I can’t wait to share the knowledge with my colleagues, our customers, and my business associates I can honestly call ‘friends’ after being in the Microsoft partner channel for over 16 years.  We get to feed our brains with interesting, intriguing, and captivating information!  It is like gossiping in a good way!

The partners get a ‘sneak peek’ to the information next Thursday, April 22nd, so we can help be an ambassador for our clients in navigating the awe-inspiring amount of information they will be exposed to during the Convergence event, April 24-27th.

Microsoft will of course be giving us all kinds of facts on the enhancements within Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, the new release due out in May 2010.  The launch events for this release have already begun and there is all sorts of information on the GP 2010 Launch.  Borek is hosting our own webcast to share the Top Tips from Convergence 2010 and GP 2010 features in May.  Customers can attend for free by Registering for Borek’s 2010 Webcast.

And for my fairly new “Greenie” thinking, Microsoft is taking MANY steps to be environmently friendly during the event.  You can read about Microsoft’s sustainability here to see exactly what they are doing – and did do last year too.  From using Biodegradable Service Ware, and Recycled Badge Holders to making sure the signs, buses, and screens are following steps to produce less “waste”.

No, my ‘cheerleader-like’ enthusiasm is not limited to Microsoft events.  Just ask my friends about my attitude after attending our church’s leadership conference last week, or our Zumba Jam a couple of weeks ago.  All it takes is good material, good intentions, and a wholesome agenda, and I’m ready to root for the entire concept!

So, join me in saying “G, G-O, Go Dynamics Go!”  See you at Convergence! 

Abra Lynne Gilman, Borek Business Solutions, Microsoft Dynamics GP Gold Certified Partner

I am astounded by the amount of money that has been spent arguing these measures and the expenses the state must have spent just for this special election.  Some indications are that over $8 million has already been spent on commercials both opposing and supporting the measures.  Yet the voters had enough support to use the veto referendum process to stop the Governor from signing the taxes into affect, while the proponents have over two times as many signatures as required (55,000) to have the measures qualified for a ballot.  This means many people ARE talking Politics!

With this amount of controversy, it seems the voters of Oregon should do their due diligence and read the measure information, decide for themselves, and vote.  I realize that may mean you tag yourself for the next time jury selection is needed for the local courthouse, but would you rather be living in another country which does not HAVE the option to make these choices themselves?

Of course, this is just my opinion – and MAY not be those of my employer, husband, parents, or even my friends

By Abra Lynne Gilman – Taxpayer, Citizen, Voter

 ”I heard a radio ad recently that mentioned a ‘disease’ called HPS, or Holiday Perfection Syndrome. (I can’t remember what they were selling…so I guess it wasn’t too effective as a marketing strategy?!) Anyway, that funny acronym resonated with me, because we all feel pressure to do all things well all the time. And realistically, how can we do our regular life in December (working, cooking, bill paying, parenting, laundry) and then add the 47 extra parties, the wrapping, the cooking, the shopping?

Well, I vote we give ourselves a break! We may have to say “no” to some events, some projects, and some traditions. My wish is for us to enjoy the season, and not have it fly by because we’re hustling and bustling our December away.

I was reading about the tough economy and the pressure to give gifts, and I saw an interesting nugget in one of my magazines in the “etiquette” section. The question was how to handle gift-giving friends, when you can’t afford to reciprocate. The first suggestion was to give that person a card, earlier in the season, so that they (hopefully) get the message that your greeting is in the form of a card. The other was suggestion was to simply say “Thank you”, accept the gift, and don’t worry about reciprocating. I know that when I’m preparing gifts for my friends or colleagues, it’s not with the intent of getting anything back- I’m happy to give it regardless of whether or not they reciprocate.

So I guess my advice is this: In the name of avoiding HPS, let’s slow down, relax and take off the pressure this season. Give gifts if you like, or don’t. Like the Who’s in Whoville learned, nothing we do will stop Christmas from coming- we may as well enjoy every minute of it!”

We will provide suggestions on which documents you should follow, when updates for taxes are scheduled, and any warnings we can give to steer you clear from a bad closing experience!

Some of the tips we provide could give you cues to running a smoother operation all year long!

Hope to hear from you – and add you to the customer drawing for a couple small gifts!

Sign up here for the 60 minute session covering all modules and updates for closing Microsoft Dynamics GP, Tuesday, December 8^th – 10:00am PST.

We all know that excel plays a major component in most finance folks day-to-day operations.  It just seems easier to manipulate, calculate, and parse the data that you need within Excel.  But, it doesn’t HAVE to be such a major component in your financial statement preparation.

