The Dynamics GP Blogster's best articles of 2012

It's that time of the year again! Time to say goodbye to the outgoing year, 2012, and receive the new one, 2013, making all sort of resolutions that we never seem to be able to achieve and with good measure, since most of us are simply consumed with the daily grind that lifting our heads up to take a breather and see the forest from the trees seems difficult and sometimes downright impossible.

2012 however was a very good year and gave me tons of stuff to write about. In retrospect, 3 conferences, 2 virtual conferences, the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and the Web Client are simply a subset of the activities that allowed me to write some really cool stuff that you expressed through your comments to enjoy. Without further due, here is a list of the "best articles of 2012" written on this site (in no particular order):

1. Microsoft Dynamics Convergence 2012 Houston. Convergence Houston in March of 2012 was a very cool experience and probably one that I will never forget as I was able to meet up with my good friend David Musgrave and his wife, Jennifer. I also had the opportunity to share some time with some of my customers in attendance. As always, the good part is meeting tons of people and the thrill of presenting.

2. Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift 2012. In the realm of cool, the Technical Airlift in Fargo, North Dakota was a very awesome conference, but also marked the first time I presented without my compadre, David Musgrave. The Tech Airlift also demanded tons of prep work and was built upon cooperation between Microsoft and GPUG's GPPC and featured a record number of partners in attendance. I also liked the fact that I met up with some of my fellow MVPs.

3. GPUG Summit 2012 Seattle. Seattle has this aroma of coffee mixed with sea all over the city and I have to say the GPUG summit was a very charming conference, with lots of topics for the attending crowd. Seattle, Seattle...

4. Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series. Okay, so I confess. I was a nuisance to the Escalation Engineering team testing the Web Client. You see, the Web Client was not supposed to even be working on Windows 8 as a compatible installation platform, but after months of annoying I had my way with this. The best part though was working with the team of Aaron Donat and Jason Lech and understanding the nuances of the deployment process of GP Web Client. Thanks guys for putting up with me and for making this happen.

5. Adding Customer Item User Defined fields to SOP Invoice. I love the Support Debugging Tool and how it can make live easier for things that seem unconceivable. How about this cool article on getting customer item user defined fields onto the SOP invoice? Well, I have to say I had tons of fun getting this to work.

6. How to add a "Cover Letter" page to a Microsoft Dynamics GP Word Template document. Life is not complete without a Word Template article. I hope to keep these coming in 2013 since Word Templates are essential to Web Client.

7. Resizing SmartList panes with the Support Debugging Tool. Now, did I say I love the Support Debugging Tool? David Musgrave leverages some obscure Dex functions to make SmartList a dream tool to use.

8. Leveraging Custom Links to track carrier shipments in Sales Order Processing. You know, I am always amazed at how underutilized GP seems to be sometimes, but my duty as a blogger and consultant is to expose these underutilized features to the community.

9. Microsoft Dynamics GP Add-In for Microsoft Word not enabling despite several attempts to install. I had a number of clients come to me with this issue. Upon doing more research, I realized it was a community wide problem and I had to do something about it.

10. Adding more comment lines to POP Purchase Orders. Building on a previous article written by David Musgrave for SOP, I thought I would show how to accomplish the same in POP - it was all worth it as the community gave praises for the solution.

101 articles throughout the year are simple quite a bit of stuff written. I just hope I can keep the good stuff coming. Happy New Year!

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 "Feature of the Day" - Week 20 & 21 Digest

Well, we knew this moment was coming. The "Feature of the Day" series at Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP is over as Microsoft Dynamics GP is now released to manufacturing (RTM). The end of this series marks tens of thousands of hours of work that went into making this THE BIGGEST RELEASE EVER in the history of the product. Enjoy the final set of features.

