What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Retail?

In this blog you will find an overview of some of the key demo scenarios and associated data elements that have been provided to you in Dynamics AX 2012 R3 demo data related to Retail. This blog does not include all of the demo scripts or the data provided to enable all the scenarios. You can download the solution demo package that includes many demo  scripts and associated collaterals : Solution Demo VM and collaterals  (requires PartnerSource logon).

Overview of what's new in the solution demo package and list of all related blogs can be viewed here.

Key Demo Scenarios and Associated Data Elements

• Managing product kits  
• Loyalty
• Store manager data striping
• Configuring and activating devices
• Call center
• Accounting export

 SCENARIO: Managing product kits

This scenario reflects the activities associated with setting up of kits, components, generate assembly orders for warehouse, view assembly orders at warehouse, and pick, and package kits.

  ASSOCIATED DATA ELEMENTS:

SCENARIO: Loyalty

Several enhancements have been made to provide more effective customer loyalty scheme strategy execution. These enhancements include the following abilities:

Redeem loyalty points as a discount

Check and print loyalty card balance

Return loyalty points as part of product returns

Create loyalty cards at the point of sale

Loyalty programs used to define loyalty events

ASSOCIATED DATA ELEMENTS:

SCENARIO: Store manager data striping

For retail store managers, access to retail management software should be limited to actions that only affect the stores for which they are responsible. The store manager AX user, LacyJ, has been set up so that access in the product is limited for certain critical entities. Certain records are filtered so that only those which map to her stores are displayed. This makes her job easier by not showing records that do not interest her and it also prevents her from making changes for stores outside of her direct responsibility. The records that are filtered are as follows:

• Workers
• Purchase orders
• Transfer orders
• Purchase requisitions
• Inventory counts
• Registers

SCENARIO: Configuring and activating devices

A new entity called “Devices” has been created to track which handheld devices have been activated and link them to POS register records in the headquarters. In the demo data, devices have been created for every POS register and device using Modern POS(beta).

If a Modern POS(beta) device must be reactivated, set the device record in AX to ‘Pending’ or ‘Deactivated’, close the form or at least navigate out of that row and then on the device launch MPOS and activate.

SCENARIO: Call center

Call center functionality includes features that are designed to make it easier to take phone orders and handle customer service throughout the order fulfillment process. Call center workers can enter payment information directly into the sales order. Workers can also view a detailed summary of charges and payments before they submit the order. Workers have options for controlling pricing, and can access various data about customers, products, and prices from the sales order form. Call centers also have enhanced functionality for tracking customer history and order status.

Many new records were created in the demo data to support end to end call center functionality those entities include:

• Coupons
• Source codes
• Scripts
• Fraud alert rules
• RFM scores
• Installment plans
• Continuity plans for recurring billing

SCENARIO: Accounting export

A new configuration option called Retail Essentials was introduced with this release. Retail essentials is a retail specific configuration for customers interested in using AX strictly for retail management. In scenarios where AX- or Retail Essentials- is being used only to support the retail operations of an organization it becomes necessary to provide financial data to the system that is managing that aspect of the business. The accounting export capability was introduced to export data from Retail Essentials to a location from which it can be imported into a 3^rd party accounting system.

The demo VM includes an accounting export profile with sample account mappings and an export path which specifies which directory will receive the exported files.

ALL RETAIL ASSOCIATED DATA ELEMENTS ADDED IN DEMO DATA

We are pleased to announce that Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo Package is now released and available for download ! 

Partners can download Solution Demo VM and collaterals from the PartnerSource page.

This blog carries an overview of the solution demo package and list of related blog postings that have been posted per product area / country/ region.

