As businesses grow and change, their needs grow and change also. If you started out small, as many businesses do, you might have been able to get by with a filing cabinet and a sharp pencil. Maybe you graduated to using spreadsheets and QuickBooks. But as your business continues to grow, and you continue to add staff as well as clients, entry-level tools might not be meeting your present needs and certainly won’t be positioning you for growth. Maybe it’s time for an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)  software solution like SalesPad Desktop and  Microsoft Dynamics GP .

Why ERP?

No doubt you are looking for ways to help your company operate more efficiently. You can actually save money and increase profits by automating with ERP. ERP software can help you organize your people and your programs to work smarter and achieve more. In fact, a solution such as Microsoft Dynamics GP will facilitate everything from operations and financial management to human resources, supply chain management, and manufacturing. ERP will connect the many aspects of your organization and give you better visibility, insight, and control over your business.

One system for everything

You probably weren’t in business very long before you discovered software options that promised to revolutionize various aspects of your business. You may even have tried some of them and had good success. But as your business grows, it becomes increasingly important to have a unified system whose components integrate well with each other. If you’ve purchased software piecemeal, (e.g., one system for accounting, one for human resources, another for manufacturing) they may not harmonize. Even if they get the job done, they will require a lot of duplicate input and will lack the level of seamless integration that your team needs to be genuinely effective. Reports run on one system may not take into account data from another system. You’re left with various versions of truth. An integrated ERP solution will bring the individual parts of your company into harmonized automation and turn a patchwork of software systems into a truly useful solution.

Why Dynamics GP?

When a company first introduces new technology, some employees may hesitate to use it. They may prefer to skip the whole learning curve and continue operating as they always have. Microsoft Dynamics GP has a huge advantage over other ERP systems. Because it is built on the Microsoft platform, the look and feel will be familiar to your employees who have been using other Microsoft tools such as Outlook. Dynamics GP will quickly win converts when they see how it can organize, automate, and protect against human error.  Managers will appreciate built-in securities and up to the minute reporting.

Why SalesPad

SalesPad works inside the Dynamics GP database and provides fantastic tools to manage order workflow while providing an intricate view of the current state of your operation.  If you process customer orders, stock inventory, and/or manage a supply chain then SalesPad can be extremely valuable to improving the quality of your customer service and increasing your profitability at the same time.

ERP software can help your small or midsized business become more efficient and profitable.

Custom Information Services has decades of experience in providing Line of Business software solutions. Let our   team of expert consultants   help your business reach the next level with a Microsoft Dynamics GP implementation. Contact Custom Information Services to learn more.

By Custom Information Services (CIS), www.customis.com

Since version 9.0 of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement was recently released, you’re probably wondering what the wizards at Microsoft could possibly be adding so soon. The latest update will be version 9.1, and it will offer users even more possibilities within the system.

Current Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE users will receive the update automatically as soon as it is released.

Two very exciting features that will come with the update are the introduction of Playbooks and the integration of Microsoft Teams.

Dynamics 365 Playbooks

The first feature we’re excited about is Playbooks. Playbooks will bring new capability to automating sales actions and will help your sales team with contingency planning and guidance through their sales process. For example, Playbooks in Dynamics 365 for Sales provides guidance to team members on actions to take on events such as when a decision maker leaves the organization while the team is working with them on a deal. It can also streamline and automate recurring tasks and responses to external events.

When one of your sales team engages with a prospect, Playbooks can trigger a list of activities and tasks that the seller should pursue to complete the sale successfully. A Playbook manager or anyone with the appropriate permissions will be allowed to configure Playbooks to match your organization’s best practices. You can define the triggers and the set of actions the trigger will initiate.

Business users such as a sales person or a service rep with the Playbook user role can launch one of the Playbook templates while they work on their records to ensure that best practices are applied consistently at every step.

Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement and the Integration of Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a platform that combines workplace chat, meetings, notes, and attachments. The service integrates with the company's Office 365 subscription office productivity suite, including Microsoft Office and Skype, and features extensions that can integrate with non-Microsoft products.

