Project Management in MS dynamics AX 2009

Project Management in Dynamics AX 2009

PROJECT I

Project I in Microsoft Dynamics AX enables you to track time and materials consumed and follow up on time and material projects and internal projects. You can itemize time and materials for invoicing, while retaining sales prices and cost of items and man hours.

Registration and Data Entry

• Itemize project costs, employee hours, materials used, and fees incurred by the customer and enter them into the journal

• Enter hours remotely over the Internet with Enterprise Portal

• Create your own project hierarchy

• Follow up on status of deliveries and sales and purchase orders

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Invoicing

• Invoice each project or project group, and retain itemized time and resource costs

• Sub-projects can also be invoiced separately or together, which makes it possible to have a single project with multiple invoices for different customers

• Approval procedures can be set for invoices, to make sure that responsible managers sign off on invoices before they are sent to the customer

• Prepayments can be tracked and applied to future invoices

• Enter project costs directly into accounts payable or purchase orders

• Use flexible-line property setup to capture chartable and non-chartable costs

• Adjust transactions before creating your invoice proposals, and edit invoice proposals before final invoicing

Project Management

• Break down the time and materials used on projects and assign individual hours or items to sub-projects for more detailed control of costs and consumables

• Project structures can be saved so that budgets, sub-projects, and activities can be copied from revious projects and applied as a template to new projects

• Schedule tasks and allocate resources and capacity to future tasks

Accounting

• Project I is tightly integrated with general ledger functionality, so that dimensions can be applied to every transaction in a project

• Detailed posting profiles can be set up, so that transactions can be posted to specified ledger accounts depending on preset criteria

Inquiry and Reporting

• A report generator enables extended reporting with load and save capabilities

• A statistic form compares project budgets to consumption over time

• General ledger integration makes it easy to follow transaction details for a single project or group of projects

Benefit statement:

Project I is designed for project focused companies, and also companies that run projects such as research programs, services, IT installations, and product support. The module can analyze progress in

Real time, comparing the financial performance of each project or the entire company against predefined

Goals.

Key questions:

• Can you quickly analyze the financial performance of internal and external projects by comparing resources consumed and revenue earned to the project budgets?

• Are you concerned with your ability to effectively manage your cash flow because of delays in invoicing customers for work performed?

Allocating transactions in AX2009

Allocating transactions in AX2009

Allocation is the process of distributing monetary amounts to one or more accounts or account/dimension combinations based on allocation rules. There are two types of allocations—fixed and variable. Fixed allocation is used to distribute specified percentages of a transaction amount to distribution accounts/dimensions.

For example, corporate advertising expenses might be shared across specific departments. Department A would get 70 percent of the advertising expense, Department B would get 20 percent, and Department C would get 10 percent.

Variable allocation is used to distribute fluctuating percentages of a transaction amount to various accounts/dimensions.

For example, you could allocate corporate advertising costs based on each department's sales in proportion to total departmental sales.

The following allocation methods are available:

· Basis

· Fixed percentage

· Fixed weight

· Spread even

Create allocation rule source information

1. Click General ledger > Setup > Posting > Ledger allocation rule.
2. Click the Source button to open the Ledger allocation rule source form.
3. Press CTRL+N to create a new source line.
4. Select to allocate from an account or from an account-dimension combination.
5. If you selected Dimension in the Field setting field, select a dimension.
6. Enter the account or dimension source criteria information to allocate from. You can use wildcards to specify ALL, a RANGE, or a LIST of accounts or dimension codes, or BLANK for a dimension.

For example, suppose that you want to allocate a utility expense, such as phone and fax costs, and the chart of accounts is set up so that a ledger account starting with 61 indicates that the account is where utilities expenses are posted. You could define the source criteria as one of the following.

