When developing Dynamics GP customizations in our WebSan environment, our development phase is contained within a local server configuration to ensure that all modifications to the forms and reports dictionaries are local and will not affect our hosted users. However, there are a few more items to note when separating a development from a production environment.

When enabling and granting access to modified forms and reports in GP, administrative users would navigate to the Microsoft Dynamics GP menu >> Administration >> Alternative/Modified Forms and Reports and grant access to the modified item by selecting the ID, Product, and Type (Windows: Forms or Reports), then checking the box beside the version they would like accessible:

The ID field at the top of this window is used to specify which group of users has access to the forms and reports chosen in the list underneath. Users are assigned an “Alternate Modified Forms and Reports ID” in the ‘User Security’ window:

If you are doing business in finance, health care or the government, which are in need of highly protected data management procedures, you know security is an essential part when you are looking for a cloud solution.

According to Gartner’s report, the cloud-based security services market totaled $2.1 billion in 2013 globally. Gartner also expects the market to grow up to $3.1 billion until 2015.

“Encryption will be a new area of growth, but it remains a complex activity. The strongest interest will be in encryption products from cloud security brokers, which are relatively easy to deploy and have options for on-premises encryption management”, said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner

This projection anticipates an increasing demand for cloud security services. The good news is at WebSan Solutions your data is secure and accessible when you need it! We offer a hosted-enterprise business software solution, leveraging the vast capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics GP. Our Hosted Dynamics GP solution is maintained in our state-of-the-art Tier II SAS70/SSAE16 certified data centre located in Toronto, Canada.

Doriana Kote, Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Winner for 2013

Our clients will often have the need to attach supporting documentation to transactions within Dynamics GP.  These might be for odd / correcting entries, entries required by auditors, or large dollar value entries.  Further, it is good practice to attach supporting documentation for transactions if possible.

To attach supporting documentation to a transaction within GP, select the yellow paper icon beside the transaction number within the entry window for that transaction.  This icon is also available within master data setup widows & essentially every other window within GP.  Once within this window, select the paperclip icon at the bottom of the window (Note:  Your system admin may have to enable this functionality to have this icon appear).  This will open a new OLE Container window wherein one can select Edit > Insert New Object.  From here, the process is as simple as selecting the file & clicking Attach within the note window.

WebSan has found this feature very helpful to our clients whenever they need to track down the supporting documentation for a transaction.  As transactions move throughout their life-cycle in Dynamics GP, they will maintain the supporting documents attached to them, making audits a breeze.

Adam MacIntosh is a Senior Account & Project Manager with WebSan Solutions Inc, a Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner and 2013 Canadian Channel Elite Awards Winner.  Adam can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 416-499-1235 ext 213.

If you have a lot of data that doesn’t quite fit into one of Dynamics CRM 2011’s existing entities, you may decide to create your own custom entity and fields to house that data of yours.  If you take this route, don’t waste your time building the entity and creating all of your fields ahead of time!  Instead, you can use CRM 2011’s Import Data Wizard, which allows you to create entities and fields on the fly as you import the data for this new entity.

After selecting the file you want to import in the Import Data Wizard, you will reach the Map Record Types step of the Wizard – here, you can select to “Create New” Dynamics CRM Record Type, which will prompt you for more information to create the new entity within the Wizard.  Next, you’ll reach the Map Fields step – here, you can dynamically create new fields for each column in your import file (or ignore fields that you don’t want to bring into CRM).  While doing so, it even defaults the Field Name to match the column header from your import file, so all you really have to do is select the type of field that it is.  And if that wasn’t enough – if you select “Option Set” as the field type, the Wizard will automatically create values for your option set based on the unique values in that column of your data file!  The only thing left to do at this point is to set any additional options on your new entity as necessary and configure the entity form that will be used to manage the data – both of which can be done through the usual customizations window.

