Create Extra Sorting & Lookup Options in GP

Did you know that in GP, you can add extra sorting and lookup options for a user to access quickly without needing to go into Custom Sort?  Advanced lookup fields are available on 14 Lookup windows, and you can add up to 4 additional fields.

We’ll use Customer Lookup for example.   Go to the Customer Maintenance Window (Sales > Cards > Customer).  Select the Lookup icon to go to the Customers and Prospects window.

On the Customers and Prospects window select the down arrow next to Additional Sorts.

This will display the current sort options available.

The next step is to add a “by Custom Sort”.  Find the setup for Additional Sorts by going to Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > Company > Advanced Lookups.  This will open the Advanced Lookups Setup window.  Select the Lookup Name to be modified.

Select the Field(s) you would like to add as a “Sort by” option.  The description is editable so you can change the description.  Note below where the field User Defined 1 has had the description changed to be more meaningful.  Save the changes made to the lookup.

The next time you go to the Customer lookup window, the Additional Sorts will be available for use.

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GP Tip: Dynamic Dates Ranges in your Report Options and SmartLists

Are you always hard coding dates into report options at the end of each month?  You can eliminate that step by using dynamic date ranges.  Use them in any GP report that uses an As Of date or a date range, or in a SmartList Search.

Values available in reports are: Enter Date, Current Date, Beginning of Month, End of Month, Beginning of Period, End of Period, Beginning of Previous Month, End of Previous Month, Beginning of Pervious Period, End of Previous Period, Beginning of Calendar Quarter, End of Calendar Quarter, Start of Calendar Year and End of Calendar Year.

And in the SmartList Search window. 

Values available in the SmartList Search are “Beginning of” and “End of”:  Week, Month, Period, Quarter, Calendar Year and Fiscal Year.  Or “Current Date”.

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General Ledger Mass Modify

Mass Modify is a tool that can help you quickly create, update, or renumber large groups of General Ledger accounts all at once.

You can generate many new GL accounts based on existing ones using:

• Segment (change one segment across a range)
• Range (copy a block of accounts)
• Mask (replace part of an account number)
• Wildcard (select accounts based on patterns)

This is useful when:

• Adding a new department
• Rolling out new natural accounts
• Creating new cost centers

NOTE: Before using this tool, be sure to have a current backup!

To copy a range of accounts:

1. Go to Financial > Cards > Mass Modify
2. Select Copy in the Modify field
3. Enter the range of accounts you want to modify in the From and To fields
4. In the New Account Mask, enter the new segment number
5. For Display, choose Selected Range to show the range of accounts to be copied
6. Click on Modify to complete the process
7. The fields in the window will be cleared when the process has been completed

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Verifying Vendor Tax ID’s & Employee Social Security Numbers

This is not exclusively for GP users but a helpful tip for anyone who files 1099 and W-2 forms. The IRS and the Social Security Administration (SSA) both offer free online tools for taxpayers (payers/employers) to validate taxpayer identification numbers and social security numbers.

You can access these tools from the IRS website below.

Taxpayer identification number (TIN) matching tools | Internal Revenue Service

Why This Matters: Risks of Not Verifying Payee Data

Without proper verification:

• Names and TINs may not match IRS/SSA records, triggering backup withholding, filing rejects or errors, or penalties.
• Employees might not get correct credit for their earnings if W-2s are wrong (wrong SSN/name).
• You may need to file corrections (e.g., 1099-Corr, W-2c), which is time-consuming, and potentially subject you to late-filing penalties.

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GP Tip – Cleaning Up Auto Complete Selections

Here is an older (but still handy!) tip…  GP has this feature called Auto Complete that remembers what a user had previously typed into a field.  The only problem is that it remembers the invalid data, too. 

You can remove these unwanted values that appear in your list by right-clicking on a selection then clicking on “Remove From List”.  It’s as simple as that!

You can use the AutoComplete Setup window (Microsoft Dynamis GP > User Preferences > Auto Complete) to specify the number of days when unused entries should be removed and the number of entries that can be saved for each field.  You also can remove all existing AutoComplete entries.  If you decide not to use AutoComplete, you can unmark the Show AutoComplete Suggestions option.  Because this is under User Preferences, this is a by-user setting.

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Assigning Process Holds to Sales Documents

You can use the Sales Process Holds Setup window to create process holds to assign to your sales documents.  Process holds are user-defined restrictions that control the processing of sales documents at different stages of the sales cycle.