• Overview of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo Package
• List of all solution demo package related blog postings

Overview of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo Package

With every release of the solution demo package we attempt to provide 100% Dynamics AX module coverage and enable end-to-end demo scenarios that cross multiple modules out-of-box. This is a single global Dynamics AX demo instance and coverage includes data and scenarios for China, Japan, Russia, India, Brazil and Mexico  globalization/localization.  The package also includes rich knowledge transfer materials. Utilize the  200 + demo scenarios that walk you step-by-step through end-to-end scenarios. Demo data elements documentation is an attempt to provide partners and field personnel with some of the key data elements that have been newly added in the demo data. The solution demo VM is on the latest Microsoft Stack. Beta of the Solution Demo VM instance on Microsoft Azure had already been published on  Dynamics Life Cycle Services here and will be upgraded to the latest soon. In the solution demo package  check out the Release Documentation, Technical Guide, Known Issues Document, Demo Scripts, Demo Data Elements Documentation, Overview Deck and other collaterals for further details.

 List of related blog postings:

The multiple blog postings listed below also relate some of the key demo scenarios and associated data elements for specific country/region, product areas and industries.

1) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Warehouse and Transportation management?

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/13/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-warehouse-and-transportation-management.aspx2)

2) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Retail? 

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/15/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-retail.aspx 

3) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Public Sector?

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/14/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-public-sector.aspx

 4) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Service Industries?

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/13/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-service-industries.aspx

 5) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Supply Chain Management?

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/15/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-supply-chain-management.aspx

 6) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Brazil Localizations?

 https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/14/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-brazil-localizations.aspx

 7) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Russia Localizations (Retail)?

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/14/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-russia-localizations-retail.aspx

 8) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Payroll (Russia)?

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/13/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-payroll-russia.aspx

 9) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Japan Localizations?

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/13/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-japan-localizations.aspx

 10) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for India Localizations?

 https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/12/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-india-localizations.aspx

 11) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM for Field Sellers for pre-sales demonstrations?

 https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/13/what-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-field-sellers.aspx

12) What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM ?  Setting up positive pay

 https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/05/setting-up-positive-pay-in-microsoft-dynamics-2012.aspx

13)  What’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM ?  China Localization

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/axcustomerimplementationreadiness/archive/2014/05/15/what-39-s-new-in-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r3-solution-demo-vm-for-china-localization.aspx 

In this blog you will find an overview of some of the key demo scenarios and associated data elements that have been provided to you in Dynamics AX 2012 R3 demo data for Supply Chain Management. This does not include all of the demo scripts or the data provided to enable all the scenarios. You can download the solution demo package that includes many demo  scripts and associated collaterals : Solution Demo VM and collaterals  (requires PartnerSource logon)

Overview of what's new in the solution demo package and list of all related blogs can be viewed here.

Key Demo Scenarios and Associated Data Elements

• Documenting and releasing product changes
• Serial number tracking for service and warranty 

SCENARIO: Documenting and releasing product changes

A typical use case for the Product Change functionality involves a situation where a production component must be replaced by another component. A replacement can be necessary, for example, when a vendor discontinues a component.

In this demo scenario, Contoso Entertainment Systems (USMF) is notified by the vendor, Fabrikam Electronics, that the "Standard Cabinet" (M0007) is being phased out and will be replaced by a new mk2 model. Contoso accepts the change and uses a product change case to document which products, bills of materials and routes are affected. This enables Contoso to leverage the features of the product change case to verify that the change is complete and consistent, to identify the bills of materials and routes to approve and activate, and to release those changes to production in a controlled manner.

SCENARIO: Serial number tracking for service and warranty

Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 R3 introduces new serial number tracking capabilities that are specifically targeted at service and warranty scenarios. In previous releases of Microsoft Dynamics AX, serial numbers were tracked in inventory as an inventory dimension. With the new features introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, registration of serial numbers can be deferred until the packing slip and the invoice are prepared. There is no longer a requirement that serial numbers must be registered in inventory.

This scenario demonstrates how Contoso Entertainment System Germany, a distributor of consumer electronics, manage their service and warranty obligations. As items are sold, Contoso registers the serial numbers on the packing slip and on the invoice. So when a customer makes a claim, Contoso can validate whether they actually sold that specific item and when it was sold.

This scenario will demonstrate the following abilities:

• Registering serial numbers for items on sales orders
• Customer pickup of sales orders with serialized items
• Partial delivery and invoicing of sales orders with serialized items
• Correcting packing slips and invoices with serialized items
• Tracing the history of orders that included serialized items
• Returning serialized items

ASSOCIATED DATA ELEMENTS:

In this blog you will find an overview of some of the key demo scenarios and associated data elements that have been provided to you in Dynamics AX 2012 R3 demo data for China localizations.