So if you find yourself needing to create a new entity along with having to import your data into this new entity, save yourself some time by combining both steps into one using this helpful trick in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Import Data Wizard.

Rahim Jiwani is an Implementation Lead at WebSan Solutions Inc, a Microsoft Dynamics GP Silver Partner & 2012 Microsoft Impact Awards Finalist. Rahim can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 416-499-1235 ext 217.

You can probably guess that GP Sales Order Processing is used to enter, print and post sales orders. But did you know that you can also enter quotes, invoices, back orders and returns individually or in batches?

Are you aware that Sales Order Processing in Dynamics GP allows you to transfer sales documents from one type to another? For example, when goods or services are delivered to a customer, you can transfer the order to an invoice. The price the customer will pay and your cost will be calculated automatically.

Here are a couple of points you need to keep in mind, before transferring a document:

• Make sure there are actual quantities to transfer to an order, invoice, or back order
• Verify that the appropriate transfer options are marked for the type ID in sales setup
• Enter a batch ID for the document
• Approve the document, if required

For more information about Sales Order Processing in Dynamics GP, join our webinar on November 14 and learn how to cut lead times and speed up your transactions.

Doriana Kote, Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Winner for 2013

It will surely be!

 Many business owners that are in the process of expanding their company will need a bigger and better ERP (enterprise resource planning) system to handle day-to-day business operations. According to a report called “ERP – The Cuckoo in the Cloud Land”, 84% of respondents said that they used at least one form of ERP. More businesses are moving to the cloud for a number of reasons which can include: Lowering the cost of ownership, becoming eco-friendly and reducing dependence on internal IT personnel.

The report also advocates 2014 will be the year of the ERP cloud. According to survey respondents, 14% have fully migrated an ERP system to the cloud, with the majority (31%) saying they will migrate in the next 12 months. A further 27% said they’d be in by the end of 2015.The report also conducted a survey of critical areas of the organization that were important to business owners and SQL databases got 69% of the vote, followed by ERP (66%) and accounting and finance apps (66%),Business intelligence (48%) and CRM (40%).

At WebSan Solutions, we offer an online (SaaS) hosted-enterprise business software solution, leveraging the vast capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics GP. Microsoft Dynamics GP (formerly Great Plains) is one of the top-rated accounting and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solutions on the market today.

Not everybody is convinced about moving to the cloud, but in time that will change. If you have any questions about ERP Cloud or migrating to the cloud, contact us for more information.

Once a project is finished, user should close out that project within Dynamics GP.  This helps to avoid errant postings to the project & ensures accurate reporting.

To close a project within Microsoft Dynamics GP, first set the status of your project to Completed within the Project Maintenance window.  Then, navigate to  Project > Transactions > Project Closing to access the Project Closing window.  Within this window, select the Contract Number that the completed project belongs to.  All the completed projects for that contract should then appear in the listing below.  To close a project, check the box under the Close column & select Process.

Users should note that even though a project is set to status of Completed, there may be additional transactions that may need to be completed prior to closing the project.  If additional transactions are required, the box under the C* column will be blank.  To obtain a listing of the transactions yet to be completed for a 'Completed' project, select the blue arrow beside the Project number field within the Project Closing window.  This will open the Project Closing More info window wherein users are presented with a check list of all the tasks required prior to closing the project.

[caption id="attachment_1505" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Project Closing[/caption]

There are times when users may have completed check list items, but they do not display within GP as completed.  If this occurs, it is good practice to run the PA Reconcile Utility.  This utility will search through the GP transaction tables to verify what activities have truly been completed.  To access this window, select Project > Utilities > PA Reconcile.  Select a data set to reconcile and then click Process.  The utility is fairly quick depending on the volume of data within your Dynamics GP environment.

Today Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERPs) are developed and implemented so fast that it is hard to keep up with all this surplus of information. What is more, companies should make sure that during and after the implementation, all employees must be adequately trained on the system’s capabilities.

