Make way for the future with Cloud Migration

By now, we all know the benefits of a cloud-based ERP system – no in-house hardware, flexible subscriptions, integrated reporting, and so on. Microsoft is heavily investing in the ease and functionality of their cloud-based system, Azure, and many users are already experiencing massive benefits such as:

• Increased speed
• Secure enterprise/global presence
• Integrated development environments
• Disaster recovery assistance
• Flexible expenditure

However, before taking on a major migration to the cloud, you should be able to confidently answer these 3 questions:

1. How will my existing IT infrastructure be impacted by the cloud?
2. How will my key lines of business applications be impacted by the cloud?
3. Is my IT team ready to support the cloud?

Q: How will my existing IT infrastructure be impacted by the cloud?

A: This question may spawn a dozen more, but it’s important to look at how a migration to the cloud will affect your business in regards to:

• Physical and virtual servers
• SQL server(s)
• Monitoring
• Disaster recovery and backup
• Microsoft Licensing – can these be carried over into the cloud environment?
• Existing cloud subscriptions – flexible vs prepaid plans
• Collaboration tools
• Network connectivity

Each of these areas must be investigated to ensure a smooth transition and peak process performance.

Q: How will my key lines of business applications be impacted by the cloud?

A: Your ERP, CRM, Analytics, and other business-specific enterprise applications can all benefit from the cloud, but which to migrate first? Based on specific needs and workload, a timeline should be created to prep your users and IT team for each migration.

Doing this incrementally by Application or Business Unit individually will help you to manage the impact on your IT team.

Q: Is my IT team ready to support the cloud?

A: Based on workload, cloud support may be a blend between your IT team and vendor managed services. Be sure to assess and prepare for support services before launching your migration project. Our experienced Azure Cloud team assists our customers through this process, and most of the activities happen in the background without much or any impact on customer IT Teams.

Have questions? We’re here to help. Contact us at crowe.com/supportservices  to chat more about your upcoming cloud migration project.

Mike Grob

Mike.grob@crowe.com 

Crowe LLP

This blog post explains a problem that you can run into when using reference group controls with grouped data – and a solution for this problem.

I have a table which stores references to workers. The field has HcmWorkerRecId data type, i.e. it stores record IDs from HcmWorker table. When I drop this field to a grid on a form, the system uses Reference Group control, which shows human-readable data instead of RecId numbers. By default, it shows worker names.

There are multiple records for the same worker, therefore if I want to show data summarized data for each worker, I add grouping to the query:

TableWithRef_ds.queryBuildDataSource().addGroupByField(fieldNum(TableWithRef, Worker));

But the result isn’t correct – the reference group doesn’t show anything.

The grouping works correctly; I can see the right record IDs if I display them thought an Int64 control instead of a reference group.

The problem is that we group only by the record ID, but not by Name. And because Name is neither used in GROUP BY nor it has an aggregation function applied, its value is undefined and there is nothing to show.

Let’s fix it. Go to the data source in AOT and add reference data sources. Because Name field isn’t directly in HcmWorker table, we’ll need one more data source – DirPerson. Like this:

You can add them by right-clicking the Reference Data Sources node, choosing New Reference Data Source and then setting properties Join Relation and Name.

Then we can easily add an extra field to group by, this time from DirPerson table:

DirPerson_ds.queryBuildDataSource().addGroupByField(fieldNum(DirPerson, Name));

Voilà, names are back!

The IRS has proven over the last several months that they are actively enforcing the ACA by issuing letters to Applicable Large Employers (ALEs) who may have failed to comply with Affordable Care Act. Since the IRS is fully engaged in the Affordable Care Act audit process, it is more important than ever for US employers to mitigate their risk of being audited.

There are numerous factors that could potentially trigger an IRS audit. Complying with the ACA is perhaps the simplest way to avoid your chances of being audited. However, we all know ACA compliance can be a complex task. Here’s a few things that employers can do to avoid or minimize their chances of being audited:

Identify Employees that are Full-Time and Benefit Eligible

By now, most ALEs understand that employees who work 30 or more hours per week or average more than 130 hours per month are considered full-time and eligible for coverage. In order to identify these employees, it is important that you are actively managing employee eligibility for the entire calendar year.

