnings
Pay Codes	All
Deductions	401(k) & Health Insurance (According to the info we have about Federal Tax Levies, it should be all deductions that are being taken at the time the tax levy was issued.  New deductions after the tax levy is in place would not be included.)
Taxes	All Checkboxes Marked

 

Pay code

 

Other Deductions

Calculate Checks report

Recap

Prior to the Tax Levy, Arthur’s take-home pay is $987.30 ($1,211.54 – $224.24).  The exempt amount of Arthur’s take-home pay (taken from the table) is $657.69.  Therefore, the amount subject to the tax levy is $329.61 ($987.30 – $657.69).  And the take home pay after the Tax Levy is $657.69.

The payroll person in our company contacted me today and asked if I’d help fix an issue. Normally I’m pretty responsive to people who call but when it’s my payroll person and today is the day we get paid…I drop everything and focus all attention to the issue at hand.

Building the checks was fine but when trying to calculate check we got the following error:

Clicking on more info we found this message:

Come to find out PC tables relate to human resources. We use HR but not to a great extent. The PC  Fund setup table (PC40200) was missing on the company database. After running a backup  I went into File>>maintenance>>SQL>>company database, HR product and highlighted the PC Fund Setup table. Then checked off create table and chose process.

When I browsed out to the Fund Account Options window it actually opened up and the payroll processed correctly.

So a couple of points here.

1. Our payroll lady knows how to get things done. I think she starts every conversation “I can’t get payroll done if you don’t help me do this.”
2. We are not using the Fund options in HR so creating the table wasn’t a big deal
3. I don’t know if there was a service pack put into the system in the past couple of weeks or not. I couldn’t find any issues documented around the blogosphere so maybe it is just us
4. I did a backup. I always do a backup
5. Everyone in our company should send me chocolate and candy because they got paid on time

I found this on a clients desktop today.

My immediate reaction was “Will this system ever die?”

I remember upgrading them from GPA to Dynamics around the GP 7.0 range. We left the GPA system up and working and I guess they’ve never gotten rid of it even through operating system updates and the various GP updates as well.

Microsoft may say the life of a system is 5 years but we all know that a good accounting system/version could be around for decades.

Sometimes I miss those DOS days….NOT.

What’s the oldest GP version you have come across in the last year?

I haven’t been to a WPC event for four years. The conference this year in L.A. was big. These are the things I experienced:

• It’s a very long conference. I was there from Sunday afternoon, to Thursday evening. I spent 26 hours in our booth in the exposition hall.
• The guys on the loading dock at the Los Angeles Convention Center are very cool. We were able to use their loading spaces to easily transfer our junk in and out of the exposition area as we wished, with no hassle. Beautiful.
• People will steal swag. Really? It’s worth committing a misdemeanor for junk? Obtaining swag is really a very simple social transaction. You express an interest in obtaining some swag. I readily comply, in exchange for the opportunity to scan your attendee badge. If you show even a mild interest in my product or service, I will engage you in polite conversation until you can’t stand it any more and deftly slide away. That’s the way it works. No need for theft.
• If you have a hot CEO, you’re not going to see her much. Everyone wants to talk with her. I mean, everyone.
• People will travel very, very long distances to meet up with others of their own kind. We met people from all over the entire globe.
• It’s important to work with interesting people. The people with whom I work, are extraordinarily interesting and fun people to be with. You should be so lucky.

This was the fourth promotional event I’ve attended on behalf of my company this year. So now I have to take four weeks off to prepare for the next four. Ciao.

Microsoft calls it day 3 but I’ve been at this conference for 4 days so that’s what I’m going to call it.

Had a chance to hear Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines today. He was rather casual and didn’t really give a prepared message. Here are some of my notes.

1. “Screw it, let’s do it” attitude gets a lot accomplished
2. Be flexible with employee’s. Make sure they are enjoying work
3. Break ideas up into companies
4. Then find someone to run the company so you can stay focused on the next idea/big picture
5. Forgive your enemy. Call up an enemy and have lunch with them. It’s better for you and for them
6. Challenges come and setbacks will occur. Press forward with hope and belief

I really like the guest speakers at these conferences. They are usually very inspiring and Sir Richard Branson didn’t disappoint.

Had partner awards night tonight as Rose Business Solutions was a finalist for Hosting Partner of the Year with Microsoft. Walked the red carpet and took silly pictures of the Rose gang that is here.

Final day of conference is tomorrow. The ending concert is Smashmouth and Los Lobos boys. Should be a good final day.