Microsoft Teams opens a world of possibilities for your teams to collaborate. More data will be available to those who need it. The integration of Microsoft Teams and Dynamics 365 will allow Microsoft Teams members to access Dynamics 365 records, even if they don’t have a Dynamics 365 license. Team members can be part of various team channels, and each team channel can connect to any Dynamics 365 customer record. Team members working together on an opportunity will have the data they need and the means to share it freely and automatically for the benefit of all. The chat functionality within Microsoft Teams will allow members to communicate at every stage of the sales process. Document Locations are also not a worry since Microsoft Teams and D365 share the same central SharePoint location.

With these two new features, Microsoft is providing salespeople more possibilities to excel in their jobs and enabling businesses to reach their goals.

If you’d like to know more about Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement version 9.1, contact our experts at Velosio.

By Velosio www.velosio.com

Ask any employee in your company and you’ll likely find that money is the number one source of stress. Studies continue to point to financial challenges as a source of concern for employees, which makes it a top priority for employers. Productivity and quality of work diminishes as employees dwell on tough financial questions. Employers are now taking an initiative to reduce these distractions by including financial wellness tools and programs with other traditional benefits. Here are the top financial wellness topics to discuss with employees.

Top Financial Challenges for Employees

Financial woes are becoming quite commonplace in the workforce and it hurts businesses as much as it does employees. As financial challenges continue to stack up, employers are observing a decrease in productivity, poor retention rates and lost revenues. As their financial troubles grow, employees are crippled with depression and anxiety, which results in a loss of motivation and poor health (which then leads to increased healthcare costs). Some of the top financial challenges for employees include:

1. Increase in credit card debt
2. Student loan debt
3. Unforeseen expenses
4. Increase in the cost of living
5. Sandwich generation – managing cost of children and caring for aging adults
6. Lack of knowledge with financial planning

Employers Are Taking Action by Offering Financial Wellness Programs

Employees need piece of mind and you, in turn, want a productive, attentive employee. This is exactly why many employers are taking action by offering financial wellness programs. Providing employees with support and guidance as they navigate common financial challenges is a win-win situation. A financial wellness program doesn’t have to be difficult to manage or expensive to deploy. To the contrary, many programs are simple and affordable. Here are four financial wellness programs that meet that exact description:

Best Money Moves: When tackling financial challenges, it’s hard to know where to start. Best Money Moves helps employees identify their source of stress, then guides them toward finding solutions. Employees work with vetted money coaches to learn how plan a successful financial future. They can also monitor actions with dashboards, calculators and other tools designed to keep them on the right track.

PayActiv: Bills aren’t always timed with paydays. Early access to earned pay is sometimes necessary in an emergency or makes a better option when compared to late payments or predatory loans. PayActiv enables employees to fill in the gap, meeting dire financial needs, between paychecks. There is no cost to the employer for this program. Employees pay a transaction fee when the service is used.

HOOPAYZ: Growing healthcare costs can quickly become a big burden to employees. HOOPAYZ is a concierge service that advocates for your employees. Personal advisors help employees understand their health benefits, work to reduce out-of-pocket spending and will address billing errors on behalf of employees.

GotZoom: Student loan debt is becoming a common issue as more millennials enter the workforce. These loans often take years to pay off and are a distraction to employees trying to save for the future. GotZoom leverages federal repayment programs to reduce or forgive student loans. Reducing this burden gives employees the opportunity to plan for their financial future, while making them more productive and attentive in the workplace.

Tackle Financial Challenges Head On with Financial Wellness Programs

The financial anxiety facing employees today is affecting productivity, which is why employers are expanding benefit programs to include financial wellness support. Tackle financial challenges head on by adding financial wellness programs like Best Money Moves, PayActiv, HOOPAYZ, and GotZoom. Contact Integrity Data for more information about these proven financial wellness tools you can share with employees today.

More and more organizations are looking for an easier way to do vendor invoice approval. The person able to authorize payment and signify his or her approval of a supplier invoice still requires an additional check signer. If the check exceeds a certain amount, a second check signer is required. This control supposedly gives multiple senior-level people the chance to stop a payment. In reality, it is more likely to only introduce another step into the payment process without really strengthening the control environment.

(more…)

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is an all-in-one business management solution that’s easy to use and adapt, helping you connect your business and make smarter decisions.  Built on functionality within Microsoft Dynamics NAV and adaptable to extend business applications to other Microsoft Cloud Services such as Office 365, Microsoft Flow, Power BI and PowerApps; Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Solution can grow as your business requirements change while taking advantage of the latest technology.

