General Ledger Accounting Software

Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

Former Great Plains Dynamics is now part of Microsoft Dynamics family of Corporate ERP applications: GP, AX, NAV, SL.  While core Great Plains Financials modules are straight forward in their implementation, data conversion and reporting (General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Payroll, Bank Reconciliation) – Distributions set of modules often requires Dynamics GP Partner dedication to such technologies as Supply Chain Management, Barcoding, Warehouse Management, Logistics, Manufacturing, and even be very comfortable with GP customization tools and programming options: Microsoft Dexterity, eConnect, SQL scripting, Barcode scanner programming.  Plus – industry expertise is often a big plus, including discrete manufacturing, consignment, picking and packing with regulation compliance:

1. WMS module overview and positioning.  If you are implementing Great Plains and now looking at Warehouse Management extension for GP, you are likely to be mid-size manufacturing, regional distributor or retailer.  This system is typically Barcode scanning based and its Software licenses cost and implementation could be comparable or even exceed core GP modules.  Business processes for Supply Chain Management might be difficult in their formalization, this is why you may expect some modifications to be required on the first or the second phase of WMS implementation.  There are two approaches in WMS module selection – pick External Warehouse Management Application or WMS extension, which work directly with GP modules and doesn’t require additional integration (as you would need in the case of External WMS).  Considering high WMS implementation cost, we recommend you to secure special commitment from your key personnel, and we do recommend you to assign or hire professional project manager in staff in additional to picking Dynamics GP WMS Partner and ISV.  From the technology standpoint Warehouse Management System is typically build upon SOP, POP and Inventory Control modules, sometimes extending also Bill of Materials or Manufacturing suite of modules.  ERP software industry also has some specifics, such as annual software support contracts (where you have automatic access to new version, when it is released, plus you have discounted price per support case) – please, incorporate this cost into your WMS and ERP implementation and support budget

2. Consignment and other elements of Supply Chain Management.  If you have contracts with your business partners, such as small retail stores, restaurants, vending machines to deliver merchandize on consignment with delivery route and dates optimization – this is available extension to the WMS module.  Consignment, besides being accounted on your books, is often very creative and may require customization in its implementation.  We often see Consignment needs in Food and Textile industries for Great Plains

3. WMS and Production functionality.  Besides the needs to open Manufacturing modules screens for Barcode integration, you may also need to implement Manufacturing Order integration and processing automation.  We recommend you to consider Workflow and Posting Server, where you can automate multiple steps (where no GP user intervention is required) with dialogs, where you would like to provide optional decision making

4. How to request WMS support and demo?  Please, call us 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 or email us help@albaspectrum.com  You can enjoy local support in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, San Diego, plus we serve you USA, Canada , Mexico nationwide and internationally.  SCM industry requires dedication and it is common for WMS consultants to travel internationally for initial implementation and then provide ongoing support remotely

5. Related topic #1 – WMS Sales, Implementation and Support internationally.  If you are in US or Canada – there is no problem to pick and invite Barcoding and ERP consultants.  However, if you are located internationally, WMS people could be not ready to travel to your place due to various reasons, including not being familiar with your country language, business legislation and traditions.  In our case, we are dedicated to international Corporate ERP and MRP market and our consultants speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Filipino, Russian.  Dynamics GP is only localized (local language support and legislation compliance) in English speaking countries (US, Canada – including Quebec in French, Australia, UK, New Zealand, South Africa, Oceania) , plus in Spanish for Latin America and Caribbean islands and in Arabic for Middle East.  There are Dynamics GP add-ons allowing you to have GP interface in Chinese, Portuguese, German, Swedish, Japanese, Korean, Italian,  again, please be sure that you do understand the difference between ERP being localized and supporting local language only (not being necessary compliant to local country tax code)

6. Related Topic #2 – Dynamics GP Programming and Software Development.  We are just back from Convergence 2010 in Atlanta, where we visited seminar on Dynamics GP customization tools.  David Musgrave, one of the Microsoft Dexterity gurus, indicated that Great Plains Dexterity is still current and robust and you can still rely on and trust to proven traditional Great Plains Software technologies.  In Alba Spectrum we traditionally develop our modules in Dexterity and we are Dynamics GP Source Code Partner (who has access Dexterity Source Code).  We invite existing or new Great Plains customers or resellers to view our Great Plains Dexterity Software Development Factory presentation