Using technology to facilitate this process is an essential technique to minimize costs and improve its effectiveness. Instead of buying expensive classroom training courses, nowadays you can easily buy e – learning courses that will save the company money, time and a lot of effort. Below you will find some of the benefits that e –Training will bring to your organization:

1. Combine theory and practice by applying your knowledge in real – time.
2. A fun and interactive way to understand complicated software, such as ERP.
3. Test your knowledge by completing online quizzes.
4. Learn on your own pace.
5. More affordable than classroom training.

WebSan Solutions offers a comprehensive e - Training solution for Microsoft Dynamics GP through WebSan University. Videos, tests and a lot more of interactive documentation help you understand and apply procedures easily in the convenience of your own time and place. You can also choose between a variety of courses for both beginners and advanced users. You can even setup your company’s unique course catalogue customized to your specific needs.

For more information visit WebSan University and sign up free for our Learning Management System. This month’s course on October 31^st focuses on Payables Management in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Doriana Kote, Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Winner for 2013

Many companies have a need to grant Dynamics GP users access to a window, but not all functionality within that window.  For example, many clients will want users to be able to input invoices, but not post them individually.  Instead, they will force users to save invoice transactions to a batch such that a manager can review the source documents and post.  An easy way to achieve this is through Field Level Security which allows the Dynamics GP admin to restrict user access to singular buttons within a window (such as the Post button).

To configure Field Level Security, navigate to Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > System > Field Level Security

This will open up the Field Level Security window.  Within the window, select Add to create a new restriction.

[caption id="attachment_1442" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Field Level Security window[/caption]

This will open the Field Security Maintenance window wherein one defines a the window and field to restrict.  Within this window, enter an ID and Description for the restriction.  Then select the Product Name, Form Name, Window Name & Field Name using the look-ups within the window.

I was recently deploying a number of GP customizations in the model of Forms and Reports with VBA, when I encountered the following error during package importing:

I had never seen this error before but upon review of the customized form, I realized that my VBA code failed to import along with the form itself. All users had logged out of the current environment and the customizations had been tested successfully in a test system. I was stumped. One common IT phrase came to mind when deciding on the next troubleshooting step: “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

Although I did not restart the terminal server, I took to a similar strategy: I wiped all customizations and started clean. This step has worked in the past when users were navigating through customized GP windows, where the application would suddenly crash without warning. The following entry was logged in EventViewer on the server:

Any time you experience strange application crashes, or error messages when importing custom VBA packages, chances are there are corrupt dictionaries and VBA files sitting in your Dynamics GP program folders. The following are a number of steps to resolve most of these issues in a short period of time:

1)      Export all custom packages from the instance of GP that you are experiencing said errors. If you imported a package and received an error, ensure that you do not include the half-imported customization within your exportation (you will be importing the necessary package separately).

Purchase Orders, widely known as POs, is vital for keeping track of your orders and inventory as well as for both forecasting and reporting purposes. As far as small businesses are concerned, they consider Purchase Order Processing (POP) a hassle or an accountant’s concern. Well they need to realize that POP is an essential part of any retailer’s or wholesaler’s day to day operation. Even if you use your supplier’s B2B portal, it is important to enter the same information into your system as well. Not only does it help streamlining internal buying procedures but also it provides management information about costs.

Here are some of the reasons why you should consider implementing a POP module, if you haven’t already:

1. Cut time - intensive activities and increase efficiency. A single centralized system is linking all departments together and there is no need for paperwork. This also speeds up the movement of documents within and outside the company, because everything is in electronic format and staff can circulate the documents to each other instantly via e-mail and the internet.
2. View your costs instantly. POP allows you to have information about your committed costs concerning Purchasing prior even to receiving the relative invoice. That is, when an order is placed in the system upon a specific supplier, you can view your costs immediately in the form of a Purchase Order, without waiting to receive an invoice and key it in the system. Therefore, at the same time POP allows you to have better control over your expenditures.
3. Improve your cash forecasting. Recording Purchase Orders in your system and being able to define your future costs, enables you to predict your future cash flows more effectively.