• 61*
• 6100..6110
• 6100, 6110

Create allocation rule destination information

1. Click General ledger > Setup > Posting > Ledger allocation rule.

2. Click the Destination button to open the Ledger allocation rule destination form.

3. If this rule is an intercompany rule, select the company to allocate to.

4. Select the account to allocate to.

5. Select a department, cost center, and purpose dimension to allocate to.

6. Depending on the allocation method selected in the Ledger allocation rule form, enter or select the following information.

o If the allocation method is Basis, select the basis ID to associate to the destination line.

o If the allocation method is Fixed weight, enter the fixed weight to assign to each destination line.

o If the allocation method is Fixed percentage, enter the fixed percentage to assign to each destination line.

Use the Process allocation request form to create an allocation journal.

1. Click General ledger > Periodic > Process allocation request.

2. Select an allocation rule.

3. Select the date to include ledger amounts for allocation in the As of date field.

4. Select the date to post the allocation journal to the general ledger in the GL posting date field.

5. Select the action to be taken if a zero source amount is generated during the allocation process.

o Select Process to create destination distributions, where applicable.

o Select Stop to create an error to indicate that a zero source amount is selected and stop the allocation process.

6. Select to view the journal details or post the allocation results directly to the general ledger.

7. Click OK to create an allocations journal.

Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 Compliancy Enhancements

Automatic Elimination of Intercompany Transactions
Elimination transactions are required when a parent company does business with one or more subsidiary companies and uses consolidated financial reporting. Transactions that occur between companies that are part of the same organization must be eliminated because consolidated financial statements must include only transactions between the consolidated organization and other entities outside of that organization. Because of this, transactions between companies that are within the same organization must be removed, or eliminated, from the financial reports.
In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, you can set up elimination rules to create elimination transactions in a company that is specified as the destination company for eliminations, or the elimination company. Elimination journals can be generated during the consolidations process or by using an elimination journal proposal.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Compliance Center
Microsoft Dynamics AX supports an organization’s compliance program. Instead of having data and information locked away in separate information silos, Microsoft Dynamics AX provides one central location for users to view, manage, and control the internal controls, business process content, and reporting for the organization's compliance program.
The Compliance Center – easily accessible via the Enterprise Portal – simplifies compliance efforts and helps keep business information secure through a comprehensive set of tools to manage and control sensitive business information and critical key performance indicators (KPIs). The Compliance Center provides easy and convenient access to required documentation, internal controls, and status tracking.
From the Compliance Center, users can view graphs that represent the efficiency and effectiveness of the internal controls, examine key performance indicators, manage action items from alerts or workflow, and add links to important external compliance sites. The Compliance Center also contains a document library that stores and shares important information about compliance, including business process documentation that enables users to view the statistical status and control effectiveness of the organization's internal controls.
Compliance requires recording, documenting, and reporting exactly what happened, when, and by whom. These activities are fundamental to an effective compliance program. Users can view database logs quickly and can store compliance documents in the document library. From the Compliance Center, the Database Logs page makes it possible to view and filter data about changes to the database, for example, who made the changes and when the changes were made. The view is sorted by table name and shows a description of the record, date, type of change, created time, created date, user who created the record, current value, and previous value.
Users can also generate business process documentation by using the Task Recorder. Microsoft Dynamics AX also provides a number of reports to help monitor an organization’s compliance activities, including user permissions, object permissions, database log setup, alert setup, alert tracking, audit trail, and workflow tracking, and makes them available from the Compliance Center.