Offer Quality Coverage to Full-Time Employees

Once an ALE has identified all of its full-time, eligible employees, it is important to extend offers of coverage at the correct time. Also, in order for employers to be in compliance with the ACA’s employer coverage mandate, employers must offer quality coverage. This means that employers must ensure that they are offering all full-time, eligible employees health coverage that meets minimum essential coverage, minimum value, and affordability guidelines.

Generate and Audit 1095-C Forms for Accuracy

ALEs must provide 1095-C forms to all full-time eligible employees at the end of each year. This form requires information such as whether each employee was offered health insurance, at what cost, and of what quality. One of the main triggers of an IRS audit is filing inaccurate data. Therefore, it is equally important for employers to review the 1095-C forms for accuracy before they are distributed. There are many different 1095-C code combinations for various coverage scenarios. You may want to use this blog as a resource to assist in reviewing your 1095-C forms.

Meet the IRS 1095-C Mailing Deadline

Employers must be sure to furnish accurate 1095-C forms to their employees by the IRS deadline. Failure to comply with the IRS deadline cannot only make you vulnerable to auditing, but it can also subject you to potential IRS penalties for non-filing. The IRS mailing deadline for sending out 1095-Cs to employees is typically the last day of January, however, this year for the 2018 filing year the deadline has been extended to March 4th, 2019.

Audit Form 1094-C

The key to avoiding an IRS audit is being pro-active about auditing and reviewing your information before it is sent to the IRS. Here are a few key items to review when auditing your 1094-C form:

• Ensure company name and EIN are correct.
  • Also be sure that your affiliated ALE members are listed in Part III (if applicable).
• Ensure that the authoritative transmittal box is checked (Line 19) for each EIN for which you are reporting.
• Ensure that the “Minimum Essential Coverage Offer Indicator” (Part III, Column a) is accurately checked for all 12 months or appropriate months.
  • Generally, if you offer an MEC plan, this should be marked “Yes” for All 12 Months – Individual months are then left blank.
• Ensure that the month full-time employee counts are correct (Part III, Column b), *unless you have selected the 98% Offer Method.

Meet the IRS 1094-C Filing Deadline

The IRS will be expecting a 1095-C form for every full-time employee, (or all those insured if you are self-insured) AND form 1094-C. These forms must be filed by the designated deadlines. Employers who are paper filing these forms needs to file these forms by February 28th, 2019. Employers using the Integrity Data ACA Solution to electronically file these forms (required for employers with more than 250 employees), must file them by April 1st, 2019.

Contact Integrity Data today for all your ACA Compliance needs.

Cloud computing and financial reporting are no longer just buzzwords — they are driving business transformation for small and midsize businesses. By bringing together business applications and familiar productivity tools, Microsoft Dynamics in the cloud can now offer the insights you need to better understand your customers and drive your success.

Intelligence as an advantage. Everything around us is measured, effectively making every business now a data-driven one. How can that be used to your advantage? Intelligent business solutions combine people, data, systems, and processes for a real-time view of what’s going on. Watching these data shifts can lead to more successful decision making, such as in which areas of your business you should invest in technology. This can be achieved with business analytics, like Power BI and Management Reporter.

Gain powerful, role-specific insight with charts and graphs both inside of Dynamics GP client and outside through a companion application, plus perform tasks and collaborate with others. View SQL Reporting Services, Microsoft Excel and Management Reporter reports from one central location, giving the ability to access data from virtually anywhere. Business Analyzer is optimized for tablets powered by Windows, iOS and Android platforms.

• PowerBI Dashboards and Reports

Several pre-made dashboards and reports are available that connect directly the Dynamics GP and accessible through PowerBI Desktop or on the Dynamics GP Homepage.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Grows Alongside Your Business

Includes the following functionality:

• Financial Management: including general ledger, workflows and audit trails, bank management, budgets, deferrals, bank reconciliation, dimensions, fixed assets, and currencies
• Supply Chain Management: including sales order management, basic receivables, purchase order management, locations, item transfers, and basic warehousing
• Other: including multiple languages, reason codes, extended text, Intrastat reporting, scheduled tasks, and integration with Outlook

Are you ready to use data to transform your business? Work with Accountnet to explore how Microsoft solutions for small and midsize businesses can help you get more out of the data you already have and put it to work for you. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Accountnet helps companies get up and running with Microsoft Dynamics. We don’t just install and configure the software — we also train your accounting staff to use it to create the reports they need, so they can analyze data as needed. Our solutions enable better workflow and provide all accounting users the information they must have to do their jobs well — wherever they are, in whatever application they choose to use. Take the next step toward growth with Microsoft Dynamics. Contact us at Accountnet to learn more call 212-Dynamics.