WebSan Solutions offers Purchase Order Processing for Microsoft Dynamics GP to help you improve your vendor relationships and minimize your costs. For more information, join our webinar on Purchase Order Processing on October 17^th.

Doriana Kote, Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Finalist for 2013

Check out our YouTube page for great Dynamics GP Training videos and other informative tips!

Adam MacIntosh is a Senior Account & Project Manager with WebSan Solutions Inc, a Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner and 2013 Canadian Channel Elite Awards Winner.  Adam can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 416-499-1235 ext 213.

Users should keep in mind that all banking transactions need to be processed through a Chequebook ID in order to display in that bank subledger & that one should NEVER post a general journal entry to a bank GL account.  When we look at the Bank Transaction window, there is only a single Chequebook ID to allocate the transaction to.  This is the account to which this transaction will apply.  You will see in the lower portion of this window, you must explicitly state the other half of the GL portion of this entry.  This should NOT be a bank GL account as a general journal entry to that bank GL will not affect that bank’s subledger.

A transfer of funds from one account to another should be completed through the Bank Transfer Entry window where possible.  You will see on this window that there are two Chequebook IDs that must be identified.  Thus, this transaction will affect two separate bank subledgers.  One can only use this window wherein one of the account currencies is the functional currency (this is due to how GP treats the entries and is a restriction of the system).  When you need to enter these types of transactions, you will have to enter TWO separate bank transactions. One will be an Increase Adjustment to the ‘to’ account, the other a Decrease Adjustment to the ‘from’ account while using a clearing account to flow the funds through.

I thought I would share a couple useful posts from our friends at Dynamics University

Who Posted this Journal Entry?

http://dynamicsuniversity.com/article/dynamics-university-summer-2013/who-posted-journal-entry

Encumbrance Management for Non-Profits

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is held annually each September in Toronto and is one of the world's most prestigious events. This year the event takes place from September 5th to the 15th. TIFF is so special because it is publicly attended, so everyone has the chance to watch their favorite stars in action. So far this year's festival has been a huge success and has films from the most countries ever, as well as the largest number of world premieres in festival history. Did you know it actually boasts 146 World Premieres and films from 72 countries?

Our Time and Expense Management system offers you the option of booking time off for watching your favorite movie at TIFF. You can also see your request and get your time approved by your manager in real time, so there is no need to worry about paperwork procedures.

Our Time Off module benefits include:

• Requesting different time off types that is suitable for your business – eg. vacation, sick, paid and more
• Tracking who’s in and who’s out at any time
• Getting real time off balances
• Requesting time off right away

To find out more information about the other features of our Time and Expense Management System, click here.

Doriana Kote, Marketing Assistant, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Channel Elite Awards Winner for 2013

When a user posts an individual transaction in GP, that transaction will likely display in the Financial Series Post, saved to a batch with an odd, automated ID.  These IDs are auto-created by Dynamics GP & are based on the source document / originating module from which the transaction was posted.  Generally, the first 2-3 characters of the these Batch IDs are based on the module, with 3 or so more characters to identify the transaction type.  this is or course followed by a numeric counter.

If one reviews the Source Document listing in GP, that will generally tell them what all the abbreviations represent.  For those more technical, source documents can be found in SY00900 in the database.

Below, I have listed a number of the more common prefixes to an automated Batch ID and have noted the module which they represent.

Adam MacIntosh is a Senior Account & Project Manager with WebSan Solutions Inc, a Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner and 2013 Canadian Channel Elite Awards Winner.  Adam can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 416-499-1235 ext 213.

WebSan Solutions Inc. has won silver in the Best Small Business Solution category for this year’s CDN Channel Elite Awards. http://www.computerdealernews.com/channel-elite-awards/winners

This award honors the partner that has created the most innovative and problem-solving hardware, networking, cloud or software-based solution for an organization or department with up to 100 seats or less using the solution.

