GP Vs BC

Dynamics GP to Business Central – The Arrival of Smartlist Features via “Add Fields from Related Tables in Analysis Mode”

Gavin WhittakerLeave a comment

Introduction

Microsoft recently added a new feature to Business Central called “Add fields from related tables in Analysis mode”. This is one of the most talked features to arrive in Business Central in a long time, and is rightly receiving rave reviews in the community.

Coming from a Dynamics GP background myself, I couldn’t help but notice its similarity to the much loved “Smartlist” feature in Dynamics GP.

In this post, I’ll compare these two features highlighting their similarities, explore their capabilities, and share real world examples of how I’ve used Business Central’s new feature to solve some reporting challenges.

Smartlist in Dynamics GP

Smartlist is a much loved tool in Dynamics GP that offers a central location where you can report and search on all aspect of your company data.

I’ve captured an image of this tool below

As you can see, the various areas of the system such as “Sales”, “Purchasing” and “Financial” are listed in the left hand pane as yellow folders, and you can select them to view the data.

Crucially you can also add additional columns to the view and search and then export the data to Excel. You can also save “favourites” so you don’t have to recreate these views again.

Additionally, you can also use a feature called “Smartlist Designer” which enables a user to create their own Smartlist, joining tables together so they can view data from more than one related table.

This is a really powerful set of tools that you can use to generate reports, right in the standard product, without the need for any additional reporting tools.

Introducing “Add fields from related tables in analysis mode” in Business Central

I must admit as much as I loved Business Central when I first made the move, I did miss the reporting capabilities that Smartlist gave me.

Although I love the various analysis views in Business Central, and how I can export data so easily from pretty much any page, I’d often find myself struggling for some crucial fields to include on the list pages, that I could easily get using a Smartlist in Dynamics GP.

However it seems some of these challenges are over with the introduction of “Add fields from related tables in analysis mode” 😊.

To use this feature you must first activate it via the “Feature Management” page.

With this feature enabled, when you access a List Page in Business Central and click the “Analyse” button you can add additional columns 😊. (just like Smartlist)

For example, I recently needed to add the “Amt. Received Not Invoice Excl VAT” to the “Purchase Lines” page so I could create a “Goods Received Not Invoiced” report.

To achieve this I went to the “Purchase Lines” page, added my filter, and then clicked the “Analyse” button

Next click “Add columns from” and then selected “Purchase Line”

Then select my column and click “OK”

The column now appears with a reference to the table it was added from:

Finally I can save it as a “Favourite” so I don’t have to keep recreating it. (just like Smartlist)

Amazing!! I’ve managed to create my report without stepping outside of Business Central. No third party tool needed!

And there’s more…

However, in this instance, we’ve only just scratched the surface.

In the example above I added a column from the table the page is based off, which you could argue I could get using other more traditional ways, such as via “Personalisation” or “Customisation” on the role.

I blog about adding extra fields via Customisation here

The real power of this functionality comes when you want to include data from other related tables. (Much like Smartlist Designer. Do you see the similarity now 😊)

For example I recently had to add the “Bank Account” and “Sort Code” to a payment journal for a user.

To do this I went into the “Analyse Mode” on the Payment Journal and clicked “Add columns from” and selected the relevant table

Next I select the relevant columns

And click OK and the columns are displayed. (I could then save it like I did in the first example)

You can even create your own links by selecting “Other source…” and linking to tables that Business Central hasn’t suggested. This opens up all sorts of possibilities for reporting.

Conclusion

This is an amazing feature that has so much potential to make life easier for users of Business Central. Lots more reporting requirements can be fulfilled without the need for third party reporting tools.

Although its a little different to Smarlist in Dynamics GP, there are many similarities that I believe will make it a highly appreciated enhancement to Business Central for many users transitioning from GP to BC, as well as for those contemplating the move.

Thanks for reading!

Dynamics GP to Business Central – How to Control your General Ledger Code and Dimension Combinations using Allowed Values Filter

Gavin WhittakerLeave a comment

Introduction

Due to the design of the General Ledger Account structure in Dynamics GP, its easy to control the General Ledger and Dimension combinations you want to use in transactions.

This is because the General Ledger code itself includes the Segment and Nominal code. Therefore if you don’t want a certain segment to be used with a Nominal code, you simply don’t create that General Ledger Code.

However when you migrate to Business Central those segments become “Dimensions” and are by default available to select with any General Ledger code.

