Invoice search AX2012 vs. AX7 (Part 2)

01 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by Ludwig Reinhard in Accounts Receivable

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Tags

customer, customer invoice search, invoice, search

Part 2: Invoice search AX7
Now let’s have a look at the invoice search capabilities in the new Dynamics AX 7.

Option 1: Invoice journal inquiry form
The first option available to search for customer invoices is the invoice journal inquiry form. In this form, a new search field has been introduced that does – on first sight – not seem to be able to search for invoices by using wildcards. Example:

An alternative to searching for the invoice number through the new search field is using the new filter options illustrated in the next two screen-prints.

Compared to the AX2012 filter options, those two filters seem inferior, as the use of wildcards is (currently) not possible.

Because of the numerous search results that I received from my prior searches I tried using the advanced filter options in addition …

… and noticed that the use of wildcards in the advanced filter form is possible and helps identifying the invoice I am searching for quickly. For details, please have a look at the following two screen-prints.
Note: A major difference and advantage compared to AX2012 is the ability to search for the customer name …
… and several other criteria in the standard search field available.

Option 2: Customer list page
An alternative to searching for invoices in the invoice register inquiry form is an invoice search via the “all customers” list page. Searching for invoices via the customer list page follows the same principles as in AX2012. That is, you need to apply an advanced filter first by adding joined table relations…

…before you can apply the search filter and identify the customer with the respective invoice record.

Once you have identified the respective customer account you need to apply a second filter in order to extract the invoice information you are looking for.

Option 3: Open customer invoice list page
Invoice searches in the open customer invoice list page work the same as in AX2012 except for the way how you enter filters. Please note that this form will show you only open invoices and if the invoice you are searching for is already paid, no invoice is filtered.

Option 4: Collections window
Searching for a specific customer invoice via the collection windows – note the new AX7 term “aged balances” – is identical to the search in AX2012.

That is, you have to use an advanced filter first to get your customer selected …

…and then apply a second filter in the collections form for the very customer you have selected.

Option 5: Customer service form
Searching for customer invoices in the customer service form works exactly as in AX2012.

Interestingly, AX7 supports the use of wildcards in the customer service form to identify the customer record … … and the invoice one is looking for.

Option 6: Enterprise Portal search functionality
As the Enterprise Portal is not an element of the new AX7 system, searching for invoices through the Enterprise Portal is not possible anymore.

Option 7: Enterprise search functionality
What has been said for the Enterprise Portal search also applies for the global enterprise search. That is, as the global enterprise search functionality is not part of the new AX7 version it cannot be used for invoice searches anymore.

If you have some additional hints on how to search for customer invoices in AX2012 and/or AX7, feel free to leave a comment on this site to help also other users that might have similar problems. Thank you very much and till next time.

Invoice search AX2012 vs. AX7 (Part 1)

01 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by Ludwig Reinhard in Accounts Receivable

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Tags

customer, customer invoice search, invoice, search

Especially employees working in the Sales and/or Accounts Receivable department regularly need to search for customer invoices and related customer payments. Within this post I want to show you different ways how one can search for customer invoices in order to give customers a quick feedback about their invoices and their account status.
This post is separated into two parts. Within the first part I will show you different ways how to search for customer invoices in AX2012. The second part does the same but for the new Dynamics AX7.
Note: The AX7 version used for this post is the so-called RTW (Ready to Web) version that was released on 24. February 2016.

Part 1: Invoice search AX2012
For the following illustrations and examples, I will search for customer invoice no. “CIV-000015”.

Option 1: Invoice journal inquiry form
A first option to search for customer invoices is the invoice journal inquiry form available in the Accounts Receivable module.

Searching for invoices through this form allows an easy and fast drill down into the customer transactions and the related customer settlements form as exemplified in the next screen-print.

Please be aware of the following limitations (disadvantages) of this form:

The invoice journal form does not show you customer invoices that have been created through the project module,
It is not possible to search for the customer name in this form.

Option 2: Customer list page
An alternative option to search for customer invoices is the “all customers” list page.