This blog does not include all of the demo script details and data provided to enable all the scenarios. You can download the solution demo package that includes many demo  scripts and associated collaterals : Solution Demo VM and collaterals  (requires PartnerSource logon)

Overview of what's new in the solution demo package and list of all related blogs can be viewed here.

Key Demo Scenarios and Associated Data Elements

• Enhanced China tax integration  

SCENARIO: Enhanced China tax integration

In this scenario, CNMF could issue sales VAT invoices more than the amount limit per invoice or less than the amount limit as before also when the parameter “Direct export during posting” is not checked. In the end of day or a period, April (Order processor) will open the form “VAT Integration” in which she can split a big-amount invoice into several small-amount invoices by various methods, and also merge several small-amount invoices into one. When she finishes these adjustment, she can export these invoices to text files in the format that the Chinese golden tax system can import into and issue official VAT invoices, and the official VAT invoice numbers can be imported back into AX.

  ASSOCIATED DATA ELEMENTS:

THE PHANTOM in Dynamics AX

Phantoms are a very common phenomenon. Maybe we should use the word ‘Phantom BOM’s' as this is more precise.  The more complex equipment is, the higher the chance there will be phantoms.  How to explain the need for phantom- BOM’s?

This is not hard. In the design process, there is a need to define certain sections of the equipment as it represents a function but we would never assemble them as such, because it is too deeply integrated with other pieces of the finished product or unit, for example a hydraulic system. The hydraulic system certainly represents a distinct functional segment in the design of equipment but will never be assembled in isolation. This is a perfect example of a phantom.  The BOM that contains all the pieces required for the hydraulic system is a phantom-BOM. Now we have the ability to copy this phantom BOM to other finished products, which is one of the essential reasons to have phantom-BOM’s in the first place.  APICS says the following

Phantom bills. Phantom bills are a coding and structuring technique used primarily for transient subassemblies. The phantom bill represents an item that may not exist physically but is treated as an accounting unit.

One can also say that the phantom-BOM represent “work in process”.

Phantoms are also often used to represent options for configurable products.

This phantom assembly can certainly be a multi-level BOM that contains phantoms on lower levels.

I have seen many of those, the record holder for now being a 6 level phantom assembly for some type of involved packaging.

Every ERP system has phantom functionality, or better formulated: functionality to support phantoms which is really the support of phantom BOMs’ .The decision that something should be a phantom is often an obvious decision by a design engineer but sometimes it is a later decision made by the manufacturing engineer.

All ERP systems handle phantoms the same. The two areas at play are MRP and costing. MRP is simply not creating any planned production orders for phantoms but explodes through them taking only lead time and quantity into account. Costing similarly blows through the phantom, taking only quantity into account.

In the overview below I want to point out a few details that are specific to Dynamics AX and how it handles phantoms.

Let’s first find the checkbox “phantom” in Dynamics AX:

1. The visibility of planned orders for a phantom is an interesting topic. Before 2012, planned orders for phantoms simply did not exist. They showed up in the MRP explosion tree as (dynamic), indicating it is not really an order, just showing itself for the complete explosion picture.

In 2009 and earlier versions, the user cannot get access to this phantom planned production order, there is in fact no order.  Yet in AX 2012, there is planned order with a checkbox “directly derived” checked but no obvious other signs that this is not a planned order one should be concerned with.

 Upon trying to firm, an error message shows, see below.

I would call this a slight regression in functionality and hope we will return to the invisibility of these phantom planned orders in the future.

2. Building a phantom to inventory is no problem in DAX. Although there is a checkbox “Phantom” on the item, this only serves to trigger the default phantom line type when the item ends up in a BOM line. I can create inventory for phantoms and I have seen companies doing just that. It could be this assembly is a phantom in certain types of equipment but an exchangeable unit in others. Or it is a spare part. However unlikely this seems, I have seen more then one case of this. Dynamics AX will allow it all, but we had better know how we would consume any phantom inventory we created because MRP will never see it.  We would consume the phantom if we change the line type in our Prod-BOM before we do “estimate”, as a special case. Mostly the consumption would take place through sales orders, service orders or journals where we simply put the phantom part number in the transaction and the system will consume it without a problem.

