April 13th, 2010
Many clients wonder what the best method is to collect use tax. Use Tax are taxes that you owe the government for goods that your vendor never charged you sales tax on. It only applies to goods that you are consuming, not reselling, since the end customer pays the sales tax.
So here is our scenario – We bought 100 rolls of toilet paper for $100 but the vendor didn’t charge us tax. While we are creating our AP invoice, you can select the OC tax schedule to auto add the 8.75% tax to the invoice. But since I’m not paying the vendor the $8.75, I want to offset the amount in the Payment Discount field so my invoice is still $100.
Accounting Overview:
When sales taxes are calculated by Dynamics GP, a debit entry is created for the tax amount. The tax amount can then be recorded in the Terms Discount Taken field, offsetting the sales tax amount for accounts payable. Since the Terms Discount Taken field is a credit, the corresponding account should be configured with the Use Tax Liability account from the General Ledger.
This option allows the recording of use tax amounts as a liability in General Ledger without requiring a payable transaction. This can be useful when use tax amounts are frequently adjusted prior to remitting payments to the taxing authority.
Details
Process AP Transaction
- Process a Payables Transaction via Transactions->Purchasing->Transaction Entry.
- Enter sales tax as you normally would. This should automatically calculate based on the assigned tax schedule.
- Enter the sales tax amount in the Terms Discount Taken field.
Tax expense can be recorded in a separate expense account or assigned to the same account as the transaction. Tax liability is assigned to a use tax liability account. During the tax remittance process, a Smartlist or General Ledger Detail Trial Balance report can be used to show the balance in the use tax liability account to facilitate processing and remittance. Any adjustments to use tax are made via journal entries. Finally, an accounts payable transaction must be manually entered for the taxing authority and the expense line must be assigned to the use tax liability account to relieve the liability. This will keep the General Ledger balanced.
The benefits of this method are:
- The payables subsidiary and vendor records hold the correct transaction amounts.
- The liability is recorded in General Ledger, allowing for later review, adjustment and remittance.
- There is easy tracking of the amounts due to the taxing authority via GL account drill back capabilities.
- Detail is available via Inquiry, reporting and Smartlists.
- Tax can be routed to the same location as the expense.
Potential issues with using the Terms Discount Taken field include:
- Unavailability of the Terms Discount Taken field for its intended purpose.
- User still needs to review liability and create payment transaction.
I hope this clears up how Use Tax can be tracked while we wait for a Use Tax field to show up in future versions of GP. Feel free to read more details as well as the credit card method in this guide below.
Use_Tax_Guide in GP 10
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April 8th, 2010
Why this feature is cool!
You can be browsing an Excel report and drill right into the GP screen that is related to the data you are looking at. Drill Down builder allows you to further enhance the Microsoft Office and Dynamics GP integration story. With the same model as the builder tools, Drill Down Builder is configurable by the end user: define the window you would like to be able to drill down to, in any module, from any product, including 3rd party Dexterity products.
The drill downs you build can be automatically embedded within Excel Report Builder Reports or manually added into any other office application such as Word, Outlook emails, SRS reports or within SharePoint pages.
How could customers use Drill Down Builder
Scenario 1: First, generate an Excel Report Builder report that shows total inventory per item. Embedded in the report is a drill down to the Item Quantities Inquiry window in Dynamics GP. If the user needs to know more about the stock for a particular item, they simply drill down from the Excel Report into the details you need in Dynamics GP.
Scenario 2: A users wants a colleague to take a look at three purchase orders within Microsoft GP. Rather than sending them a list of PO numbers, they can send an email with links which will open the Purchase Order window and populate it for them.
Scenario 3: A user has configured an SRS report containing weekly timesheets for consultants. The consultants are able to review the report and if they need to make a change can drill straight into the related timesheet to make the changes required.
What does it look like?
The drilldown builder windows are very similar to the GoTo screens in SmartList Builder.
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April 8th, 2010
Why this feature is cool!
Navigation List Builder extends the functionality of the Navigation Lists letting a customer include exactly the data that they want. You can access any table in Dynamics GP or any 3rd party product as well as external SQL tables and views.
The Navigation Lists will retrieve only the information selected speeding up the list performance.
Users can customize their lists in the following ways:
- Select the fields to display
- Select the fields to show in the Preview Pane
- Define the Preview Pane layout
- Restrict the data by default
- Create Calculated fields
- Create Actions to:
- Open Forms
- Run Reports
- Launch Files
- Launch Web sites
- Perform standard Dynamics GP Functions such as Transaction Posting or Customer Aging
- Display various Status Icons
What does it look like?
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April 8th, 2010
Why this feature is cool!
Organizations have the need to customize external facing documents. Some of these customizations may be something as small as changing the company logo that should appear on the document, but all changes required users to create a modified Report Writer report. Users will now be able to make these types of modifications without requiring them to create a modified Report Writer report and in the familiar Microsoft Office Word application.
- 22 ready to use templates available upon installation
- Feature is enabled by default after installation
- Documents are rendered in Microsoft Office Word
- Flexibility to perform more actions with a rendered document: Email, Save as PDF/XPS, Publish to SharePoint, etc.
- Enables customers to send more professional looking documents to their customers and vendors
- Utilizes same print process flow so nothing new for end users to learn
- Utilizes same security model as Report Writer reports so no new security layer to setup
- Allow users to assign Microsoft Office Word templates to a Report Writer report
- Enables users to assign templates to specific companies, customers, or vendors
- Direct integration with Microsoft Office Word to customize or create templates
- Offers user the option to create new templates or copy existing templates
- Enables users to assign a template that ships with Dynamics GP 2010 to their existing modified reports
What does it look like?
