Tutorial: Understanding Inventory Period Management in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Inventory periods are used in Microsoft Dynamics NAV to manage the posting of adjustment entries in the inventory. Unless the inventory periods are closed on a monthly basis, the adjusting entries will be posted in the original transaction period. Creating and closing the inventory periods prevents the inventory adjustments from being posted in that period. So, if you have created and closed an inventory period, and the posting date of an original transaction falls within this period, then the adjustment value will not be posted in this closed inventory period; instead it will be posted on the 1st day of the 1st open inventory period. This ensures that the G/L value of inventory and cost of goods sold don’t change after the printing of financial statements for a month.  Note: The procedure for inventory management discussed below is shown using Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 interface; however it can also be used in previous as well as the subsequent versions of NAV, including the new Dynamics NAV 2015 upgrade. Accessing the Inventory Period page You can access the Inventory Period page in many ways, depending on what suits your comfort. The two most commonly used ways to access the Inventory Periods are: 1. Direct Access: Inventory Period page can be accessed from the Financial Management directly.  Departments > Financial Management > Inventory 2. From Accounting Periods: Alternatively, many users may like to manage their inventory periods simultaneously with their accounting periods. Such users can browse to the Inventory Period page by clicking on the Inventory Period icon in the toolbar present on the Accounting periods page. Departments > Financial Management > Periodic Activities > Fiscal Year > Accounting Periods Creating Inventory Periods:  Inventory Periods are created in the Inventory Period table by adding new records in the table along with an ending date for each record. Inventory Periods are defined by the time interval between the ending dates of two entries in the Inventory Period table. Two Inventory Periods have been defined in the screenshot below; you can define more periods by adding more entries and end dates in the table. Closing Inventory periods:  As discussed earlier, Inventory Periods are closed in Dynamics NAV to prevent any further adjustments in the entries. Thus, NAV requires all the outbound transactions to be applied before any Inventory Period can be closed; if any outbound transaction remains unapplied, NAV will prevent the Inventory Period from closing. Hence, the user must run the Adjust Cost Entries before he/she tries to close the Inventory Period. Also, the user needs to run Post Cost to G/L function, and then run a test report to see if any step is missing. The Test Report checks all the parameters for closing a period, and ensures that requisites for the closure have been met. If there are any hindrances/errors in closing the report, the Test Report enlists them. Two common errors are:  1.Item Ledger Entry *** is Open: This means that there is an open outbound transaction in the period, which needs to be fixed before it can be closed.  2.Unadjusted Entries in the period: This indicates that “Adjust Cost Entries” or “Post To G/L” hasn’t been adjusted, so the user needs to adjust them before he can close the period. Once the Test Report is positive, i.e. free of errors, user can run the Close Period function to close the period.   Hence, the step-by-step procedure for closing an Inventory Period: 1. Run the Adjust Cost Entries 2. Run the Post Cost to G/L function 3. Run Test Report. 4. Run Close Period Function. Reopening an Inventory Period:  As, NAV does not allow any changes to be made in a closed Inventory Period, if you need to make any edits in a closed period, you need to reopen it. This can be done by using the Open Period function. Once the period has been reopened, you can make any edits in the transaction entries, like any other open periods. Also, to close the period, you will have to follow the same closing steps, as discussed above. Taken from the Original Post : MetaOption.com

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 Upgrade: What’s New?

Microsoft recently launched the latest version of Microsoft Dynamic NAV, NAV 2015 at the Microsoft WPC (World Partner Conference). Microsoft's catch phrase for its new Navision update was "More Mobile and More Cloud”, giving an impression that the update will have many new and exciting features for the mobile device users. Besides including mobile application for smartphone and tablet users, the new add ons of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 upgrade include enhanced Office 365 integration, better document reporting and much more. Let us now explore these exciting features of this latest Microsoft update in detail.

Dynamics NAV 2015 features

• Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet Client

In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 Microsoft introduced a new interface called Microsoft Dynamics NAV for Tablet. The Microsoft Dynamics NAV for Tablet allows users in small and medium sized businesses to access data from a tablet.

Developing for Microsoft Dynamics NAV for Tablet is very similar to developing for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client using the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Environment.