Feature of the Day: Manual Prepayments

Purchase Order Entry: Prepayment Amount field

Purchase Prepayment Entry window: Manual Payment option

Manual Payment Posting Journal

Original article: Feature of the Day: Manual Prepayments
Link to presentation: GP2013 Manual Prepayment.ppsx
Learning script: Purchase Order Computer Prepayments


Feature of the Day: Web Client

Web Client

Original article: Feature of the Day: Web Client
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Web Client.ppsx


Feature of the Day: Web Client User Interface

Web Client User Interface

Original article: Feature of the Day: Web Client User Interface
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Web Client UI.ppsx


Feature of the Day: Web Management Console

Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Management Console

Original article: Feature of the Day: Web Management Console
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Web Management Console.ppsx

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 "Feature of the Day" - Week 19 Digest

By now, you are aware that the planned release date for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 is December 19, 2012. As such, the "Feature of the Day" series will be concluding soon. Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP brought 4 more features last week, ranging from HR/Payroll to Encumbrance, to Purchase Order Processing and Payables Management.

Feature of the Day: FICA Tax Sheltered Annuity Changes

Deduction Setup window

Employee Deduction Setup window

Original article: Feature of the Day: FICA Tax Sheltered Annuity Changes
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD FICA Medicare and Social Security TSA.ppsx

Feature of the Day: Encumber General Journal Transactions

Encumbrance GL Transaction Entry and Journal Inquiry

Original article: Feature of the Day: Encumber General Journal Transactions
Link to presentation: GP2013 13740_GL Encumber FOD.ppsx

Feature of the Day: PTO Detail & History and PTO Exception Reports

PTO Detail & History Inquiry

Original article: Feature of the Day: PTO Detail & History and PTO Exception Reports
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD PTO Detail - History and PTO Exception Report.ppsx

Feature of the Day: Computer Prepayments

Purchase Order Entry / Payables Batch Entry / Receivings Transaction Entry

Original article: Feature of the Day: Computer Prepayments
Link to presentation: GP2013 Computer Prepayment.ppsx

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 "Feature of the Day" - Week 16 & 17 Digest

Since Week 16 brought little movement in the Features department - Pam was out of town and Jay, well I really don't know - I saw it fit to combine it with week 17 features into one Digest article for your reading pleasure. On we go with the Futures of the Day.


Feature of the Day: Payroll integration to Payables

Payroll Vendor Setup window

 Original article: Feature of the Day: Payroll integration to Payables
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD PIP Voucher Integration FOD.ppsx

Feature of the Day: Inactivate Item/Site

Site Maintenance window

Item Quantities Maintenance window

Original article: Feature of the Day: Inactivate Item/Site
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Inactivate a Site and Item Site.ppsx

Feature of the Day: Create Equipment from Manufacturing

Service Setup window: these options will only display with Manufacturing module installed

Original article: Feature of the Day: Create Equipment from Manufacturing
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Create Equipment from Manufacturing.ppsx

Feature of the Day: Honor Discontinued Item Status in Field Service

Discounted Item Quantity Available window

Original article: Feature of the Day: Honor Discontinued Item Status in Field Service
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Honor Discontinued Items in Field Service.ppsx

Feature of the Day: Return Quantity Types

RMA Type Maintenance window

Original article: Feature of the Day: Return Quantity Types
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Return Quantities to Any Quantity Type.ppsx

Feature of the Day: Document Attach

Sales Transaction Entry window: document attach buttons

Document Attach Management window

Original article: Feature of the Day: Document Attach
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Document Attach.ppsx

Feature of the Day: Prevent Purchase Order Closing

Edit Purchase Order Status window

Original article: Feature of the Day: Prevent Purchase Order Closing
Link to presentation: GP2013 13928 Prevent PO Close FOD.ppsx

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 "Feature of the Day" - Week 12 Digest

Week 12 added some much needed improvements in the areas of Field Services, Purchase Order Processing and Encumbrance, and HR/Payroll. Here they are for your delight. If you would want me to pass on anything to the Microsoft Dynamics GP Product Management team regarding these features, please add your comments to this post.