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April 8th, 2010
(Editor’s Note) We will be able to create a custom DM Online Connect for our client’s home pages that will allow them to directly access our support and also read our tips and tricks blog – right from the Dynamics GP home page!
Why this feature is cool!
Microsoft Dynamics Online Connect is hosted in the Microsoft Dynamics GP home page. Connect displays a series of slides to make the benefits of the Microsoft Dynamics Business Ready Enhancement Plan easily discoverable and accessible. Connect provides end users with the ability to do self-help support, get product information, and do training – right from the Microsoft Dynamics GP home page.
- Increase the value you receive from your Business Ready Enhancement Plan
- CustomerSource access is based on your Business Ready Enhancement Plan
- The CustomerSource site will be in the language you selected
- Connect is available to all users on the Home Page
- Content will be specific to your Home Page role
- Provides easier access to services, bringing it to the customers when and where they need it
- Removes extra steps and promotes training by displaying titles and availability
- Continuously updated to provide current, relevant information
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April 8th, 2010
Why this feature is cool!
Home page cues extend the functionality of the To Do section. Now, in addition to showing reminders to tell a user when they need to act, you can make the reminder visual by displaying it as a cue. The number of items in the reminder will determine how tall the cue is. The display as cue checkbox is available for any reminder that is based on number of records.
What does it look like?
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April 8th, 2010
Why this feature is cool!
In many businesses, there is a defined budget process. Budgets are sent to departments, and then combined into a single budget for the next year. Once a budget is set, users want to formalize any changes against it. In GP2010, you have the ability to combine multiple budgets. And the ability to track and formalize the budget change process with Budget Transactions.
- Combine Budgets
- Combine one to many source budgets into a single budget
- Delete source budget after combined
- Budget Transactions
- Create Budget batches
- Post budget transactions to commit changes
- Optional budget history
- Budget Inquiry available
What does it look like?
Combine Budgets:
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April 8th, 2010
Why this feature is cool!
With GP2010 you can setup a Cash Receipts Entry batch as a recurring batch type.
When the recurring batch is posted, the transaction dates will be updated, but the payments themselves will stay. Next time you want to post, you can enter the apply information and post and the customer will be updated. This will work for standard payments received as well as RM EFT payments.
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April 8th, 2010
There are so many new features to Dynamics GP 2010 I coulden’t possibly list them all this morning, but here are some of my favorites that i’ve seen so far.
Employee Onboard Workflow
Why this feature is cool!
When an employee is added to Payroll, there are a lot of setup steps and many departments involved. There are tasks within Human Resources and Payroll, from pay codes to benefits as well as tasks outside of HRP. Items like building security, ordering a computer or scheduling new employee training.
In Dynamics GP 2010, an Employee Onboard workflow has been added which can be configured to leverage the step workflow functionality to notify all departments about the new employee. The workflow submit process has been added to both Payroll Personnel Maintenance and to the Human Resource Applicant Hire window.
- Onboard tasks are displayed in GP, Outlook and SharePoint.
- The Onboarded employee can be routed one or more people for approval or to complete an actionable task.
- The conditions in which an Onboarded employee can be routed can be specific to each business.
- If users are out of office, their approval tasks can be automatically routed to another user to act on their behalf.
- The workflow history of an Onboarded employee is consolidated and easily visible within Great Plains or SharePoint.
- When an employee is approved, the person submitting the Onboarded employee (an originator) will receive a notification that the employee has been approved.
- If a user does not take action on their task, there are various options for escalating the Onboarded employee for approval.
What does it look like?
Workflow List
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March 31st, 2010
Over the past few months I have noticed some confusion into what different grouping fields mean in the FA module. I hope that this post clarifies some of the confusion:
CLASS ID
The Class ID associated to an asset is the grouping that is primarily used for reporting purposes. Typical classes are Furniture & Fixtures, Equipment, Automobiles etc.
Classes can be associated with ONE account group, and each asset can only be assigned to ONE class.
The most important thing to keep in mind when creating classes are the following:
1. Default information: Classes can default a myriad of information to new assets, including:
- Book information (this comprises the depreciation schedule, original life of the asset etc.)
- Account Group
2. Reporting
- Projection reports for Fixed Assets can be run and sorted by class. These same reports cannot be sorted by Account Group or Asset Group in GP 10
Account Group
The account group is the grouping of accounts that will be associated to the asset. Keep in mind that before depreciation can be run, the asset must be assigned accounts that will be used when posting to the GL. The account group feature simply helps you organize the accounts that are most commonly used into more managable categories.
Some facts about the Account Group:
- Not typically used for reporting, so it is best not to design your account groups with reporting in mind.
- Account groups can hold a many-to-one relationship with Class ID’s. (meaning I can assign the same account group to several Class ID’s.)
- The account group simply defaults the accounts into place for a given asset, but can be changed on a per-asset basis if desired.
Asset Group
This is the least known grouping of Fixed Assets, and oftentimes confuses end users.
Asset groups are a third way to organize like assets for the purpose of disposal, depreciation or projection. You could also use the asset group feature to make mass changes to certain assets.
The main advantage to creating and using asset groups is you can “cherry pick” the assets you would like to project/modify/dispose of etc. etc.
The disadvantage is you cannot typically run canned reports based on these asset groups. (This is where the classes come into play.)
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