3. Phantoms and routings. If I use phantoms, I really should put the labor associated with this assembly in the routing of the higher level item. But If I build this phantom separately sometimes, I may have to put a routing on it. What happens then? Let’s discuss costing first. The routing on the phantom is included in costing. If I estimate a production order, the phantom - routing is copied to the parent item routing and added as the first operations. This is exactly correct. The Production order suddenly has a bigger routing so the scheduling will result in different scheduled dates then this order had during the MRP-run. In the big picture this should not make a difference.

4. Linking BOM lines to operations when the phantom has no routing. Here we venture into a problematic area where I have seen customization necessary. If I have linked items below a phantom to the routing of the higher level assembly, these links are not preserved when the phantom disappears. They all get operation 10.

If I don’t have a routing for my phantom and I would like to link the items below the phantom to different operations of the higher level routing, I can’t really do that in the Phantom-BOM itself. I have to wait until the phantom is gone, and I could do it in the Prod-BOM when I am past ‘estimate’, but this is not very practical. When typing in operation numbers on BOM-lines, the system does not check whether these operation numbers actually exist. This is actually good news. It makes a customization possible. It turned out to be an easy customization to preserve the operation numbers on the BOM lines below the phantom, so after the estimate status I end up with the parts below the phantom nicely lined up with the operation they belong to.

5.Linking BOM lines to operations when the phantom has a routing . If I have linked items in the Phantom-BOM to these operations of the phantom-routing, the standard system has no problem. Because the operation numbers of the phantom routing do not change during the “merge” with the higher level routing, the links of the items with the operations will remain intact.

6. Work center consumption and phantoms. There is one other thing that was a problem in 2009. Since “Work center consumption” was introduced as an option in the BOM-line, planned orders for items below the phantom could not find their warehouse when the phantom had no routing. The logic was looking for a routing on the phantom. If that routing was missing, which is often the case, no warehouse on the production unit (2009) was found. A hot fix was needed for this.

The same fix was later applied to the “Max report as finished” where the same problem occurred when we exploded all the BOM levels; the system could not find the warehouses for the BOM lines below a phantom. In 2012 this problem has not occurred.

7. Purchased phantoms. A few times I have been asked if Dynamics could handle a “purchasing phantom”. To this day I honestly do not know what that possibly could be. It is not a question that can be asked and we attributed this slip-of-tongue to a Monday morning sickness of the person asking.

8. Phantoms and Lean manufacturing. Is there any relation between the two? We can say two things. Lean Manufacturing favors flat BOM’s but when it comes down to actual transactions, just like in traditional discrete manufacturing, introducing phantoms reduces the number of production orders we have to deal with. We have to do a lot less transactions. One could call the phantom an excellent concept to support lean manufacturing. Now we get to a tougher truth. In DAX 2009, a manufacturing Kanban was simply a quickly processed production order that went from create to report a finished in one click. If the PROD-BOM contained phantoms, they were removed during estimate and everything worked fine. In 2012 Lean manufacturing however, the manufacturing Kanban is not a fast version of a production order anymore. There is no status of the manufacturing Kanban where phantoms would be removed!  So we are facing a challenge and are forced to remove phantoms out of the BOM of the product we are going to manufacturing using ‘Process Kanbans’. I believe we should not have a problem with phantoms in the Process Kanbans.

Great news! The AXUG Summit 2014 session lineup has been published.  We're still working on more sessions, but take a look at what's been posted and start to find the right sessions for you.  

At this year's event (October 14-17 in St. Louis, MO), you'll choose from around 200 interactive breakout sessions and group discussions, many of which are led by fellow Dynamics AX users. Our goal is that you go home armed with answers to your questions, solutions to your issues and practical ideas you can implement right away. 

