Monday, April 20, 2015

Automatically post 2 million transactions a day in Dynamics GP

By Steve Endow

I started working with Envisage Software in 2009 to resell Post Master, which automatically posts Dynamics GP batches.  I have now worked with over 250 companies that needed an auto posting solution for Dynamics GP, and as a result, I’ve learned a lot about automatically posting batches in Dynamics GP.

Customers loved the original Post Master product, but customers didn’t want to have to keep a Dynamics GP client running and logged in all of the time just to post batches.  I worked with Andrew Dean at Envisage Software to brainstorm on how fulfill this request, and after 9 months of very hard work, Post Master Enterprise was released in July 2012.  Post Master Enterprise runs as a Windows service, so it does not require an open Windows session, and it does not require Dynamics GP to be running and logged in at all times.  If the server is rebooted, Post Master will automatically restart and resume posting batches without requiring any user intervention.

Post Master Enterprise has been a great success, allowing customers to automatically post thousands of Dynamics GP batches a day without lifting a finger.  But some Dynamics GP companies have batch posting requirements that are beyond imagination.

There are a few Post Master customers who are either importing transactions or posting batches in Dynamics GP 24 hours a day.  They have so much transaction volume that Dynamics GP can barely keep up, and they are constantly struggling to post all of their batches before the start of the next day or before month end close.

Andrew and I discussed how this problem could be solved, and after 4 months of development, a new Multi-Instance version of Post Master Enterprise was born.  The Multi-Instance version of Post Master can load 4, 6, or even 8 instances (and probably more) of Dynamics GP, and all of the instances can post batches simultaneously.

We began beta testing the new version in March, and the performance is astounding.

One beta site posted over 250,000 batches during the month of March using the new version of Post Master Enterprise.  An employee and a consultant were previously tasked with checking the Dynamics GP posting process throughout the night, regularly having to get up at 4am to make sure the Master Post process was running smoothly.  With Post Master Multi-Instance running 6 posting engines on a single server, the back log of imported batches was easily posted each evening, dramatically reducing stress levels.

A second beta site posted over 2 million transactions in one day using the Multi-Instance version of Post Master running 4 instances.  This customer has a challenging timing issue where they must leave all of their batches unposted during the month until they can finalize their landing cost calculations.  They must then quickly post several million transactions at the end of the month in order to complete their monthly close process.  The posting used to take a week with a single instance of Post Master Enterprise processing 24 hours per day.  Now they can comfortably post over 6,000 batches containing 2 million transactions in about 24 hours.  Even Andrew and I are astounded by this performance.  (Note: This customer has extremely high end hardware, so that certainly helped performance)

Post Master Enterprise Multi-Instance with 4 Instances

As a result of feedback from the beta sites, Envisage Software added some very nice features to the new version, making Post Master Enterprise Multi-Instance the most powerful and flexible auto posting solution for Dynamics GP.

First, the new Load Balancing feature automatically distributes batches across the multiple posting engines.  If there are hundreds of batches waiting to be posted, Post Master can now efficiently send the next batch to the first available posting engine.

Second, the Batch Prioritization feature allows batches to be prioritized by company, batch type, and batch ID.  If you need your inventory transactions to post faster than your SOP invoices, or your batches in Company A to post before batches in Company B, you can tell Post Master how to prioritize your batches.

Envisage Software is preparing a final beta release with some additional refinements, and we expect to have an official release by the end of this month.

If you have customers who need to automatically post Dynamics GP batches or are struggling to post a high volume of imported transactions, contact Envisage Software for a free Post Master Enterprise trial.

http://envisagesoftware.com/contactus/


Steve Endow is a Microsoft MVP for Dynamics GP and a Dynamics GP Certified IT Professional in Los Angeles.  He is the owner of Precipio Services, which provides Dynamics GP integrations, customizations, and automation solutions.

You can also find him on Google+ and Twitter





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