• A complete accounting solution that helps small businesses save time managing everyday financial tasks, get organized, and grow their business online
• Familiar Microsoft Office interface that’s easy to set up and use–no training is needed
• Deep integration with other Microsoft Office programs helps streamline necessary but time-consuming and repetitive accounting tasks
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Product Description
Item #: 26852H. Office Accounting Professional 2008 is a complete accounting solution that helps small businesses save time managing everyday financial tasks, get organized, and grow their business online. With its familiar Microsoft Office interface, this program is easy to learn, so you can be productive right away. Smooth integration with other Microsoft Office programs makes information sharing simple and helps boost productivity.By organizing all of your busine… More >>

Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008

This Corporate ERP application belongs to Microsoft Dynamics family: GP (former Great Plains Dynamics), AX (former Axapta), NAV (Navision), CRM, RMS, SL (Solomon).  Each application has featured modules and special recommendations for industries and niches.  In this small publication we would like to share with you our Microsoft Dynamics GP Great Plains implementation experience and implementation nuances for various business types.  We do not pretend to be top experts in all the industries, and you may find that your case not listed here, or you expect it be implemented different for your company.  Again, Dynamics GP, as we see it is powerful and flexible Corporate ERP platform, ready for moderate or heavy customization, modification, integration, custom reporting and open for moderate or really complex data migration and conversion:

1. Functionality.  We will not be talking here about apparent and traditional functionality, such as General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, as we assume that all Corporate ERP applications handle these areas (Oracle eBusiness Suite, SAP Business One, PeopleSoft, Epicor, Accpac, mySAP, etc.).  Let’s begin with Manufacturing Suite – if you have midsize or larger Discrete Manufacturing facility – this might be good or even perfect fit (if you have so-called Process Manufacturing, such as in food and meat processing industries, please be sure that you reviewed Dynamics AX Axapta).  Project Organization should review GP Project Accounting module with precise budgeting and profit and loss tracking for each project or project class (as alternative, please review also Dynamics SL Solomon, as you may find good alternative logic for your type of Project Organization).  Supply Chain Management: here you have set of Dynamics GP modules, covering this functionality: Inventory Control (with multiple sites, serial and lot number tracking, bins management, inventory cycle count, etc.), Sales Order Processing module (with reasonable negotiation and order execution logic, items allocation and return management, drop ships), Purchase Order Processing (with Purchase Order configurator for automated stock replenishment logic), Grant Management and Analytical Accounting (this is often required for non for profit organization).  Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Portal also covers such features as Electronic Document Delivery (to send Invoices and other documents to your customers and other business partners automatically), Order Management (B2B ecommerce with catalog management and pricing directly from GP Inventory Control module), Requisition Management (with Requisition approval hierarchy and integration to GP Purchase Order Processing module), Human Resources with Employee self management (to eliminate the need for check stubs mailing as one of the advantages).  We are following article genre restrictions, and if you have additional questions, please contact us directly

2. Integration.  Dynamics GP is open for integration with text files or ODBC compliant data sources via user friendly tool (which also had advanced features and scripting options for software programmers) Great Plains Integration Manager module.  IM should not be considered as very basic tool, we have customers, who integrates close to real time ecommerce transactions with IM scheduled integrations (every twenty minutes).  IM could reasonable efficiently cover integration with Heterogeneous SQL queries, where you import to GP something like Oracle, MySQL/PHP/Linux based transactions via Advanced ODBC data sources in IM.  If you require real time GP integration, we recommend you to review eConnect SDK programming options.  If you would like to do automatic ecommerce batches posting in Dynamics GP, we offer Alba Spectrum Posting Server add-on (coded in Great Plains Dexterity source level scripts).  If you are thinking about EDI (Electronic Document Interchange) integration scenarios, we are happy to help you with formatted SQL Select statement and stored procedures to avoid expensive Dynamics GP EDI add-ons purchasing and deployment

3. Customization and Modification.  If you need just to modify some GP screens, please review Modifier module (with VBA scripting).  For deep customization, which is naturally integrated into GP user interface and user security realm, consider Dynamics GP Dexterity.  Initially Dexterity was intended as Great Plains Software Dynamics Architecture.  It was created as the shell, programmed in C++ programming language.  If you have reasonably strong IT department in large organization, we recommend you to try VBA customization (events scripting) for Modified Windows (in GP Modifier).  For Dexterity programming in our opinion learning curve is too long and we do not recommend over night or over weekend, or even over one month turn around for generic C#, VB or C++ programmer to become Dexterity developer

