Automatic Vendor Numbers in GP

GP does not have the ability to create automatic vendor numbers on an incremental basis. But there is a simple workaround where you can automatically create vendor numbers. We will need to use the “Next Temp. Vendor ID” setup in the Payables Setup Options window. Obviously, if you do create temporary vendors, then you will not be able to use this workaround. Alternatively, if you have security restrictions where the user who can create vendors not being able to create and vice versa, you will not be able to use this workaround. If you that level of security, then you would have to look into 3^rd party products or some sort of customization.

To setup the Vendor Number format that you want to use, you would go to the “Payable Setup Options” window by going to Tools >> Setup >> Purchasing >> Payables and then clicking on the “Options” button on the “Payables Management Setup” window. On this window, setup the Vendor number sequence you want to start with. For example, you could start with V000001 so that your vendor numbers are V000001, V000002 and so on.

Creating temporary vendors is done through the following AP transaction windows (Payables Transaction Entry window, the Payables Manual Payment Entry window, and the Edit Payables Checks window). For our example we will use the Payables Transaction Entry window.

On the Payables Transaction Entry window, with the focus on the Vendor ID field, hit Ctrl+T (or you can drop down on the Options menu and select Temporary Vendor).

This should open the Vendor Maintenance window with the next vendor number populated. Be sure to change the status to “Active” before adding additional vendor information and closing the window.

If you have already have vendors setup with different vendor numbers, you will have to change the vendor numbers. You can do this using the PSTL tool. But that is for another post!

How to fully depreciate an asset in the next depreciation run?

Let’s say you (or your boss) wants to depreciate a particular asset completely in the next depreciation run, this is what you will need to do. This is only if the asset is not being retired but will remain on the books.

The key is to change the Original Life of the asset so that the Remaining Life becomes equal to the number of days for the month you will be depreciating. And when you save this new Original Life, you will need to choose “Recalculate” as the depreciation recalculation method. We do this because we do not want to change any historical depreciation information.

Once you update the original life for the asset(s), all other steps are the same as usual.

Let’s walk through an example to illustrate this scenario and the solution better. The first screenshot you see below gives you the state of the Asset Book before any changes are done. The asset has been depreciated through 09/30/2011, the remaining life is 3 years and 22 days, and the net book value is $58,000.00.

We need to update the remaining life to 31 days, since the next depreciation period is October. Because we cannot directly change the remaining life, we need to update the original life so that we get the remaining life we want.

If we subtract the Remaining Life from the Original Life, we get the total life of the asset so far – which is 1 year and 138 days. For the new remaining life to be 31 days, we need to add 31 days to that number. So when we plug 1 year and 169 days into the original life, our remaining life now says 31 days, which is exactly what we want.

Since you have changed a depreciation sensitive field, the system will need to recalculate the depreciation. So click “Yes” on the pop up window.

If you do not want to change any historical depreciation information, you will select “Recalculate” here.

Now, you can depreciate the asset as you would normally do. Here are the results.  You can see that the current depreciation amount is $58,000, the fully depreciated flag is set to Y, and the remaining life is 0.

Running the FRx AA Wizard in a 64 bit Machine

Microsoft does not support FRx on a 64 bit machine. That is not to say that FRx does not work on a 64 bit machine. I have seen instances where FRx works just fine on a 64 bit machine. But here is an instance where you will not be able to use a 64 bit machine.

If you are setting up FRx to report on Analytical Accounting information, you will need to go through a process of defining the AA dimensions in FRx. The Analytical Accounting Dimension Wizard which can be found in the Analytical Accounting folder within the FRx folder is used to add the AA dimensions to FRx.

On the first step you will be asked to specify the ODBC Datasource, System Database, Login and Password.

As soon as you move focus to the Company dropdown, you will get this error message.

“An internal program error has occurred. The program is shutting down.”

This will only happen on a 64 bit machine. The only workaround is to run this process from a 32 bit machine. However, once you have created the dimensions in FRX using this process, you can use the 64 but machine to build AA reports as long as you have the Sysdata folder shared.

Mission Statement

For a while now, I have wanted to do something that is not necessitated because of work or pleasure. I suppose it’s a desire to build something that could be useful to others. I wanted to do something constructive and do it only because I want to and I can. To do something that will be of use to others, I had to work on something that I knew quite a bit about. And that brought me to Dynamics GP. I don’t want to go into my experience and expertise with GP. Suffice to say that it is one of the things that I am really good at.

How to use my knowledge of GP? The simplest choice was to create a blog. And thus was born “Insights of a GP Consultant.” This blog will be my attempt to share my knowledge of GP in way I think that is not being done a lot. There are lot of forums and sites with information on GP. How is this blog going to be different and more importantly, useful?

I am going to follow three simple rules.

Keep it functional (mostly).  Most of the existing blogs, forums, or websites are mostly technical even when they pertain to an ERP product like GP. Most people who use GP on a day to day basis are not technical gurus. This blog will be accessible to them. It will mainly address the functional aspects of GP and not get into the technical details. There may be instances when it becomes unavoidable when addressing certain topics, but in general technical details will be kept to a minimum

Keep it simple. This blog is not a white paper or a technical manual. It will be a simple article that addresses one topic in a straight forward and uncomplicated fashion. The language will be simple and the goal will be to breakdown complex information into small easily digestible parts. Screenshots and figures will be used to wherever necessary.

Keep it short. Posts will generally be short. The idea is to be able to read one post in 10 to 15 minutes (with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine) and not be overwhelmed with information. If a topic needs to be longer, then it will be broken into smaller pieces over multiple posts.

My hope is that because of these three reasons, this blog will be more accessible to regular day to day GP users.

Disclaimer: Let me use the disclaimer to give the first piece of advice on using GP. If you are not sure of the results of a particular operation, first try it in a test environment. Then move to production but before running the operation, make a backup (or have someone make it for you). Use this simple rule before trying any of my suggestions. You will not only be saving yourself from a lot of potential trouble but you will be less stressed when you run the process. You might even enjoy it.

With that being said, I would like to welcome you to my blog.