Feature of the Day: Equipment Supersession Date History is Maintained

Equipment Maintenance - Supersession window

Original article: Feature of the Day: Equipment Supersession Date History is Maintained
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD FA Equipment Supersession Date History.ppsx
Learning script: N/A

Feature of the Day: Encumbrance Cost Difference Notification

Receiving Transaction Entry window - Encumbrance variance alert

Original article: Feature of the Day: Encumbrance Cost Difference Notification
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Encumbrance Cost Difference Notification.ppsx
Learning script: N/A


Feature of the Day: Build Check Exception Report



Check File Exception Report - output controlled by Posting Setup window
 

Original article: Feature of the Day: Build Check Exception Report
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Build Exception Report.ppsx
Learning script: N/A

Feature of the Day: Year End Age - Life Insurance

Life Insurance Setup window

Original article: Feature of the Day: Year End Age - Life Insurance
Link to presentation: GP2013 13954 Life Insurance FOD.ppsx
Learning script: N/A

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Adding more comment lines to POP Purchase Orders

Just recently, I was asked by a customer to address an issue with their line item comments truncating at 4 lines. In essence, the customer wanted the ability to print more than 4 lines of comments at the line item level on their purchase orders.

My customer happens to be in the Nuclear Waste Management industry, and as it turns out, they have strict requirements to provide contract information, start/end dates, and a number of regulatory and compliance information on purchase orders. Some of this information is very critical to the transportation of certain products on United States highways. So as you can imagine, the request for additional comment lines was critical.

The following shows an example of what the customer was facing:

Purchasing Comment Entry window and POP Purchase Order Blank form

As you can see, the comments are printing only 4 lines and truncating the rest of the text.

Before going into the details, they are a few articles that guided me through the solution:

How to Display More Than Four Line Item Comments in the "SOP Blank Invoice Form" Report in Sales Order Processing in Microsoft Dynamics GP

Adding more comments to SOP Documents (Developing for Dynamics GP)

Of course, these articles refer to SOP, but the underlying techniques used in them will allow us to make the necessary changes to the report. This blog post should be used in conjunction with the How To article above to provide some additional steps to get the best result for making the changes to the POP Purchase Order report.

Background

Comments for Purchase Order Processing (POP) transactions are entered using a text field which allows for a maximum of 500 characters, as shown above. When the comments are saved, the text field is divided into 4 string fields of 50 characters each, which is printed on the report. The code that parses the text field into the 4 string fields is smart enough to avoid splitting a word oddly.  The code will fit as many words as it can up to the last space before the 50 character mark or up to a carriage return (new line). When the POP documents are printed, it is these 4 comment string fields which are printed on the report. This means that if you use carriage returns or type a comment longer than 180-200 characters, you are unlikely to see all of your comment text shown on the report.

If you look at a POP document report, such as the POP Purchase Order Blank Form, you will see that the 4 comment lines are printed using 4 additional footer sections.

POP Purchase Order Blank Form Report Writer Layout showing 4 footers (F3 - F6)

Looking at each of these additional sections (Tools > Section Options), you will see that each one is configured to be Suppressed when the appropriate 'sSuppressCommentX' calculated field is empty. The 'sSuppressCommentX' calculated field is defined to look at the comment string array report field and return an empty string or the actual comment to be printed on that footer. The reason for all this complexity is so that the space for the comment line strings is only taken up when there is actually a comment line to display. If this technique with additional footers with conditional suppression was not used, there would be 4 lines between every POP line item whether it was used or not - not an efficient use of already cramped space.

Solution

The solution is to use the RW_POPLINECommentText user-defined Report Writer function in the system series in a set of calculated fields.  The same recommendations apply as with the SOP article above, this is, making each line the maximum 80 characters supported by Report Writer strings and creating 8 lines. This gives the potential for 640 characters and so should easily be able to display the 500 characters of comment text (even without breaking words in half or additional carriage returns).

Why 8 lines? This is so we can place two lines on each of the 4 additional footer sections. If we update the suppression logic correctly, it will mean there will only be the possibility of one blank line between SOP line items. With only 4 section breaks, we can only print 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8 lines at a time, so if there are actually an odd number of lines to be printed, there will be one blank line printed. If there are an even number of lines, then there will be no blank line.

For an explanation on why not using additional footers instead, see Adding more comments to SOP Documents over at Developing for Dynamics GP.

The parameters for the RW_POPLINECommentText function are as follows:

RW_POPLINECommentText()

function returns string OUT_string;
in integer IN_Type;   { POP Type of Document }
in string IN_Number;   { POP Number of Document }
in long IN_Ord;    { Ord Number of Line }
in integer IN_characters;  { Number of Characters per Line }
in integer IN_line;   { Line Number to Return }

Implementation

The steps below assume some knowledge of Report Writer. If you need detailed step by step instructions please look at the How to document.

