Microsoft Dynamics GP For Dummies

If you’re accountable for accounting in a mid-level business, Microsoft Dynamics GP accounting software can be your best friend.


Microsoft Dynamics GP For Dummies improves the friendship by highlighting the most useful and practical features, dispelling the most common misconceptions, and letting you in on the best tips and tricks — all in plain English!

Microsoft Dynamics GP For Dummies shows you how to set up and use this modular accounting program. You’ll learn to customize Dynamics Great Plains, get around the program, create a company, build an effective chart of accounts, and maintain a general ledger. You’ll find out how to:

• Create invoices and bill your customers, manage receipts, and easily match payments to invoices
• Set up vendors quickly and easily
• Customize GP fit your business perfectly and make the home page more efficient
• Work with the modules you’ll use most often in the Purchasing, Sales, Inventory, and Financial series
• Safeguard your database and set up a disaster recovery plan containing all the right steps
• Use Professional Services Tools and utilities to find and fix data discrepancies
• Get inventory under control
• Close your books at year end and use shortcuts to easily print reports from all the data you’ve collected
• Save keystrokes with Quick Journal and batch frequency
• Leverage the interoperability between Dynamics GP and Microsoft Office applications
• Make upgrading hassle-free

Microsoft Dynamics GP For Dummies helps you make this sometimes-complex program do your bidding, which might account for your rising popularity in the office!

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Introduction 1

Part I: Great Things with Microsoft Dynamics GP 5

Chapter 1: What Microsoft Dynamics GP Does Best 7

Chapter 2: Getting Started with Microsoft Dynamics GP 29

Part II: Daily Entry Tasks 61

Chapter 3: Paying Bills 63

Chapter 4: Working with Purchase Orders 97

Chapter 5: Billing Your Customers 133

Chapter 6: Using the Sales Order Processing Module 159

Chapter 7: Cash Receipts and Collections 183

Chapter 8: All Roads Lead to the General Ledger 205

Chapter 9: Bank Recs (Not Bank Wrecks) 229

Chapter 10: Getting Inventory Under Control 241

Part III: Stuff You Do from Time to Time 267

Chapter 11: Closing the Books 269

Chapter 12: Analyzing Information through Inquiries, SmartLists, and Reports 281

Chapter 13: Using Utilities and the Professional Services Tools 301

Part IV: Administering and Extending Your Dynamics GP System 311

Chapter 14: Safeguarding Your Database 313

Chapter 15: Extending Dynamics GP’s Functionality with Modifications & Customizations 329

Part V: The Part of Tens 341

Chapter 16: Implementation Pitfalls 343

Chapter 17: Most Useful Features 361

Appendix: Microsoft Dynamics GP Modules 367

Index 381

Renato Bellu created the first Microsoft Dynamics GP practice for a major CPA firm and has been the technical lead on several large and complex implementations. At Avanade, a joint venture of Microsoft and Accenture, he collaborated on a project that received the prestigious Microsoft Pinnacle Award.

Learn to:

• Create invoices and bill your customers using Microsoft Dynamics GP
• Maintain a general ledger
• Get inventory under control
• Close the books and generate reports

Dispel myths and reap the benefits of this robust accounting software!

If you're like most business people, accounting is the last thing you want to spend lots of time doing. This friendly, no-nonsense guide gets you up to speed, highlighting the most useful and practical features, disproving common misconceptions, and letting you in on the best tips and tricks — all in plain English!

• The plain truth — see how to set up Dynamics GP, get around the program, create a company, and build an effective chart of accounts
• Module madness — get the details on the modules you'll use most often in the Purchasing, Sales, Inventory, and Financial series
• Collect — bill customers, manage receipts, and easily match payments to invoices
• Bank reconciliation — track processed payments and deposits against your bank statements
• Year-end stuff — close your books and print reports from all the data you've collected
• Keep data up to date — use Professional Services Tools and utilities to find and fix data discrepancies
• Lock it down — discover how to protect your database and set up a disaster recovery plan
• It's in the Office — leverage the interoperability between Dynamics GP and Microsoft Office applications
• Customize — make GP fit your business perfectly

Open the book and find:

• How to make SmartList work for you
• Set-up tips to make GP's home page more efficient
• All about the Customer Card
• Ways to set up vendors quickly and easily
• How to save keystrokes with Quick Journal and batch frequency
• Shortcuts for easy report printing
• Secrets of a hassle-free upgrade
• What your disaster recovery plan should contain