In this form you can make use of the advanced filter options to search for invoice numbers. Please see the next screen-prints for an example.

If you are using the all customers form to search for customer invoices you have to be aware of the following:

The invoices you are looking for are not shown in the customer list page directly. You rather need to open the customer transactions window and apply a second filter.
An invoice search in the customer list page may not always result in a single outcome. The next screenshot shows you an example where two customer records have been found that include an invoice ending with “*015”.

Note: The underlying reason for this search result is a project invoice ending with “015” that has been recorded for another customer. A small modification of the filter applied can help you overcoming this issue. Please see the next screen-print.

Option 3: Open customer invoice list page
The third option available that allows searching for customer invoices is the open customer invoices form.

This form will, however, only show you open invoices. If the invoice is already paid, no invoice is filtered in this form.

Option 4: Collections window
The fourth option to search for customer invoice is the collections list page. Users can apply advanced filters in this list page similar to the one shown previously for the “all customers” list page (option 2).

What has been mentioned for the customer list page above also applies here. That is, your search might result in more than a single customer record and …

…you might need making use of a second filter in the collections details form to find the invoice you are looking for.

Note: In my example I even had to change the transaction filter via the “show” button to identify the invoice I was looking for as this invoice had already been settled.

Option 5: Customer service form
If you are using the Dynamics AX retail features you can alternatively make use of the invoice filter functionalities available in the customer service form of the Call Center module. Please see the next screen-prints for an example.

Please note that you can easily open the customer invoices through clicking on the hyperlinks provided in this form. Example:

Note: The customer service form does not include project invoices as the invoice journal inquiry form shown above (option 1).

Option 6: Enterprise Portal search functionality
Another way to search for customer invoices is the invoice journal site available in the Dynamics AX Enterprise Portal.

A major advantage of this site are the manifold search options available (please see the next screen-print for details).

Please note that the limitations mentioned for the customer service form and invoice journal inquiry form do also apply if you are searching for invoices through this Enterprise Portal site.

Option 7: Enterprise search functionality
A final option to search for customer invoices is the so-called global search functionality. Example:

The major advantage of this search feature is that you are able to define what you want to search for through an individualized search configuration.

Before you are able to make use of this feature you have to make sure that your search queries do have the searchable property activated and that they do not infringe any best practice rule.

In addition, a periodic search process interval needs to be setup.

Additional information can be for the global search functionality can be found on the following sites: site1, site2.

Cleansing small value customer balances – addendum

06 Sunday Mar 2016

Posted by Ludwig Reinhard in Accounts Receivable

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

customer, Dynamics AX, payments, settlement

In one of the prior posts I showed you how customer pools can be used for identifying and writing-off small customer balances. (Please see the following two screenshots).

Problem
If you are trying to write-off a customer with a negative balance you might receive the following error message that interrupts the write-off process.

The underlying reason for this error is the following Accounts Receivable parameter which ensures a corresponding tax correction posting for the transactions that are written off.

Note that the error message does not pop up if the “separate sales tax” parameter is not activated. Deactivating this parameter is, however, not an option unless you want to pay more tax than necessary and generate wrong sales tax postings.

Please note that you might also encounter the error message shown above in situations where everything seems on first sight ok. Example:

In those cases the underlying reason for the error are usually credit transactions that are included in the total (overall positive) customer balance.

Solution 1
A first option to get the issue fixed is making the following code adjustments in the CustWriteOff class.

Result: Once the code adjustment is implemented, the negative customer balance can be written off.

Please note that Dynamics AX generates the write off transactions including the corresponding tax correction as exemplified in the next screen-print.

Also the small customer balance that includes a credit transaction can be written off.

Please note that Dynamics AX summarizes the different transactions included in the total balance and generates the corresponding tax adjustment transactions. If different tax rates have been used for posting the original transactions, several tax adjustment lines will be created.

Solution 2
If your management does not like to implement a code adjustment and/or if you are working with older Dynamics AX versions that do not have the collection functionalities available, you can alternatively follow the next steps to write off small customer transactions.

