Update Product System Templates After They Have Been Created

December 9, 2013
Dynamics AX
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Update Product System Templates After They Have Been Created

Update Product System Templates After They Have Been Created

Product templates are a great time saver because they allow you to use an existing product as a example of how to set up other products, making product setup more of a cookie cutter production line rather than a laborious hand crafting of each record.  But as your business changes, you will probably find that you want to update your product templates so that you don’t have to continually tweak fields here and there that have changed over time, or maybe you want to remove templates that are now obsolete so that the users don’t see them when they are creating new product records.

Don’t worry, you can do this directly through the Record Template maintenance form within the Home Area page.

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Hack Form Selection Criteria For Mass Updates

December 6, 2013
Dynamics AX
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Hack Form Selection Criteria For Mass Updates

Hack Form Selection Criteria For Mass Updates

Every now and then you may come across an update that has been designed to be performed one record at a time, and you have 10’s, 100’s, or even 1000’s of records that you want to update at once.  Even though it seems like all hope is lost and that you are going to end up with carpel tunnel syndrome from too many mouse clicks, it’s not a bleak as you think.

There is a way that you can usually hack the selection query that is used by default for the form to widen up the range of records that will be updated at once.  And it’s pretty easy to do as well.

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Use Lync to Track People Down Directly From Dynamics AX

December 5, 2013
Dynamics AX, Lync
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Use Lync to Track People Down Directly From Dynamics AX

Use Lync to Track People Down Directly From Dynamics AX

Lync is a great way to communicate with all of the people that you work with since you can easily see if people are available, and then instantly start an instant message, voice call, or a video conferencing session.  It is also fully integrated with Dynamics AX, allowing you to start Lync communications without even having to search for the person within Lync.

This is a great tool for the users because they can instantly connect with other people in the company, especially when you are researching a problem, or want to ask questions about something that was entered into Dynamics AX by someone else.  All you have to do is click and call.

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Add Approval Workflows to General Ledger Journals

December 4, 2013
Dynamics AX, General Ledger, Workflow
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Add Approval Workflows to General Ledger Journals

Add Approval Workflows to General Ledger Journals

Workflows are available throughout Dynamics AX and are a great way to make sure that things don’t get done by the right people, in a timely manner, and also provides a great way for people to see what they need to do because only the tasks that they need to worry about are assigned to them.  An example of this is that you can create workflow approval processes on any of your GL Journal codes, ensuring that no-one posts journals without some sort of review.

Everyone seems a little bit intimidated by workflows – probably because they think that they require code, and that a developer needs to be involved to set them up – which can’t be further from the truth.  Configuring a workflow is as simple as laying out a diagram that describes what you want to do, and then just enabling it.

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Create Reports Directly Off the Dynamics AX Cubes Through Excel

December 3, 2013
Business Intelligence, Dynamics AX, Excel, Office
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Create Reports directly off the Dynamics AX Cubes through Excel

Create Reports directly off the Dynamics AX Cubes through Excel

Excel is probably the number one reporting tool because it is on everyone’s computer, and also because it is so easy to manipulate the data and create your own analysis, charts and tables.  In the past though, the more technical users have had a slight advantage over the general users because they knew the secret table combinations that allowed them to piece data together directly from the database, giving them better insight and reports, whilst the less technical users had to resort to cutting and pasting data, or transcribing pieces of information from other reports into Excel which made their reports tedious to build and also prone to errors.

Those days are over though because Dynamics AX comes pre-delivered with a set of reporting cubes that have already simplified and summarized the data from you and you can connect to it directly from Excel.  This makes reporting so much easier for everyone, and also makes sure that everyone has the same results when they create their reports.

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Enter Sales Orders Over the Web Using The Sales Portal

December 2, 2013
Dynamics AX
6 Comments
Enter Sales Orders Over the Web Using The Sales Portal

Enter Sales Orders Over the Web Using The Sales Portal

Dynamics AX includes a number of web based portals that are designed to allow you to access almost all of the same information that is available within the traditional rick client through a much thinner interface.  One of the portals is a sales portal that allows you to look up customer information, record activities against the customers and even place orders through the web that are then immediately available for everyone regardless of how they are accessing the system.

This is a great way for salespeople to quickly access information from Dynamics AX on their laptops, or even through their tablets, because all they need is a connection to the Enterprise Portal site and a web browser.

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Make Dynamics AX Less Chatty by Turning Off Infolog Notifications

November 29, 2013
Dynamics AX
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Make Dynamics AX less Chatty by turning off Infolog Notifications

Make Dynamics AX less Chatty by turning off Infolog Notifications

Although getting notifications from Dynamics AX about what it is doing, and any problems that it has come across is good, as you start getting more comfortable with the system, it may be just the errors that you are interested in seeing, and you don’t want to have to close down the InfoLog box every time a new journal entry is created.

Luckily, there is a setting that will control the level of detail that Dynamics AX shares with you and you can easily tell it that you just want all, some, or no messages as you performing transactions, letting you really get down to business without pop-up boxes appearing.

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Let Your Vendors Enter Their Own Invoices Through The Vendor Portal

November 28, 2013
Dynamics AX, Vendor Management
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Let your vendors enter their own invoices in through the Vendor Portal

Let your vendors enter their own invoices in through the Vendor Portal

If you want to streamline part of the Accounts Payables processing, why not let your vendors post their invoices themselves through the Vendor Portal rather than with a stamp through the USPS.  Through the portal they are able to enter in all of the billing information and line details, and also attach any supporting information as document attachments that will then show up within the Payables area page as pending invoices.  The invoice then just needs to be reviewed and approved and it will be ready for payment.

You will become more efficient, because you don’t have to re-key in invoice details as they arrive in the paper format, and also the vendors should be happier because you will be able to pay them sooner because there isn’t any lag between the invoice being posted and it being available for review for the payables group.  Everyone’s a winner.

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Exporting Data to Your Client Version of Excel When Using Remote Desktop

November 27, 2013
Dynamics AX, Excel, Office
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Exporting Data to your client version of Excel when using Remote Desktop

Exporting Data to your client version of Excel when using Remote Desktop

Just because you are using a remote desktop to access Dynamics AX, doesn’t mean that you have to do everything there.  One example of this is that you can choose to export data to your local version of Excel rather than to the version of Office that may be running on your remote desktop.  All you need is to change one of the options within the Dynamics AX client.

This allows you to work with the exported data after you are disconnected from the remote desktop, it allows you to use any additional extensions that you may have installed on your local machine within Excel, and most importantly saves you the hassle of having to cut and paste the worksheet from the remote desktop over to your local machine.

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Use Shorthand to Enter Dates

November 26, 2013
Dynamics AX
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Use shorthand to enter dates

Use shorthand to enter dates

Dynamics AX has a lot of shortcut keys that you can use to navigate around the system and save you from clicking the mouse too much, but in addition there are some shorthand annotations that you can use in the fields to help you with your day to day data entry.

One example of this is that you don’t have to specify the full date (i.e. 12/25/2013) when you enter them in.  You can use tokens for the current date and also partial dates (i.e. 1225) that will be translated into the full date.  When you are trying to get information in as quickly as possible, then this is incredibly useful.

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