Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Go Live Setup Checklist

17 Sunday Dec 2017

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Inspired by a previous post of my follow MVP colleague Fredrik (see: https://dyntips.com/2017/08/02/data-validation-checklist/) I decided to take a closer look at the data validation checklist functionality

(a) for checking that all necessary system setups are made and
(b) for establishing a data migration or cutover plan, which helps ensuring that nothing important is forgotten before going live with D365FO.

Once the project was created, I started with the setup of the task areas, which can be realized by opening the configuration menu shown next.

While setting up those task areas, I noticed that this setup can easily become a lengthy and time-consuming process. Luckily, D365FO ships with a handy Excel add-in that alleviates the setup of those task areas. For details, please see the following screenprint.

The task areas can be setup in numerous ways. I decided to use the different D365FO modules as my task areas. If you want to follow the same approach, you can download the attached SampleGoLiveChecklistTaskAreas Excel File and use it for importing the task areas in your environment.

 

After the task areas are setup, the legal entities need to be specified …

… before the tasks can be setup. Setting up the data validation checklist tasks is the core of the data validation functionality. When setting up those tasks, you need to take the elements highlighted in the next screenprint into consideration. In the following, the highlighted elements will be explained in more detail.

No 1: Task
Here you have to provide a task description that you can freely define.

No 2: Area
This field allows linking the tasks to the task areas that have been setup before.

No 3: Menu item name
The menu item name allows you establishing a link to the setup form. Once this link is established, users can directly jump to the form where they have to make their setup.

The menu item linkage functionality is probably the most important functionality of the data validation checklist because it allows users opening the respective setup form without a lengthy search in the D365FO menu structure. There is, however, a catch with this menu item linkage. The catch is that unless you know all of the different menu items by heart and can enter them directly through the Excel add-in, you have to select them manually, which is a very time consuming process. To help you with this setup, I attached you the different tasks and menu item in this file (SampleGoLiveChecklist) that can be downloaded and used as a starting point for your own data validation project. Please note that this file includes tasks for all except the retail and warehouse management modules.

No 4: Display order
The display order code allows defining how the tasks are sorted and displayed in the task list.

No 5 & 6: Status & assigned to
The status and assigned to fields allow tracking the progress and the person responsible for a specific task.

No 7: Attachments
The attachment functionality is another great feature that is incorporated into the data validation checklist. It allows attaching comments through notes, links – for example to VSTS backlog items – and files that can be used to document the setups that have been made.

If you downloaded and imported the sample task areas and sample tasks that I provided for download, you will get a task list similar to the one shown in the next screenprint.

MS PowerApps ships with a default connection to D365FO and allows establishing a connection to the tables that hold the data validation checklist tasks.

 

After doing some tests with PowerApps, I feel that this and the other previously mentioned functionalities (work items, alerts, MS Flow) do not add much value but might rather complicate working on the different setup and configuration tasks. As a result, working directly on the data validation checklist seems – from the author’s perspective – the easiest and most efficient way.

 

Hope you enjoyed reading this post and that you find the provided downloadable task areas and task Excel documents useful. Till next time.

Make yourself heard

27 Thursday Apr 2017

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Recently, Microsoft launched this new website, which allows us helping to improve Microsoft Dynamics 365 and its family of products and solutions by discussing ideas, providing suggestions and giving feedback.

This site offers a great opportunity for all Dynamics community members to make their ideas and suggestions heard and/or to vote for features that have already been suggested by others.

The ideas and suggestions that get the most votes are likely to be built into future versions of the Dynamics 365 product family. Even though there is no guarantee that one’s idea will be realized, there is absolutely no chance that it will be considered if you do not make yourself heard and use this platform.

That’s why I would like to ask you to make use of the newly released site, not only to bring your own ideas forward but also to vote for other already existing ideas in order to make the Dynamics 365 product family even better in the future.

My personal current favorite finance & accounting related ideas are

  1. Address selection for collection letters
  2. Customer lump-sum depreciation of overdue customer positions (invoices)
  3. Foreign currency revaluation cash and bank management module
  4. Secure attachments for certain groups of users or security roles
  5. Single voucher per expense report
  6. Financial Reporting using Chart of Accounts translated descriptions
  7. Parallel / Multiple inventory valuation
  8. Provide ability to restrict ‘Project Stages’ by Security Roles or controlled by Workflow

Do you have other or better ideas?
Then share them on https://ideas.dynamics.com/ideas/ or vote and comment on already existing ones, such as the ones I listed above.

Many thanks for your support and helping making the Dynamics 365 product family better.

2 YEARS DYNAMICS AX FICO BLOG

04 Saturday Feb 2017

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It is now over two years that I started this blog.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for reading, sharing and commenting on the various posts that have been published here.

To makes things even better in the future and write about topics that are of interest to you, I prepared some short questions and would be happy if you could provide me some feedback.

Feel free to leave additional comments. Many thanks for your help!
P.S. For those of you who answered the questions and who are interested in purchasing the project accounting and controlling book that has been released recently, here is a $15 discount voucher that is valid for 2 weeks time (SXAD3AFC) for purchases through the CreateSpace e-shop.

Have a break, have a …

17 Saturday Oct 2015

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After going through all the previous blog posts on inventory reconciliation you might want to have a break. Interestingly, Dynamics AX offers some interesting things that you can do while having a break…

Just have a look at the AOT forms and search for “tutorial” and you might find “Memory”, “HorseRace” or “Tetris”. Please see the next screenshot.
EN_34_0010
You can either play those games yourself simply by opening the form or make them available for all you colleagues by following the next steps:

Step 1: Drag & drop the forms into the AOT menu item section
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Step 2: Drag & drop the newly created menu items into the Dynamics AX GlobalToolsMenu
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Result: You can open the various Games directly from the Dynamics AX File Menu and have some fun during your break 🙂EN_34_0025 EN_34_0030

Reuse number sequence parameters

08 Saturday Aug 2015

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If you have ever wondered about the “reuse numbers” parameters in the AP, AR and Project module and whether to check those parameters or not, have a look at the following descriptions.