4. Reporting.  Here you have several tools plus numerous generic reporting options.  FRx Financial Reporting is dedicated to Financial Statements: Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss, Statement of Cash Flow, including consolidated versions.  FRx also covers consolidation with overseas subsidiaries, if you are exporting them into Excel worksheets from SAP Business One or local favorite Accounting packages, such as Microsiga in Brazil or 1C Accounting in Russia.  In some case you may be OK with Advanced Financial Reporting, but in our opinion FRx is better option (Advanced Financials comes with Small Business Financials and Dynamics GP as Dexterity coded module, you do not need to purchase additional software licenses for AF).  Great Plains Report Writer allows you to modify such important forms as SOP Blank Invoice (where you likely need to place your company graphical logo).  Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (or SSRS) offers you flexible alternative and free platform for advanced complex reporting, especially Managerial reporting: Sales Commission (with advanced and complex sales commission calculation formula to give you a good example).  For non Microsoft Reporting Platforms we would like to mention Crystal Reports, as this tool (in our opinion similar in its functionality and power to SSRS) has numerous CR developers available on the job market for contracting and sub contracting

5. Data Conversion and Migration.  As we can suggest it from our experience, Dynamics GP data conversions are often end up as show stoppers for GP implementations.  When you are switching to new Corporate ERP application, you should be moderate in your expectations, and try to avoid typical pitfalls.  Great Plains is not an exception, we recommend you to be OK with just master records migration and transfer beginning balances to your GL accounts.  However, and again in our personal opinion, Great Plains Integration Manager allows you to experiment with current year GL data migration or even with attempts to bring several years of modules (SOP, POP, Payroll, AR, AP, etc.) batches and their posting.   Data Conversion and Massage in our opinion are very sensitive to integration mapping (how accurate you are in exporting accounts from your legacy ERP, such as QuickBooks, Peach Tree, MYOB and mapping them one-to-one to new Corporate ERP accounts in Great Plains Dynamics)

6. Great Plains Upgrade.  Microsoft Dynamics GP upgrade should be given to the hands of professional Dynamics GP Consultant.  There are numerous known issues, knowledge base articles, training seminars, technical broadcasts and demos for Great Plains Professionals – we encourage you to try to follow, especially when you are small organization, but if you deploy custom GP logic and your organization is not tolerant to Corporate ERP blackouts, we recommend GP version update to be given to the hands of experienced Dynamics GP Partner

7. Dynamics GP as Corporate ERP for Multinational Corporation.  Please review such topics as Accounting application international localization.  Typically localization includes two things: local language translation and compliance to local country tax and government reporting compliance.  If your subsidiary is located in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Kosovo, Albania, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Burma, we recommend you SAP Business One or local leaders in Corporate ERP applications (such as Microsiga in Brazil or 1S Bukhalteria in Russian Federation)

8. Please review our Great Plains Guru level articles on Albaspectrum or Pegasplanet websites.   We are full service Dynamics GP Partner, ISV, Reseller and VAR

9. If you are University Student and study Accounting, ERP and MRPII courses.  Please, check with your University IT department, typically universities have Educational MSDN subscription and you can have IT folks to download Dynamics GP CD for you

10. How to get help?  Please, feel free to call us: 1-866-528-0577, outside of USA: 1-630-961-5918 or email us help@albaspectrum.com  We are very technical and real Dynamics GP Dexterity, SAP Business One SDK programming gurus.  We have Great Plains Software Development Factory and could support unlimited Dynamics GP Customization and Programming needs.  Plus we speak English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and not only as native speaking sales folks, but as real technical consultants.  If you prefer skype: albaspectrum