Line Comments

1. Create 8 calculated fields of result type string for the 8 Line level comment lines:

(C) Line 1 Comments = FUNCTION_SCRIPT( RW_POPLINECommentText POP_PO.PO Type POP_PO.PO Number popPOLineRollupTemp.Ord 80 1 )

(C) Line 2 Comments = FUNCTION_SCRIPT( RW_POPLINECommentText POP_PO.PO Type POP_PO.PO Number  popPOLineRollupTemp.Ord 80 2 )

(C) Line 3 Comments = FUNCTION_SCRIPT( RW_POPLINECommentText POP_PO.PO Type POP_PO.PO Number  popPOLineRollupTemp.Ord 80 3 )

(C) Line 4 Comments = FUNCTION_SCRIPT( RW_POPLINECommentText POP_PO.PO Type POP_PO.PO Number  popPOLineRollupTemp.Ord 80 4 )

(C) Line 5 Comments = FUNCTION_SCRIPT( RW_POPLINECommentText POP_PO.PO Type POP_PO.PO Number  popPOLineRollupTemp.Ord 80 5 )

(C) Line 6 Comments = FUNCTION_SCRIPT( RW_POPLINECommentText POP_PO.PO Type POP_PO.PO Number  popPOLineRollupTemp.Ord 80 6 )

(C) Line 7 Comments = FUNCTION_SCRIPT( RW_POPLINECommentText POP_PO.PO Type POP_PO.PO Number  popPOLineRollupTemp.Ord 80 7 )

(C) Line 8 Comments = FUNCTION_SCRIPT( RW_POPLINECommentText POP_PO.PO Type POP_PO.PO Number  popPOLineRollupTemp.Ord 80 8 )

Note: The only difference for each calculated field is the line number in the field name and the line number constant as the last parameter.

2. Expand each of the comment additional footers to 2 lines height.

3. Move the 4 existing Comment fields to the right of the report.

4. Double Click on each of the 4 old Comment array fields and set the Visibility to Invisible.

Comment Footers and Invisible Fields

5. From Calculated Fields drag out the 8 new calculated fields placing two fields in each section. Drag out the field width as desired (at least 370).

Calculated fields on footer sections

6. The 4 sSuppressCommentX calculated fields will need to be changed to conditional fields and the return type changed to Integer, as shown:

Calculated Field definition

sSuppressComment1 = F6_LAST (C) Line 1 Comments = "" AND  F6_LAST (C) Line 2 Comments  = ""

sSuppressComment2 = F5_LAST (C) Line 3 Comments = "" AND  F5_LAST (C) Line 4 Comments = ""

sSuppressComment3 = F4_LAST (C) Line 5 Comments = "" AND  F4_LAST (C) Line 6 Comments = ""

sSuppressComment4 = F3_LAST (C) Line 7 Comments = "" AND  F3_LAST (C) Line 8 Comments = ""

After all these changes, it's time to save the report and test:

Purchase Order Blank Form

Now we can see the full line item comment displays nicely on the report.

Downloads

You can download the package file for this customization here.



POPBlankFormExtendedNotes.zip

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Word Templates rendering report in Internet Explorer

I have been working on a Word Templates case for the past 2 weeks and just got to the bottom of the problem, hence I felt the need to pause and blog about it.

Background

A client of mine reported a couple weeks aback that they had created a template version of their purchase order and each time the purchasing staff attempted to print a purchase order, the output would automatically generate in Internet Explorer instead of Microsoft Word. As the title of this article suggests, the client is using Word Templates to generate a nice looking PO for their vendors.

HTML POP Purchase Order Blank Form

However, and to make matters more interesting, when they printed a standard sales invoice, SOP Blank Invoice Form, these would generate just fine in Microsoft Word.

Troubleshooting

In troubleshooting this process, we went through all the formal setup and steps to create a template in Microsoft Dynamics GP, with the added benefit that the client's purchase order form was not a modified report. I also outruled the Word Add-On for Microsoft Dynamics GP being an issue, since the sales invoices were being created just fine.

