We often get asked the question from our customers and prospective customers, “What will the future hold for Management Reporter and how does Microsoft Forecaster fit into that future?”.  There are big plans for this reporting tool from Microsoft.  As many of you know Management Reporter just released their latest version of Management Reporter, Management Reporter 2012.  There were many needed enhancements to Management Reporter included in this new release, including those highlighted on the following page, http://community.dynamics.com/b/dynamicscpm/archive/2012/04/04/what-s-new-in-management-reporter-2012.aspx.  However, there was no functionality added that involves forecasting or collaborative budgetting for Management Reporter for Dynamics GP or Dynamics AX (and the other Microsoft ERP products).

What about financial forecasting and collaborative budgetting?  What are the plans for Management Reporter and these important areas?  I spoke to a reliable resource close to the Management Reporter and Microsoft Forecaster teams and I was told that there are no immediate plans to add this functionality into Management Reporter.  The team will continue to support this functionality in the existing Microsoft Forecaster 7.0 tool, and for the foreseeable future they will rely on this product and the other 3rd party applications out on the market to meet this need.

Look for more exciting enhancement to Management Reporter, but don’t look for a collaborative budgetting or forecasting tool any time in the near future.

If you do business in several tax jurisdictions, or in complex states, it can easily become more than a full-time job just to keep up with the ever changing tax rates and product taxability rules. Not only is compliance difficult to maintain, but even the simplest of mistakes can cost you thousands of dollars if audited.

Although you, or Tridea Partners as a Dynamics partner, can configure Dynamics GP or Dynamics AX to handle complex tax tables, we recommend using one of the third party solutions that handles the tax updates automatically.

One of the leading solutions is by Avalara (www.avalara.com), the creator of AvaTax – a cloud-based system – to help address your unique sales tax challenges. With complete integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP and Dynamics AX, AvaTax removes the difficulty of managing sales tax compliance by helping to eliminate the tedious work and complexity that goes into calculating, reporting, filing and remitting taxes.

Sales tax automation software can help:

• Achieve full end-to-end sales tax compliance
• Automate manual processes involved with managing tax tables and updates
• Eliminate compliance holes associated with using a flat state rate or zip code-based systems
• Reduce your audit exposure through ‘bullet-proof’ compliance
• Outsource all of your sales tax filing requirements
• Automate the paperless collection and management of certificates

Managing sales tax can be complex and time consuming. Depending on your unique requirements, a sales tax software application may dramatically simplify things for your organization.

Many clients have asked us in the past if they can utilize recurring batches for cash receipts. This is a more simplistic and flexible way of achieving what can also be done through a scheduled payments transaction. Dynamics GP 2010 now offers this capability.

The batch can be setup just like a GL recurring batch by updating the drop down menu for the Frequency field (shown in the screenshot below). The amount in the Recurring Postings field (shown in the screenshot below) indicates how many times this batch will be available for posting. Each time the batch is posted, the transaction dates are updated, but the cash receipt transaction amounts within the batch stay the same. If utilizing the EFT module, EFT Cash Receipt transactions can also be entered in recurring batches.

Furthermore, GL Recurring batches have been updated in Dynamics GP 2010 as well. The new feature that has been added enables the user to Clear Recurring Amounts for Recurring batches after posting. This can be accomplished by simply checking the checkbox next to Clear Recurring Amounts in the batch entry window (screenshot shown below). This feature is similar to Quick Journals, but is more customizable. This feature helps to decrease data entry errors by allowing common journal entries to be created with ease. In addition, this feature prevents a user from accidentally posting a recurring batch without making necessary changes as the batch will not post until the user updates the amounts for the journal entry.

Out of the box, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 does provide a Revenue Generated by Marketing Campaign Chart and View; however it does not copy that Actual Revenue amount to a field on the Campaign Form. A recent client wanted to have this field on the Campaign Form in order to perform some ROI calculations (using Java script) on the Campaign Form. We accomplished this goal with these steps:

1. First, create a new field (currency) on the Campaign Form.
2. Create a process workflow on the Opportunity entity that updates the Source Campaign tied to a given Opportunity.

a. Scope = Organization
b. Start when = Record status Changes
c. Add Check Condition Step = Opportunity Status equals [Won]
d. If condition is met Add Step = Update: Source Campaign
e. Click on Set Properties

f. The Campaign form will open
g. Click in the Actual Revenue field (that was created in Step 1)
h. Select Operator: Increment by
i. Look for: Opportunity
Actual Revenue
j. Click on Add

3. Close and Activate the workflow
4. Now, every time an opportunity tied to a Source Campaign is won, the Actual Revenue amount gets incremented/added in that Source Campaign form.

This is just one of the uses of the “increment by” feature in workflows. It obviously can be used to update other numerical /date fields on related entities. There is also an option to “decrement by” and “multiply by” which is also very useful.

Microsoft Dynamics AX is positioned in the Leaders quadrant of the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant (Magic Quadrant for ERP for Product-Centric Midmarket Companies, December 2010).  Microsoft Dynamics AX’s ability to execute is proven by a long track record and above-average growth rates in the midmarket, its intuitive user interface, and by its functionality.  The new Gartner Quadrant is scheduled to be released later in 2012.

Gartner’s report highlights Microsoft Dynamics AX as specifically being targeted at midmarket and upper midmarket organizations. It offers broad and robust functionality in distribution, manufacturing, professional services, retail and public sector, and delivers low TCO through bi-directional integration with other Microsoft products and technologies.  Microsoft Dynamics AX can serve multinational companies in the core and the upper midmarket with out of the box functionality. Microsoft Dynamics AX allows support of multiple sites or business units in one single instance, including those that operate in different countries and need country-specific localizations and currencies.

Magic Quadrant for ERP for Product-Centric Midmarket Companies