The Dynamics GP Blogster

Happy April Fools' Day!! I guess David got away with this one :-)) I cannot begin to express how excited I am to the news that Microsoft Dexterity will now become a standard part of the Microsoft Visual Studio family of development products. The news was published today over at Developing for Dynamics GP blog under strict permissions granted by the Microsoft Dynamics GP Product Management and Marketing team. Since this was just a sneak peak, a lot of questions still remain, for example: Will intellisense capabilities be granted to SanScript functions and statements? I for one appreciate the inline help provided for functions and statements when developing in C# and VB.NET What versions of Visual Studio will be supported? I want to say, Visual Studio 2008, and Visual Studio 2010 are the most likely candidates. Will developers now be able to perform backward compatible developments under Visual Studio? This is, will there be a need to continue using the old Dexterity interface f...

One of the biggest challenges faced by third-party developers is the ability to establish the proper place to set a trigger. Remember, Dexterity developers don't usually work with source code. However, in the process of establishing the proper point for placing a trigger, we have help in the form of code traces. My friend David Musgrave is now determined to take the mistery (and guessing) by showing you a simple, but extremely useful concept that only he could coin a name for: the 3-Trigger Technique . David's articles can be found here: Using Dexterity 3-Trigger Technique - Part 1. Click here . Details the theory behind the implementation of this concept. Using Dexterity 3-Trigger Technique - Part 2. Click here . Implements the solution and provides sample code for the implementation of the technique. David also wants you to keep in mind the concepts that made the implementation of this technique possible: Three Trigger Technique Cross Dictionary Triggers Capturing and Using ...

Use tax is one of those things that many companies using Microsoft Dynamics GP immediately resort to third-party solutions without really considering the systems out-of-the-box capabilities. The reasons may be various, among them, a lack of awareness of the GP's capabilities to begin with. I had the opportunity to actively participate in the review of a document on Use Tax written by fellow Dynamics GP MVP, Mark Polino . In his document, Mark extensively covers the methods for configuring, tracking, and accounting for use tax in Microsoft Dynamics GP. Please make sure you download and read Mark's document as he has dedicated a significant amount of time working through the techniques and methods with GP out of the box functionality. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

Background This question came up in a recent Dynamics GP newgroup post . A developer was trying to run some Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code in response to the company selected by the user from the Company drop-down list, but was unsuccessful determining which company was selected by the user. Challenges From a customization and development perspective, the Company drop-down list presents the following challenges: 1) Different users may have access to different companies, therefore, the number of companies displayed by the drop-down may vary. 2) The company drop-down list does not store the company ID. It stores a positional value for the company record being displayed. 3) Companies are displayed in the drop-down by Company ID. However, due to challenge number 1, company IDs may present gaps in the sequence based on user access. Solution The following VBA code shows how to retrieve the company selected by the user based on the user access to the different company databases. T...

For those of you who have been asking about the flooding in Fargo, North Dakota, here is an update directly from my friend Tom Irsfeld . Amids the situation, Tom has taken time out to take these pictures and deliver a complete update from his vantage point. Thanks to all those who have asked about the flood. My neighborhood is in great shape, except for the yards that were trashed by heavy equipment. For those that have been following the Fargo flood, here is a little update. On Saturday, the river appears to have crested at 40.82 feet (previous record was 40.1 in 1897) & is now at 40.15 & trending downward. It was originally expected to get to 42 feet, so it is great that it didn’t go that high (although all city dikes were built to 43 feet). Barring something unforeseen, such as a major rainstorm or rapid melting, neither of which is predicted, we should be in the clear, unless one of the dikes gets a hole in it. Now all we have to do is watch the pumps from behind the dikes ...

I thought I would share how residents in Fargo and sorrounding communities are dealing with the flooding situation by posting the exchanges I have had with my dear friend of 13 years, Tom Irsfeld . Tom was a mentor and instrument to the success I have had in my career. In the mids of keeping an eye on his family and helping the community to safeguard their lives and properties he still finds time to have some humor and an upbeat spirit. This is true for all the people of North Dakota. 03/25/2009 Hey Mariano, You had asked about the flooding (I missed your call, I was out sandbagging yesterday). It’s easier to show via picture (using this great Microsoft product). So far we are okay. The red square is our house, Microsoft campus is about a mile to the left. The empty space behind the houses normally fills in with water only when the river level gets to about 30 feet or if we have a sudden heavy rain. The treeline on the right is the Rose Creek Coulee, it flows to the Red River in about ...