If you are at the point of making your homework in new Corporate ERP selection and you are working for mid-size chain of retail stores, where you do centralized distribution from your nationwide or regional warehouses – we would like to offer some highlights.  As we may suggest your criteria are something, preferably one system, where you have POS terminals, connected to your ERP modules (General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Inventory), barcode scanning based Warehouse Management System, where you do inventory replenishment, and transfer between sites (delivery from central location to your stores), barcode labels printing capabilities for potentially up to hundred thousand newly arrived items in the store with such advanced barcode labels, where you have price and item code combined (meat, poultry, where weight is important and price is per pound, or kilogram).  Also you may have long term plans to open your own online store or ecommerce website, where you deploy popular ecommerce shopping cart platform, such as Magento, ASP .Net Storefront or another brand, and your ecommerce orders are in real time submitted to your Sales Module of the Corporate ERP application and scheduled for fulfillment on the warehouse floor via barcode scanning.  Good picture of possible dream Corporate ERP solution, let’s come to the recommendations and reviews:

1. Tandem versus one heavily customized ERP application.  We do not believe that it this historical moment of time and in foreseeable future we should recommend the solutions doing both jobs: Accounting/ERP/MRP and Retail/Point of Sale.  There might be several reasons behind that statement – one of them is this one.  POS applications have to pursue retail software market – this market is matured and requires high level of barcode scanners selection and configuration.  Most of POS software, such as Counterpoint, Microsoft RMS and others have integration tools to several ERP platforms, one of them is Microsoft Dynamics GP Great Plains.  But often generic POS software application cannot commit itself to one ERP platform and by doing so limits its market potential.  So our recommendation is to pick tandem – POS application and ERP solution.  Please, note that our recommendation is based on the assumption that your company is mid-size company, where for large corporations you may have more options by picking more upscale ERP products (and requiring higher budget), coming from SAP, Oracle and even Microsoft Dynamics AX (Axapta)

2. Tandem options.  In our publication we assume that your budget is somewhat restricted by the cash flow of mid-size company and in your situation it is wise to pick something like Microsoft Dynamics GP or its direct competitors.  If you decide on Dynamics GP, we recommend you to review Microsoft Retail Management System (MS RMS) as the second player in the tandem for POS and Store management.  Microsoft RMS also has Headquarters module, where you can consolidate your store POS transactions, Inventory Purchases and transfers in one database.  We are offering MS RMS integration solution to Dynamics GP which moves RMS daily sales to Great Plains SOP Invoice transactions, RMS Purchase to Dynamics GP Purchase Receipts and also synchronizes Inventory Site-to-Site transfers between RMS and GP.  If you decided on Counterpoint as your POS solution – integration is available via MS SQL Server DTS packages, sending daily sales directly to GP General Ledger and Purchase to GP Payable Management

3. Warehouse Management System.  We recommend WMS as extension to Dynamics GP SOP, POP and Inventory Control modules.  In this scenario you are not required to look for the third system as part of the concert, you are just extend Dynamics GP modules for barcoding.  We have our own WMS extension module, so feel free to call us for details

4. Down to ecommerce business.  Our ecommerce module allows you in software setup wizard manner to pick your shopping cart platform from drop down list (Magento, Asp .Net Storefront), Dynamics GP inventory site for ecommerce orders.  Ecommerce customer orders are transformed into SOP Invoices with customer credit card payments in the form of SOP Invoice Deposits (Check and Cash payments are available options)

5. Requesting info?  Please, call us 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 or email help@albaspectrum.com  First of all we have to say, that in Dynamics GP, Retail and Barcoding related consultancy we are going USA, Canada nationwide and internationally.  However if you absolutely require local presence, we are happy to help you in Southwest Michigan (Benton Harbor, Kalamazoo, Holland, Grand Rapids, Saugatuck, New Buffalo, South Haven, Grand Haven), in Chicagoland of Illinois, Gary area of Indiana, Houston Texas, Southern California: Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego

Accounting is one of the most vital processes in any business. To say the least, it is even more important than manufacturing goods and selling them. Flow of revenues and expenditures ultimately decides the fate of a business as does its proper management. The requirements of every business may vary, but the general requirements of a business like collection, classification and analysis of financial data is what constitutes the crux of accounting.

Nowadays, it is becoming a norm to purchase accounting software before starting a business. You can find accounting software for both small business as well as large businesses. In fact, a whole basket of accounting software programs is there to choose from. Depending on the type of business you have and how you run it, you have to choose the accounting software that compliments your business, instead of being a limiting force to it.

