A blog from one of our Dynamics GP consultants.
As a Microsoft Dynamics GP consultant of over 20 years, I have seen the amazing things that this solution can do. However, my experience also means I see simple areas that could be improved.
Microsoft have proven that they are receptive to user ideas and feedback; they have a Dynamics GP enhancements page where you can suggest and ‘vote’ on improvements that you would like added as core functionality to Dynamics GP. In fact, in one of their later releases of 2021 they highlighted that the majority of the new features were as a result of user requests.
I have compiled a short list of suggestions that I feel would be of benefit to Dynamics GP users; these are little things that I think will really enhance the user experience.
Here is my Microsoft Dynamics GP top six wish list.
1) Reconciling the subledger to the general ledger control accounts.
Currently there is a reconciliation tool for payables, receivable, and bank and inventory ledgers. It is not perfect, but it provides a good indication of transactions that cause a mismatch. However the same cannot be said for Accrued Purchases, a.k.a. Goods Received Not Invoiced (GRNI). The best we have for this is an Excel unfriendly GRNI dexterity report and a GRNI SmartList which can be compared with the account transaction SmartList. The problem with the latter? It doesn’t factor landed costs in! This means more time is spent on performing SQL queries, putting them into Excel, and then playing with subtotals and vlookups.
My question (and thoughts for a potential improvement): since the functionality for the other control accounts exists, why not GRNI?
2) Auto generation of batch IDs based on user ID and date.
Batch IDs are generally created by the users, unless being imported via integration tool(s). Some clients have used VBA to auto-create a batch ID when entering manual transactions within Dynamics GP. Whilst this has worked well in the past, VBA is being phased out by Microsoft, and with recent versions of Office 365 can cause Dynamics GP to crash. The only alternative? Forfeit the functionality or replace with a dexterity customisation.
But rather than doing that, why not have the autocreation of the batch ID as a standard functionality? Could even get fancy and allow the user to define their own Batch ID mask! User ID and Date being just one example…
3) Option to auto-create debtor IDs and creditor IDs based on sequence.
Debtor and creditor ID creation has two rules: alphanumeric and with a maximum of 15 characters. But since auto creation of ‘next’ number exists for Asset IDs in the Fixed Assets module, why not have the same thing for debtors and creditors?
Create a setup window where the mask can be defined, then in the debtor and creditor maintenance have a ‘create new’ button which populates the next number. Users could still define their own ID if they wish.
4) Ability to batch bank transactions and bank transfers.
Dynamics GP has never allowed bank transactions and transfers to be batched like debtor, creditor, and GL transactions. This means users either have to post or clear, and if they make a mistake, void. This is problematic for integrations. For some integrations, batches can be deleted with the integration restarted, allowing the users to ensure there are no errors, but not so for bank transactions. If some lines fail the source has to be manipulated to only refer to the failed lines since the successful ones cannot be deleted from Dynamics GP, unless they are voided one by one.
If batches were available for bank transactions, I believe it would create two major improvements:
- Easier management of integrated transactions.
- The ability to enter recurring batches, for example recurring receipts and payments.
5) Remove phone number formatting and expand field lengths to at least 30 characters
With every Dynamics GP install comes a pre-defined phone number format of (000) 0000-0000 Ext 000. This format is useful to local numbers within the USA, but not so useful everywhere else. As a consultant, we must go into Dynamics GP modifier and report writer to remove them and make the fields free text during a Dynamics GP install and upgrade.
In addition, the field length is only 14 characters providing difficulty when entering international phone numbers.
6) Expand Transaction description fields lengths to at least 100 characters.
If anyone was to look at Microsoft’s Dynamics GP feedback or voting page this is by far the most popular and yet the simplest request. Since Dynamics GP’s inception most transaction fields across all modules have been limited to 30 characters, despite consistent requests to increase to at least 100. It has been stated that the coding for this is too complicated and would increase database size. However, the description fields are free text and are not used as table keys, and in previous updates document attachments were introduced with a maximum size of 1 GB per file…
Microsoft have previously expanded debtor and creditor address fields to 60 characters and added and extended description for payables transactions. It is good to see action, and was completed with good intentions, but was perhaps misguided as it is an extra field that is not available in the payables transaction SmartList or remittance apply details.
If you like the sound of any of the points mentioned in my wish list, or have other improvements you would suggest that would benefit you and your organisation, then submit your ideas here. You have the opportunity to steer the future of the product.