• Reporting in Dynamics NAV 2015

NAV 2015 offers full integration with Microsoft Word, which means that users can now use MS Word to manage and create report layouts in Navision. This not only simplifies the task of creating reports as most people are familiar with MS Word, but it also helps users to create customized reports having multiple layouts. Also, one can easily change font size, font type, style, color, etc. in reports by using NAV 2015's integration feature with MS Word. NAV’s latest upgrade also enables users to schedule document reporting tasks.

• Improved Visual and User Experience

Microsoft provides a set of simplified pages and objects under the name Simplified UX. This provides simplifications to the standard user interface, focused on the basic sales and purchase processes. It is created mainly to support smaller businesses.

Simplified UX consists of: 

 All objects within the 13xx range, 

 A new role Center 9022 made especially for Small businesses, 

 Over 60 simplified pages.

Other than these features, NAV 2015 also presents functionalities like auto-fill function, automatic ‘Total Amount’ display on every purchase and sales document, and improved business intelligence dashboards. These features allow the users to enjoy better visualization and enhanced user experience. NAV 2015 also offers limiting features to allow restricted viewing of data to users, depending on their hierarchy in the organization and permission status.

• Bank Integration

With NAV 2015, users can easily convert electronic bank statements into data and upload it in the ERP database. Also, the statements in Dynamics can be selected and imported/exported from/to the bank. These features are available with 25 leading banks of the World. The user needs to apply bank transactions to open entries and set payment match tolerances. Besides bank data conversion and exchange capabilities, Dynamics NAV's latest upgrade also offers few more advanced financial management features like- simplified Payment Reconciliation, improved Payment Export, use of 'Due Date' as 'Posting Date' in Payment Journal, verification of VAT Registration Numbers, and Supply Certificates for VAT Reporting.

• Office 365 Integration

Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides interoperability with Office 365, which enables

customers to drill down, analyze, share and collaborate with peers. And with new

usability enhancements that make their solution easier and more familiar to use,

customers will enjoy working seamlessly and effortlessly across all applications.

In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 we carried on investing in the integration with Office 365 by endorsing:

-Simplified email messaging via SMTP including Office 365

-Sign in to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client using your Office 365 account

• Customized Tiles on Role Center

In NAV, Tiles on the Role Center visually represent important business data and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). In NAV 2015, users can configure these tiles with colors and images to make them more expressive. Even the data being represented in the tiles have been made customizable in the new upgrade, so a user can now set decimal places, currency signs, etc.

• RapidStart Services

With the new NAV upgrade, it is now possible for the user to convert or map values from a different ERP system into Dynamics NAV. Also, the user can clean-up and process the values (data) during import.

These are the few key add ons of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 update. The update was released by Microsoft in the later weeks of last month, more information about the added features will be added to our blog, as and when we get it.