 Are you using all the features that Microsoft Dynamics GP has for you ~ right out of the box? 

One of the key components of using Microsoft Dynamics GP is the open accessibility to the security authorized users of the financial information.  I’ve listed some of my favorite shortcuts and tools that our customers use ~ but I’m sure there are favorites for others that I don’t even realize the value that the users see compared to what they did before.

Day to day quick lookup – For quick inquiries into the data for a specific account, account range, or transaction, here are a few outstanding options in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Account Rollup – A nifty query screen allowing groups of accounts and up to four columns of figures for quick analysis of set of departments or account areas.  This means you can hand pick several accounts to be seen together, and save them for future lookups or just do it as an ad-hoc item for today.  You can print this inquiry too!

Define your specific accounts and columns to display!

 Now you are ready to see your results!

Lets you see up to four columns of numbers ~ and print detail or summary!

 Account Transaction List – This quick view into your financial transactions allows filtering by many options at once.  You can go as far as saying look across a range of accounts for a particular transaction description between two given dates with a particular dollar figure credited within the transaction.  That is powerful search capability very easily accomplished:

Define your filters and find that transaction!

Simple lookups/reports – of course there are screens allowing Actual to Budget, Summary and Detail balances, and trial balance reports and posting journals.  But these few items I mentioned seem too often be overlooked because they are not something you would expect out of the box!

Financial Statement Generation

FRx Report Manager (Add-On Module)- Of course I’m going to say “FRx” Financial Reporter, but many people don’t realize that a module available along with FRx called Report Manager allows you to pull together the financial statements within a comprehensive report book, which can contain other information end users may need in various document types and files.   You can just press a button and have your Balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, a ‘pdf’ report bringing in other information, a word doc explaining a new procedure, an excel spreadsheet with data outside of your system,  and more ~ all in one booklet!  Look at this document on FRx report manager!

FRx Webport  (Add-On Module)- Can you imagine just telling your managers that they can view whatever reports they need – and have them refreshable, just by going to your intranet?  With Webport, you can publish specific report layouts and provide access to key personnel and allow them to drill into specific account transaction detail if required.

Complicated Reports and Cross Table Inquiries – For very specific requirements, we utilize:

 FRx Financial Report writer is the tool for everything from departmental and company consolidations and eliminations to taking financial data from within Dynamics GP and marrying it to spreadsheets from other financial records and report as one.

Smartlist/Excel Report Builder  (Add-On Module)- We find that this tool allows companies to define and categorize relationships between their data fields as possibly only they could find a common connection.  The data is presented in either basic table format or complicated spreadsheets that they may have designed and require.  This tool has extended the reporting ability out of Microsoft Dynamics GP so that any manager can be happy with the data you present!

So comparing what you might use today ~ perhaps you just need a little training (or an add-on module) to use these unique and simple tools for YOUR financial statement preparation and presentations?

Call Borek Business Solutions to get you started with these modules today!

To find this feature you can go to the Dynamics GP button | Tools | Routines | Financial | Reconcile to GL.  Once there, you can click F1 for some help on how to use the tool.  

During this process you will:

• Select Individual accounts in GL to reconcile
• Enter a date range for reconciliation

Then,

• Transactions are automatically matched
• Discrepancies are identified
• Results are displayed in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet

The process will identify the following:

• Matched Transactions that exist in both the sub-ledger and GL
• UnMatched Transactions that exist in either the sub-ledger or GL, but not both.
• Potentially Matched Transactions, but don’t meet all the matching criteria.
  • Example: A $100 transaction is posted in Receivables, but was deleted in GL. The mistake was caught and a transaction is manually entered into GL for the $100 transaction. The transaction amounts and GL posting date are the same, but they do not share an audit trail code, customer, or document number.

Here is a sample screen shot of the values one might use to reconcile AP and GL:

AP to GL Reconcile Tool Entry Screen

Once the process button is selected, an excel spreadsheet is generated.

Excel Spreadsheet created from AP to GL Reconcile Tool

Microsoft’s catch phrase for this release is “Engineered by us.  Inspired by You.” and you can see previews of most of these enhancement by going to their Windows 7 Feature Webspace.

There is a whole Windows 7 blog area which I’m sure will be able to give you ALL the reactions and details after the features rollout to the general public, but here are some of the enhancements I can’t wait to use!  I’ll probably share more once I really get my hands on it and see how it can help our customers directly!