CDN is the voice of Canada's IT channel community for more than 25 years and defines an information technology solution provider as an organization that resells computer hardware, software or peripheral products along with providing IT-related professional services, support services, consulting in a cloud or on-demand environment, on-premise fashion or as managed service.

Congratulations WebSan Solutions! Well done team!

By: Natalie Williams, Application Developer, WebSan Solutions Inc. a Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner and 2013 Canadian Channel Elite Awards Winner.

In this year's Channell Elite Awards, WebSan Solutions Inc. has won the silver award in the Best Small Business Solution category: http://www.computerdealernews.com/channel-elite-awards/winners

This award honors the partner that has created the most innovative and problem solving hardware, networking, cloud or software-based solution for an organization or department with up to 100 seats or less using the solution.

As a winner, we were judged by a panel of CIO or IT director level executives. Category winners were chosen based on the following criteria:

Innovation - originality in the application of the IT solution to the business problem

Improved Sales or Revenue - evidence that the solution benefited the customer with improvement in sales, revenue or cost reduction measured in dollars or in percentage

As a follow up to my EFT for Dynamics GP 2010 blog this week, I thought I’d share a few common setup issues I’ve learned to overcome through my experience with various clients. It’s no secret that when dealing with financial institutions, time is often of the essence. Reversing an incorrect payment or attempting to stop payment to a certain vendor often requires hours of effort over the phone with representatives who may or may not be immediately helpful. As such, the following covers a few common setup issues when first setting up EFT for Dynamics GP 2010.

Having the Wrong Address ID Specified on Vendor Cards

One of the most common issues I’ve had clients ask me is why banking information for certain vendors shows up blank on generated EFT files. They’ve setup their file format correctly as per the specifications from their financial institution, setup the vendor card correctly to match the EFT file format (Where information is pulled from), and the transaction is posted and included in the EFT run with no issues. However when they generate an EFT file and upload to their financial institution website, they come to realize there is no financial information specified on the file.

This is a common issue which at first is a bit tricky to spot however can be resolved fairly quickly. Your first step is to double check whether you have actually entered banking information on the EFT BankMaintenance window. This may sound unnecessary (and obvious) however there are often cases where clients have two vendors with very similar names where one has EFT information specified versus the other which does not. To access the EFT Bank Maintenance window:

• Open the Vendor Maintenance window from the Purchasing Module in GP
• Lookup the vendor by Vendor ID and select the Address tab located at the bottom right of the window
• This will open the Vendor Address Maintenance window. Select the EFT Bank option to open the Vendor EFT Bank Maintenance window
• Here you will find all financial details from which your generated EFT file is pulling data from

If there is data specified here as you originally anticipated, close these newly opened windows and return to the Vendor Maintenance window. This brings us to the originally mentioned issue causing blank financial information to appear on your EFT file. While on the vendor card, check the Address IDs specified for different actions in GP as shown below:

If you find yourself always starting from scratch when creating custom VBA forms in Dynamics GP even though you've created other similar forms in the past, here's a little trick to save yourself some time:

1. Find a similar VBA form that you have already created and export that form to a package file using the Customization Maintenance window.

2. Browse to where you saved the package file and open the file in a text editor (such as Notepad).

3. Here you can do 2 key things that you can't do directly in Dynamics GP's VBE window.  The first thing you can do is change the name of the form by simply doing a Find & Replace and changing the existing form name to the new name you want to use.  The second thing you can do is change the Product ID.  You'll notice that when you create a form in a standard Dynamics GP module, you can't use it in Project Accounting (or other add-on modules).  By changing the Product ID at the top of the package file, you can make the form available in a different module.  So if you originally created the form for the Customer Maintenance window (Product ID 0), simply change the Product ID to 258 to now make it available in Project Accounting.

4. Save your changes to the package file.