Great Plains Payroll Round 5 Tax Update

Microsoft has released the Round 5 tax update. The update includes new state income tax tables for New York, Arizona and California (you don't get any quesses as to whether the tax rates went up or down). The new rates go into effect on May 1st, so don't install the update until all of your payroll checks with an April date have been processed. The update is a tax table update only, so it is installed on one workstation, one time. You can obtain the update at Microsoft Customer Source as well as documentation. You can also use the automatic update to load the new tax tables from within Great Plains. As in previous tax updates for 2009, Version 8 is not supported.

Great Plains Payroll Round 5 Tax Update

Microsoft has released the Round 5 tax update. The update includes new state income tax tables for New York, Arizona and California (you don't get any guesses as to whether the tax rates went up or down). The new rates go into effect May 1st, so don't install the update until all of your payroll checks with an April date have been printed. The update is a table update only, so it is installed on one workstation, one time. You can obtain the update at Microsoft's Customer Source as well as documentation or go to the link provided below. As in previous updates for 2009, Version 8 is not supported.

(https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/support/downloads/taxupdates/)

Reconcile to GL Easily

Have you used this yet? In GP 10 there’s a routine (Microsoft Dynamics GP menu >> Tools >> Routines >> Financial >> Reconcile to GL) that will assist you in reconciling Payables Management and Receivables Management to the General Ledger. This routine matches transactions in RM & PM, to GL and shows the results in Excel.

From the GP 10 documentation:

During normal business operations, thousands of transactions can be processed. When working with this volume of transactions, standard processes might be inadvertently changed or unintended entries made and posted. As a result, the payables or receivables balances on a General Ledger trial balance report might not match the corresponding balance on trial balance reports printed in Payables Management or Receivables Management. Some specific examples might include the following :

• A transaction is posted to—but not through—General Ledger and is deleted before it’s posted in General Ledger.

• A transaction is posted to General Ledger, but the amounts are changed before it’s posted in General Ledger.

Use the Reconcile to GL window to generate a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that can help you match transactions in General Ledger with the originating transactions in Payables Management and Receivables Management. This spreadsheet can provide information that helps you enter adjusting transactions that reconcile any discrepancies.

Transactions are displayed on the spreadsheet using the functional currency. To be included in the spreadsheet, transactions must be posted and exist in either an Open or History table. Transactions also must include distributions to either the Accounts Payable account or Accounts Receivable account, or the Discount Available account in Payables Management or Receivables Management.

The results are categorized as follows:

Got Cubes?

“Dimensions, measures, slicers? What are you talking about?” If you are licensed for Dynamics GP Advanced Management, you have access to a powerful analytical reporting tool; Analysis Cubes. Analysis Cubes has been part of the Great Plains systems for several years. It allows you to quickly access information and analyze it in ways that you previously may have not considered. It also provides a strong link to live data through Excel, so you can create reusable reports and refresh the data with one click.

Analysis Cubes is easy to install. You just need to install Analysis Services on your SQL Server, if you have not already done so. Then install the Analysis Cubes software (there’s a server piece, and a client piece). When you install Analysis Cubes, the installation wizard will install the DTS packages automatically and will offer to set up a SQL Job to regularly transfer data from the Dynamics GP database, to the Analysis Services database, and “process” the cubes.

To use Analysis Cubes, you launch the Create Pivot Table Reports screen within Dynamics GP. This allows you to select one of six cubes from which to draw information, and then export it to Excel. Simple. From there you need to draw on your Excel Pivot Table skills to create the report you want or analyze the data you’re after.

There are a few advantages to using Analysis Cubes over just pulling the data into Excel using an ODBC connection. First, as the data is transferred to Analysis Services, additional attributes are created for the data; the most important is that various time values are associated with each transaction, such as month, quarter, year. Second advantage is that the connection to Excel is made for you when you “send” the data to Excel. This makes it a lot easier for end users to get the data into Excel. Additionally, if you want to use other OLAP reporting tools, such as ProClarity, you already have the cubes available for analysis.

Certainly if you are already licensed for Analysis Cubes, it is worth your time to try it out. It’s fairly simple to install and adds a whole other reporting and analysis tool you can use to manage your business.

Fear Not. It’s Only Great Plains 10.0

Microsoft Dynamics GP. That’s what they call it now. The name’s slightly different, but most of the underlying functionality is the same; if not improved. So why are business users reluctant to embrace the new version? I suspect it’s because of a few new features that make the product look different and an escalation in technology.

New Feature: Action Panes add another way to view and act upon data in Great Plains. In the developer’s own words, “a graphical, RoleTailored command bar—inspired by the Ribbon in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Action Pane allows Microsoft Dynamics GP users to perform actions on multiple records on list pages, enabling users to preview and filter data—without the need to open multiple windows.”

New Feature: Area Pages put all the transaction, card, inquiry, and report screens in one place. This is one of my favorites. Now you can view and select all the screens of your target series without having to fumble through the menu system.

New Feature: Workflow functionality was added; but probably not in the way many had expected. Microsoft decided to use existing workflow functionality in it’s SharePoint Server product and extend it to Great Plains. So Dynamics GP 10 comes with six “out-of-the-box” workflow mechanisms tied to existing screens, e.g. Sales Transaction Entry, Purchase Order Entry, Payables Batch Entry. In order to take advantage of this functionality one needs to license and deploy Microsoft SharePoint Server (MOSS) – Enterprise Edition. So this functionality is not for the casual GP installation. But if an organization is committed to implementing automated workflow processes into their operation, this is a very good step to take, because the workflow functionality can be tailored and expanded as required. Plus MOSS includes a robust intranet portal, content management functionality, and enterprise search, that would be a big benefit to many organizations.

Really I have not discovered or heard of a decent reason for not embracing Dynamics GP 10, solely on its differences from previous versions. Any user familiar with previous versions, will quickly adapt to version 10, and find at least one thing they like better; probably more.

Time to reorder checks?

Looking to order :

• Computer check stock?
  
• Tax Forms?
  
• Invoice Stock?
  
• And other forms fully compatible with Microsoft Dynamics GP?
  

Try: http://www.microsoftbusinesschecks.com/

Be sure to use Priority code MR4135