DataLoad software also works with AX

DataLoad V4 - Classic & Professional
"If you have hundreds of records, then DataLoad Classic is a good way of loading the records that you need; if you have thousands of records then DataLoad Professional is the tool to use.
Good thing is that this tool is made by oracle and Flexibiulity of AX being windows platform is such that this tool works on it as well.
And it’s FREE
Implementing or supporting any application requires significant effort to configure and load master and transaction data, for example from legacy systems, an expensive and time-consuming activity.
DataLoad reduces the time and costs associated with data migration. Its easy-to-use interface means that it can be used by non-technical employees, giving end-users an active role in the implementation and support of any system.
With 8,000 downloads a month and customers in over 30 countries, DataLoad is the world's most popular data entry tool for end users, consultants and developers.
Why Use DataLoad?
· Non-technical users can easily configure and load data into any system
· Recommended by Oracle, DataLoad contains specific additional features to load large volumes of data in Oracle E-Business Suite
· DataLoad is sponsored by leading UK systems integrator Edenbrook, which has committed to support and improve the tool
· DataLoad is available in Classic and Professional editions, catering to all types of application implementation from the simple to the vastly complex
· DataLoad Classic is available to download free of charge and is not a time limited trial version
· DataLoad has a proven track record with over 10 years of production use and is still actively developed to meet today's needs
DataLoad Functionality
A summary of DataLoad functionality is provided below,
DataLoad provides a spreadsheet style interface and the data contained within that spreadsheet can be loaded into any system using a Macro load, or into Oracle Applications using Forms Playback. Either way, data or setup is loaded through the application's forms and that provides many advantages. Users have a choice between the free DataLoad Classic or more feature rich DataLoad Professional,
Macro Loads
All versions of DataLoad provide the Macro load functionality and this is the load technology of choice in DataLoad Classic, the freeware version.
The easiest way to load data into a form is using a keyboard and mouse and this is what DataLoad does with Macro loads. You configure the data, keystrokes and mouse clicks in DataLoad that you want loaded into your form(s). When you run the load DataLoad presses the keys and clicks the mouse as you specified. Any keys on your keyboard can be used by DataLoad, in any combination, and the left and right mouse buttons can also be used. And because DataLoad calls the same low-level Windows code that is called when you actually press a key or use your mouse, the application you are loading data into cannot tell the difference between data entered by you at the keyboard or DataLoad.
To build a DataLoad load write down what keys and mouse clicks you use to enter one record in your application. Now enter that into a DataLoad row and copy the instructions down into as many rows as the number of records you are going to load. Finally, paste your data into cells in DataLoad that correspond to the fields in your form. Your load is now built!
To load data as quickly as possible DataLoad uses Windows copy & paste to copy data into form fields. Where the actual keystrokes should be sent instead the data just needs to be preceded with a backslash, '\'. To send mouse clicks use the *ML or *MR commands to send left or right mouse click respectively. Please read the User Guide for more information about keystrokes, DataLoad commands and mouse clicks.
Controlling the Load
DataLoad can send data, key strokes and mouse clicks far faster than applications can handle them. To slow down DataLoad there is a comprehensive set of Delay options, using both the Delays form and the *SL (Sleep) command which cause DataLoad to wait at key points.
For the fastest, most reliable copy & paste loads use the Load Control functionality in DataLoad Professional. Load Control enables DataLoad to monitor a log file written by the application you are loading data into. Having configured DataLoad to use the log file your load will not run faster than the application is processing the data. No delays are required and DataLoad will run as fast as possible without overloading the target application. Another great benefit of Load Control is that if an error occurs in the application DataLoad will stop sending data. Therefore loads can be run unsupervised.

To download visit http://www.dataload.net

Dimension wise Profit & Loss and Balance sheet............ in FRX or AX?

During the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, there is a usual concern about creating a Balance sheet and P&L. either FRX is the best solutions or default AX Financial reports using row structure?

I believe this depends on a particular scenario. There is no doubt in the functionality of FRX, but AX default financial statements creation is a plus benefit. Especially in the following scenario.

SCENERIO:
If there is only one company configured in AX with around 100 divisions in dimensions, and you want to create a profit & Loss standard format for all the divisions. In FRX. You would need to create respective row formats and reporting tree or report catalogues. I mean there will be much effort required to create that.
If we create one P&L format in Default AX financial statements, we will just use dimension focus to take report for all the divisions.

It will definitely save time and give quickly results and will also increase customers trust on the application. This happened with me, might happen with you!

I hope above information is helpful.

Regards,
Ali Jawad