Dynamics GP is designed with the features and functionality to meet typical or common business requirements. For the most part, your business functions in a relatively similar manner to other firms, so the capabilities of the software are enough to manage your daily activities.
For example, it would be difficult to function without a General Ledger. Your business may also have sales and purchasing and might have inventory. Dynamics GP handles those core business functions with ease.
But it is where your business is uncommon that you differentiate yourself in the marketplace. A “best practice” for implementing GP could be a recipe for disaster if “THE best practice” is not compatible with “YOUR best practice”. The difference is that YOUR best practice is making use of Dynamics GP in a manner that makes you more efficient in the way YOU do things. It is at this boundary between what is typical, and what makes you unique, that the capabilities of any ERP software package start to falter.
After more than 10 years of creating products and client-specific-enhancements for Dynamics GP, we have learned that when a business does not feel constrained by their software capability, when they demand that it conforms to THEIR best practice, they get the greatest rewards (as measured in business efficiency). Our bread-and-butter is providing professional development services to help businesses make GP support what is unique about them.
Sometimes what you need is slightly different than what GP does, but not enough to warrant a full-blown customization. WilloWare has created a couple of tools in our to address the need for “just a little bit different.”
The first is .
A Stored Query is a SQL Script that can be run by an end-user in a secure manner. For example, the screen above shows the Stored Query Maintenance window where the query is created. A consultant, administrator, or power user would perform this step. The query shown above will transfer “documents that need to be emailed” to a new Batch ID.
The Stored Query can have any number of parameters. When the user runs a Stored Query, they will be prompted to enter values for each of the Parameters. Lastly, Stored Query Security is assigned which controls which Users can run which Queries.
In the Execute Stored Query window, the User sees only their assigned queries in the drop-down list. They cannot view or edit the query. The Parameters window prompts for the needed information, in this case a From Batch ID and To Batch ID.
A couple of other examples of Stored Query usage are:
- Updating MRP Suggested Orders to use a different quantity before generating MOs or POs
- Updating open Sales Orders for a customer with new Ship To Address information
The second tool is called .
Virtual Triggers provides a way to add very small enhancements to Dynamics GP (what we call Scriptlets), without needing a custom project. For example, we recently used Virtual Triggers to add an Additional Menu to Sales Transaction Entry to calculate a Trade Discount (the Setup window is shown above).
In Sales Transaction Entry, when “Recalculate Trade Discount” is selected, it performs a special Trade Discount calculation used by our customer.
Here are few other Scriptlets we have created using Virtual Triggers:
- Prevent use of certain Site IDs on inventory transfers
- Change the IV Account on inventory transfers
- Auto-mark the exclude MO Status checkboxes on Edit MO Status
- In Receivables Cash Inquiry, add an Additional Menu to zoom to the Batch Note
and are intended to address some of those small needs for additional functionality that are discovered at the boundary between what Dynamics GP can do, and what you need to do. By using these tools you can cost effectively enhance GP to better support your unique business needs.
by WillowWare
