SAS 99 in Microsoft Dynamics GP

As the administrator of our ERP system, Microsoft Dynamics GP, I spent about 20-25% of my time dealing with our external auditor either to:
a) comply with a report request
b) walk them through the system security
c) audit the database to find historical data submitted to them during the audit
d) other audit requirements for private companies

I found that the audit season had changed a lot after Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) started in 2002. Although we are a private company, somehow we are still affected by the Act because of Statement of Accounting Standards (SAS).

What is SAS 99?

Statement of Accounting Standards 99 or SAS 99 (Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit) provides needed guidance to auditor charged with providing assurances that clients have not committed fraud. Some experts say " The easiest way to think of SAS 99 is that it's Sarbanes-Oxley for everybody." SAS 99 applies to audits of privately help companies as well.

SAS 99 defines fraud as an intentional act that results in a material misstatement in financial statements. There are two types of fraud considered:
1) misstatements arising from fraudulent financial reporting (eg. falsification of accounting records) and;
2) misstatements arising from misappropriation of assets (eg. theft of assets or fraudulent expenditures)

How to create SAS 99 report in Great Plains?

To comply with the auditor, I had to create a Crystal Report that would:
a) show historical GL data
b) create a parameter for historical year
c) include the Journal Entry Nbr, Account Nbr & Description, Source, Document Type, Transaction Date, Posting Date, Debit/Credit Amounts, Reference and User ID

SQL Tables and linking them:
Step 1
My main table was GL30000 then linked GL00105 by ACTINDX. Last table was GL00100 which was linked to GL00105 by ACTINDX as well.

Step 2
Drag all required fields to the report details including Journal Entry Nbr, Account Nbr & Description, Source, Document Type, Transaction Date, Posting Date, Debit/Credit Amounts, Reference and User ID

Step 3
Create your parameter using GL30000.HSTYEAR field then value type should be Number. Remember to create descriptions for each year since GP would year with comma likie 2,001.00 so you should use 2001(Description).

SQL Server 2005 vs 2000 Components

When customers received from Microsoft the latest CDs it included GP 9.0, FRx 6.7 and SQL Server 2005.

A lot of questions had been asked in forums about the difference between SQL Server 2000 and 2005. Below is a table which shows the components of both versions:

Component	SQL Server 2000	SQL Server 2005
Extract, transformation, and load	Data Transformation Services (DTS)	SQL Server 2005 Integration Services
Relational data warehouse	SQL Server 2000 relational database	SQL Server 2005 relational database
Multidimensional database	SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services	SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
Data mining	SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services	SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
Managed reporting	SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services	SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
Ad hoc reporting		SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
Ad hoc query and analysis	Microsoft Office products (Excel, Office Web Components, Data Analyzer, SharePoint Portal)	Microsoft Office products (Excel, Office Web Components, Data Analyzer, SharePoint Portal)
Database development tools	SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Manager, Analysis Manager, Query Analyzer, various other	SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Development Studio
Database management tools	Enterprise Manager, Analysis Manager	SQL Server 2005 SQL Server Management Studio

Microsoft MVP for Dynamics GP

I'm very proud to say that I've been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Dynamics GP. I'm very passionate about this product and had been supporting it since 1996. I’ll be around the community and hopefully would be fortunate to see the next wave of transformation including the deployment of the merge product in the near future. My congratulations to the other awardees.

Below was the email I got from Microsoft:

Hello everyone,

I know you are all anxious to hear our new MVPs are effective today. Firstly, all existing Dynamics MVPs were re-awarded so there is no one leaving the fold J

So let us welcome the following to our community:

GREAT PLAINS
Duke DelPrado
Richard Whaley
Brenner Klenzman

CRM
Ronald Lemmen
Frank Lee

Navision
Ahmed Amini
Alain Krikilion

Solomon
Toni Savage

I also want to mention Will Hadley. Will was to be awarded an MVP in CRM but sadly Will passed away last week at a very young age.

Melissa Travers
MVP Lead | Microsoft Exchange Server,
ISA Server, Virtual Machine,
Windows Security & Dynamics
Tel. 980.776.9678| mtravers@microsoft.com
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp

No export DLLs found error in Crystal Reports

I've seen this error on a few environment I've worked with and is still seeing it in a couple of forums. Below is a link and the information from Business Objects website:

Link:
http://support.businessobjects.com/library/kbase/articles/c2006348.asp

Information:
An instance scheduled in a Citrix Metaframe or Windows NT Terminal Server environment fails on the Info Desktop with the following error:

"PEExportTo : Missing or out-of-date export DLL."

In the Info Report Designer, attempting to export the report results in one of the following errors:

"No Export DLLs found"

-OR-

"Missing or out of date DLL"

In the Info SQL Designer, attempting to export the query results in the following error:

"Export failed"

Why do these error messages appear?

Solution

These errors messages appear because Seagate Info cannot find the export DLLs in a Citrix Metaframe or NT Terminal Server environment. By default, Seagate Info expects the export DLLs to be located in %systemroot%\Crystal. On a Citrix or Terminal Server computer, the DLLs are located in the following directories:

• \Wtsrv\Profiles\\Windows\Crystal

• \Wtsrv\System32

When Seagate Info is installed onto a Citrix Metaframe or NT Terminal Server computer, the following file types are automatically installed to the \Wtsrv\Profiles\\Windows\Crystal directory:

• Database drivers (P2*.dll)

• Export drivers (U2f*.dll and U2d*.dll)

• User-defined Function Library (UFL) drivers (U2L*.dll)

(The only exception is the P2sodbc.dll, which allows for an ODBC connection to a database. P2sodbc.dll is automatically installed to the \Wtsrv\System32 folder. Thus, Seagate Info will find this file.)

