Alex Chow, Author at Confessions of a Dynamics 365 Business Central Consultant

Find and Replace Data in Dynamics NAV 2016 with RapidStart

Overview
One of the powerful tools in the old Navision classic client was the ability to do a Find/Replace. For example, if you wanted to change the Salesperson Code on the Customer Card from one value to another, just go to the field you want and click on Find, then Replace.

When you click on Replace All, it will find all values on this field with PS and replace it with AH.

This was a great function that allows the user to manually do mass change on the data without having to ask a NAV developer to write a process only report or some other modification to do the mass data change. While dangerous, this function did more good than bad in the companies that I work with.

New Version
When Microsoft released the Role Tailored Client, now called the Windows Client, they took away this ability. Instead, they gave us… This?

Yes, we’ve gotten a lot of calls from our clients asking us what happened here.

The New Find/Replace
Thankfully, there’s another tool that can replace the Find/Replace option in Dynamics NAV. The tools is using the RapidStart functionality that’s built into Dynamics NAV. The nice thing about using RapidStart is that it validates whether the data is good or not.

Here’s a 2 minute video that shows you how to do a Find and Replace in Dynamics NAV 2016 using RapidStart.

Undo Receipt with Directed Put-away and Pick for Dynamics NAV

Overview
Undo receipt has become a necessity in some warehouse environments where the staff may not be able to keep up with the paper flow. Strictly speaking, the undo receipt process shouldn’t be necessary because the process in place should be able to accommodate. However, if there is a situation where a department “can’t keep up”, it usually means that something is wrong within that particular department. It may not be the people, it may just be how things are being done or may just lack the manpower.

Nonetheless, while you’re trying to figure out a more efficient way in that particular department; in our case the warehouse, mistakes in receipt will be made. We need to be able to correct the mistakes in the warehouse without causing the other departments (such as accounting) a ton of headaches on reversing.

Undo Receipt
The Undo Receipt functionality is pretty straightforward. Basically, you just bring up the Posted Purchase Receipts and do the undo receipt. In fact, it’s so easy it’s explained in a step by step instruction here: Undo Receipt in Dynamics NAV

Undo Receipt with Directed Pick & Put-away
When you enable the Directed Put-away and Pick (or the full Warehouse Management in Dynamics NAV), it may be a little more complicated.

If you follow the steps on MSDN, you’ll get one of these 2 error messages:

“You cannot undo line xxxxx because warehouse activity lines have already been posted.”

“You cannot undo line xxxxx because there is not sufficient content in the receiving bins.”

One error says you do not have enough on the receiving bin for undo, the other error message says you have a put-away (registered or not) out there.

How Is This Possible?
Right now you may be asking, “how is it possible to register the put-away when it’s physically not there?”

You’re absolutely right. It is impossible to physically put-away something that you didn’t even receive. This is what makes Warehouse Management in Dynamics NAV work; it’s the accuracy of data entry from the actions performed in the warehouse. In real time!

The real problem here is the process within the warehouse receiving department. If the procedures are followed, you should never have to undo. We have to dig deeper on why the warehouse receiving staff are not following the rules for unloading the truck and putting the stuff away. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons why the procedures cannot be followed. In those cases, a new process needs to be thought out to better accommodate the receiving staff.

Resolving issues like this may take a while and this is where we spend time with the client. Often times, I wish it was as easy as just telling the warehouse people to just follow directions.

But I digress…

Undo Receipt After the Put-away is Registered
Here are the steps that need to be done in order to undo receipt after the put-away is registered.

Delete the Registered Pick:
1. Locate the Posted Purch. Receipt
2. Click on Navigate
3. Show the Posted Whse. Receipt Line
4. Click on Navigate –> Show Posted Whse. Document
5. Click on Navigate –> Registered Put-away lines
6. Click on Navigate –> Show Registered Document
7. Push Delete

Adjust the items into the Receipt Bin. In this case, our receipt bin is R:
1. Warehouse Item Journal
2. Negative adjust the item from the bin you want to take out
3. Positive adjust the quantity to the R bin

Do the undo Receipt:
1. Locate the Posted Purch. Receipt
2. Click on the line that you want to undo receipt
3. Click on Function –> Undo Receipt

Conclusion
This is just to get by until you can get to the bottom of why the receiving staff are having trouble with receiving. That’s where the real problem and the solution lies.

Why it makes sense to upgrade to (at least) Dynamics NAV 2015

Overview
As you are all probably know, Microsoft has announced the next release of Dynamics NAV, called Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016. With this release, there are a lot of fantastic features that are out of the box. Here’s an image of the planned features releases for Dynamics NAV 2016:

Historically, there are 2 major time consuming portion of an upgrade:

Code Merge
Data Upgrade

However, since the release of Dynamics NAV 2015, Microsoft introduced a number of PowerShell cmdlet to automate the upgrade process.

One of the cmdlet in the Development Shell called Merge-NAVApplicationObject, it essentially merges the application code for you and spits out any conflicts for you to resolve manually.

Additionally, Microsoft also introduced the cmdlet Start-NavDataUpgrade that will essentially run the upgrade toolkit for all companies as a script.

This means what used to take hundreds (sometimes thousands) of hours for an upgrade can now be done at a fraction of the time!

Not only major upgrades, you can use the same method to apply hotfixes that are released every month into your database without spending tons of hours on consulting fees.

All this… Providing you upgrade to at least Dynamics NAV 2015.

The Strategy Behind This
Prior to Dynamics NAV 2015, clients would wait, and wait, and wait, then wait some more until they find a version with the improvements they like; or sometimes wait until they can’t run Dynamics NAV in their current operating system before they even consider upgrading. This is why you see some end user sites running version 5.0, 4.0, 3.7, or even 2.0!

The problem when you’re behind on the versions in any software is that when you do decide to upgrade, it’ll be a major impact on your business and your budget. In some cases, companies running on older version of Dynamics NAV (or Navision as it was called back then) may decide to get rid of Navision and make the mistake of moving into a competing product.

This is a threat to Microsoft and they realize this. With the Upgrade cmdlets, Microsoft finally has a solution to this.

What Microsoft Hopes You Do
With these improvements, instead of having a major upgrade, you would do “incremental” upgrades (hotfixes every month, R2 releases, etc). This means that you would implement Dynamics NAV, apply all the monthly release hotfixes with the cmdlets, then use the same method to upgrade to the newer version when it’s released.

This goal is that when you guys do go to a newer version, the impact on your business and your budget will be incredibly minor; while the benefits for the newer version will have greater beneficial impact for your business.

What Microsoft do not want you to do is to wait and then do a big version jump with a big upgrade cost.

Conclusion
As any developer that have use the upgrade cmdlets will tell you, it’s good but it’s not perfect. However, it’s a FANTASTIC starting point.

What my personal hope is that the upgrade process will be so easy with future releases that the end user can run the upgrade themselves, rather than to hire a consultant to do it for them.

When to Expect the Next Promotion for Dynamics NAV

Just a quick note on when to expect the next Dynamics NAV promotion from Microsoft.

There are 2 main periods during the year where Microsoft will MOST LIKELY release promotions and discounts for Dynamics NAV (or AX and other Dynamics product line). They are:

Microsoft Fiscal Year End
Microsoft’s fiscal year ends on June 30th. They want to drive their numbers up so they can report a strong fiscal year. So look for new discounts and promotions about 2 to 2.5 months prior to June. So look for discounts starting in late March or April.

Calendar Year End
December 31st is another period where Microsoft will have a lot of promotions and discounts. The calendar year end discounts will be released about 2 to 2.5 months prior as well. So look for discounts starting late September or October.

Conclusion
To get the most bang for your buck, I would hold off on purchasing until these promotions appear. Even though there are promotions from Microsoft, there may be certain terms and conditions which will exclude you from taking advantage of the promotion. So even if you waited, you may still be excluded.

Having said that, businesses can’t wait. If you need a module or new user sessions right now; get it. Promotions are nice, but if it hurts your business because other people can’t log in to do their job it won’t make much sense to wait.

Free training for Dynamics NAV – Be Self-Reliant!

One of the most underutilized resources for training is from the MSDN site updated by Microsoft. Instead of paying your consultant for training, train yourself! You’d be surprised at how many so-called “NAV partners” out there that do not know how Dynamics NAV works.

For step by step instructions on each department, click here. Please note that at the time of writing, the manuals are released for NAV 2013R2. I suspect the content will be released for NAV 2015 soon. You can change the content for your specific version by clicking on the Other Versions.

If you’re more into watching videos than reading, MSDN also have a full suite of “How Do I” videos. They can be accessed by clicking here. The videos on here are created by Dynamics NAV MVPs and the product team at Microsoft. The contents on here are more technical than the MSDN help for Dynamics NAV.

Conclusion
Yes, it’s easy to just pick up the phone and call your NAV partner for answers. If you do that, you’re basically asking for a fish. My recommendation to you is teach yourself how to fish.

If you teach yourself how to fish, then your conversation (and your budget utilized) with your NAV partner would be how to make Dynamics NAV better for your company. In all honesty, that’s where you will get the most bang for your buck with your NAV partner.

Unexpected Changes the Expected Receipt Date in Dynamics NAV

Overview
This is one issue that I hear from customers using Dynamics NAV (formerly Navision) quite often is why does the Expected Receipt Date keep changing?

The Expected Receipt Date in Dynamics NAV is the main driver for inventory planning. Dynamics NAV uses this field to calculate the availability of the item. Based on this date, Dynamics navNAV calculates when the item can be received into your warehouse.

On the purchase order, the field is on the header and on the lines. Dynamics NAV will only use the field on the purchase lines in the calculation.

What the Help Says
Looking at the help, the explanation is simple enough:

Basically, what it says is that the Expected Receipt Date on the purchase line should copy the information from the purchase header, if it exist. Otherwise, it will follow a formula:

Planned Receipt Date (Order Date on the purchase line + Lead Time Calculation on the Vendor/Item Catalog, if it’s blank, then the Lead Time Calculation on the vendor card)
+ Safety Lead Time (On the Item card or SKU card)
+ Inbound Whse. Handling Time (On the Inventory Setup or the Location card)
= Expected Receipt Date

However, if you continue to drill into the help, you’ll find another formula for the Expected Receipt Date:

Order Date (on the Purchase Order)
+ Lead Time Calculation (From the Item Vendor table, if blank it’ll use the field on the SKU, then the item card)
= Expected Receipt Date

If you drill down on the Lead Time Calculation Help, it will say:

If I follow the formula correctly based on the help:
Order Date + Lead Time Calculation =
= Planned Receipt Date
= Planned Receipt Date + Inbound Warehouse Handling Time + Safety Lead Time
= Expected Receipt Date

Yes… Nice and Simple…

Other Fields that Affect this Date
What the help doesn’t mention is that there are other fields that will affect the Expected Receipt Date. To test this, just create a purchase order and go to the Shipping Fasttab (or tab if you’re using the classic client) in your version of Dynamics NAV.

The Safety Lead Time, Lead Time Calculation and the Inbound Whse. Handling Time explanation is pretty straight forward. In our test, the CRONUS database has 1 day on the Safety Lead Time.

Here’s what happens when you change the following dates on the Purchase Header:

Requested Receipt Date, it will changed/updated on the Purchase Line:
– Order Date
– Planned Receipt Date
– Requested Receipt Date

Promised Receipt Date, it will changed/updated on the Purchase Line:
– Planned Receipt Date
– Expected Receipt Date
– Promised Receipt Date

Expected Receipt Date, it will changed/updated on the Purchase Line:
– Planned Receipt Date
– Expected Receipt Date

Here’s Where It Gets Awkward
These dates work FIFO. So whatever date you change on the Purchase Order header will take precedent over what was entered before.

Worst, when you update the dates on the header, you’ll get a message asking if you want to change the Purchase Lines, WHERE ALL THE INVENTORY CALCULATION TAKES PLACE!

Conclusion
There are a lot of instances where the user will want to look at the purchase order header and get a feel for what is coming in what by who. Make sure the user know exactly what’s going on.

An option would be to remove these dates from the header and force the user to enter the lines. But if you have long purchase order, this is not really an option.

In the end, becareful about changing those dates when you’re entering purchase orders in Dynamics NAV!

Optimizing your Aged Accounts Receivables Report

Overview
Doing numerous upgrades from an older version of Navision to NAV 2015 and 2013, one common complaint is how slow the reports are running. This is especially true for larger reports like the Aged Accounts Receivables, Aged Accounts Payables , Inventory Valuation, etc.

The old reports that took a long time, such as the Inventory Valuation report, will still take a long time. It doesn’t matter what version you go to. However, there are some reports that used to be quick, but is slow after the upgrade.

One of these reports is the Aged Accounts Receivables report (Report ID: 10040 – Aged Accounts Receivable).

The Breakdown
CAUTION: I’m about to get “programmer”. If you want the faster report, just skip down to the bottom and download the object.

Removing the Data Type of Column from the report, we get the following DataItem that the report loops through:

On initial look, the report looks simple enough. There are 3 data items:

Customer – The report loops through the customer record to see which customer we need to calculate the aging for
Cust. Ledger Entry – For every customer record it finds, it will loop through the all of the customer ledger for that customer. For any customer ledger that has a remaining amount, it’ll put it into a temporary table
Integer – This dataitem loops through the same records that are inserted into the temporary table on the Cust. Ledger Entry dataitem and summerizes the information to display in different aging “buckets”.

The Problem
The reason why this report is slow is if you check the DataItemTableView property on the Cust. Ledger Entry dataitem, you’ll see that the report is looping through ALL of the customer ledger for that customer.

This report will run fine if you’re A/R aging is small. However, this report will get slower as time progresses with more transactions. Worst, it’ll consume all the memory on the server and force you to restart.

The problem becomes real apparent when you have EDI customers that are running hundreds of invoices per day.

The Solution
The idea of the original A/R aging report is correct. Basically, look at the remaining amount based on the date criteria; if there is a balance, then it goes into the calculation.

The problem is that it’s not running any type of filters to exclude old transactions that has no relevance in our calculation.

To address the performance problem, here are the main things we will need to do:

Look at only transactions that are marked as Open
If the report is to be backdated, look into the only the history that pertains to the date criteria

First thing we do is to set the proper DataItemTableView property with the filter of Open.

Then we need to add a new Detailed Cust. Ledger Entry dataitem to look at the application history of our A/R transaction:

The Property:

The Code:

Basically, we’re limiting the reads of the database to only open transactions and the subsequent A/R applications from the Aged as of Date set on the report.

Here are the report objects and the text file for your reference:
OptimizedARAging

Conclusion
Not sure what the developer at Microsoft is thinking when programming this report. Aged Accounts Receivable/Payable is one of the most data intensive reports next to the inventory valuation. Reading through every record just does not make sense.

Yes, it’ll work in the short run, but give a few years and the report will slow to a crawl, which is already experienced by customers upgrading.

Breaking up with Ex-Girlfriend vs. Implementing Dynamics NAV

The Decision
It’s time.

He has been with you for a long time. In the beginning, he was great. He did everything you needed him to do and you gave him anything he wanted. In return, he gave you what you needed as well.

But now, things are becoming toxic. It doesn’t matter how much time and effort you give him, he is just dragging you down, making you slow, and holding you back. What made you happy 5-10 years ago, is just not enough for you anymore. You’re looking for more, and it’s something more that he just cannot provide.

The New Relationship
The change is hard, but you know in order to grow, you need to change. It’s not just for you, it’s also for the people around you.

So you went for something new.

– He is smarter
– He works faster
– He looks better
– He makes you more efficient
– Any requests you throw at him, he will fulfill
– He will accomplish a lot more for a lot less

There will be a learning curve for you to get used to the way He moves, the way he looks, the routines you will try to figure out. There will be something that you don’t like, but you are willing to work with him on it. And he will change.

The Breakup
Anything new in your life requires some getting used to. Breaking up is hard. There are a lot of memories you’ve shared. Sometimes, those memories you’ve shared will come back.

– You missed the way he looks
– You missed the way he moves
– You missed having the routines you’re so used to with him every day

There are times where you’ll question yourself whether you’ve made the right decision. There are even times when you want to go back to him.

You’ll only want to remember the good things that he did for you and you will be willing to “forget” all the bad things he did. Painfully, sometimes you needed to be reminded how bad he was for you and your business.

Conclusion
Sure, you will miss what was there before, but we all need to move on. And we all know he’s not coming back. You’re with someone new now.

You needed to retire your old software and implement Dynamics NAV for your business in order for your business to grow.

I guess the similar concept described above can be said about your leaving your old significant other…

Process vs. Technical Questions

Overview
If you’re an IT or Finance person working in a company that uses Dynamics NAV. First, congratulations! There’s no other ERP product for the mid-market that has the growth (and growth potential) as Dynamics NAV.

Having said that, often times you will be fielded with questions about NAV and it will be difficult to respond. This is especially true when you’re supposed to be the “expert” of the software within your organization. Of course if you really get in trouble, you have your Dynamics NAV partner to back you up so you’re never really alone.

However, in order for your NAV partner to make you look good in front of your peers, you have to phrase your question in a way to get a “on the point” response. Don’t assume your NAV partner to know what you’re thinking, because trust me, being in this business since 1999, I still don’t know what you’re thinking. I did, however, developer a better sense of asking the right questions, but that’s probably a topic for a separate blog post.

When fielding questions, there are generally 2 different types of questions. One is technical question and the other one is Process.

What is Process and What is Technical?
I’m glad you asked that question. Here’s my definition of both

Process Question: A question that’s related to the daily/weekly/monthly workflow of a particular operation. For example, reconciling inventory to G/L at month end. (Non-linear)

Technical Question: A question that’s indirectly related to the daily/weekly/monthly workflow of a particular operation. For example, an error message when you’re trying to post. (Linear)

Troubleshooting the Process
Which of these questions is more straight forward? Of course the technical questions. It follows a linear path. These types of problems can usually be resolved using a debugger.

As the Dynamics NAV go-to person in your company, I bet most of your time is trying to figure out the process questions. The Non-linear questions that can have multiple paths.

It’s important to identify what is process and what’s technical question. If it’s a process question, you should get the experts or the person responsible for that piece of information involved. As much as you like to help out the process by request or making little modifications that solves their process question, it’s not the right way to go about it.

For example, over receiving. Some times the warehouse will complain that you cannot over receive. As an IT guy, yes it’s easy to bypass the check process and just modify the quantity.

However, by doing this, you’ve cascaded the problem and implemented a flawed process that people will get used to.

In this example, why is it flawed? Among the various reasons, one of the biggest problem is because when the vendor send you extra items, who’s responsible for it? Do you have to pay for it? Should the vendor give it to you for free? What if the buyer did not want to receive the additional items because it messes with their budgeting? You get the point.

Changing the Process
That’s not to say that processes cannot be changed. It’s really about how you go about changing the process.

The first step is to get with the people responsible for the process. For some reason there are some internal IT and finance people that simply will not do this. They want to assume they know what they’re doing or they do not want to ask the people responsible questions. This is absolutely a MUST!!

In our example, the purchaser should be involved and the warehouse manager should be involved. Sit with them and describe this problem and ask the all important question: “how do you want to resolve this?”. It’s up to them to define a process that satisfy the buyer and their vendors, the warehouse and the receiving process. Once that process is agreed upon, then it becomes a technical question.

