Great Plains 7.5 Service Pack 7 Now Available

The latest service pack for Great Plains 7.5 (Microsoft SQL Server), part of the Dictionary and Utilities service packs, is available for download here:
https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/support/
downloads/servicepacks/customerfaqs_gp_75_sp7.htm

Great Plains ver7.5 Bug Report 1

Scenario:

1) Customer is on Hold
2) Sales line item is drop-ship

When you create a SOP/POP link in ver7.5, the system don't show you any message that the customer is on hold. When you try to generate the Purchase Order, the Purchase Order Generation Register report would show you an error- " The customer is missing".

This bug was fixed in ver8.0, now the Purchase Order Preview window would show you a message that the customer is on hold.

Hotfix for Smartlist EXP1493.dic file

The hotfix is related to Smartlist. After downloading 8.0 SP2, Great Plains won't open because there were violation of primary keys at login. Here's a more detailed explanation of the hotfix from MBS:

The hotfix is a chunk file for Smartlist EXP1493.dic file. There is a bug with updating to 8.0 if you have Smartlist favorites that were created for a specific user or class.

We fixed this issue in 8.0 SP2, however, this fix created another issue where we violated the primary key on the ASIEXP081 and ASIEXP086 tables to fix that issue.

The hotfix takes care of the violation of primary key issue but also ensures that your Smartlist favorites are still there and available for the user or class as defined in 7.5.

Product Advisory Board

I've filled out the survey and chose the functionalities I think would benefit a lot of industries. Below is a summary of the survey I submitted:

General Ledger
- Allow for voided transactions to flow back to originating module
- control account functionality for cash accounts

Receivables Management
- Ability to enter a negative cash receipt
- Ability to specify how documents should be sorted in the apply window
- Support for centralized cash receipts
- Credit Card processing

Bank Reconciliation
- Ability to enter Bank Transactions in a batch
- Automatically create bank deposits when entering receipts

Payables Management
- Ability to track the 1099 box type for a vendor
- Ability to specify one check per vendor or invoice on the vendor card

eBanking
- Ability to control how EFT for RM transactions are grouped as deposits
- Credit Card reconcililation

Purchase Order Processing
- BOM Suuport in PO Generator
- Request for Quote (RFQ)

Sales Order Processing
- Negative quantities on Sales Order Lines
- Advanced Shipment Notice
- Check for duplicate Customer PO Number
- Controls to prevent duplicate returns
- GL Distributions created per Sales Order/Invoice line

Inventory Control
- Inventory "Freeze" at count time
- Kitting
- Consignment
- Vendor performance
- Physical Count Support

Manufacturing
- Costed BOM Inquiry
- MRP Pegging Window UI
- Multi-Site MRP/DRP
- Mass update pick lists
- MO Reverse Receipt
- Backflushing
- Workflow for ECM approval

Reflect latest data in Analysis Services

One of my favorite update in SQL Server 2000 is the Analysis Services, formerly known in SQL Server 7.0 as OLAP Services. Every SQL Server 2000 administrator should use Analysis Services but this portion of a data warehouse faces certain common operational issues. Analysis Services and its environment must be configured appropriately.

I saw this post recently and found it to be very helpful, as it shows the steps needed to update the cubes in Analysis Services:

When you enter new transactions in Microsoft Business Solutions - Great Plains, you must sometimes also include those transactions in the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services cubes. The "More Information" section describes how to update the cubes with the latest transaction data.

Before you update a cube, you must rerun the Data Transformation Services (DTS) packages that update the data warehouse. You must complete this process in SQL Server Enterprise Manager. To rerun the DTS packages, follow these steps.

Note These steps refer to the sample TWO company in Microsoft Great Plains.

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft SQL Server, and then click Enterprise Manager.
2. Click the Great Plains server folder.
3. In the Great Plains server folder, click Data Transformation Services, and then click Local Packages.
4. Locate the MSGP_TWO_to_MSGPAnalysisCubesDW_Package_Master_8 master DTS package.
   
   Note Each company has a master DTS package.
5. Right-click MSGP_TWO_to_MSGPAnalysisCubesDW_Package_Master_8, and then click Execute Package to process the package.
   
   Note Process time will vary based on the amount of data.

After you update the data warehouse, you must update the cubes. To update a cube, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft SQL Server, click Analysis Services, and then click Analysis Manager.
2. Expand MSGPAnalysisCubes.
3. Click the Cubes folder, and then locate the cube that you want to update.
4. Right-click the cube, and then click Process.
5. Click to select the Full check box, the Refresh check box, or the Incremental check box. The check box that you select depends on the type of update that you want to perform.

To update all cubes, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Microsoft SQL Server, click Analysis Server, and then click Analysis Manager.
2. Right-click MSGPAnalysisCubes, and then click Process the Database.
   
   Note Process time will vary based on the amount of data.

SQL Server 2005 Community Technology Preview

SQL Server 2005 is Microsoft's next-generation data management and analysis software designed to deliver increased scalability, availability, and security to enterprise data and analytical applications while making them easier to create, deploy, and manage.
SQL Server June 2005 Community Technology Preview (CTP) is the first version of SQL Server 2005 made available for general testing. Previous versions have been available only to customers enrolled in the SQL Server 2005 beta program or those with an MSDN subscription.

Click here to download.

Payable and Receivable Modules Tips

Microsoft Business Solutions–Great Plains technical support engineers Rhonda Sutliff and Kelly Dettmann share tips for using Microsoft Great Plains Payables Management, a module for managing expenses, and Microsoft Great Plains Receivables Management, a module for managing accounts receivable information and transactions.

Click here to their tips.

Tek-tips Question

Using Great Plains 7.5 with SQL 2000. I k now that updating SQL statistics and recompling SQL stored procedures are recommended for monthly maintenance. Are there any other recommended monthly procedures (checking links, reconciling tables), etc... Any help would be appreciated, this has sort of been put upon me quickly.

My response:
On the database side its mostly DBCC commands. In GP, our monthly task includes but not limited to:
1) Paid Transaction Removal
2) Removal of completed Purchase Orders
3) Removal of completed Sales Orders
4) Removeal of Discontinued Items
5) Removal of Sold Receipts
6) Reconcile Sales Documents (updates Remaining Subtotal, etc.)
7) Reconcile Inventory Quantities

If you have Manufacturing modules:
6) Removal of Cancelled MO's
7) Removal of closed MO's