For the sake of order, I will start off with a setup that uses separate number sequences (“Sale_69” and “Sale_72”) for the customer invoice and customer invoice voucher. Please note that the reuse numbers parameter is not activated for those number sequences.
EN_28_00100

To differentiate both number sequences, I setup the “Sale_69” number sequence with the prefix “CIV”, …EN_28_00200

… and the number sequence „Sale_72“ with the prefix „INV“.EN_28_00150

Against the background of this setup I posted a sales order invoice. The outcome of this posting is illustrated in the next screenshot.
EN_28_00250
As you can identify from this screenshot, the invoice number is taken from the “Sale_69” number sequence and the ledger voucher from the “Sale_72” number sequence.

Next, I activated the “reuse numbers” parameter for the customer invoice voucher and posted another sales order invoice.EN_28_00300

The outcome of this second transaction can be identified in the next screenshot.
EN_28_00350

As you can see from the previous screenshot, both, the invoice number and the ledger voucher number are now taken from the “Sale_69” number sequence. A major advantage of this outcome is that a single unique link between the invoice document and the ledger voucher is established. This unique link can be very beneficial especially in situations where you have to search for an invoice document based on the ledger voucher or vice versa.

Note: The other reuse numbers parameters in the AR, AP or Project module do have similar effects on the linkage of documents and ledger vouchers. For that reason, reference can be made to the previous explanations. 

Using the electronic signature feature to prevent mistakes

04 Saturday Jul 2015

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Within the previous two blog posts I showed you the setup of the database log and how it can be used to trace changes that have been made to different tables / fields in Dynamics AX.

While the database log helps you identifying the ones who made “mistakes” in the system, the Dynamics AX electronic signature feature can help you preventing those mistakes in the first place. In order to realize this, I use the standard Dynamics AX electronic signature functionality slightly different than intended. (For details on how to use the standard Dynamics AX electronic signature functionality, see e.g. the following TechNet site). I will illustrate you this slightly different usage of the electronic signature feature based on the following example.

Example:
In the organization administration module, I setup an electronic signature requirement for changes – other than inserts – to the inventory posting table.
EN_23_010
If somebody tries to change the inventory posting setup for example by altering the main account that has been setup previously…
EN_23_020
… the electronic signature window pops up.
EN_23_030
As no valid electronic certificate has been setup, the electronic signature window can only be left with “Cancel”, which triggers the following infolog and discards any changes that have been made to the original setup:
EN_23_040

In summary, by setting up electronic signature requirements without the required electronic signature certificates, critical Dynamics AX tables/fields can be locked for changes without making system modifications.

Database log – important fields from a finance perspective (2)

20 Saturday Jun 2015

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Against the background of the changes illustrated in the previous blog post, I logged the following tables/fields that are in my opinion the ones that should – from a financial perspective – be tracked at a minimum.

Fixed Assets
Setup section
18_FA_100
Fixed Assets18_FA_200Value models18_FA_300Fixed asset identifiers (if used)18_FA_400

Inventory
Setup section
18_INV_100
Items18_INV_200

Accounts Payable
Setup section18_AP_100Vendors
18_AP_200a

Accounts Receivable
Setup section18_AR_100Customers18_AR_200

Cash and bank management
Setup section18_BK_100Bank accounts18_BK_200

General Ledger
Setup section18_GL_100 18_GL_200 18_GL_300

Please note that the previously illustrated tables that should get logged from a financial perspective represent my opinion. This selection is not meant to be exhaustive nor definite and aims to provide you with a starting point for setting up the database log.

Please also note that you should avoid logging transaction tables as logging them might have a negative effect on system performance.

If you miss important tables/fields that should be logged in any Dynamics AX setup and country-environment, feel free to leave a comment on this site to help other Dynamics AX users getting their setup right.

Database log – important fields from a finance perspective (1)

20 Saturday Jun 2015

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If you ever used the Dynamics AX database log you might have realized that it can be pretty hard to find the correct tables and fields that you need to log. One of the underlying reasons for those difficulties is that the elements that you can find in the database log window use labels that differ from the names that you can find in the AOT. Due to the use of labels, some of the elements that you want to have tracked do even appear double in the database log setup window (see the following screenshot for an example). 18_00_000
To overcome this issue and to alleviate the identification of the correct tables and fields that should be logged from a financial perspective, I made the following changes:

1. The first change made ensures that the AOT table names rather than labels are referred to. This can be realized by making the following adjustment (see the next screenshots).
18_00_100 18_00_200 18_00_300 18_00_400 18_00_500Through the changes illustrated in the previous two screens, I ensure that the ConfigKeyLabels refer to names rather than labels.

2. The second change that I made is including the AOT name in addition to the label name in the Logsetup section of the database logging wizard18_00_600This change allows identifying the AOT table names and the original labels used and helps ensuring that the correct tables and fields get logged. 18_00_700

Beware ERP?

14 Saturday Feb 2015

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While travelling in Asia I noticed a strange traffic sign. I was wondering about the meaning of this sign as I knew the acronym ERP only in regards to Enterprise Resource Systems. Luckily Wikipedia helped me closing this gap in my knowledge. If you also wonder about the meaning or want to use the sign in one of your presentations, check out the following Wikipedia site: Road Sign

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