In this post I’ll go through how you can enable the same control in Business Central using the “Allowed Value Filter” option when creating your General Ledger accounts.

How it works in Dynamics GP

Let’s say we have a segment for “Cost Centre” in Dynamics GP, and one of those cost centres is 500 for “Research and Development”. If we want to ensure that only the relevant expense codes are used with that Cost Centre, we simply don’t create those General Ledger Code combinations.

For example, I have an expense code for “Office Supplies” of 31010, therefore I don’t create the General Ledger Code 500-31010 in my Chart of Accounts.

However, I also have other Cost Centres for Sales (100), HR (200), IT (300) etc which I would create the relevant General Ledger Codes. For example I’d create the General Ledger code 300-31010 to record my Office Supplies for the IT cost centre.

This is a nice easy way to control postings and ensure incorrect entries aren’t posted.

The Business Central Approach

When you migrate to Business Central, your General Ledger (GL) accounts are consolidated based on the nominal code. For example, General Ledger codes such as 100-31010, 200-31010 and 300-31010 are merged into a single GL code, 31010. The Cost Centre then becomes a Dimension.

In my opinion, this a much better way to manage the General Ledger accounts, as it consolidates my chart of accounts, and I no longer have to create multiple General Ledger accounts every time I introduce a new Cost Centre like I would have to Dynamics GP 😊

However the question now is, how can I control which Cost Centres I can use with my General Ledger Codes in Business Central?

Blocking Dimension Values by General Ledger code

The solution to this issue is the “Allowed Values Filter” to limit the Dimension Values allowed on your General Ledger Account Card.

To do this open your General Ledger Account card and click “Account > Dimensions”.

Next choose the relevant Dimension, in this case “Cost Centre”, and click to select the “Allowed Values Filter”.

This only works if you select “Code Mandatory” for the posting which is usually ok for Dynamics GP migrations

Now I can untick the Cost Centres I don’t want to be used with this General Ledger code.

Conclusion

In this post I’ve shown how by leveraging the “Allowed Values Filter” in Business Central, you can maintain the same level of control over General Ledger and Dimension combinations as in Dynamics GP, ensuring only valid Cost Centres are used with specific General Ledger codes 😊.

Thanks for reading!

Dynamics GP to Business Central – How to easily convert your GP word templates to BC word layouts

Gavin WhittakerLeave a comment

Introduction

Just like Business Central, Dynamics GP allows you to design your externally facing document layouts, such as Sales Invoices / Customer Statements / Remittance Advice, using Microsoft Word.

When migrating to Business Central, you might have lots of different layouts in Dynamics GP that you need to recreate in Business Central, which can potentially take lots of time and effort.

In this post, using a Sales Invoice as an example, I’ll show how you can quickly and efficiently migrate the structure of the layouts to Business Central, rather than recreating them from scratch.

Step 1: Remove Content Controls from your Dynamics GP Layout

The first step involves removing the existing content controls from your Dynamics GP Sales Invoice layout.

To do this extract your Word Layout from Dynamics GP, open it in Word, and you’ll see it has references to the old Dynamics GP fields as per below:

We need to remove these references, so press CTRL+A to select all, and then right click and choose “Remove Content Control”

This will remove all the content controls from the Word Document.

If the layout has headers or footers, ensure you remove content controls from any of those fields as well.

Step 2 – Import the Word Layout into Business Central

In Business Central, go to the “Report Layouts” page, and click “New” and enter the details as per below. Then click OK, browse to your Dynamics GP layout, which now has no content controls, and import it into Business Central.

Step 3 – Update and Export Layout

Now the report layout has been uploaded into Business Central, it will show in the “Report Layouts” page.

The next step is to select the layout and click “Update and Export Layout” which will download the layout and add the Business Central data set.

Step 4 – Open the Layout in Word and make the Changes

The final step is to open the layout in Word, select the Business Central data set via XML part, and start adding the Business Central fields onto the layout.

The great thing now is, you can methodically remove the text from the layout, and replace it with the relevant fields from the Business Central XML data set. This ensures you keep the original design, saving lots of time compared to recreating it from scratch.

Tip: I recommend keeping a copy of the original Dynamics GP template with its content controls intact, so you can easily reference the Dynamics GP data fields.

Conclusion

This blog outlines a straightforward process for rapidly converting your Dynamics GP layouts to Business Central in just a few simple steps.

Incidentally, this approach can be applied to any Word document you wish to adapt with a Business Central data set, though I’ve found it particularly valuable for Dynamics GP migrations.

Thanks for reading!