Due to the current flooding events in Fargo, North Dakota, home of the Microsoft Business Solutions campus, you will experience delays in the response to any support cases and newsgroup questions. For news updates on the flooding click here . We all develop a relationship with some of the individuals behind the phone at some point in time. Please keep the tech support team and the people in North Dakota living through this difficult times in your thoughts and prayers. I am also posting this Out of Office reply from my friend Tom Irsfeld for those of you who have development cases pending with the Global Development Team. It provides intructions for contacting individuals.  "As many of you have heard, Fargo is encountering a flood at this time, with the expected crest on Monday. The Microsoft campus is currently closed & may incur flooding as well. As a result, I will be out of the office for sandbagging, indefinitely. I may be able to respond to emails from home, but you sh...

Folks, I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have been asked this question. Despite working full time, having a family, a few children to take care of, one of the most successful blogs in the Dynamics GP community to keep up with, and a weekend full of activities, most of you may think that my life revolves around answering questions in the newsgroup -- well if you ask my wife, you may get a definitive YES to that statement. I do enjoy reading the Dynamics GP Newsgroup, the Dynamics GP Developer Newsgroup and the SQL Server Programming Newsgroup. These outlets are perhaps the best places [of my own interest] to pick up some of the everyday challenges facing users and developers from all around the world. In addition, I believe newsgroup participation is perhaps the best method -- bar training -- to maintain your competitive edge in this business. So here is the secret! From Monday to Friday, between the hours of 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, I review the newsgroups 4 times a day -- the o...

I have written a number of articles on my blog showcasing storing data in the DUOS , you may have read a number of postings on Developing for Dynamics GP on the subject, but many of you have asked what exactly is the DUOS and how to store and retrieve the data in the DUOS. For all its fancy name, simply put the DUOS is a SQL Server table - dbo.SY90000 - a part of your company database. However, there is more to it than meet the eyes. But first, lets take a look at the table definition: /****** Object: Table [dbo].[SY90000] Script Date: 03/23/2009 14:48:44 ******/ SET ANSI_NULLS OFF GO SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON GO SET ANSI_PADDING OFF GO CREATE TABLE [dbo].[SY90000]( [ObjectType] [char](31) NOT NULL, [ObjectID] [char](61) NOT NULL, [PropertyName] [char](31) NOT NULL, [PropertyValue] [char](133) NOT NULL, [DEX_ROW_ID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL, CONSTRAINT [PKSY90000] PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED ( [ObjectType] ASC, [ObjectID] ASC, [PropertyName] ASC ) WITH (PAD_INDEX...

If you are using Great Plains 8.0 you can download the Payroll Tax Update (Round 4) file by clicking here . Keep in mind that this script was developed for version 10, but runs just fine on version 8. I strongly encourage you to execute the script in a test environment to make sure the results are what you are aligned with your expectations. Once you've verified this, you can proceed to execute against your production environment. NOTE : They were additional changes included in a separate installation file to update Missouri's tax code. This script does not include those changes. I am in the process of working on the new installation file and will post back with the updated tax rates for Missouri. In addition, and according to Microsoft, The msp file for I-9 and Cobra changes will be available on March 25. Related Articles 2009 Payroll Tax Update for Microsoft Dynamics GP 8.0 Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness....

I was reading carefully through The Official Blog of Microsoft Dynamics GP and could not help to notice the fine print on the next release of Microsoft Dynamics GP covered at Convergence 2009 , among them, "version 11" is just the code name of the product and according to Microsoft's Product Management and Marketing team. In their own words " this is the internal name…we’ll likely ship with a different moniker for this release ". It is also said that code name "version 11" will ship with yet more integration capabilities to the Microsoft Office suite of applications, especially the all too neglected integration to Microsoft Word. The Dynamics GP home page is getting a face lift with tons of graphics and charts that will allow users to drill-down to the details behind those charts up to the point of reaching inquiry and transaction windows. You can click here to read more information about code name "version 11". Until next post! MG.- Marian...

