In my role as a Pre-sales consultant I have been doing a lot of new features’ demo’s prior to clients upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015R2 and with the imminent release of Microsoft Dynamics GP2016 there will soon be even more new features to add to the list. So before the blogosphere is crammed with people like me waxing lyrical about the new features arrivingwith Dynamics GP2016 (in April, probably), I thought now would be a good time to take a step back and look at what we already have. After all there are probably some features you have gained in past upgrades you may well not be fully utilising.
There are hundreds of new features that came into Dynamics GP betweenDynamics GP2010 and Dynamics GP2015R2 and this is only supposed to be a quick look back beforethe release of Dynamics GP2016. So with this in mind I thought I would pick my ownpersonal top 10.
Queue the chart count down music¦
Creeping in at the bottom of the list at number 10 is:
Select printer at time of printing
This is such a small change but one that has had a massive effect to the user base. A collective grateful sigh was released when this appeared in the product.
next sliding into the number 9 spot:
Year end undo
This came in in GP2015R2 and we have had several clients use it (under the guidance of support) and it has been an absolute life saver.
The number 8 slot goes to:
Reprint remittance advice (or œcheck stub if you’re from across the pond)
Another tweek that got a huge reaction from our users as it freed up finance teams from having to follow all sorts of inventive paths to reproduce a remittance advice.
At number 7 for the first time in my personal chart we have:
Scan and Document Attach
Gone are the old OLE notes and the cumbersome shared folders on the network. Instead we have the documents stored in SQL (and thus backed up), an audit trail around them as to whom attached them etc and the ability to scan a document straight into Dynamics GP and attach it to transaction (you do need a scanner attached though).
Approaching the halfway mark at number 6:
Take a company offline
A very useful addition take the company offline allowing only admins to access it. Great when you need to do a reconcile or some adjustments and you don’t want anyone else coming in and mucking it up.
sitting in the middle at number 5:
Copy security roles and user home pages
This just makes new user setup so much easier.
Now into the home straight at number 4 we have:
Copy and paste GL journal
The ability to copy journal distributions from an excel spreadsheet and paste them straight into a general journal entry is so effortless and easy it definitely deserves a mention.
Some very nice new functionality now at number 3:
All-in-one document view
This is unlike any Dynamics GP window you have seen before and gives you the ability to see a payables document and all its related documents in one view together. From Purchase order to receipt to invoice to payment and even return.
Just nudging in at the number 2 position is:
The web client
This is great and really starts giving us the opportunity to open up functionality to other parts of the business (or evenwork from home on a Friday)
So before we get to number 1, an honourable mention:
Smartlist designer
Personally I love this functionality and its ability to publish refreshable excel reports based on your own smartlist and sql views. I believe used correctly this is a very powerful tool.
Number 1 however is the most significant change in the product in recent years:
Emails and word templates
The ability to email documents out of the system along with the new word templates (and now in Dynamics GP2015r2 the addition of email and template for statements) is a really powerful combination. It saves on time stuffing envelopes, its saves on money (no purchasing envelopes, stamps and paper). it also means you can be a lot more flexible with your reports, you could have a different invoice tailored to every separate debtor if you really wanted to. I believe you can get a really quick ROI from setting up this, my number 1 new feature over the past few versions.
So do you agree? Are there features I have missed off that you feel should be there?
Do you feel certain features should be higher up the list or have you looked on the list and said œI did not know I had that
Are you like me, waiting with baited breath to see what Microsoft Dynamics GP2016 will bring us?
One thing is clear though, if you look at the lists of the new features over the past few releases the majority of them are aimed at giving us a better user experience and a lot of them are coming from the top user suggestions. So if you have some suggestions, go onto the connect site and post them and if its already there vote.