Microsoft Great Plains Accounting/ERP Implementation ? Finance Industry Customization Example

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very generic accounting application out of the box and has multiple modules to address specific horizontal or vertical market requirements. At the same time Great Plains, now being moved on MS SQL Server platform allows you to deploy standard tools to customize and fit to these requirements, when you don't need rich custom functionality, just few touches. In this small article let's take a look at finance industry.

Bonds and Loans. If you are issuing these documents ? you probably already have production system in place. What is often seen ? this loans tracking system is not integrated with accounting application. Another case ? loan tracking system may required manual interest recording, especially when client is state agency working in state subsidized programs, such as loans to farmers or small inland townships

? Customer Link. In Microsoft Great Plains borrowers are usually customers in the Accounts Receivables module (RM00101 table ? customer master). To link customer with loans you can have simple Dexterity or web application/extension to be opened from customer maintenance screen. This custom application will show you all the loans associated with this borrower/customer

? Interest/Principal invoices. In Great Plains you naturally use Receivables Management invoices for this purpose. The first step would be manual entry, based on the interest/principal portion, recorded in the above tracking system.

? Automatic Interest Calculation. Yes ? you could associate loan with repayment schema and program it in the formula. The easiest way is to have this implemented as Stored Procedure in MS SQL Server company database. Using SQL Exec statement you can build formula on the fly, considering multiple case scenarios and calculations.

? Reporting. Reporting could be based on both sources ? Microsoft Great Plains customer records and loan tracking database, even if the last one sits in different platform, such as Microsoft Access. You can create so-called linked server to MS Access in MS SQL Server Enterprise Manager and use OPENROWSET construction to pull the data from heterogeneous sources. Feel free to use popular tools, such as Crystal Reports ? you usually base your Crystal Report on SQL view or stored procedure (the second one allows you to use parameters and build temp tables in the body of your stored procs). If you are building web-application you can incorporate Crystal Report in it or deploy html publishing directly with your result set.

? Tools. Consider these tools first: direct web publishing from Great Plains Company database ? use C# or VB.Net with ADO.Net classes; Great Plains Modifier with VBA ? if you are VBA or VB programmer ? you can create masterpieces here, if you need GP tables structure ? Tools->Resource Description->Tables; direct SQL Programming ? you can create custom SQL views or stored procedures in company and DYNAMICS databases; Great Plains Dexterity ? this tool requires Dexterity knowledge and you should probably contract consultant or programmer to spec out this customization and do the job.

Good luck with implementation and customization and if you have issues or concerns ? we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ? USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Minnesota, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is CMA, Great Plains Certified Master, Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer. You can contact Andrew: andrewk@albaspectrum.com

---

What is Software Piracy?

There are several kinds of software piracy. The bottom line... Read More

Free PDF Publishing Software

In a previous article, I wrote about OpenOffice... Read More

Blind CC (Bcc): Master Its Use When E-Mailing

If you use Microsoft Outlook (or similar applications) for e-mailing,... Read More

Constructionalist Parsing - Deciphering Natural Language

The research in the field of Natural Language Processing usually... Read More

Free Software: How Not To Get More Than You Bargained For!

I completed an experiment recently. I wanted to find out... Read More

Microsoft CRM Implementation - US Market Lessons

Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft Business Solutions. If... Read More

Is Your Family Protected?

When you think... Read More

Collaboration Software: Index of Collaboration Software Technologies

Collaboration SoftwareCollaboration Software, also known as group collaboration software or... Read More

Navision Attain Database access via C/ODBC in ASP.NET Application

Navision Software was purchased by Microsoft and now it is... Read More

Hubris - Definition: Microsofts Passport

Before September of 1995, Microsoft ignored the Internet because their... Read More

Microsoft Axapta, Navision or Great Plains: ERP Selection for Large Corporation

If you would like to pick something from Microsoft, or... Read More

Dig Out That Worm

Internet worms. Is your PC infected?If your computer has become... Read More

Builders Beware

Which Type of Shop Can Rely On A Home Built... Read More

How to Get The Best Accounting Software For Your Small Business

Buying accounting software is a major investment. It's an important... Read More

Microsoft Business Solutions Products Selection: ERP, CRM, Retail Management

Let's first look at your ERP system selection (without Retail... Read More

Passwords Used In Microsoft Word Documents

You would like to protect your documents, wouldn't you? Reasons... Read More

Theres Gold in Your Websites Server Log

Many Webmasters have never bothered to view their website's server... Read More

Call Alert Notifications - Free Answering Machine Software for PCs

If you're online using a dialup Internet connection, you'll probably... Read More

Why Java RDBMS?

It is a well known fact that Java as a... Read More

CRM and Customer Life Cycle

Customer Relationship Management or CRM is a combination of enterprise... Read More

Business Planning Software

Once a business idea is selected, it is highly recommended... Read More

Microsoft Business Solutions VAR/Partner Selection ? Overview for IT Director/Manager/Controller

Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM become more and more... Read More

Exactly What Does FTP Stand for and What Can it do for Me?

FTP stands for "file transfer protocol". FTP is basically a... Read More

Microsoft CRM Lotus Notes Domino Connector FAQ

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino, being... Read More

Information Products: A Business Owners Best Friend

We live in a post-industrial age where information is the... Read More

.Net Charts and Graphs Interact with Businesses and Customers

Bar charts, bar graphs, and any other chart or graph... Read More

Top Questions to Ask Before Buying a Help Desk & Asset Management Software

#5 All your hardware components like Printers, PCs etc come... Read More

Adware and Spyware

What is 'adware'?Adware is basically software or scripts that are... Read More

Defining OLAP Solutions and Data Warehouse design

This tutorial covers OLAP solutions used by Data warehouses and... Read More

What is a Document Manager without Version History?

Document Manager and Version HistoryIn previous articles I have discussed... Read More

Microsoft CRM Integration with Lotus Notes Domino: Messaging Connector ? Future Directions

IBM Lotus Notes Domino and Microsoft CRM (Client Relation Management)... Read More

eCommerce development for Microsoft Great Plains: tools and highlights for programmer

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics... Read More

Reduce TCO: The Java Database Way

TCO (Total Cost Ownership) is the buzzword in... Read More