Factoring receivable invoices is the sale of an asset - your company's invoices. The sale of your invoices to a third party - known as a Factor - eliminates the sale-to-collection business cycle of waiting for a customer payment. Usually, factoring companies will purchase your invoices for up to 90% of the total amount. You get your cash now and the factor takes on the risk of collecting the payments from your customers. The creditworthiness of your customers is very important if you want to get a good rate from a factor. What are the specific advantages? Immediate cash with no waiting and without incurring new debt: You receive quick payment following invoicing. To factor, your business credit rating is not an issue because you are not borrowing money Efficient handling of all your invoicing and data entry Relief from the responsibility for collecting no-pay and slow-pay clients You have expanded growth capacity through increased production and total sales Ability to take advantag...

Thanks for your participation in the workshop! I hope you enjoyed working on the project and understanding the techniques and ability to do custom complex customization with Modifier and VBA. I did receive quite a bit of feedback, some via email, some via comment posts to the workshop articles, but more impotantly, thanks for the 300+ hits a day while the workshop was being conducted. 200+ of you downloaded the code from day 3 and a good number of you participated from some of the most remote locations on the planet. That just keeps me going! If you liked the format of the worshop, send me your emails, pick the topic and the time and you most likely will see it here on my blog. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Welcome to the final installment of the Modifier with VBA workshop. Today we will work with lots of code, some of it very straight forward, some of it will show advanced techniques. Topics to be covered: UserInfoGet.CreateADOConnection() Method Dynamics Continuum Integration Library and Pass-through Dexterity Dynamic User Object Store (DUOS) But first, some more fields for our project. Since we will need to have a key for the additional field (Regulatory Agency) being stored, we will use the Equipment Number as the key -- the assumtion is the Regulatory Agency is the same at the equipment level, regardless of the item assigned to the equipment. 1) Open the Equipment Maintenance window. Go to Cards > Field Service > Equipment 2) Press Shift + F11 on your keyboard to activate the Add Fields... option. 3) Click on the Equipment Number field. 4) Click on the Save button. 5) Click on the Delete button. In addition, we will be introducing some professional grade code, so we will w...

Thanks to Dynamics GP MVP Monzer Osama for the clip live from the 2009 MVP Global Summit held in Seattle, Washington from March 1 to March 4. It's a shame we did not get to meet this year Monzer, but I am sure there will be plenty more of opportunities in the near feature. Related Articles Dynamics GP MVPs in the News - Click here Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Hi and thanks for following the workshop. The last installment of the workshop is moving to tomorrow Saturday 8:00 AM EST (GMT - 5:00). Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

Welcome to the second day of our Modifier with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) workshop! Today we will dive into adding objects (windows and fields) to VBA . This will set us one step closer to our final project. We will also be adding our first lines of code. Today's workshop will cover the following topics: Adding windows and fields to VBA Setting up cross-dictionary references with VBA Adding code with the VBA code editor Lets recap In the previous session we added some extra controls (a field, a lookup button, and a zoom button) to the Equipment Maintenance window. We also explored linking the field to its prompt and the lookup to its field. This is especially important if we want to provide some extra capabilities to our project. After all, you never know who will customize our customization. For more information check my previous article " The importance of linking your fields to their prompts . ADDING WINDOWS AND FIELDS TO VBA For our project, we will need to add t...

Overview Welcome to the first installment of this 3-day workshop! The workshop will be conducted today Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The format is simple: get your laptop or PC with Dynamics GP 10.0 and follow the instructions below. Try to complete each section of the workshop and post your questions. That's it! Today's workshop will focus on the essentials of Modifier by working with the Equipment Maintenance window in the Field Service series. The topics to be covered are as follow: Adding a window to Modifier Adding extra fields and controls to a modified window Working with field properties Linking fields to prompts Linking lookups to fields Granting security to modified windows Modifying the Equipment Maintenance Window The Equipment Maitenance window will require a new field, the Regulatory Entity, and a new Lookup button that will call our Customer Lookup window. 1) Open the Equipment Maintenance window. Go to Cards > Field Service > Equipment. 2) From Tools m...