Where Oh Where Is My Integration Manager?

A user navigates to Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Integrate>>Integration Manager and nothing happens.  The menu item is available, but clicking on it does NOTHING.  We can check security, but there is nothing wrong there.  We can make sure Integration Manager launches fine from the Start menu, and it does.  So what is wrong? 

Well, it's a pretty easy fix.  Browse to the GP program directory (generally C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP).  And then find the Dex.ini file (in the Data folder).  Open the Dex.ini in notepad, and locate the following lines:

Validate that these paths are correct, making any necessary adjustments.  Then the menu selection should launch Integration Manager successfully!

Breaking It Down- New Budgets in Forecaster

I have to admit, there are a few questions that make me cringe.  They include--

1. Why does the reports.dic have to be rebuilt so often?
2. Do commissions post to payables or payroll?
3. How do I set up a new budget year in Forecaster?

#3 is a popular one, and it makes me cringe only because there is not a simple answer.  So often (I am guilty of it too), the term "input set" is presumed to be the same as "budget".  But the fact is, an input set is only one piece of the budget puzzle. So here I thought I would break it down in to some basic steps.

1. You need new periods to store the new budget numbers (Tools>>Wizards>>Period Wizard)
2. You need a new column set to point to the new periods (Build>>Columns)
3. You need a new input set to use the new column set (Setup>>Budgets>>Input Set (Copy button)

Now, the thing is, it can expand from there.  Let's say you use the Human Resources functions in Forecaster, or Revenue.  You can use Tools>>Wizards>>Copy Plan to copy these items from a prior input set.  You can also use this same function to copy your actuals from another input set in to your new input set (or use Tools>>Import>>Expresslink to pull the numbers from GP in to the new budget).

A WORD OF WARNING- It is imperative that you only create new periods (via Tools>>Wizards>>Period Wizard or Setup>>Segments>>Periods) when there are no other users in Forecaster.  Failing to ensure that you are the ONLY user in Forecaster when you complete this process can corrupt your database and be costly to resolve if you don't have a backup.  For this reason, I always suggest making a backup before engaging in the steps above.

Sure Step Study Hall Fun!

Hey all you Microsoft Partners out there!  If you still need to pass the Implementation Methodology certification before May 1st, come join me for a Sure Step Study Hall at Convergence.

Sunday April 10, 2011
3:15pm
Room B216, Georgia World Congress Center (Convention Center)

Join me for tips and tricks to creating a valuable study plan to pass the exam. We will overview key concepts in Sure Step, and focus on tools and guidance available in Sure Step to help focus your study efforts.

More Payroll Troubleshooting Scripts, Enjoy!

More FUTA and SUTA fun to share.  The following scripts can help you track down inconsistencies in your set up to identify potential causes of incorrect FUTA and SUTA wages. Each can be run against your company database to identify records with possible issues.

--identifies employees without a default SUTA state (Cards>>Payroll>>Employee)


select EMPLOYID as EmployeeID from UPR00100 where SUTASTAT=''

--identifies employee pay code records (Cards>>Payroll>>Pay Code) that are not marked for FUTA, SUTA, or do not have a SUTA state although the pay code set up (Setup>>Payroll>>Pay Code) does.

select UPR00400.EMPLOYID as EmployeeID, UPR00400.PAYRCORD as PayCode, UPR00400.SBJTFUTA as SubjectToFUTA, UPR00400.SBJTSUTA as SubjectToSUTA, UPR00400.SUTASTAT as SUTAState from UPR00400 inner join UPR40600 on UPR00400.PAYRCORD=UPR40600.PAYRCORD WHERE (UPR00400.SBJTFUTA=0 AND UPR40600.SBJTFUTA=1) OR (UPR00400.SBJTSUTA=0 AND UPR40600.SBJTSUTA=1) OR (UPR00400.SUTASTAT='' AND UPR40600.SBJTSUTA=1)


Christina Phillips is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Dynamics GP Certified Professional. She is a supervising consultant with BKD Technologies, providing training, support, and project management services to new and existing Microsoft Dynamics customers.

NIST SHA-3 Round 3 Finalists Announced

For any hard core software and security geeks out there who can appreciate encryption related acronyms like SHA and AES, in case you haven't heard, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has announced the Round 3 finalists for the SHA-3 competition.

Here is a link to the full report on the Round 2 reviews and selection process.

Secure, robust hash functions are critical to the implementation of certain aspects of computer security, so this competition and the peer review process is essential for ensuring that security measures remain effective as advances are made in tools and technologies that can potentially defeat existing hashing and encryption algorithms.

Unfortunately, I still regularly see software that uses SHA-1 hashing or DES encryption when better options have been available for over a decade.   For some low risk applications, these may be fine, but in most cases, implementing SHA-512 or AES is no more difficult, so it would be nice to see the newer standards implemented universally.

Dynamics GP has been occasionally criticized for some elements of its security, including pseudo-encryption in some areas, or complete lack of encryption in others.  While some of the criticisms have been specious and ill-informed, I consider some critiques to be valid, and would love to see future releases include additional security measures to make it easier to sell against newer packages that include greater emphasis on data encryption.

Here is a brief overview of the NIST hash project.

And here is a Wikipedia discussion of cryptographic hash functions.


Steve Endow is a Dynamics GP Certified Trainer and Dynamics GP Certified Professional.  He is also the owner of Precipio Services, which provides Dynamics GP integrations, customizations, and automation solutions.

http://www.precipioservices.com

Update to "File Not Found: VBA6.dll" with GP 2010 and Office 2010

Beth Gardner has updated her posts on the VBA6.dll issue with GP 2010 and Office 2010.

She has added a link to a download that apparently fixes the issue.

On my 64-bit Server 2008 R2 server, I was able to change the registry to fix the issue, but after logging into the server again, the error would occur again.  And it seems several customers had slightly different variants of the issue that required slightly different fixes.

I just installed the fix on my server, and viola!, the VBA6.dll error is no more!

Hopefully this resolution solves the problem permanently.

Dynamics World Top 100 Voting Open

It's always an honor to be nominated, that is the truth no matter how cliche it has become (many thanks, Oscar).  The voting has officially begun for Dynamics World's Top 100 Most Influential Dynamics People list.  Steve and I were both surprised and honored to be included in the nominations this year. Steve for his technical blog posts that seem to get at the detailed root of issues with development and Dynamics GP, and myself for my application-based posts and work with the Dynamics GP Microsoft Learning Curriculum and certification exams. But regardless of who you vote for, get out there and vote for those that influence you!  I always love to see the final list, and find myself coming back to those that make the list as resources time and time again.

http://www.dynamicsworld.co.uk/2011Voting.php