Customers that select Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Versions have a choice of either “Essentials” or “Premium”, in addition to either a Cloud ERP or On-Premise Deployment.  With either deployment, the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Manufacturing Capabilities “Premium” Version give you all of the vast functionality in “Essentials” plus robust manufacturing features such as:

Production Bill of Materials: Create bills of materials and calculate standard costs. Required for the configuration of all other Manufacturing modules.

Production Orders:  Create and manage production orders and post consumption and output to the production orders. After you have created a production order, you can calculate net requirements based on that production order. The Production Orders module includes a manual supply planning tool as an alternative to automatic planning. The Order Planning window provides the visibility and tools you need to manually plan for demand from sales lines and then to create different types of supply orders directly.

Agile Manufacturing:  This module enables you to run the Agile Manufacturing, Supply Planning, and Capacity Planning modules

Version Management:  Create and manage different versions of the manufacturing bill of materials and routings.

Supply Planning:  Plan material requirements based on demand with support for master production scheduling and materials requirements planning.  Basic Supply Planning includes:

• Automatic production orders and purchase orders.
• Action messages for fast and easy balancing of supply and demand.
• Support for bucket-less and bucketed material requirements planning.
• The Setup for items with their own reordering policy, including registration of whether they are manufactured by or purchased from a third party.

Demand Forecasting: Manage demand forecasting based on items. Input demand (sales) forecasts for products and components in a more convenient way (daily, monthly, quarterly). This data allows the system to plan and create production and purchase orders taking into consideration the demand forecast together with the level of available inventory and parameters of requirement planning.

Sales and Inventory Forecasting: You can use the Sales and Inventory Forecast extension to get deep insights about potential sales and a clear overview of expected stock-outs. The built-in Cortana Intelligence leverages historical data and helps you manage your stock and respond to your customers. Based on the forecast, the Sales and Inventory extension helps create replenishment requests for vendors and saves you time.

Capacity Planning:   Add capacities (work centers) to the manufacturing process. Set up routings and use these routings on production orders and in material requirements planning. View loads and the task list for the capacities.

Finite Loading: Manage finite loading of capacity-constraint resources. Taking capacity constraints into account so that no more work is assigned to a work center than the capacities can be expected to execute during a given time period. This is a simple tool without any optimization. Used with the Order Promising module, Finite Loading also enables the system to calculate capable-to-promise (CTP).

Machine Centers:  Add machine centers as capacities to the manufacturing process. Machine centers are designed to help you manage capacity of a single machine/producing resource. With machine centers, you can plan/manage capacity on several levels: on a more detailed level for machine centers and on a consolidated level for work centers. Machine centers allow users to store more default information about manufacturing processes, such as setup time or default scrap percentage.

Learn more about Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Posted by iCepts Technology Group, Inc. A Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Partner in Pennsylvania 

What exactly is Microsoft Flow? Microsoft Flow is a platform that lets you integrate solutions within your business. With Microsoft Flow we can set up some easy rules where based on a certain trigger various actions happen in one or more solutions. In this D365 In Focus video, Venkat will walk you through two scenarios of setting up Microsoft Flow. Check it out!

If you spend much of your day working inside Dynamics GP, I’d be willing to bet you are constantly on the lookout for Dynamics GP tips to help you save time and effort. In fact, requests for Dynamics GP tips are one of the most common things our consultants hear from clients. So, earlier this year, the consulting team and I sat down and created an e-book with some of their favorite tips and tricks.

Today, as an early holiday gift, I want to share it with the loyal audience of Dynamics GP users who count on this blog to help them make the most of their investment. Download your copy now (there’s no form to fill out).

Here’s a sneak peek at a few of the Dynamics GP tips and tricks you’ll find inside:

Dynamics GP Tip #1: Quickly Create New Users

Employees will come and go, this is one of the immutable truths of business. And, as any Dynamics GP user knows, creating accounts in the system for new employees can be a chore. Thankfully, with Dynamics GP 2015, Microsoft introduced a great new feature that makes this much easier. It’s called “Copy User Settings.” Instead of creating a checklist, now you can simply copy the home page and area settings from one user to another.

