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

Etiquette for Contractors Dealing with Solution Centers and Vice Versa

Just thought I post some etiquette for Solution Centers (NSC) and contractors when dealing with each other.

For Contractors:
1. There’s no such thing as job security when you’re a contractor. If you want security, find a full time position at a NSC.
2. Do not set your rates based on how much the NSC charges their customers. Figure out a market rate for your skillset and make it fixed.
3. Contractors are used only for the short term. If you want long term, find a full time position at a NSC.
4. Learning time is not billable. Companies hire your skillset to produce, not to learn. If you want to be paid for learning, find a full time position at a NSC.
5. You have the right to say no to a project. But say no before a single minute is charged.
6. Make a conscience effort to not steal your client’s customers. The end users will decide on their own, but do not push it.
7. Do not make a promise to deliver you cannot keep. Sometimes, a lot of people are waiting on you to finish before they can continue.
8. Make doing business easy with you. NSCs do not need you if you give them more headaches than they already have.
9. The NSC has the right to shop around for whatever reason, you’re a vendor and this is a business transaction. Don’t take it personal.
For NSCs:
1. Pay your contractors on time. You hired them to produce, if they’ve done so, pay them. Don’t play games.
2. Sometimes, trial and error is needed to get to a solution. If the contractor bills you for it, pay; because you will need to do the same if you were doing the project yourself.
3. Murky project scope will get murky results. If you cannot properly define the project, no contractor in the world will be able to clarify it for you. And pay the large bill your contractor will surely bill you because you didn’t do your job.
4. If you rely on the contractor to take care of your customer, you WILL lose the customer. Guarenteed.
5. Contractors you hire have their own priorities, so plan accordingly. If you want the contractor’s dedication, offer them a full time position.
6. Contractors are used to address specific needs. They’re not there to organize an implementation for you.

Did I miss anything? Any additions to both sides are welcome.

Sharing the Item table in version 5.0

If you’re in an environment where you have multiple companies setup and each company uses the same items, you might be tempted to share the item table across all companies.

In versions prior to 5.0, you can get away with this since the Adjust Cost process are done using the Item Ledger and Item Application Entry table. When inventory is taken out, it’ll use the proper average cost when the Adjust Cost process is ran.

However, in version 5.0, they introduced the Avg. Cost Adjmt. Entry Point table and the Cost is Adjust field on the item card. This means that if if you just share the tables and adjust cost is ran for Company A, it’ll mark the Cost Is Adjusted to true. This means that the Adjust Cost process will never be ran for Company B. In addition, when transactions are posted for Company B, it’ll look at the Avg. Cost Adjmt. Entry Point table and detect that the cost has not been adjusted and mark it for adjustment again.

The best solution to this problem is to suggest the users to update item information for both companies. However, if the business requirement is to share the Item table, it’s recommended that you keep the tables separate. And write a batch process to update items at the end of day or if it needs to be real time, write code to something like:

ItemCompanyB.CHANGECOMPANY(‘Company B’);
IF ItemCompanyB.GET(“No.”) THEN BEGIN
    CostPostedGL := ItemCompanyB.”Cost is Posted to G/L”;
    CostAdj := ItemCompanyB.”Cost is Adjusted”;
    UnitCost := ItemCompanyB.”Unit Cost”;
    ItemCompanyB.TRANSFERFIELDS(Rec);
    ItemCompanyB.”Cost is Posted to G/L” := CostPostedGL;
    ItemCompanyB.”Cost is Adjusted” := CostAdj;
    ItemCompanyB.”Unit Cost” := UnitCost;
    IF NOT ItemCompanyB.INSERT THEN
      ItemCompanyB.MODIFY;
END;

You can probably write a better code, but you should be able to get the idea. This will also require that all the item master information be entered into one company.

Warning about Upgrading to NAV 5.0 from 3.x and 4.x

This will only apply if the following is true:
1. You’re upgrading from 3.x or 4.x to 5.0
2. You’re using average cost
3. You have the Avg. Cost Calc type to Item&Variant&LocatoinIF you are using Average Cost and IF your Average Cost Calc. Type is Item & Location & Variant, when you upgrade to 5.0. The cost calculation type will be set to ITEM.At this point, DO NOT RUN ADJUST COST!!! It will calculate your average by ITEM for all historical transactions irregardless if you changed the Average Cost Calc. Type to item & location.This is a problem in the Avg. Cost Adjmt. Entry Point table and the Accounting Period table. You will need to write a process to update the Avg. Cost Adjmt. Entry Point table so it’s by location, and change the Accounting Period to Item & Location & Variant.