Conclusion
As the NAV guru in your company, you’re most likely swamped.

We want resolve problems and issues to “get them off our plate” as soon as possible that sometimes, we mistakenly treat process questions as technical questions. I know because I’m guilty of that as well. This is not the right way to go about doing implementations and certainly not the way you should go about addressing the needs for your company.

Because ususally when IT gets involved in process questions, developers tend to find the shortest way to resolve the problem, not the right way. As always, finding the shorest way will always require exceptions in processes. Exceptions are fine until there are exceptions to exceptions. Then exception to exceptions to exceptions. This is a sure fire way to complicate your business process and have each department not taking responsibility and point fingers at each other.

Why am I doing Dynamics NAV

Overview
Recently, one of my employees challenged me about what my goal is for the company. I was taken a back because I never thought about this. I knew why I was working in this industry but I never thought it was relevant to tell anyone.

What started as a short e-mail paragraph turned into a… Well… an essay. My original intention was just to circulate within the company, but I haven’t made an actual confession on this blog in a while.

My Background
The times I’ve spent with my family are my most valuable moments. Why? Because when I was growing up, I didn’t have these moments.

My father owned a business and made a lot of money. My mom was a pretty good mom when she was present. Looking at it from the surface, everything was nice. But we had a lot of problem as a family. To this day, I never understood why my dad thought money and status was so valuable or why my mom thought gambling was more important than her kids.

I don’t blame them for what happened because it’s not their fault. They had to do what they did in order to survive. Just like what my brother and sister had to do in order for us to survive. We’ve all made decisions that we’ve regretted looking back; however, at that particular moment in time (and that particular environment) it was the best possible decision we can make.

When I was probably 13 or 14, and I don’t remember what exactly happened, I cried in bed and made myself promise that one day I will start a family of my own and I will be a good husband and a good father.

I will not let my kids to have the same kind of childhood I had. I will always be available when they need me and I will be their father. I will love and cherish my wife with all my heart and never let her feel lonely.

The Miracle
I don’t know why. Maybe God took pity on me. I was able to achieve what I wanted. I met my wife and she gave me exactly what I was missing in my life. A stable family.

Although striving to become a good husband and a good father is still an ongoing process, there’s not a moment where I don’t feel blessed and feel that I’m incredibly lucky.

The Improvement
Because of my past, I frequently think about how we can finish our work in a more efficient and accurate manner. So we can quickly go home to our loved ones.

Every time I see people work until late at night, I always think about that person(s) waiting for them at home. But they couldn’t go home; they had to finish their work.

I want them to use that time at work, and instead use that to spend time with their kids and loved ones. Because time, once it’s gone. It’s gone.

Why ERP?
So why do I want to get into the ERP software industry?

My answer is that it was not my intention. You remembered when I said that I was lucky earlier? I think I really am.

When I was a student, I only had a student visa. After I graduated, I needed a company that was willing to sponsor for my permanent stay in the US. My grades weren’t that great and my social skills were lacking, but I made sure my determination and persistence was there. After countless interviews and networking/recruiting events, no companies hired me.

My lucky break came when one of my friends gave my resume to a company that sold Navision (my friend worked in a company that bought NAV). This company was very special, it was their strategy to hire a tone and fire quickly you did not work out within a few months. During my 2.5 year at the company, I must’ve seen 30-40 people come and go, and we were only a 10 people company.

At the time when I got started, we had the Y2K problem. Within a month, there were on average of 3-4 implementations going on. It was trial by fire. Tiring, but fun.

The Revelation
I remembered my first year in this company. When I go to client sites to implement NAV, I couldn’t believe why people needed to work such long hours. What were they working on? Why does it take such a long time?

I always thought, if they can finish their work could they go home earlier?

This gave me the insight into how I can use software to help other people. I wanted to learn more about ERP (in particular Dynamics NAV) so I can help others.

This will become my tool to help others to have the opportunity to give what I’ve always wanted when I was growing up. A happy family.