Five Microsoft Dynamics GP Accounts Payable windows in need of renaming
As many of you know, I am now a member of Mekorma's Software Engineering team. A big part of what I do revolves around designing and engineering new features for our existing products and building entirely new products. In a cursory review of our flagship product, Mekorma MICR, I realized that Microsoft Dynamics GP has five (5) windows in need of some serious face lift. You see, the face lift is not because there's anything wrong with the windows layout, but rather, everything wrong with their titles.
2) Edit Payables Check Batch
The proposed name change for this window is Edit Payment Batch.
3) Edit Payables Checks
The proposed name change for this window is Edit Vendor Payments.
4) Print Payables Checks
The proposed name change for this window is Print Payables Documents.
5) Post Payables Checks
The proposed name change for this window is Post Payables Documents.
Until next post!
MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
In the days when all the Accounts Payable module could do was check printing, the title of these windows made perfect sense. However, times have evolved and product functionality has expanded to support multiple vendor payment methods: everything from traditional checks, to transferring of electronic funds (EFTs), to -- with the introduction of Dynamics GP 2016 -- credit card payments.
NOTE: The credit card payment feature supports building the payment batch and generating the remittances, but does not perform the actual charge and settlement of the credit card itself.
NOTE: The credit card payment feature supports building the payment batch and generating the remittances, but does not perform the actual charge and settlement of the credit card itself.
The windows are as follow:
1) Select Payables Checks
The proposed name change for this window is Build Payments Batch.
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| Select Payables Checks window |
The proposed name change for this window is Edit Payment Batch.
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| Edit Pauables Check Batch |
3) Edit Payables Checks
The proposed name change for this window is Edit Vendor Payments.
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| Edit Payables Checks |
4) Print Payables Checks
The proposed name change for this window is Print Payables Documents.
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| Print Payables Checks window |
5) Post Payables Checks
The proposed name change for this window is Post Payables Documents.
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| Post Payables Checks |
Some of these windows will need to undergo changes to prompts, values within drop-down lists, changes in button captions and even changes in reports to reflect the new realities. However, it is for the greater good of the product.
So, here's what I need... I need you to click on the following link and vote to push Microsoft to make these changes.
Here are a few immediate benefits of this change:
1. Increase relevancy of and provide clarity to the Accounts Payable functionality. Frankly, GP doesn't only print checks as a mean to pay vendors.
2. Increase product acceptance in international markets. Most countries outside of the USA and Canada do not generate checks as a payment instrument and the simple fact that all these windows make reference to checks (cheques elsewhere) can turn off a prospective client from buying the product or may put a re-seller to explain his or herself away.
3. Ease of understanding of product capabilities by customers and partners. You are the one who benefits directly as a result. Clear windows, with clear descriptions can only facilitate and reduce the amount of training required to understand the product.
4. Ability to expand into future payment methods without impacting customer's and partner's understanding of the product.
4. Ability to expand into future payment methods without impacting customer's and partner's understanding of the product.
So please get out there and vote!
Until next post!
MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Comments
You can also add to the renaming list, from the Sales Series, the Paid Transaction Removal window. Silly name as users think it is going to remove transactions from the system and don't run it therefore their fully paid transactions always remain in the open files
I am looking at this request as a future change to GP, and have a question for you...are people only wanting the name change to the window? In thinking about this there is a lot more "check" vs "payment" changes that could be made. Here are just a few things I have thought of and would like to get your opinion on this, also anyone else reading this blog that has voted on this feature request, can feel free to reply as well.
Here are some examples:
In the Batch Entry window, you have the origin of Computer Check, are you wanting this also to say payment? Or what about the reports that are printed from the windows you list out, each of the reports is either a computer check posting journal or computer check edit list. Would you want those to change? Fields within the window are also labeled "check" should those be changed too? As you can see this seems to snowball quickly so I am trying to get a handle on how far we should go with this.
Thanks for your feedback!
Jennifer Ranz
Thanks for replying to this. In fact, everything needs to be changed: prompts, DDL selections, reports, where check is being referenced. In your Batch Entry example, the DDL should probably say something like "Batch Payments" -- "Computer Checks" is frankly a thing of the past. In the case of the reports, one for one with what you listed, it be something like "Batch Payments Posting Journal", "Batch Payments Edit List".
I understand these changes are fairly extensive as it involves mostly searching for texts in the dictionary and replacing the messages, but if I remember correctly, the tool you guys had to export/import strings from the dictionary should help with this - we used it in the past to translate the dictionary. The rest is probably some cosmetic arrangements.
Best regards,
MG.-
Thank you for this wonderful article, the topic is quite interesting. I also think that this five Microsoft Dynamics windows must be renamed, because benefits of this change are good and will increase product acceptance in large extend.