How it works:

1. Login as sa (only this account can create new users).
2. Use the main menu to navigate to Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Set Up > System > User > Copy User Settings.

Dynamics GP Tip #2: Keyboard Shortcuts for Copy and Paste

Did you know the copy and paste keyboard shortcuts you’ve grown to know and love in Microsoft Office are also available in Dynamics GP? If you like to do is much as you can without taking your hands off the keyboard, or you find right clicking frustrating, this tip is for you.

How it works:

• Control + C = copy
• Control + V = paste

Dynamics GP Tip #3: Allow/Prevent Account Entry

As anyone who has reconciled their accounts in Dynamics GP knows, keeping your general ledger and sub ledgers in sync is key. To help with this, it’s a good idea to prevent users from posting journal entries directly to your control account.

How it works:

1. Navigate to your GL account card
2. Uncheck the “allow account entry option

There you have it, three quick Dynamics GP tips to help you get more done in less time. Want more details on the tips we covered here? Get your copy of the Dynamics GP tips and tricks e-book. In it, you will find helpful screenshots and five more tips I didn’t cover here. Go ahead, give yourself the gift of more time.

Hungry for even more Dynamics GP tips and tricks? Visit our Dynamics GP FAQs page and blog. Here, our experts share a variety of helpful information for Dynamics GP users.

By: Laura Schomaker, Intelligent Technologies, Inc., a South Carolina Dynamics GP partner.

www.inteltech.com

Offer products and services from any CRM entity for your clients to purchase from CRM Portal using Dynamics Shopping Cart module. Add items to basket, and proceed to Checkout for payment. Solution includes:

CRM Shopping Cart Configuration Wizard (FREE) – Step by step Wizard to configure Dynamics CRM portal to display products or services as shopping list, view prices and product’s details read from CRM, and download product's related documentation.

Credit Card Payment Gateway – your client can now pay with credit card for products and services purchased online.

When purchasing process is completed two new records are created in CRM:
Payment record– stores the client's details.
Basket record– stores the item purchased online.

Download Trial Version and FREE (no strings attached) Portal Store - Configuration Wizard

http://www.dynamicsobjects.com/Our-Solutions/Shopping-Cart-for-CRM-Portal

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The post Shopping Cart for Dynamics CRM Portal with Payment Gateway appeared first on CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365.

To celebrate 1,200 tips I picked up a topic completely unrelated to Dynamics 365/CDS, as one cwshould. Well, sort of. I was working on some
materials related to Dynamics 365 Portals and, lo and behold, I needed some placeholders besides qwerty asdf.

Text

As a placeholder text, you can’t go past lorem ipsum and the original https://lipsum.com. But wouldn’t you rather have fun? Thanks to the we ingenious Any Ipsum WordPress plugin, we now have literally dozens generators on a topic of your liking. Some of my favorites:

Image

But what is the web site without those proverbial 1,000 words? As regular readers probably have noticed, my goto site for images is https://unsplash.com/ and has been for a long time. Just do the right thing and attribute when you can.

Sometimes you don’t need a fancy image of a “woman looking thoughtfully at a microchip schemata”, you just need a placeholder of a specific size. https://placeholder.com/ to the rescue. Need 128×64, green, and with the word w00t? Here you go (https://via.placeholder.com/128×64/00ff00/?text=w00t):

Color

Again, tons to choose from. Couple that I use

• Coolors – nice and easy
• Adobe Color CC – can match uploaded images
• Canva– less options than Adobe but seems to pipck the colors from an image better
• COLOURLovers– community site to get some inspiration from others

I am taking a slight diversion from posting about being hands on wtih teh enw functionality of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2. In the last post, I covered how to re-purpose the Intelligent Edge page; there s a similar re-purposing which can be done to the Connect section of the home page. This was originally posted by MVP Mariano Gomez back in 2014.

There are two Dex.ini switches which need to be added for the Connect section to be re-purposed. Once they’re in place, it will look like the below:

As you can see above, I have used Outlook.com in this exaple. The two switches required are shown below:

DebugConnect=TRUE
ConnectTestURL=https://www.outlook.com/

The Dex.ini file will need to be updated on all clients, but this can be done using GP Power Tools or it could be manually copied between clients.

Read original post Re-purpose Connect Section of Home Page at azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant