We all know that excel plays a major component in most finance folks day-to-day operations.  It just seems easier to manipulate, calculate, and parse the data that you need within Excel.  But, it doesn’t HAVE to be such a major component in your financial statement preparation.

 With the right accounting system, the right tools, and the right training, you could streamline all the processes you go through to create your financials!

One of the key components of using Microsoft Dynamics GP is the open accessibility to the security authorized users of the financial information.   I’ve listed some of my favorite shortcuts and tools that our Microsoft Dynamics GP customers use ~ but I’m sure there are favorites for others that I don’t even realize the value that the users see compared to what they did before.

 Financial Statement Generation

• FRx Report Manager – Of course I’m going to say “FRx” Financial Reporter, but many people don’t realize that a module available along with FRx called Report Manager allows you to pull together the financial statements within a comprehensive report book, which can contain other information end users may need in various document types and files.   You can just press a button and have your Balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, a ‘pdf’ report bringing in other information, a word doc explaining a new procedure, an excel spreadsheet with data outside of your system,  and more ~ all in one booklet! 
• FRx Webport  – Can you imagine just telling your managers that they can view whatever reports they need – and have them refreshable, just by going to your intranet?  With Webport, you can publish specific report layouts and provide access to key personnel and allow them to drill into specific account transaction detail if required. 

Day to day quick lookups – For quick inquiries into the data for a specific account, account range, or transaction, here are a few outstanding options in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

• Account Rollup – A nifty query screen allowing groups of accounts and up to four columns of figures for quick analysis of set of departments or account areas.  This means you can hand pick several accounts to be seen together, and save them for future lookups or just do it as an ad-hoc item for today.  You can print this inquiry too!
• Account Transaction List – This quick view into your financial transactions allows filtering by many options at once.  You can go as far as saying look across a range of accounts for a particular transaction description between two given dates with a particular dollar figure credited within the transaction.  That is powerful search capability very easily accomplished!

Simple lookups/reports – of course there are screens allowing Actual to Budget, Summary and Detail balances, and trial balance reports and posting journals.  And there is the Smartlist/Excel Reports options that allow users to save their favorites from the generic packaged queries.  I don’t need to list all of these ready to go screens and queries ~ but they are wonderful for everyday use.  I mentioned Account Rollup and Financial Lists (above) which you may not have thought to ask about because they are not something you would expect out of the box!

Complicated Reports and Cross Table Inquiries – For very specific requirements, we utilize:

• FRx Financial Report writer is the tool for everything from departmental and company consolidations and eliminations to taking financial data from within Dynamics GP and marrying it to spreadsheets from other financial records and report as one.  Once you have your reports created, used the Report Manager I spoke about at the top to produce top notch presentations to your audience!
• Smartlist/Excel Report Builder  - We find that this tool allows  companies to define and categorize relationships between their data fields as possibly only they could find a common connection.  The data is presented in either basic table format or complicated spreadsheets that they may have designed and require.  This tool has extended the reporting ability out of Microsoft Dynamics GP so that any manager can be happy with the data you present!

So comparing what you might have at your fingertips today ~ could you use these unique and simple tools for YOUR financial statement preparation and presentation?

By Abra Lynne Gilman, Borek Business Solutions – Microsoft Dynamics GP Oregon Partner

What Do Your Financial Statements Say About You? is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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With a product like Microsoft Dynamics GP, using a “Business Ready Licensing” methodology, you can gain access to many modules and therefore automate many departments and procedures within your organization.  But, if they are rushed into production, your employees feel worked over and overworked! 

Many customers originally purchased Microsoft Dynamics GP for its strong financial reporting capabilities.  Although there were also pretty graphs, workflow, and integration to office products, the primary reason many of these companies migrated to Microsoft was because their old financial systems were obsolete and just couldn’t keep up with the demands of their users and managers.  So, these successful implementations began by replacing these obsolete systems ~ Accounts Payable, integrations to Billing systems, Accounts Receivable, and of course FRx Financial Reporting modules were the first to be completed.  So, now it is time for “Phase Two” and “Phase Three” of these implementations ~ and boy are they exciting! 

Here are some projects our current customers have underway and are finishing up by Fall!  We’ve provided some links to a case study, fact sheets, customer newsletters and tips which we continually share with our own customers.

• Utilizing Forecaster  with their Financials to make budgeting a breeze! 
• Implementing FRx Webport to open intranet financial drilldown access to managers!
• Taking Advantage of the Extender Tool to add specific note windows to AR.
• Using the SQL Reporting Services available within Microsoft implementations to generate on demand reports ~ shared within our Dynamics GP Customer Newsletter.
• Another customer has decided to implement the Dynamics GP Business Portal to help streamline their purchase order processing area by utlizing requisitions and inquiries into Inventory from their employees.
• Still another customer has decided to turn away from ADP Payroll to handle Payroll, Direct Deposit, Human Resources within their Dynamics GP implementation and open their Business Portal allowing employees to update their vacation requests, addresses, W-2 information and to select their benefits.

As mentioned in several blogs by my ERP partners, continuing to utilize existing features of your investment makes sense.  But timing it so your employees feel confident in what they already do, taking Baby Steps to keep them from being overwhelmed is key.  Pick an area, ask your Microsoft GP Partner to help streamline your employee’s efforts even more, then take on another department;  soon they will be lining up to ask for their turn in the stream.

As I’ve stated above, we share what our customers are doing within the customer base  through Newsletters, Tips, emails, and group phone calls so they can all benefit from the experiences, tips and tricks they have each learned.  Make sure you continue to take advantage of the system you purchase too.  But, take it easy on your workers, one step at a time!

By Abra Gilman, Borek Business Solutions ~ Oregon Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner

Take Baby Steps During Implementation ~ Don’t Overwork or Work Over your Employees is a post from: ERP Software Blog

Related Posts

1. 5 Steps to a Successful Implementation of Your New Accounting System
2. Steps to Ensure a Successful Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics GP
3. How to Insure That Your Microsoft Dynamics GP Implementation Will Cost More Than You Planned (or how to blow your ERP budget in 6 easy steps): PART II