I made sure the client was not accidentally selecting HTML as the default output. As previously mentioned, when the purchase order was printed, it would automatically go to Internet Explorer. We also selected a File output and the Microsoft Word file would automatically get an html extension following the docx; for example, POP Purchase Order Blank Form.docx.html.

Printing Purchase Order Document

When printing the purchase order, one thing stood out in the printing process... the Report Type drop-down list would automatically default to Standard -- not to Template as would be expected -- and the client would have to manually select Template before clicking Ok to print. Not so, when printing sales invoices.

We also checked the REPORTS.DIC dictionary file, by accessing Report Writer, to ensure the purchase order report was not modified. Effectively, this was not the case. Puzzled by this situation, I called my good friend Rob Wagner over at Microsoft and explained what was going on. In formulating an approach to address the issue, Rob added a key to the Dex.ini - more on this tomorrow - that would allow him to debug what was happening when the template was generated.

To Rob's surprise, adding the Dex.ini key had no effect nor did it produce the debug file he was expecting. Then, the magical question came up... "Does you client have any third party products or add-ons installed that affect the POP module?" and the answer... "Yes, Project Accounting". This is when it all became clear to both of us where this was going.

As it turned out, the client is also using Project Accounting. However, the user entering the POs has no access to the Purchase Order Entry alternate window - hence was seeing the standard Microsoft Dynamics GP Purchase Order Entry window. However, according to security settings, the user had access to the alternate POP Purchase Order Blank Form report.

Access to alternate version of POP Purchase Order Blank Form

When the user prints the PO from the standard Purchase Order Entry window, GP would attempt to print the Project Accounting alternate purchase order report, but could not find a corresponding template.

Rob proceeded to explain that this behavior was by design. In essence, when a template cannot be found for an alternate version of an original Microsoft Dynamics GP report, the Dexterity code behind the Word Template functionality, will automatically render the report to HTML. Since html files are usually tied to Internet Explorer, this would cause that application to launch automatically.

The first tell-tell sign of a problem as described above lies in the Report Destination window defaulting the Report Type drop-down list to Standard, even though a template "exists" for the report being printed. In reality, the template you are seeing in Report Template Maintenance is the core Microsoft Dynamics GP report template and not the template for the alternate dictionary, in this case Project Accounting.

Solution

If using a third party product or add-on that contains an alternate versions of a core Microsoft Dynamics GP report, you will need to ensure that the template that is created corresponds to that dictionary or remove security to the alternate report.

However, and as luck would have it, I could not create a new template based on the existing POP Purchase Order Blank Form in the Microsoft Dynamics GP dictionary, because the two reports use a slighly different data set - the PA alternate report uses additional fields and tables not used by the standard report - but that's a tale for another time. In the mean time, I hope you find this article useful.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'CONTACT' error when clicking on Items List in Navigation Pane

Moving on from my previous article on a similar subject - see Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'BASEUOFM' error when clicking on Items List in Navigation Pane, I recently came across this error, Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'CONTACT' when clicking on the All Purchasing Transactions list under the Purchasing Navigation Pane option, after performing an upgrade from Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2.

All Purchasing Transactions list error - Purchasing Navigation List

The name of the global temp table - in this case, tempdb.dbo.##2093338- varies in almost all cases, but the end result of the error is the same. The issue has been identified running Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 RTM, SP1 or SP2.

Upon further review, the issue is due to bad data in the Vendor ID (VENDORID) column in the Purchasing Receipt History table (POP30300). In summary, if you have a purchasing receipt with a blank vendor ID or a vendor ID that does not exist in the Vendor Master table (PM00200), it will cause the Items list to fail with the error above.

The following query should help in identifying the offending record(s):

' Created by Mariano Gomez, MVP

'  This code is licensed under the Creative Commons 

'  Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic license.

SELECT * FROM POP30300 WHERE VENDORID NOT IN (SELECT VENDORID FROM PM00200);

Once you have identified the record(s) causing the failure, you can use the Vendor Maintenance window to add the missing vendor or further study the issue to remove the offending receipts if necessary:

Vendor Maintenance window

Patrick Roth, Escalation Engineer with Microsoft and blogger at Developing for Dynamics GP, provides a full explanation of his troubleshooting method for this error at the Partner Online Technical Community forum:



GP2010 Purchasing List Error - Partner Online Technical Community forum


Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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