Peruse the sessions...and then get registered! Early Bird discounts expire this month - you'll save $200 when you sign up by June 30!

PRE-CONFERENCE TRAINING FROM AXUG ACADEMY

Make the most of your trip to St. Louis by taking advantage of pre-conference training before AXUG Summit officially kicks off.  AXUG Academy is offering a number of half- and full-day, hands-on classroom training courses on Monday, Oct. 13 and Tuesday, Oct. 14.  You'll have a chance to learn and practice new skills, as each course dives deep into targeted functional areas of Dynamics AX.

Pre-conference training courses are offered at an additional fee and are not included in your AXUG Summit registration.  Browse the list of available courses and reserve your seat today - you'll save $50 on each class when you register by June 30.

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS!

AXUG Summit 2014 in St. Louis will mark the 10th annual conference for the Dynamics AX User Group! What started as a small gathering of Dynamics AX users in Seattle has grown to an event that attracts more than 1,000 Dynamics AX gurus - making it the largest global event focused exclusively on Dynamics AX.  While AXUG Summit has grown in size, our mission remains the same - to help Dynamics AX users learn from one another and get the most value from your Dynamics AX solution. 

Here's a look at where we've been...

• 2005 - Seattle, WA
• 2006 - Redmond, WA
• 2007 - Orlando, FL
• 2008 - Las Vegas, NV
• 2009 - Chicago, IL
• 2010 - Orlando, FL
• 2011 - Las Vegas, NV
• 2012 - Seattle, WA
• 2013 - Tampa, FL
• 2014 - St. Louis, MO

Thank you for contributing to AXUG Summit over the years.  This event is not only for Dynamics AX users, but it's also powered by the volunteer efforts of users - it simply wouldn't be possible without your contributions.  Cheers to 10 years!

Scenario: Set up a Legal Entity in AX2012

The Customer Implementation Readiness team at Microsoft validates AX 2012 functionality for specific scenarios. This is the first in a series of blog posts that describe the scenarios that we have tested, and how we tested them.

Scenario

In this scenario, we set up a legal entity in US.

Focus

The document describes the configuration and set up steps for the scenario.

Related documentation

The setup we followed is described in the documentation Create or Modify a Legal Entity. It assumes that demo data is available with the application.

Detailed Steps

Set up company UOM as a Legal Entity in AX2012

Create Legal Entity

1.In the AX 2012 R2 client, log in to any company.

2.Go to Organization Administration> Setup> Organization > Legal entities and create a new legal entity.

3.Choose Name, Company and Country/region.

4.Under General, verify/change Time zone.

5.Under Addresses, edit to update address.

6.Under Tax registration, update Tax registration number.

7.Under Statutory reporting, General, update DUNS number.

8.Close all forms.

Assign Legal Entity to an Organization hierarchy

1.Go to Organization Administration> Common> Organizations > Organization hierarchies and select an existing Organization hierarchy e.g. ‘Contoso Consulting’ and click Edit.

2.Click View, click Edit on next screen and single click on ‘Contoso Consulting USA’ such that it is highlighted in orange color.

3.Next click Insert, Legal entity

4.Select company UOM and click ok.

5.Next click on Publishandclose. Choose an Effective date and click Publish.

6.Close all forms.

Generate Number Sequences

1.Log into the selected company and go to Organization Administration> Common> Number sequences > Number sequences and click Generate.

2.Click OK for warnings and go through the wizard to set up Number Sequences automatically for the selected company.

3.Close all forms.

Set up Accounting for Legal Entity

Set up Ledger for Legal Entity

1.Go to General Ledger> Setup> Ledger

2.Select a Chart of account‘Shared’.

3.Select Fiscal calendar and Accounting currency.

4.Click add to include Account structures, a Balance Sheet and a Profit and Loss structures.

5.Select Default exchange rate type and Default Budget exchange rate type.

6.Close all forms.

Set up Voucher series

1.Go to Organization administration> Common> Number sequences > Number sequences

2.Create New Number sequence.

3.Under Identification, enter Number Sequence code and Name.

4.Under Scope parameters, enter‘Company’ and select the legal entity as Company.