Written by Accountnet, Inc.

Twitter: DynamicsNewYork

Let’s be honest here: When the end of a calendar year arrives many companies loathe preparing to do full year-end inventory counts, and we can’t possibly blame them. Because Insight Works remains dedicated to its cherished client base, we’re always looking for ways to ease any hardships in an operational process, and when it comes to inventory, that solution arrives in the form of our Advanced Inventory Count, an add-on that can significantly reduce count times and streamline the entire process.

From Christmas parties to cracking open that bottle of champagne at midnight during New Year’s Eve celebrations, the end of an annual period signals a myriad of traditional formalities, but for most retailers it also means the rigorous procedure of counting their products. While not the most glamorous way to finish off the year, this period is essential for businesses large and small to complete inventory for year-end tax requirements and financial statements.

What makes conducting a physical inventory count so daunting? It’s monotonous, it requires pinpoint precision and it takes valuable time to do correctly. One of the more difficult aspects about year-end counts can be finding the time; scheduling time to shut everything down to complete counts in-store and at any warehouse can affect business revenues – particularly during a busy shopping season. Then, there’s the issue of setting up a team to complete some prep work in advance, to say nothing of the auditing process along the way and other roadblocks.

Using KONG as a Great Example

One of Insight Works’ clients, The Kong Company (stylized as KONG), not only increased its inventory accuracy but realized multiple benefits by utilizing a system like our Advanced Inventory Count. In a nutshell, here was the problem: When it came to the company’s warehouse and distribution centers, being able to maintain an accurate count of inventory was becoming increasingly difficult. Using its old system, KONG reps would perform very few cycle counts due to the time involved in counting, and this would result in inaccurate inventory records.

Indeed, KONG experienced a myriad of other inventory-related issues which trickled down to affect time-intensive operations, global distribution centers, count errors, stock receiving, onboarding of new staff and more, with the organization unable to keep pace with its growth.

Enter Advanced Inventory Count

When KONG turned to Insight Works for help, the integration of our Warehouse Insight and Advanced Inventory Count add-ons for Business Central replaced its homegrown ERP system, proving to be the perfect solution – all the warehouse management system functionality KONG required was fully realized.

Here’s how KONG benefitted, at-a-glance:

• The Insight Works add-on for Dynamics 365 Business Central made it simple to add scanning capabilities to Kong’s new NAV environment.
• Barcode-enabled pick lists and the ability to create barcode labels for bins helped the company’s overall process.
• The company’s remote operations were now able to access Microsoft Dynamics NAV via Citrix desktop virtualization.
• Overall time savings was realized when counting inventory.
• Inventory management efficiencies were increased.
• Significant cost-savings were realized, staff time was re-allocated to more productive tasks, customer satisfaction soared and capital resources were used more efficiently.

And this is only scratching the surface of what Advanced Inventory Count did for KONG.

About Advanced Inventory Count

We like to think of Advanced Inventory Count as an inventory count system that pays for itself, ultimately enabling inventory managers to simplify inventory and cycle counts with comprehensive data entry, reconciliation, posting and analysis tools.

By turning to Advanced Inventory Count when the end of year arrives, your company can:

• Easily perform manually-entered or barcoded inventory counts and cycle counts
• Automatically reconcile and post lot or serial number discrepancies
• Predefine count sheets or allow users to complete ad hoc inventory counts
• Create formal recount sheets to track count issues and resolutions
• Retain historical statistics for prior counts to judge trends and performance
• Support all location configurations, from non-mandatory bins to directed pick with warehouse item tracking features
• Enable multi-user manual entry for non-barcoded counts while adding count sheets on the fly

Learn more about streamlining your inventory counts.

Let’s start this year with something completely different. But before we dive in – I’d like to wish you all love, happiness, perfect health and all you want me to wish for you … for 2019! Let’s turn this year into a blast!

Off Topic

To start off the year – this is going to be a completely off-topic topic, as I’m not going to show you anything useful, development-related, … or anything like that. Well, it’s not *that* off-topic .. you’ll see.