Here’s the code for download.

http://www.mibuso.com/dlinfo.asp?FileID=940

Abnormal Posting Dates

Abnormal posting date entries happens when the Posting Date of the receipt/shipments of inventory is after the Posting Date of the invoice. Why does this happen? You’ll need to ask your CFO or Controller. Typically, I found this more in return orders where the receipt of the product is a certain date, and the accounting department decides to post the credit memo in prior dates.

Either by mistake or intentional, if this happens, your Inventory Valuation will not tie to your G/L.

Here’s a step by step on how to replicate this problem, and how to solve this problem:
1. Create a sales order with posting date of 11/01/08
2. Post the Shipment with a posting date of 11/01/08
3. Change the posting date to 09/01/08
4. Post the invoice
5. Run your inventory valuation report as of 9/30/08
6. Notice that the item is not taken out? But if you look at your G/L, the inventory value is taken out.

This will work for purchase side as well. It doesn’t matter how to do it either using warehouse shipment/receive, the underlying process will net you the same problem.

Usually, problems like this won’t come up until the user is trying to do month end and gets really frustrated on why their inventory doesn’t tie to G/L. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to reverse this transaction after it’s posted, the only way is to run a report at the end of the period to see what transactions have this “Abnormal Posting Dates”.

Here’s a report that will give you all the transactions that have abnormal posting dates. If you take this amount, add/subtract it to your inventory valuation report, it will be equal to the G/L inventory.

To run this report, just put the period you want to close on the Posting Date field. For example, if you’re trying to close November 2008, then your Posting Date filter should be 11/1/08..11/30/08.

Here’ the link for the report:

http://www.mibuso.com/dlinfo.asp?FileID=920

Entering Beginning Inventory Balance

When moving from a legacy system into Dynamics NAV (Navision), one of the areas you want to try and avoid is messing with the inventory G/L accounts. Most systems are usually pretty good with open A/R and A/P accounts, they can be transferred using the “posting back to the same account” technique that most implementers do. The beginning A/R and A/P G/L accounts would be based on your entry on the General Journal. This is assuming that the A/R and A/P aging reports matches the G/L.

Inventory valuation is one of the areas where we find the most discripencies based on what is entered on the Item Journal from the physical count and the inventory valuation report from the legacy system. Depending on your requirements, sometimes it doesn’t make sense to go through line by line on the item journal to see where the differences are.

A rule of thumb I always go by is to let Navision determine what the inventory value should be in the G/L based on the positive adjustments posted from the Item Journal.

To accomplish this, do the following:

Suppose you have the following G/L accounts:
11000 – Inventory
58850 – Inventory Adjustment

When posting a positive adjustment in the Item journal, it will post a debit to Inventory and credit to Inventory Adjustment.

When you’re ready to enter your beginning G/L balance, enter the G/L balance for Inventory to account 58850. This way, the difference between the inventory G/L balance from the legacy system and Navision will be reflected on account 58850.

If you do not want to reflect the adjustment in the current period due to financial reporting reasons, you can adjust the difference into an asset account. We usually recommend create a separate account (i.e. 11100 – Inventory Suspense) to store this difference until you can depreciate it.

By not posting any general journal entries to the inventory accounts, you’ve ensured that inventory valuation reports will ALWAYS match G/L, making everyone happy in the process.

Question of Morality?

A few weeks ago, a CFO that recently joined his company called us up asking to quote Microsoft Dynamics NAV to them. This company had gone through a couple of management changes, got sold to another company, and then resold again to a group of private investors. Needless to say, none of the current employees have been there very long.

It just so happens that the CFO had used Navision before and loves it very much. He had gotten several quotes from different solution centers which were all about the same price. In the end, for whatever reasons, we were able to win the deal.

By this point, the budget was approved for the amount specified on the quote. When we place the order with Microsoft, to our surprise, the company had purchased Dynamics GP back in the 90’s that no one knew about. This meant that we were able to receive credit from Microsoft and apply the credit to the cost of the software. The amount of the credit was 50% of our total software deal. So this is a significant amount and would cut into our profit for this deal.

At this point, two scenarios quickly came into my mind:

1. Keep my mouth shut and fulfill the amount as specified on the original quote. Basically we would be able to book the difference as pure profit.
2. Tell the customer of the credit from Microsoft and apply the credit to their quote

This basically came down to whether or not we should pocket the money or be honest and give the customer the credit they deserve.