5.Edit Segments as appropriate for prefix and length of number sequence.

6.Check the Continuous checkbox under General. Please note this selection can change based on your requirements.

7.Close all forms.

Set up Journal for Not Sufficient Funds

1.Go to General Ledger> Setup> Journals > Journal names

2.Create New, add Name and Description.

3.Under General, select Journal Type as ‘Customer Payment’ and Account type as ‘Bank’.

4.Select Voucher series and New voucher as ‘In connection with balance’.

5.Close all forms.

Set up Charges Group for Not Sufficient Funds

1.Go to Accounts receivable> Setup> Charges > Customer charge groups

2.Create New, add Charges Group and Description.

Set up Bank Information for Legal Entity

Set up Positive Pay Format

1.Go to System administration> Setup> Services and Application Integration Framework > Positive pay service > Outbound ports for positive pay and click New.

2.Create a Payment format, XSLT and Outbound folder.

3.Close all forms.

Set up Bank group

1.Go to Cash and bank management> Setup> Bank groups and click New.

2.Create a Bank groups, Routing number and Name.

3.Under General, select Currency as ‘USD’ (example).

4.Close all forms.

 Set up Bank account

1. Go to Cash and bank management> Common> Bank Accounts and click New Bank account

2. Under General, create a new Bank account, Routing number and Bank account number and Name under Description.

3.Select Bank groups.

4.Select Positive pay format and Positive pay start date.

5.Under Currency management, select Main account.

6.Select More currencies if needed and note that the currency is USD (example).

7.Under Not sufficient funds, set the values for Charges group and NSF payment journal.

8.Close all forms.

New payroll tax updates are now available for 2009, 2012 R2, and 2012 R3 versions of Payroll for Microsoft Dynamics AX. The updates can each be downloaded from the following links:

Versions:

AX 2009 - 2014-05

AX 2012 R2 - 2014-R8

AX 2012 R3 - 2014-R8

CustomerSource

2009 - https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/AX/downloads/tax-regulatory-updates/PayrollforMicrosoftDynamicsAX2009

2012 - https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/AX/downloads/tax-regulatory-updates/MicrosoftDynamicsAX2012USPayrollTaxUpdates

PartnerSource

2009 - https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/northamerica/deployment/downloads/tax-regulatory-updates/PayrollforMicrosoftDynamicsAX2009

2012 - https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/northamerica/deployment/downloads/tax-regulatory-updates/MicrosoftDynamicsAX2012USPayrollTaxUpdates

Be sure to subscribe to email updates of this blog to be notified when they are available.

The Dynamics AX HCM Team

Case Study: Set up intercompany purchase and sales transactions for retail stores

The Customer Implementation Readiness team at Microsoft validates AX 2012 functionality for specific scenarios. This is the first in a series of blog posts that describe the scenarios that we have tested, and how we tested them.

Scenario

In this scenario, we validate that retail stores in company USRT can be replenished from a distribution center in company USMF.

The stores are represented by warehouses and Retail stores in AX 2012, and the distribution center is represented by a warehouse.

Steps in setting up intercompany trade for this case study:

• Set up company USMF as a vendor in company USRT
• Set up company USRT as a customer in company USMF

Focus

The document describes the configuration and set up steps for the scenario.

Related documentation

The scenario we followed is described in the documentation Set up vendors, customers, and items for intercompany trade. It assumes that you have previously configured the correct parameters, described in Set up intercompany trade.

Detailed validation steps

Set up company USMF as a vendor in company USRT

1. In AX 2012 R2 client, log in to company USRT.
2. Go to Procurement and sourcing> Common> Vendors> All vendors and create a new vendor.
3. Choose Group = Intercompany Vendor.

4. On the Action Pane General tab, click Intercompany.

The intercompany vendor number (that is getting set up) is defaulted under Trading Relationship> Purchase Relation.

5. On the Purchase order policies tab, set up purchase actions.

Choose the information that you want to post or print automatically and select the data that can be editable or searchable during transaction processing and choose the information that you want retained from one document to another in the Intercompany flow.