• SHUFFLE THROUGH PROGRAM WINDOWS ~ If you’re running a number of files from the same program, such as Word (or Dynamics GP), Windows 7 allows you to switch through these windows with ease. Simply press down on the Ctrl key while clicking the icon from the taskbar. Each click will change the window to the next in the sequence, in the order that you opened them.
• MANAGING YOUR WINDOWS ~ Windows 7 simplifies document and program
  management by allowing you to “dock” a window or manipulate its size with
  one mouse maneuver or a simple keystroke. To dock your window on one half
  of the screen, drag it to the left or right and it will change its size to fit that half
  of the screen. To manipulate the vertical size of a window, drag the window to the
  top to maximize it, or double-click the window’s top or bottom border to maximize
  it vertically while keeping the same width.  I can’t wait to be able to ‘dock’ my Dynamics GP windows all over my screen!
• AERO PEEK YOUR DESKTOP. A versatile tool introduced with
  Windows 7 is the Windows® Aero® feature, “Aero Peek”. Just click the
  rectangle in the lower right hand corner of the task bar for quick access to
  your desktop.
• LIVE CLUTTER-FREE ~ We live with enough clutter in our lives. Windows 7 gets rid of all the superfluous windows behind your active window. Just hit “Window Icon” +Home to minimize all inactive windows. To restore the windows when you’d like them, just press “Window Icon” +Home again.
• HELP THE HELP DESK HELP YOU ~ Solving problems unique to a machine can be an arduous task for both the end-user and the help desk. That’s why Windows 7
  introduces the Problem Steps Recorder, a screen-capture tool that allows the
  end-user to record the problems they’re having step-by-step. It’s as simple as
  hitting “record” then adding in comments as needed. A HTML-based file is
  converted to a .ZIP folder, which is easily passed on to the help desk.
  The program is accessible from the Control Panel under “Record steps to
  reproduce a problem” or run psr.exe from Explorer. That is something I know I can use!

I’ll keep going to the New features area, reading our Microsoft announcements and updating our blogs!

1. Ice Towel Method ~ Hang a wet towel holding ice cubes from two chairs (or freeze a hand towel).  Point a fan at the towel towards your bed.  The melting ice will chill the towel and blow cold air on you long enough for you to get to sleep (but spending lots of time in the direct draft of a fan can cause dehydration ~ and make sure the fan doesn’t get WET!)
2. Cool Socks Trick ~ Take a pair of cotton socks, rinse them in cool water, wring them until they are barely damp and put them on.  cooling your feet lowers your overall temperature.
3. Chill your pillowcase ~ put your sheets and pillowcases into freezer bags and put in the freezer all day!
4. Make a Rice Sock and place it in the freezer.  Leave it there for at least 2 hours.  When you turn in, bring the bag with you to use as a cool compress.  Try placing it under your pillow so it’s nice and cool when you flip it over. (Add dried lavender or lemon peels for aromatherapy!)
5. Do not consume any caffeinated beverages before trying to sleep, your increased heart rate will make you hotter and more susceptible to the heat.
6.  Take a cool shower, bath, or wipe your body down with a cool wash cloth.  Without fully drying yourself.
7. Run your wrists under the cold tap.  Your wrists and the inside of your arm are areas where your blood stream flows closest to the surface of your body.
8. Keep a glass of ICE next to your bed so in the event you wake up hot, you can get a cool sip of water.
9. Get that hammock out and sleep in it!  A regular bed absorbs your body heat and keeps you got!
10. Sleep with your feet out from under the sheets, body heat will escape via your feet.

Let me explain.  Let’s say you want the SAME format for your “SOP historical Blank Form invoice” that you do for your ‘SOP Blank form Invoice” in Microsoft Dynamics GP.  In the ‘old days’ you would have to start making your changes from scratch, but now you can try this ‘shortcut’. 

Make a ‘package’ file by going to Tools > Customize > Customization Maintenance and select your first ‘modified report’ to EXPORT. 

Then take that ‘package file’ that you create and open it with NOTEPAD.  Then just change the line that says the name of your original file and change it to have the report name you want to modify next.  See my example below where I’ve modifed the “SOP Blank Invoice Form” to replace the “SOP Blank History Invoice Form”.

Modify first two lines in notepad to match new report.

Once you save the notepad changes, go back to Tools > Customize > Customization Maintenance & import the package file as the “NEW Report”. 

Then set security for the new report and you will have duplicated the report with minimal effort!

I included this helpful “Trick” in one of our past customer webinars last fall.  Perhaps we’ll repeat it again this fall!

Now, go save some time and effort and make all your reports pretty with just a few keystrokes!