As an example, if the user "Administrator" is logged on to the Citrix Metaframe computer when Seagate Info is installed, the Seagate Info DLLs will be placed in the \Wtsrv\Profiles\Administrator\Windows\Crystal directory. When logged on, "Administrator" is able to export from the Info Report Designer but another user is not because they do not have access to the export DLLs.


Alternatives to deploying DLLs for Seagate Info client tools
--------------------------------------------------------

There are three main methods of deploying the required Seagate Info DLLs on a Citrix Metaframe or Terminal Server computer so that all users will be able to access them. Place the DLLs in:

• \Program Files\Seagate Software\SI\X86 (This is the recommended solution.)

• \Wtsrv\Profiles\\Windows\Crystal

• \Wtsrv\System32

If you utilize the \Program Files\Seagate Software\SI\X86 directory, the Seagate Info DLLs must be copied to this folder once. This will allow all users to run the Seagate Info client tools and only one folder needs to be updated on the Citrix Metaframe or Terminal Server computer. Crystal Decisions recommends this solution.

If you use the \Wtsrv\Profiles\\Windows\Crystal directory, the Seagate Info DLLs must be copied to the profile folder of each user on the Citrix Metaframe or Terminal Server computer. This is the second preferred method for Network Administrators and is more advantageous than method the following method.

If you utilize the global folder \Wtsrv\System32, the Seagate Info DLLs must be copied to this folder only. However, most NT or Network Administrators do not prefer this method due to security reasons.

==============
NOTES:

• Even when using a PATH statement to specify where the DLLs reside, Seagate Info does not find these DLLs.

• When reinstalling Seagate Info or applying a product update or maintenance release, these DLLs must be copied to the appropriate directories again.
==============


Test Results
------------
Testing was performed using Seagate Info version 7.0.2.100 installed onto a Citrix Metaframe computer. Initially, the following conditions were presented:

· Log on to the Citrix Metaframe computer as user "Administrator".
· Configure the Seagate Info NT services; Info APS, Info Sentinel, and Info Agent, to run under a domain user account, Domain\User, which is a member of the local computer's Administrators group.

The three major tests that were performed were:

· How the Info Report Designer reads export DLLs on a Citrix Metaframe computer.
· How an Info Report Server reads export DLLs on a Citrix Metaframe computer when a report is scheduled and the Info Sentinel is running as an application instead of an NT service.
· How an Info Report Server reads export DLLs on a Citrix Metaframe computer when a report is scheduled and the Info Sentinel is running as an NT Service.

Test 1: How the Info Report Designer reads export DLLs on a Citrix Metaframe computer.

The Info Report Designer dynamically reads the DLLs successfully from the following folders:
· \Program Files\Seagate Software\SI\X86
· \Wtsrv\System32
· \Wtsrv\Profiles\\Windows\Crystal


Test 2: How an Info Report Server reads export DLLs on a Citrix Metaframe computer when a report is scheduled and the Info Sentinel is running as an application instead of an NT service. (Test completed while logged on to the Citrix Metaframe computer as the NT Service user account.)

With the Info Sentinel running as an application, at schedule time the Info Report Server only reads the DLLs from the following two locations:
· \Wtsrv\Profiles\\Windows\Crystal
· \Wtsrv\System32

The Info Report Server does not read the DLLs when they are located in the \Program Files\Seagate Software\SI\X86 directory. As a result, scheduled reports will fail.


Test 3: How an Info Report Server reads export DLLs on a Citrix Metaframe computer when a report is scheduled and the Info Sentinel is running as an NT Service.

With the Info Sentinel running as an NT Service, at schedule time the Info Report Server only reads the DLLs from the \Wtsrv\System32 directory.

The Info Report Server does not read the DLLs when they are located in the following two locations and as a result, scheduled reports will fail:
· \Program Files\Seagate Software\SI\X86
· \Wtsrv\Profiles\\Windows\Crystal

SQL Server 2005 SP1

SQL Server 2005 SP1 is now available for download. These packages can upgrade the Enterprise, Standard, Developer and Workgroup versions.

To download SP1 use this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?
familyid=CB6C71EA-D649-47FF-9176-E7CAC58FD4BC&displaylang=en

You can run the following query to check your build (this query will not run on SQL Server 200 or previous versions):

WITH Version(ver)
AS
(
SELECT SUBSTRING
(
@@VERSION,
CHARINDEX(' - ', @@VERSION)+3,
32
)
)
SELECT Build = LEFT(ver, CHARINDEX(' ', ver))
FROM Version

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office

How close is Microsoft Dynamics to Microsoft Office? It's VSTO away.

A current GotDotNet project had started which gives users a collection of software programs for Microsoft Dynamics that snap in to Microsoft Office 2003. That's the good news, the bad news is nothing has been done for Dynamics GP. The current snap in were only developed for Dynamics AX and CRM.

The developers promised that snap in for Dynamics GP would be available soon. Snap is a set of add-in applications in Office that surface business data and processes. It uses VSTO to program the Office Object Model and Dynamics Business Connector to interact with the data in Dynamics without requiring any server side code or changes.

Snap in should not be mistaken for Information Bridge Framework (IBF). There are white papers available that could provide more in-depth analysis when to use IBF or VSTO, check this link:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/ibframework/
techarticles/default.aspx>

Microsoft acquires Proclarity

On April 3,2006, Microsoft annouced that it acquired Proclarity Corp., a software company that develops analysis and visualization technologies that work in association with Microsoft’s business intelligence (BI) platform.

SQL Server 2005 would gain more ground on Oracle with this acquisition. Proclarity brings in more than 3000 global customers. There is opportunity for PeopleSoft/JD Edwards customers using Proclarity to now look at Microsoft Dynamics as an alternative system, Oracle's Fusion should show some effective marketing to not lose dissatisfied customers.