It took me some time to decide what to do. The choice was hard but it was a decision that I would expect myself to make and the people we work with to make. It’s the way we’re brought up. Its’ way we build trust. It’s making the world a more pleasant place to live: I was to give the credit to the customer from the software purchase.

Before making the phone call to inform our new customer the good news, another thought came to my mind; was this good news for the CFO? I could only imagine the questions he would face if we invoice him for something that was significantly different than the amount specified on the quote:

“Why didn’t you do your due diligence and realize that the company had purchased GP before?”
“Why didn’t you know that you could’ve applied the credit the company had in GP?”
“What other things the board hired you to do are not done properly?”
“How can you propose such a budget if you don’t have the grasp on the proper information?”
“How can the company trust your decision making ability in the future?”

Would I be the person that will cause his loss of credibility with the CEO and the board and ultimately his job? Or was I just thinking too much?

I picked up the phone and delivered the whole story about the Microsoft credit to him privately. As I expected, there was no congratulatory remarks or a word thanking us for our honesty. He listened intently, paused for a few seconds, and then said, “Hmm… We bought the software that long ago and they still recognized it? Go ahead and send us the invoice then.”

From his paused, I can sense that for a few seconds, millions of thoughts went through his mind as well. What were his thoughts? God only knows, because I wasn’t going to ask him.

In the end, there was no right or wrong. It could be right or wrong depending on how you look at the situation and who you are. I did what I thought was the right decision; it was information that I would’ve liked to receive if our roles were switched. I would not like it very much if I found out this information on my own at a later date.

I guess that’s why we were able to win the deal.

How to Print to local printer using RDP

This is a poor man’s way of having users connect remotely and allowing them to print locally. Using RDP, you will not have to spend money on an expensive product like Citrix unless you really have to. Note that Citrix is a great product, but it’s out of reach for customers who have limited IT budget.

1. On the remote computer check to make sure the “Printers” box is checked on the “Local Resources” tab of the “Remote Desktop Connection”.

2. On the server install the printer driver that the remote user has.

3. When the remote user connects the server will now see all of the remote’s printer ports

4. The remote user will now need to go to the “Printers” folder of the host computer and change the port setting

5. When they click on the “Ports” tab of the printer they will see a list of all available ports. The ports that refer to the remote user will appear as TS00x (Where x will be 1-8 depending on the number of installed printers the remote user has).

6. Started with TS001 printed a test page. If that doesn’t work, then changed the port and keep test printing until something prints on your computer.

Why you have Negative Inventory Value with 0 Quantity – Navision 3.7b to Navision 5.0

Here are a couple of reasons why you would get inventory value if you have 0 quantities when you print Inventory Valuation report and Inventory to G/L Reconcile report as of a certain date.

Scenario 1:

If the adjust cost is processed on 7/31/07, and the Allow Posting From was 7/1/07 on General Ledger Setup, the following would occur:

6/15/07 – Purchase Receipt – $10
6/28/07 – Ship and Invoice – $10
7/15/07 – Purchase Invoice – $12
7/31/07 – Additional Cost for the sale made on 6/28/07 – $2

In this case, when you print the inventory valuation as of 6/30/07, the inventory quantity would be 0 and the inventory value would be 0.

Scenario 2:
If the adjust cost is processed on 7/31/07, and the Allow Posting From was 6/1/07 on General Ledger Setup, the following would occur:

6/15/07 – Purchase Receipt – $10
6/28/07 – Ship and Invoice – $10
7/15/07 – Purchase Invoice – $12
6/28/07 – Additional Cost for the sale made on 6/28/07 – $2

In this case, when you print the inventory valuation as of 6/30/07, the inventory quantity would be 0 and the inventory value would be -$2.00.

Scenario 3:
If the adjust cost is processed on 8/31/07, and the Allow Posting From was 7/1/07 on General Ledger Setup, the following would occur:

6/15/07 – Purchase Receipt – $10
6/28/07 – Ship and Invoice – $10
7/15/07 – Purchase Invoice – $12
8/31/07 – Additional Cost for the sale made on 6/28/07 – $2

In this case, when you print the inventory valuation as of 6/30/07, the inventory quantity would be 0 and the inventory value would be 0. When you print the inventory valuation as of 7/31/07, the inventory quantity would be 0, but the inventory value would be $2.00.

Explaination
Navision will automatically post the additional cost to the original invoicing entry because that’s where the cost originally applies to. If Navision detects that the Allow Posting From is before the adjusting date, then it will use whatever the Posting Date is when the adjust cost is ran. In this example, since the Adjust Cost process posting date is 8/31/07, it will use this date as the Posting Date for the adjusting entry.