Microsoft Dynamics Blog

If you are using the production module within Dynamics AX, then you are probably wanting to get a better handle on your costs. You can easily configure Dynamics AX to calculate costs of BOM’s, and if you want to get a little more industrious then you can also create cost sheets broken out by your particular cost categories, incorporate routing costs, and even add surcharges and other indirect costs.

In this example we will walk through an example that shows how to set up your costing controls within Dynamics AX. You will learn how to:

• Set up Costing Versions
• Manually assign a Product Cost
• Create Calculation Groups
• Use Costing Versions to perform a mass cost calculation
• Perform a basic Cost Rollup
• Create Cost Groups
• Build a Costing Sheet
• Define Route Shared Categories
• Define Route Cost Categories
• Add Surcharges and Fixed Overhead Costs Read the rest of this entry »

Reconciling inventory at month-end can be a daunting task as it is, even more so in an unfamiliar system with no way to know where discrepancies come from.  AX 2012 makes the process easier with the use of canned reports that are geared for reconciliations and identifying missing transaction, and as long as you know what you’re looking at, this can make life much easier.  Two major components are part of this process: 1) Report on Inventory value and 2) Investigate misstatements.  Once that has been completed, you can make appropriate adjustments to close the books. 

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One of the most common requests I get for documentation is around editing price/discount agreements journals in AX 2012.  The process is a little different in 2012 than it was creating trade agreements in AX 2009.  There has been a change to go to journals in order to put some more controls in place.  Please continue reading for step by step instructions with screenshots.

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Hi there my fabulous readers!  I haven’t had many questions in the past couple of weeks so I’m going to expand my last entry and cover an additional CustomerSource training feature.

Last time we explored how to access free E-Learning. This week, we’ll take a look at how to find and download free training materials in CustomerSource. The training materials can be used in conjunction with the E-Learning courses or can be used independently. Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to personalize your products a little, or if you are more of a configure to order operation where every product that you ship out the door is tailored to your customers specifications and needs then you will probably want to take advantage of the Product Configurator that is built into Dynamics AX. This feature allows you to create a product with a number of different attributes, and rules that will allow Dynamics AX to build a custom BOM every time the product is ordered, and also tell you if the product is even possible to make.

In this walkthrough we will show how to:

• Create A Constraint Based Product Master
• Create a Product Configuration Model
• Add Configuration Attributes
• Group Related Attributes
• Add Conditional Display Options
• Add Constraints to your Configuration Model
• Configure a BOMS Based On Attributes
• Use Table Based Attribute Values
• Use Attributes To Simplify Rules Read the rest of this entry »

Once Data migration has been completed in an implementation, it is a good idea to recommend to clients that they regularly run Data Consistency Checks on the system. Data Consistency Checks (DCCs) are checks run in the Microsoft Dynamics AX system to ensure that data is consistent across different relations. DCCs run through tables and transactions and cross-references data. Once completed, an infolog will appear with possible corruptions of data. These can be run out of business hours and checked regularly. Read the rest of this entry »

Another great aspect of I.B.I.S. Inc’s Advanced Distribution Software is Quick Order Entry. Some great tools have been added to speed up Customer Service Reps when taking orders from customers. One of these great features is the advanced item look up which now searches on more fields than just the item number without having to take your fingers off the keyboard. When adding a new line just type the “*” key to bring up the advanced item look up and you can easily find the item the customer wants to buy.

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The demonstration virtual machines that you can download from the PartnerSource site have a blank company that you can use to create your own data within. The good news about it is that it’s clean, so you can create your own personal demonstration data without having to look at TV’s and stereos all of the time. The bad news is that the company is clean, so you have to configure all of the data yourself. That’s not a big problem though, the configuration is not that hard, and having your own data makes the Dynamics AX look so much better.

In this walkthrough we will show how you can start the process by configuring the US01 legal entity so that you can start using it. We will show how to:

• Configure the US01 legal entity
• Create a new business unit for the organization
• Configure the business account structures
• Configure the company ledger
• Set the default accounts for the automatic transactions
• Create a bank account for the organization Read the rest of this entry »

Well hello again my wonderful readers!

Ms. IBIS has been enjoying this lovely spring weather.  Do April showers really bring May flowers?  We shall see!

This week’s question comes from reader DS from Atlanta who writes: Read the rest of this entry »

The Print Management feature within Dynamics AX does a lot more than just allow you to print reports. It also allows you to e-mail reports, automatically print and distribute forms, and also have custom form versions by customer & vendor.

In this walkthrough we will show some of the different options available to you and also how to configure them within Dynamics AX. You will learn how to:

1. Send a Form via Email
2. Automatically Email A Form
3. Set Email defaults by Customer
4. Use the Batch Server to Automatically Generate Forms
5. Creating Alternate Form Versions Read the rest of this entry »

I’m posting this across AX, CRM and GP forums since, if you are doing BI/Data Warehouse ETL work against any of these products, you may run into this problem.

I recently restructured a SSIS package to allow several Data Flow tasks to run simultaneously.  To support this, I contained discrete operations involving independent table groups into Sequence Containers.  The first time I ran the package, I received a OLD DB Error 0×80004005 on the Data Write component in the Control Flow.  Interestingly, this only seemed to happen if I truncated the table before I did the write operation. Read the rest of this entry »

With the release of Dynamics AX 2012 R2, a new document location type is available for the Document Types which allows you to archive files to SharePoint rather than to the usual network file locations. This is a much better place to store files since you can add metadata to the uploaded files, and also you can add features like version control and document security around the files.

In this example we will show how you can create a new document type that stores it’s attached files within SharePoint. Read the rest of this entry »

Uniqueness is a sought after quality these days. That’s why hipsters wear fanny packs and wristwatches on their ankles. As impractical as that might be, there are certainly times when uniqueness is justified and necessary. This is especially true when it comes to external facing documents generated by your ERP system. Different customers and vendors can have rigorous requirements about what information is provided and where exactly on the page it’s provided. As a result, you’ll have multiple slightly different designs and you’re probably wishing that you could copy one design to another to ease the development burden. You’re in luck because, with the power of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, SSRS, and Visual Studio, you can do just that in 8 relatively simple steps (so long as you have a right button on your mouse, take that Apple).

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The Advanced Distribution Software for Dynamics AX 2012 creates additional functionality throughout the system.  This blog will focus on the ability to substitute, up-sell, or down-sell products.  The enhancements are geared towards identifying opportunities to use related products and avoid lost sales.   The new functionality added by ADS creates a Relation Type through the Related Products Table.  When entering a sales order, the customer service representative can avoid back orders and lost sales by recommending a substitute item.  In addition to the substitute/replacement item, customer service representatives can up-sell to a more expensive item generating more revenue for the company.  This functionality helps a company to avoid back orders; the costs associated with back orders, the loss of revenue, and reduce the negative impact that these situations could create. Read the rest of this entry »

Upgrades from versions 4.0 or 2009 of AX to AX 2012 are handled in a different way than traditional ERP implementations or upgrades. AX 2012 handles upgrades using a “source-to-target” model using two computer systems running in parallel. This model helps minimize downtime and potential time crunch situations while taking the production system offline to upgrade.

The source system is the one which remains in production for the upgrade, and the target system is running the latest version of AX 2012. When the target system has been prepared, the source system data is copied over, tested, and the set to go live. The diagram bellow illustrates the source to target model. Read the rest of this entry »