Dynamics GP 2018 R2 was released on Tuesday, October 2nd 2018 and contains updates and enhancements for several core functions of the app. Financials, Supply Chain, Payroll, and overall system enhancements were the main focus of this release. Take a look at all the new possibilities.

Attracting, capturing, and closing on high-quality leads has become an art form in today’s ultra-competitive digital age. What used to be a combination of cold-calling, print ads, and a bit of luck has shifted to social media, personalized messages, drip campaigns, and an overall focus that’s more on the customer, not your company. Companies must adopt at least some form of most of these practices in order to stay competitive in today’s environment, but that’s a lot easier for large corporations than small and midsize companies.

Using a CRM system to track leads and opportunities is a good way to keep up with the sales funnel. However, it is far too easy to neglect leads and opportunities when you are trying to juggle many other tasks and responsibilities. For an organization like ours that uses Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement (formerly Dynamics CRM) for sales management and Office 365 for productivity, it makes sense to utilize every tool we can to keep up with sales. That is why I created a flow to automatically create a task in Microsoft Planner when a lead is created in Dynamics 365.

OneDrive from Microsoft allows both business and personal users to save their files in the cloud and access them anytime, from anywhere. In this blog we will discuss the issue of OneDrive only opening documents in the online version of their app. While this action may seem like an error to users, it’s actually the default behavior of OneDrive to open files in the online version. The good news is that changing this behavior is rather easy and takes only a few quick clicks.

Dynamics 365 is Microsoft’s combined ERP and CRM platform. The system consists of seven applications to serve various business functions: Sales, Customer Engagement, Field Service, Talent, Finance and Operations, Retail, Project Service Automation, and Marketing. Dynamics 365 for Marketing will be the focus of this blog as we delve into its capabilities, functions, and what it can do for your business.

Just in time for the general release of Dynamics 365 Business Central coming on April 2nd, Microsoft has released an overview of the capabilities of the new business management system.

Getting ready to close the year for 2017? Watch Janelle Riley's webinar to learn everything you need to run an anxiety-free close in Dynamics GP. If you were not able to attend the webinar, but would still like to receive a copy of our 2017 year-end closing procedures documentation, click the button below to download all materials discussed in the webinar including step-by-step instructions for closing the month and year in Dynamics GP.

As a business grows it inevitably faces the choice between investing in on-premises server infrastructure or cloud based infrastructure to manage their IT needs. However, choosing the wrong investment for your business can have dramatic effects on long term profitability, so picking the right investment is necessary.

If you are new to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (Operations), there are several small setup changes that will make your inventory related transaction entry easier if you can find where to set them up. One of these is the setup for default sites and warehouses.

At the end of the month you not only need to be able to calculate the sales tax due to each state in which you have jurisdiction, but you also need to enter an invoice and/or payment for the transaction. In Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, you can do both in one process by settling your sales tax.

To provide the best customer experience you need to look at your customers and determine exactly what it is they want or need. These wants and needs will not be the same for each of your customers. To better understand each customer individually, and to meet each of their expectations, you should plan to invest in a quality CRM system.

There are some key differences to be aware of in the Purchase Order statuses and controls between Dynamics GP and Dynamics 365 for Operations.

Classes in Dynamics GP are a great tool to use when categorizing and configuring new customers, vendors, and inventory in GP. They allow you to default a variety of settings, rather than manually selecting the settings each time. When creating customers, vendors, and inventory in Dynamics 365 for Operations there are similar setup options to classes, however they are not an exact process match. Below is a breakdown of the main setup options in classes in GP vs. options in Operations.

If you are a user switching from Microsoft Dynamics GP to Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations or vice versa, you are likely going to encounter terminology differences that will have you scratching your head in confusion as you attempt to decipher the various terms. To assist in your transitional journey, here is a brief rundown of some of the basic terminology differences that you may find helpful:

We recently migrated our company from Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 for Operations. Since we have been a Dynamics GP provider for many years, we put together a project plan and split up tasks needed to migrate our existing data into the new D365 Operations system.

No matter which ERP system you choose, one of the first items you will need to consider is how to design your chart of accounts. This could be influenced by many factors including your product lines, cost centers, and company divisions.

Both Dynamics GP and Dynamics 365 for Operations can accommodate financial reporting and tracking by multiple sectors of an entity’s business, but the approach is different in each, with Dynamics GP using Segments and Dynamics 365 for Operations using Dimensions.

Did you know that forms are customizable in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations? When viewing a list or form you can add, remove, and edit columns. You are also able to easily reset, share, or import form settings. I have outlined these options below.

When attempting to change the Tracking Dimension Group for a Product in Dynamics 365 Operations (AX2012), you may receive the following notification:

“Delete the tracking dimension group for the product, and then delete the tracking dimension group for all released instances of the product.”

In the example below, while changing the tracking dimension group from DEFAULT to SERIAL for a product, this notification appeared:

With Microsoft launching its newest Dynamics ERP system, Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, many of you may be wondering what financial statement application they will be using on the backend. The good news for those looking to switch from Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is that Operations will also be using Management Reporter (MR). For those who are familiar with designing reports in MR, the core functionality is exactly same, but there are some things that have changed. At first glance of MR in Operations, you will not see any differences from the MR you are used to. As you begin to dive deep into the settings and options you will begin to see some subtle differences.

Chat programs are often built to be simplistic and serve a single purpose – to increase collaboration through instant communication among team members. Microsoft Teams takes that purpose and expands on it with exciting new features built specifically for project teams or departments within a business. This isn’t just chat, this isn’t email, it’s a combination of the two meant to improve organization and collaboration of teams. The video below is a nice introduction of Microsoft Teams for those who haven’t seen it in action before.