Stop Purchase / Sale or Inventory adjustments for a Product (Item) in Microsoft Dynamics AX

Companies using ERPs often have one big complaint, they cannot delete a Product (Item) having transactions. For a corporation having few thousand products, it is a key requirement that they stop a product after few years on shelves (take for example the Nokia’s 1100 model was highly successful mobile phone. Alas! The company has to stop this product as part of their market strategy)

In Microsoft Dynamics AX (Microsoft Dynamics 365 for operations), a Product can be created globally and can be released to a legal entity as per requirement. Only upon successful release, the legal entity can transact on that product (termed as “Released Product”)

A released product cannot be deleted if transactions (Purchases, sales and Inventory) exist. However, a released product can be stopped from making new purchase, sales and/ or Inventory transactions. 

It is a good idea to ensure the On-hand inventory for this released product is zeroed out before a Released product is stopped

Note that each of this needs to be done separately as explained in the below:

1. Go to Released products and select the released product to be stopped. Click on default order settings under MANAGER INVENTORY tab (as highlighted in the below screen capture) 

   

  

2. The Default order settings for the selected released product is opened as below:

3. Stop new purchases: In order to stop the new purchases, go to Purchase Order fast tab and click on the Stopped

  

4. Stop new Inventory transactions: In order to stop the new inventory transactions, go to Inventory fast tab and click on the Stopped 

 

5. Stop new Sales transactions: In order to stop the new sales transactions, go to Sales order fast tab and click on the Stopped

 

This is it. Now the released product is stopped from making any new transactions. 

 

Automatic Settlement for Customers and Vendors in Microsoft Dynamics AX

AX allows automatic settlement of payments with Invoices (and vice-a-versa), The automatic settlements are of 2 types:

1. Automatic settlement with system defined priority
2. Automatic settlements with user defined priority

Automatic settlement with system defined priority: The automatic transactions with system defined priority settles transactions based on the due date. However, the both transactions (Invoice & Payment or adjustment) must be in the same currency

Automatic settlements with user defined priority: For user defined custom priority, the user may set priority based on Transaction type (Invoices, Fee on payment, Dunning letters, Interest) using the Settlement Priority form

In addition to this, AX allows users to specify which posting profiles are allowed for settlement. This functionality works the same way for Vendors (Accounts Payable) & Customers (Accounts Receivable). Below is a brief process on enabling the automatic settlement and setting up user priority.

•     Enable allow automatic settlement for the customer posting profile

•     Enable Automatic Settlement under the Accounts Receivable Parameters > Settlement tab

•     Enable Prioritise Settlement (If priority needs to be given for certain transactions) and “Use priority for automatic settlement”

•     Click on Manage Priority if user needs to change the order of priority (By default AX has its own priority defined based on the date of Invoice & due date on FIFO basis)

•   Activate the necessary attribute and move Up or Down to choose the priority

The necessary setups are done. Now you can proceed making transactions with automatic settlement. Good Luck.

Wish all of you AX consultants transforming towards the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Operations from AX 2012 and older versions a great success in 2017.

A new and integrated approach to future - Microsoft Dynamics 365

Effective 1st November 2016, Microsoft starts rolling out Dynamics 365 an integrated and connected cloud based business platform that can be integrated with On premise apps or solutions and cloud based offerings to deliver an integrated offering to meet all sorts of business needs.
The Dynamics 365 is essentially bifurcated into two solutions one for larger enterprises (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Enterprise edition) and the other for small and medium enterprises (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business edition) and the power apps (individual solution offerings) available under each option are as below:

 

The Business edition comes packaged primarily with the erstwhile Microsoft Dynamics CRM & Microsoft's mid-sized ERP Microsoft Dynamics NAV (upgraded through Project Madeira)
The Enterprise edition includes Microsoft Dynamics AX & Microsoft Dynamics CRM among the other power apps.

The enterprises whose requirements are not met with the above groupings can also shop these apps a la carte by choosing the apps most relevant for their respective needs.

I strongly believe this as a major contribution from Microsoft in making the world a "Global interconnected village". As the businesses start expanding and becoming "larger than life" entities, it has become a necessity that this large size and scale requires to be belled (quote: "Belling the cat") and this can only be done by integrating the communications from all corners of the business and addressing the needs in a better fashion.

Although Microsoft Dynamics 365 is quite exciting, it may take a while to break the market stigma and enter the actual usage and a while more to unsettle the comfort zones of users used to the neo traditional "what we see is what we have" model.

It may also be challenging that few countries with strong statutes against cloud based models would come out in open to accept the change in the making.

Let's welcome this change and support Microsoft better deliver on Microsoft Dynamics 365


You might also want to watch the full video of the Microsoft's vision for Business transformation below:

Multiple exchange rates for consolidating entities

In continuation to my earlier posts on consolidation Financial accounts in AX, this post is to highlight how AX allows multiple exchange rate types and exchange rates.

While consolidating data from companies from different regions (countries) around the world, due to a local business practices and requirements the exchange rates may vary for different subsidiaries although they belong to the same umbrella.

Below is an example of how to handle such a scenario as explained below. I am using the AX Demo data for the purpose of Consolidation.

S.No	Parent Company	Subsidiaries for Consolidation	Accounting Currency
1	GLCO		USD
2		USMF	USD
3		GBSI	GBP

There is no currency conversion required from USMF to GLCO since both these currencies are in “USD”. Now for the subsidiary “GBSI”, the accounting currency is “GBP” and hence it requires conversion to “USD”.

AX provides options for the users to select the Exchange rate type for direct conversion into consolidation company. Further the users may also choose different exchange rate types for different ledger accounts. 

In my case, I wish to choose “Average” exchange rate type for conversion for Main Account types: “Balance Sheet”, “Asset” & “Liability” and “Default” exchange rate type for conversion for main account types: “Profit & Loss”, “Revenue” & “Expense”.

Navigate to Consolidations > Consolidate Online:

Enter the Basic criteria as below:

 

Select the Legal entities for consolidation:

 

Go to Currency Translation Tab and enter the following:

•  For USMF, since the accounting currency is same “USD”, just select all accounts. Note that system is not allowing user to select the fields highlighted 
   
  
  
  
  
• ·        For GBSI, select the accounts from 110110 to 399999 (Balance Sheet, Asset, Liability & Equity accounts) note that that Exchange rate type field has now become mandatory
  
  
  
  
  
  •  Select the Exchange rate type as “Average”
  • The Apply exchange rate from field provides 3 options to user
  o   Consolidation date: This takes the exchange rate as on consolidation date
  o   Transaction date: This takes the exchange rate as per the actual transaction date in the source system
  o   User defined rate: This option enables user to provide a custom exchange rate
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  • For our example, I will proceed with “Consolidation date” as is the norm
  • To continue further, create “New” and select main accounts from “401100” to “899999” (Revenue, Expense, Profit& Loss accounts).
  • Choose the Exchange rate type as “Default”
  
  
   
  This is it, once the rest of the parameters are set as per requirements, click “OK” to complete the consolidation.