6. On the Purchase value mapping and set up whether you want to retain purchasing values from the company making the intercompany purchase. In this case choose Our as the value otherwise choose External as the value.

7. On the Purchase agreement policies tab select the data that can be editable during transaction processing.

8. Click Close.

Set up company USRT as a customer in company USMF

1. Switch to company USMF.
2. Go to Sales and marketing> Common> Customers> All customers and create a new customer.
3. Choose Group = Intercompany Customer.

4. On the Action Pane General tab, click Intercompany.

5. The intercompany customer number (that is getting set up) is defaulted under Trading Relationship> Sales Relation.

6. On the Sales order policies tab, set up sales actions.

Choose the information that you want to post or print automatically and select the data that can be editable or searchable during transaction processing and choose the information that you want retained from one document to another in the Intercompany flow. You must also select a Payment Journal.

7. On the Sales value mapping tab, set up whether you want to retain sales values from the company making the intercompany sale. In this case choose Our as the value otherwise choose External as the value.

8. On the Sales agreement policies tab, select the data that should be editable during transaction processing.

9. On the Trading relationship tab, select Active to make the intercompany relationship active.

10.Click Save.

Validate that the trading relationship is active from the customer

You can check whether a trading relationship is active by going to the customer or the vendor. In this case study, we will do both.

1. In USMF company, go to Sales and marketing> Common> Customers> All customers and double-click USRT.
2. Open Miscellaneous details FastTab.
3. In the Intercompany section, you can see the linked intercompany vendor account, company code and active status.

Validate in Vendor Master

1. Switch to the USRT company.
2. In Procurement and sourcing> Common> Vendors> All vendors, and double-click USMF.
3. Open the Miscellaneous details FastTab.
4. In the Intercompany section, you can see the linked intercompany vendor account, company code and active status.

Personnel actions are those activities that occur from the time an employee is hired until he/she exits the company. Typical personnel actions may include: hiring, promotion, transfers and termination. Within AX, workflow may be enabled during these process as an alternate step when submitting a personnel action.

Personnel Actions can be enabled in 5 areas in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

1. Creating a new position - New position requests can be routed through actions and workflow
2. Modifications to existing positions - Changing a position from part-time to full-time, assigning an employee or changing the reporting structure can be routed for approval.
3. Hiring an employee - The hiring process is tracked as an action with full history of the request/approval.
4. Transfer/Promotion - All internal transfers/promotions can be tracked as a personnel action.
5. Termination - All employee exits.

A full set of action history is available with each position and employee in the system.

Configuration-->Human Resources I-->Personnel Actions.

To enable Personnel actions you first have to enable the configuration key. This key is located: System Administration-->License  Once personnel actions is turned on you will be asked to synchronize. Choose yes and let the process finish.

When you re-launch Microsoft Dynamics AX you will see new menu items to configure and process personnel actions. Action menu items will display under Human Resources > Setup > Actions and Human Resources > Common > Actions.

Human Resources-->Setup-->Human resource workflows

If workflow is required, the next step is to create a workflow for each type of personnel action. Four different workflow options exist based on the type of personnel action.

1. Human resources actions workflow
2. Worker actions hire
3. Worker actions terminate
4. Worker actions transfer

Select Human resources actions workflow. This workflow is used for all position based personnel actions.

Two stages are available to configure workflow for personnel actions. These include Review position actions and Approve position actions. Review allows you to submit the request for review prior to the approval process. Approval will submit the action to the next individual in the approval tree.

Connect the approval task to the start and end of the workflow process by dragging new connections from the workflow start to Approve position action and then from Approve position action to End.

To resolve the remainder of the Errors and warnings complete the following steps:

1. Double click on the Approve position actions task
2. Right mouse click and choose properties on Step 1
3. Add text to the work item subject fields and instructions

1. Add an assignment type of Managerial hierarchy
2. Add stop condition: for example when Job title = President.

One warning should remain

1. Double click on the warning and add submission instructions to the workflow.
2. Save and Close.
3. Activate the new workflow, no errors or warnings should exist.