Step 1: Create a new customer payment journal

Step 2: Create a payment proposal

Step 3: Select the transactions that need to be written off

Note: Selecting a range of small transaction amounts requires specifying a SQL statement similar to the one exemplified in the previous screen-print. For additional details, please see e.g. this site.
The second approach illustrated here does not refer to small customer balances but instead to individual customer transactions that fall within the $-amount range specified in the SQL statement.

Step 4: Change method of payment
To ensure that the small customer transactions are posted against the correct ledger account, it is wise setting up a new method of payment that is linked to a “depreciation account”; in my example main account no. 618170. Once this method has been setup, all customer transactions that shall be cleansed need to be changed to this method.

Step 5: Select the correct sales tax group/item sales tax group
The last step before posting the journal requires ensuring that the correct sales tax groups and item sales tax groups are selected. Otherwise no tax correction will be posted.

How to avoid small (penny) differences on customer accounts?

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by Ludwig Reinhard in Accounts Receivable

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Tags

customer, Dynamics AX, payments, settlement

This post deals with the question how small (penny) differences on customer accounts can be avoided that arise when customers pay short.

Please note that the following descriptions and illustrations do only apply in Dynamics AX environments that do not make use of the automatic Accounts Receivable settlement functionality. That is, in systems that do not have the Accounts Receivable parameter “automatic settlement” activated.

Let’s have a look at the issue of small (penny) differences on customer accounts and how they can arise. The next screenshot shows you a customer transaction that was generated when a free-text invoice for a total amount of 5000 $ was posted.

Once the invoice becomes due, the customer pays 4995 $; that is, the customer pays 5$ short. The customer payment is recorded in a customer payment journal by entering the payment amount of 4995$ and marking the invoice that is paid. Please see the next two screenshots for details.

Note that you can reduce the settlement amount highlighted in the previous screenshot from 5000 $ to 4995 $. If you don’t, you will get the following message once you close the settlement form:

After posting the customer payment, the customer transaction form shows the following result:

What you can identify from the previous screenshot is that a small value balance of 5$ remains open. If you do not want to chase your customers for those small (“penny”) differences, the question arises what you can do with those small open customer balances and how they can be avoided altogether?

Cleansing small value customer balances
In order to “clean” small value customer balances you can setup a customer pool and write off the small balance amounts. The next screenshots illustrate you how this can be achieved in a standard Dynamics AX environment.

Step 1: Setup a customer pool that filters for small balance amounts

Step 2: Run the periodic Accounts Receivable “customer aging snapshot“ job

Step 3: Open the collections list page, select the small balance customer pool setup, select all records and click “write off”.

Avoiding small value customer balances altogether
To avoid small value customer balances altogether you can make use of the full settlement functionality that is available for Dynamics AX companies operating in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. To make this feature available in your country environment, simply open the CustOpenTrans form and either delete all country codes in the CountryRegionCodes field or add your country code there.

The next example illustrates the outcome of this system modification.

Example: For the same customer account used previously, a second free-text invoice for a total amount of 6000 $ is recorded. This time, the customer pays 10$ short. As previously, the customer payment is recorded in a customer payment journal as follows:

Once the settlement window is opened you can identify a new check box “full settlement”, which I selected. The result of this selection is that Dynamics AX considers the 10$ underpayment as cash discount and posts the underpayment correspondingly by referring to the automatic posting accounts setup in General Ledger.

If you double check the customer transactions form you can identify the 10$ cash discount posted. What you can also identify from this form is that no balance remains on the customer account from this transaction.

Final remark: Please note that the full settlement functionality can also be made available for vendor transactions simply by modifying the VendOpenTrans form as illustrated above for the CustOpenTrans form.

Dynamics 365FO/AX Finance & Controlling

Tag Archives: customer

Invoice search AX2012 vs. AX7 (Part 2)

Invoice search AX2012 vs. AX7 (Part 1)

Cleansing small value customer balances – addendum

How to avoid small (penny) differences on customer accounts?