Author : MetaOption

Checklist for successful Microsoft Dynamics NAV implementation

Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formerly known as Navision) is a popular ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution from Microsoft. The phenomenal popularity of NAV as an ERP solution is evident by the fact that it is the only ERP software to have breached the 1 million licensed user mark, and currently have over 1.3 million users from over 70,000 companies spanning across several countries. Navision implementation has helped several companies to streamline their processes, plug-in the loopholes, increase their efficiency, enhance their productivity and catalyse their growth. Such advantages of Dynamics NAV have prompted thousands of new companies to implement Navision at their organization. However, to make the most of Navision implementation, companies need to consider the following checklist while implementing NAV. • Know how implementation can fail, and take appropriate actions to prevent it: Though NAV is a highly rewarding software solution, NAV implementation can fail. Failed implementation can cause the projects to go devastatingly wrong. Hence, it is necessary to take all the precautionary steps while implementing Navision so as to ensure that the projects don't go wrong. • Set your goals: Only a clear pre-set goal of well-defined objectives can lead to key deliverables and project fulfilment. Hence, it is necessary that you clearly set your organizational goals after thoroughly analyzing your business needs before you implement Dynamics.     • Be realistic while setting goals: Though NAV is an immensely powerful tool and can help businesses in several ways, it is highly advisable you be realistic while setting your objective goals from NAV implementation. If you set the goals/objectives too high, and customize your NAV settings accordingly, it may lead to counter-productive results. • Ensure strict control: It is necessary to keep strict control on all the key processes that are being managed by Dynamics. It will ensure that all the management modules of NAV are being optimally utilized for the company's growth. • Careful Gap analysis: It is vital to identify the gaps (both functional and non-functional) in all the existing and planned processes. The identified gaps need to be duly addressed during NAV implementation to increase the overall efficiency of the company. • Implement Standard MS Dynamics NAV: though you can selectively custom NAV package as per your selective needs, it is advisable that you procure Standard MS Dynamics NAV package as all its modules has been carefully designed by Microsoft after  immense research to streamline all the sub-processes of an organization. • Conduct effective training: NAV is an easy to learn ERP. This by no way means that one does not need any training for using it. You need to have an efficient Navision training program for the employees to help them get accustomed with the ERP solution and know how to use its features more efficiently. • Try to deliver business intelligence with NAV: Besides focussing on plugging-in loopholes, minimizing company's costs and maximizing its costs, it is also necessary that you intend to use NAV implementation for business intelligence. This implies that you should be able to use the Navision tools for analyzing the key business data to anticipate future opportunities and try to plan for them the best. • Identify and minimize risks: Knowing the challenges and employing the NAV resources to tackle them is the best way to implement Navision. However, while doing this, one should be absolutely sure of the risks involved and try your best to minimize them. • Be prepared for future NAV upgrades: Microsoft continuously keeps upgrading its Dynamic products to more them more useful with the modern business. This results in upgraded versions of Dynamics NAV (like NAV 2013 R2, NAV 2015, etc.) being released from time to time. While implementing any NAV version at your organization, you must have prior arrangements to incorporate future upgrades.

Basic SQL - Creating Extended Stored Procedure / xp_ndo.dll

Microsoft Dynamics NAV requires two extended stored procedures from xp_ndo.dll to exist on SQL Server if Windows logins are used. If these extended stored procedures do not exist, you will get this error when trying to log on using Windows Authentication:
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The extended stored procedure xp_ndo_enumusersids in the library file xp_ndo.dll, is not available on the LOHNDORF1 server.  Until this procedure and library have been added, it will not be possible to connect to this server from Microsoft Dynamics NAV with Windows Authentication, but you will still be able to connect with Database Server Authentication.  You can read more about adding this extended stored procedure in the help pages on the product CD. Follow the hyperlink to the readme.txt file on the Servers page under the Documentation section of SQL Server.
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 When this happens you have two options: Use Database Authentication instead, or create the extended stored procedures on the SQL Server. a normal installation of a NAV client will create these procedures automatically, which is why in most cases you don’t need to do it. But if for some reason it was not created, then this is how to do it manually:

1)    From the product DVD, open the folder sql_esp, and run the file xp_ndo.exe to extract the file xp_ndo.dll somewhere you your disk. Then copy it into this folder on your SQL Server (on SQL 2008): C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Binn\. Remember, copying files into the “Program Files”-folder requires administrative privileges on Vista and Windows2008, which is why you should extract the file to a different folder first, and then copy it into this location.

2)     Open SQL Server Management Studio. Extend Databases -> System Databases -> master -> Programmability. Right click on “Extended stored procedures”, and select “New extended stored procedure”.

3)    Name it xp_ndo_enumusersids, and in the DLL field, select the full file and path for xp_ndo.dll (on SQL Server 2008 C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\Binn\xp_ndo.dll):




4)     Assign permissions to the public role: In the Extended Stored Procedures properties, click on “Permissions”, then “Search”. Type in “Public”, and click OK. Then assign Execute permissions to Public:



5)     Finally, repeat the previous steps and make another extended stored procedure which is exactly identical, except this one must be called xp_ndo_enumusergroups instead of xp_ndo_enumusersids.
You should now have two extended stored procedures, and should be able to use Windows login from NAV.


Note: 

 The above solution is also applicable to the below shown error:






Reference : NAV Developer's blog

Regards,

Sathish

http://sathish-nav.blogspot.com