Some examples of process holds are:

• Prevent posting of documents until a manager approves the transactions
• Restrict the printing of invoices until addresses have been verified
• Stop the order fulfillment process because a part has been recalled by the manufacturer
• Prevent the transferring of a quote to an order if the customer is over its credit limit

You can set up passwords to further restrict processing.  The user must enter the password to remove holds from documents.  If you do not use passwords, you can set up a process hold just to remind the user to complete a task before processing a sales document.  Once the task is completed, the user must remove the hold from the document before processing occurs.  You can apply process holds to any sales order processing document type.

To set up process holds, go to Sales > Setup > Process Holds.  Enter an ID and description.  You can assign a password or leave it blank.  Check which processes you want to restrict with this hold.

To assign a Hold to a SOP transaction, go to Sales > Transactions > Sales Transaction and select a document. Click on the Go To button and select Holds.

Select a Process Hold ID and click on Assign. You can assign more than one Hold to a document.

Once a Hold is assigned, you will see a red circle indicating a Hold is on this document. 

To remove the Hold, click on the Go To button, select Holds and Remove.

Add the Hold column to a Sales Transaction SmartList to see all documents on hold.

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How to Allocate Inventory to Multiple Bins In GP

Did you know that Microsoft Dynamics GP provides the ability to track inventory quantities in more than one bin location within a site/warehouse?  By default, GP lets you set up one “default” bin per item/site, but if you need more detailed tracking—such as stock spread across aisles, shelves, or zones—you enable Multiple Bins in the Inventory Control module.
 
You can then assign default bins for different types of transactions for each item/site combination.

The Bin Quantity Inquiry window lists all the bins containing quantities for a particular item.

This does add an extra step to each inventory-related type of transaction because GP now must track not just what site an item is in, but also which bin(s) it is stored in. There are certain steps that need to be followed when you enable this feature. 

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GP Tip – Printing a Trial Balance

Have you ever had the need for a trial balance for just certain account numbers?  For example, you would like GL Trial Balance detail of accounts 6100 and 6520, but not the accounts in between, so you can’t use a range. You can create your custom report using the GP Trial Balance and Navigation Lists!

1. Open the Financial Area page and click on Accounts in the Navigation Pane to generate your list of GL Accounts.

2. Create a filter for the accounts you want to see.  Select Add Filter, then enter the accounts you want in your report.  When finished select the right pointing arrow to apply the filter you created.  The accounts matching the filter will be displayed.

3. Mark the accounts you want included in the report.  To select all accounts, select the checkbox in the header.

4. Select Reports > Print Trial Balance

5. Select Print and GP will generate a standard Trial Balance in summary or detail (Include details).

6. You can then save the filtered list by clicking on the ‘Accounts (read only)’ menu and choosing a name for the list so you can use it again later.  You will simply have to enter the checkmark to select the accounts to be used in the report and then select print.

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Understanding GP’s Multidimensional Analysis Feature

MDA is a feature in Dynamics GP that lets you “tag” transactions with additional “dimensions” for reporting and analysis. 
 
For example, instead of creating a new GL account for every department, region, project, cost center, product line, etc., you can use MDA codes to capture these extra details and keep a streamlined chart of accounts.
 
First you define your MDA Groups and the Codes that will be used within each group.

Next, you link your MDA groups to G/L accounts. You can indicate whether you would also like to track quantities (in addition to dollars). Analysis Types are Fixed, Required, Optional or None. You can enter default percentages to be applied to transaction distributions for each code, which can be overwritten in the transaction. A single G/L account can have multiple MDA groups assigned.

When a G/L account, that has MDA groups assigned, is used in a transaction, the Account Analysis button becomes available (circled below).

Click on the Account Analysis button to open the Analysis Posting Detail window where you can distribute the transaction amount to MDA codes.

MDA transaction history can be viewed in the Account Analysis report, Analysis Inquiry window and in SmartLists.

MDA codes can be used in the following transaction types:

• General Journal Entry
• Payables Transaction Entry
• PO Receiving
• PO Invoice Entry
• Receivables Transaction Entry
• Sales Invoicing
• Sales Transaction Entry

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How to Use Non-Qualifying Vendor Discounts

Wondering how to handle non-qualifying vendor discounts in GP?

As you know, GP will only automatically deduct vendor terms discounts if you are paying invoices before or on their discount dates.

You can also take discounts AFTER the discount date by checking “Take Non-Qualifying Discounts” box in the Build Payment Batch window.

This option is not available if you mark the Exclude Expired Discounts from Payments option in the Payables Management Setup window (shown below) or for a purchasing prepayment batch.

Another helpful option in the setup window above is “Allow Summary Post to Checkbook for EFT/CC”. This feature was added in GP 18.5. It allows you to post EFT and credit card AP payment batches to the bank reconciliation in a lump sum, rather than as individual amounts. This makes bank reconciliation much easier because these amounts most likely appear on your bank statement as a total amount.

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