Create Personnel action types - A personnel action type defines the flow of a request. Action types can be defined to go through workflow or to be completed without workflow. Multiple action types can exist for creating positions. For example: Workflow may be required for new FTE positions but not for Seasonal PT.

Human Resources-->Setup-->Actions

Create a new Action Type

1. Select the action of "Create positions" and the workflow from the previous step.
2. Close the form.

Human Resources-->Common-->Organization-->Positions-->Positions-->New Position

Create a new request for an FTE position.

Enter the action type and optionally the reason code for the request. Continue.

Complete the Position Action form - notice there is a workflow bar at the top of the form. If workflow was not enabled for the action the submit button would display as "Complete" and the change would take affect when the action is completed. Actions are date effective, so the duration for the new position may take place in the future.

Fill out the details of the form and submit for approval. 

Login as the manager receiving the workflow and Approve.

Human Resources-->Common-->Actions-->Position Actions

View the new position created in the "Newly created positions" fast tab of the form. 

Drill down on the Position Number to view the "live" position created from the approved action.

Stay tuned for additional blog posts related to workflow.

Welcome to the blog series containing troubleshooting tips and tricks as you work on the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo VM. There has been a significant interest and downloads of the solution demo VM that was released in PartnerSource. We have compiled a  list of key questions that are frequently asked by users and posting these in this blog series. Please NOTE that this blog is a compilation only. For feedback and questions related to the VM please follow the process been laid out here.

To start with see below a list of 'How to" self-help guides (requires PartnerSource logon) that have been published for your use.  

1) How to Rearm :  The demo virtual machines have a 180-day activation period. You will need to re-arm them to keep use them. This set of demo virtual machines has three re-arms.

2) How to Use Virtual Machine Profile Manager : The Virtual Machine (VM) Profile Manager is installed and configured to assist in starting services in the correct order and caching specific SharePoint sites and other URL resources. This tool aims to help improve the VM performance by providing you the option to turn off some Retail related services and sites if not needed.

3) How to Enable Integration with Management Reporter for Microsoft Dynamics ERP : Management Reporter Integration is disabled in the virtual machine A when Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo Package V1.0 is released to improve performance.   If you want to demonstrate the real time integration between Management Reporter for Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Microsoft Dynamics AX, you can enable integration to update reports or permissions.

4) How to Use Set IP Utility :  In order make it easy and quick for you to set the IP addresses for the virtual machines, we have released the Set IP Utility, i.e. setnetworkip.bat which is included in the virtual machine A. The virtual machine should be created with at least one internal network adapter configured in Hyper-V

5) How to Set Network Adapter Priority

6) How to Connect Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with Microsoft Dynamics AX :

7) How to Connect Office 365, including PowerBI, with Microsoft Dynamics AX

8) How to Connect Mobile Apps with Microsoft Dynamics AX in Microsoft Azure-based demo environment

9) How to Connect Mobile Apps with Microsoft Dynamics AX in local host demo environment  

10) How to Update PerformancePoint Dashboard

11) How to Improve Performance via Database Maintenance

12) How to Fix Business Intelligence Cubes Measures and Dimensions

13) How to Install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Business Intelligence Studio for Visual Studio 2010

14) How to Initiate Crawl for Microsoft SharePoint Search

Hi Folks,

List of important configuration related tables in AX2012R2 should be backuped from the Test env before restoring the Production database.

[AIFWEBSITES]
[BATCHSERVERCONFIG]
[BATCHSERVERGROUP]
[BIANALYSISSERVER]
[BIANALYSISSERVICESDATABASE]
[BICONFIGURATION]
[EPGLOBALPARAMETERS]
[EPWEBSITEPARAMETERS]
[SRSSERVERS]
[SYSBCPROXYUSERACCOUNT]
[SYSBPPARAMETERS]
[SYSCLUSTERCONFIG]
[SYSSERVERCONFIG]
[SYSUSERINFO]
[SYSUSERPROFILES]
[SYSWORKFLOWPARAMETERS]
[USERGROUPLIST]
[USERINFO]

Many Thanks,

Rudra

"Helping others without any expectation will always made the others to help you"