I bought myself a Xmas present

After quite some research, I got really interested in 3D printing. Don’t ask me why – I just thought it was so cool to be able to create (print) real objects whenever needed (in my case: “wanted” – there is not anything I really *need* to print ;-)). So after my last working-day of 2018, I headed to the store, bought myself my own present, told my wife that I took care for her to buy me a present, got into a discussion, got out of the discussion, installed the printer – and have been printing ever since (for +2 straight weeks, night and day).

What does this have to do with you?

Well, nothing major. Probably you don’t care about this robot I made for my youngest son

Or this trash can (that I needed to throw away all the failed prints)

I’m not kidding:

But .. after a while, one starts to wonder:

what if I wanted to design my own stuff

And I did. And this is where it might be of any interest of you ;-).

I pressed “start” in windows10, typed “3D” and noticed there is something called “3D Paint” and “3D Builder”. After one youtube video, I decided to try building the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central logo. You know, this one:

Simply, because I couldn’t find it anywhere!

It only took me an hour to build something that I thought was good enough – and tried it out.

Pretty good, huh :-). I am SO happy with the result – I already have some print-orders from some colleagues ;-). Here you see the finished result on my backpack:

Can I have this design?

How dare you ask this. OF COURSE you can have it. I made this design available on Thingiverse – a community where people can share their designs for others to print! Here it is: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3329599

Download, and use at will! And if you print it – please post a make!

Is that all?

Well, no – now that I designed the 3D version of this logo, I can do stuff with it. It is “an object” afterall ;-). So what if I want to apply this to an already existing design. Let’s just take “Docker” as an example. One day, I stumbled on this thing: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2941577

A design for a docker logo for kids to play with putting containers on the whale.

For this, I created a remix, where I put the logo of Business Central on the containers. You know, to resemble the great work of Freddy and Tobias putting Business Central on Docker ;-).

Here is the remix: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3345129, which looks like this:

This is not where it stops

Not even close. I have a lot of ideas to use this logo for. Like phone stands, or phone covers, or … you’ll see ;-). I have one awesome idea that I would like to be able to create – but it will involve quite some skills both in 3D design as in finetuning my printer for a very detailed print (I’m still not happy with how it prints (yet)).. . If I succeed – I’ll definitely share it ;-).

Of course I will not share every design or print in this blog – this has actually not too much to with Business Central. But you can keep an eye on my designs here: https://www.thingiverse.com/waldo1001/designs. There are a few more that I need to put on there that I already did .. but that’ll be for another day ;-).

If YOU have an idea that you think would be cool – please share! I’m all ears.

Welcome to my new hobby ;-). It beats “waiting for the next season of Game Of Thrones” any day ;-).

Well here I am four years later. Dynamics GP is where I want to be. I know they are pushing Business Central but I am too old to learn about some shiny new object. There is plenty of work out there for GP and I do not see it going anywhere soon.

With Dynamics SPO, CRM users can upload CRM documents, with metadata from CRM records, to any folder and related folders in SharePoint Locations.

Click here to download free trial version.

Two new features released today.

New Metadata - Multi-Select Option Sets

When the metadata is retrieved from CRM field of multi-select option set, the selected options are saved in SharePoint metadata column as comma separated list.

In below example, we configured the field States in the custom entity Project to be uploaded to the States column in the SharePoint Document Library. Sorting projects by States, groups all projects that are in the same states.

Another feature helping SharePoint users to efficiently filter and display records using metadata.

CRMURL

When the user opens CRM record, the SharePoint location URL of all the documents uploaded from CRM to SharePoint are displayed in a sub-grid in the record form.

The new feature allows a SharePoint user with access to CRM, to click and open the CRM record, while in SharePoint, to view the record details in the CRM form.

This feature enhances the link between CRM and SharePoint, as documents and record’s details can now be viewed in both platforms.

To add CRMURL metadata you firstly need to configure SPO Connection Details with the CRM URL (like:   https://xxx.crm.dynamics.com), and then add column with the name CRMURL in SharePoint

The post Dynamics SharePoint Organizer (SPO) – New Features appeared first on CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365.

A selection of announcements from the Dynamics partner channel

A selection of the latest insights from the Dynamics GP blogs