Before reviewing any accounting software, it is important to classify the market of accounting software in the following manner:

a) Small business/personal accounting software is targeted at home users. Such software are simple, easy to use and inexpensive. They perform simple functions such as management of budgets quite at ease.

b) Low end accounting software is known for its ‘single entry’ products. It serves a single national market quite easily.

c) Mid market accounting software for mid-level businesses serve multiple national accountancy standards. You can do accounting in numerous currencies.

d) High end accounting software is also known as Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software. These expensive solutions cater to the needs of huge organizations.

Since the mid 1990s, with the entry of Microsoft and Sage, accounting software market has simply evolved. In fact, it is simply increasing at a break-neck pace. There are various good accounting software in the above categories of accounting software. Selecting the best one is not that easy.

In the small business/personal accounting section, the best accounting software would doubtlessly be the Intuit’s QuickBooks Accounting Software pro edition for small business. This accounting software has all the accounting features necessary for small businesses. QuickBooks Small Business 2006/ 7, through its time-saving features and improved functionality aids management of business. By applying online accounts management of bank statements, this software easily helps in integrating bank records in a smart way. With this software, you can rule your growing business accounts effortlessly and productively.

One excellent software, targeted at the low-end accounting software market is Sage MAS 90 ERP/MAS 200 ERP. This software is also applicable in mid-market accounting software market. This software encompasses different worthy solutions. Some of them are e-commerce, payroll, financial reporting, customer relationship management, core accounting and much more. This is an award-winning accounting software. With key processes like bill of materials, inventory management and job costing, it aids in the management of business. The advanced version MAS 200 ERP has the extra function of a client/server platform. It is known for its scalability and reliability.

In the high end accounting software market, several excellent accounting software, from some well known manufacturers like Microsoft and Sage are competing with each other for the market pie. No doubt, selecting the best one is difficult. Still, I would go with the ACCPAC Advantage Series which is known for its world-class multi-tiered functionalities. ACCPAC accounting software is perfect in the sense that it allows a business to tune its functionalities according to the needs. The ACCPAC Advantage Series is available in three editions- Enterprise Edition, Corporate Edition and Small Business Edition.

The Sage ACCPAC ERP system/Enterprise edition helps you to increase the productivity of your entire enterprise with end-to-end solutions, such as CRM. This high end software provides integrated set of end-to-end business management applications. Like other Sage software, this accounting software is known for its seamless integration, reliability and high performance which a large organization desires for keeping its competitive advantage over its rivals.

Keeping track of your business receipts should be mandatory and not optional. Your employee should understand the importance of this and realize how this may impact the accuracy of their report if the receipts are not present. Lost receipts can be retrieved by contacting the vendor to get a copy. The employee should realize that this is their responsibility especially if they expect reimbursement for those types of expenses.

Your standardized business expense report should have different areas to account for your employee expenses. There should be an area of general ledger accounts numbers, general ledger account names, date and location of expenses, and if necessary mileage calculations. This information will greatly assist your accounting team when they reconcile the expenses!

Lastly, your business expense reports should be submitted on a set timed schedule. It should be encouraged to submit them weekly or monthly. This should be mandatory and not optional. The goal is to reconcile for expenses in a timely manner so they company can see where their funds are being spent and if they are being used responsibly. To get employees on board with this, try incentive based rewards in the first few months to get them used the new timed schedule.

Excel templates are an excellent tool to use when you are standardizing your business expense report. Most companies already have Office or a similar product loaded on their company computers so using templates can assist in this standardization process. Below is an example of an excel business expense report. This expense report contains a sheet that allows you enter up to 30 general ledger accounts names and numbers. It also contains a weekly business expense report area that allows you to select the appropriate general ledger account and detail the expense prior to printing.

General Ledger Applications Software for Microsoft Windows Chapters 1-26

• One year of free unlimited support.
• Integrates fully with Microsoft Office 2003 Editions.
• Designed to be installed in-house by the small business itself.
• Create quotes, invoices, and purchase orders easily; manage inventory; track payroll and timesheets; forecast cash flow; and more.
• With more than 60 lists and reports that can easily be customized, you can forecast and track cash flow, inventory, and sales.

Product Description
Small Business Accounting 2006 is designed to meet the financial management needs of a small business. This package goes beyond the key features expected from a business accounting software program, such as a general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll management, sales order processing, purchase order processing, inventory management, employee management, banking, and reporting. In addition to all of these features, it includes numerous strategic… More >>

Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006

General Ledger Applications Software for Microsoft Windows for Use With Financial Accounting