| > | | | | of Great Plains master records (Customer, Vendor, GL |
| Before you decide on purchasing and implementing | | | | Account, Addresses, Employee, Inventory Item, etc.). |
| new Corporate ERP application, we assume you do | | | | Obviously in both IM and eConnect programming |
| your homework, including reading various reviews and | | | | scenarios you can pull data from non-Microsoft DB |
| user’s opinions. This publication is intended to | | | | platforms, such as Oracle, DB II, Progress, Pervasive |
| give you some initial info on Microsoft Dynamics GP, | | | | SQL, MySQL — they just need to be ODBC |
| sometimes also referred by its historical name | | | | compliant |
| — Great Plains Dynamics, we will give you high | | | | 5. SOP Reporting. The most popular report you |
| lights on Sales Order Processing (SOP) module: | | | | typically want to modify is Invoice, where you usually |
| settings, transactions, its openness to customization, | | | | place your company logo, disclaimers, fit it to your |
| integration, reporting and how it might be involved in | | | | company custom envelop for mailing. These |
| ecommerce and warehouse management scenarios. | | | | modifications are done in Dynamics GP Report Writer. |
| We tried to be reasonably technical (your IT | | | | Also you have numerous SOP related reports in |
| department, programmers, report designers) and at the | | | | SSRS (Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services), we |
| same time understood on the controller level or even | | | | also often see Great Plains customers to deploy |
| business owner: | | | | Crystal Reports, MS Access, direct web publishing. |
| 1. General functional review. SOP gives you the | | | | With Dynamics GP version 2010 you will see more |
| power to automate your sales cycle, starting with | | | | options with Excel reports. If you plan to design |
| Quote, then working all the way through negotiation | | | | reports in Crystal, you should probably review |
| (including hold options, where quote price negotiation | | | | Dynamics GP table structure — it is available |
| might be blocked by Sales director) and transforming | | | | either via GP SDK or if you are in user interface |
| Quote to Sales Order (or directly to Invoice, if Order | | | | simply follow this command: Dynamics |
| fulfillment is not a concern). Order allows you to pick | | | | GP->Tools->Resource Descriptions->Tables. You |
| and pack items (or possible find replacement parts). | | | | should be able to find info about such tables as |
| Order also has Allocation feature (also often | | | | SOP10100 (SOP Header for work document), |
| referred as Fulfillment in WMS lexicon). There is also | | | | SOP10200 (SOP line for work document), SOP30200 |
| Backorder mechanism, allowing you to order missing | | | | (SOP header for posted document), SOP30300 (SOP |
| parts from suppliers. When Order is fulfilled — | | | | line for posted transaction) |
| it is transformed into Invoice. Sales Document has | | | | 6. SOP and eCommerce. SOP transaction is one of |
| access to Inventory items, plus in some cases you | | | | the most popular targets for e-commerce shopping |
| may use Service items (they do not require allocation, | | | | cart integrations (such ecommerce shopping cart |
| but you can still track Quantities Sold in reporting and | | | | platforms as Magento/PHP, ASP .Net Storefront) |
| inquiries) or even so-called non inventory items (simply | | | | 7. SOP and Warehouse Management System. |
| free style text on the SOP document lines). Returns | | | | WMS opens Dynamics GP for Barcode scanning; |
| are also entered in SOP transaction entry form | | | | such feature as Order Fulfillment is done with direct |
| 2. SOP Settings. Here you specify defaults, such as | | | | integration to SOP Invoice or Sales Order without |
| site ID (or default warehouse to allocate or pick items | | | | automatic allocation — your WMS user |
| against the SOP transaction: Sales Order or Invoice). | | | | (warehouse worker with Barcode scanner) does the |
| In data entry defaults you specify such parameters, | | | | allocation manually on the warehouse floor |
| as what to do in the case of Quantity Shortage | | | | 8. SOP and EDI (Electronic Document Interchange). If |
| (Override Shortage, Sell Balance, Backorder Balance, | | | | you are large or midsize manufacturer or wholesaler, |
| etc.). You have the option to name user defined | | | | chances are high that you are requiring your |
| fields (and you can force them as required in | | | | customers or franchisees to place their orders via EDI |
| Dynamics GP Modifier module). You also can define | | | | channel. EDI media often works via FTP, email, http |
| process holds — hold is placed automatically if | | | | post. EDI in this scenario creates and allocates SOP |
| you assign it to SOP Type ID and can be only | | | | Invoices or Sales Orders (or sometimes just allocates |
| removed by authorized Dynamics GP user, as | | | | or fulfills in EDI jargon) |
| specified in the hold’s settings. Plus — | | | | 9. Dynamics GP availability internationally. It is available |
| additional features, we are trying to be reasonably | | | | in English speaking countries: USA, Canada, Australia, |
| laconic. | | | | UK, New Zealand, plus it is available in South East Asia |
| 3. Sales Order Processing customization. The most | | | | where English is used as the language of business: |
| popular modification tools are Microsoft Dexterity | | | | Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, also in Oceania. There |
| (also often referred as Great Plains Dexterity), Modifier | | | | is Canadian French version for Quebec/Montreal. |
| with VBA, Visual Studio Libraries for GP (often you | | | | Dynamics GP is also available in Spanish for Latin |
| need to be also familiar with Dexterity to be efficient in | | | | America and Caribbean basin |
| extending Great Plains screens by C# or VB.Net | | | | 10. Contact info. Call us 1-866-528-0577, |
| programming, especially in such capacities as | | | | 1-630-961-5918. We are Dynamics GP Integrator, |
| introducing and adding new table directly in Dex) | | | | Customization, Reporting and generic implementation |
| 4. SOP integration tools. We recommend Dynamics | | | | company. We also absolutely support all the versions |
| GP Integration Manager, which is open to end user and | | | | of Great Plains, starting from Great Plains Accounting |
| only requires introduction level training; plus IM has good | | | | for DOS, Windows and Mac and ending with current |
| exposure to integration logic alteration via VBA event | | | | version Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010. By the nature |
| handlers. If you are focused on real time integrations, | | | | of our market niche we are serving to you USA, |
| IM has the options to schedule integration to run in | | | | Canada nationwide and internationally. Local walk in |
| quasi real time, say every 15 minutes. Another tool, or | | | | service is available in Southern California (San Diego, |
| rather SDK is Dynamics GP eConnect, where you can | | | | Orange County, Los Angeles), Houston, Chicago, |
| add eConnect libraries directly to your Microsoft Visual | | | | Western Michigan (St. |
| Studio project and trigger creation, change or deletion | | | | |