What's New - Application in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Finance, PA, Case Mgmt., HRM and Public...

COURSE 80164

WHAT’S NEW - APPLICATION IN MICROSOFT DYNAMICS® AX 2012 FOR FINANCE, PA, CASE

MGMT., HRM, AND PUBLIC SECTOR

Microsoft Official Training Materials for Microsoft Dynamics®

Your use of this content is subject to your current services agreement

Last Revision: March 2011 This courseware is provided for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied as to the information included in this courseware. Information in this courseware, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice. Unless otherwise noted, the companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted in examples herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, place, or event is intended or should be inferred. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this courseware may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this courseware. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this courseware does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property. © 2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.



Table of Contents

i

Introduction 0-1

Welcome ............................................................................................................ 0-1 Microsoft Dynamics Courseware Contents ........................................................ 0-2 Documentation Conventions .............................................................................. 0-3 Student Objectives ............................................................................................. 0-4

Chapter 1: Overview 1-1

Objectives ........................................................................................................... 1-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1-1 New User Interface Elements ............................................................................. 1-2 Organization Model ............................................................................................ 1-9 Help System ..................................................................................................... 1-12 Microsoft Office Add-Ins ................................................................................... 1-13 Work Items ....................................................................................................... 1-16 Document Handling .......................................................................................... 1-17 Interest Terms and Date Ranges ..................................................................... 1-17 Post-Dated Checks .......................................................................................... 1-18 Summary .......................................................................................................... 1-20 Test Your Knowledge ....................................................................................... 1-21 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ................................................................. 1-23 Solutions ........................................................................................................... 1-24

Chapter 2: Compliance and Internal Controls 2-1

Objectives ........................................................................................................... 2-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 2-1 Default Controls Library ...................................................................................... 2-1 Import and Mapping Wizard ............................................................................... 2-3 Summary ............................................................................................................ 2-4 Test Your Knowledge ......................................................................................... 2-5 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ................................................................... 2-6 Solutions ............................................................................................................. 2-7

Chapter 3: Accounts Payable 3-1

Objectives ........................................................................................................... 3-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 3-1 Prepaid Purchase Orders ................................................................................... 3-2 Lab 3.1 - Set Up a Prepayment .......................................................................... 3-6 Invoice Matching Task for Workflow ................................................................... 3-8 Vendor Invoice Processing Workflow ................................................................. 3-8 Invoice Matching Improvements ......................................................................... 3-9 Summary .......................................................................................................... 3-12 Test Your Knowledge ....................................................................................... 3-13 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ................................................................. 3-14 Solutions ........................................................................................................... 3-15

Chapter 4: Accounts Receivable 4-1

Objectives ........................................................................................................... 4-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 4-1 Managing Collections and Collection Agents ..................................................... 4-2



What's New - Application in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 for Finance, PA, Case Mgmt., HRM and Public Sector

ii

Lab 4.1 - Manage the collection process .......................................................... 4-12 Free Text Invoice Improvements ...................................................................... 4-13 Free Text Invoice Quantities and Unit Prices ................................................... 4-15 Summary .......................................................................................................... 4-17 Test Your Knowledge ....................................................................................... 4-18 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ................................................................. 4-19 Solutions ........................................................................................................... 4-20

Chapter 5: Budgeting 5-1

Objectives ........................................................................................................... 5-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 5-1 Workflows for Budget Register Entries ............................................................... 5-2 Dimensions for Budgets ..................................................................................... 5-2 Configuring Budget Control ................................................................................ 5-3 Using Budget Control ......................................................................................... 5-9 Lab 5.1 - Use Budget Control on a Purchase Order......................................... 5-12 Budget Amounts ............................................................................................... 5-15 Lab 5.2 - Create and Manage Budgets ............................................................ 5-19 Budget Reporting ............................................................................................. 5-21 Budget Transaction Web Services ................................................................... 5-21 Summary .......................................................................................................... 5-22 Test Your Knowledge ....................................................................................... 5-23 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ................................................................. 5-24 Solutions ........................................................................................................... 5-25

Chapter 6: Travel and Expense 6-1

Objectives ........................................................................................................... 6-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 6-1 Expense Reports Improvements ........................................................................ 6-2 Lab 6.1 - Create and Process an Expense Report ............................................. 6-6 Budgetary Control .............................................................................................. 6-9 Travel and Expense Policies ............................................................................ 6-10 Credit Card Dispute Management .................................................................... 6-13 Summary .......................................................................................................... 6-14 Test Your Knowledge ....................................................................................... 6-15 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ................................................................. 6-16 Solutions ........................................................................................................... 6-17

Chapter 7: General Ledger 7-1

Objectives ........................................................................................................... 7-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 7-1 Currencies and Exchange Rates Setup ............................................................. 7-2 Shared Fiscal Calendars .................................................................................... 7-5 Subledger Accounting ........................................................................................ 7-8 Accounting Distributions ................................................................................... 7-10 Financial Dimensions ....................................................................................... 7-12 Multiple Charts of Accounts .............................................................................. 7-14 Lab 7.1 - Create Financial Dimensions and Chart of Account Structures ........ 7-18 Advanced Rule Structures for Ledger Posting ................................................. 7-20



Table of Contents

iii

Commitment Accounting .................................................................................. 7-21 Summary .......................................................................................................... 7-29 Test Your Knowledge ....................................................................................... 7-30 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ................................................................. 7-32 Solutions ........................................................................................................... 7-33

Chapter 8: Project Management and Accounting 8-1

Objectives ........................................................................................................... 8-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 8-1 Project Timesheets ............................................................................................. 8-2 Allocate Project Revenue ................................................................................... 8-4 Project Budgeting ............................................................................................... 8-8 Lab 8.1 - Set Up Budget Controls .................................................................... 8-13 Manage Projects in Enterprise Portal ............................................................... 8-15 Project Funding ................................................................................................ 8-16 Project Beginning Balances.............................................................................. 8-19 Summary .......................................................................................................... 8-20 Test Your Knowledge ....................................................................................... 8-21 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ................................................................. 8-23 Solutions ........................................................................................................... 8-24

Chapter 9: Case Management 9-1

Objectives ........................................................................................................... 9-1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 9-1 Case Management in the Rich Client ................................................................. 9-2 Lab 9.1 - Create a Case ..................................................................................... 9-6 Case Management in Enterprise Portal .............................................................. 9-7 Knowledge Articles ............................................................................................. 9-9 Lab 9.2 - Working with Knowledge Articles and Cases .................................... 9-13 Summary .......................................................................................................... 9-15 Test Your Knowledge ....................................................................................... 9-16 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ................................................................. 9-17 Solutions ........................................................................................................... 9-18

Chapter 10: Human Resources Management 10-1

Objectives ......................................................................................................... 10-1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 10-1 Shared Worker Information .............................................................................. 10-2 Hiring Workers and Terminating Workers ........................................................ 10-4 Application and Recruiting Improvements ........................................................ 10-5 Department and Position Improvements .......................................................... 10-8 Injury and Illness ............................................................................................ 10-11 Summary ........................................................................................................ 10-16 Test Your Knowledge ..................................................................................... 10-17 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ............................................................... 10-18 Solutions ......................................................................................................... 10-19

Chapter 11: Public Sector 11-1

Objectives ......................................................................................................... 11-1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 11-1




iv

Public Sector Feature Overview ....................................................................... 11-2 Accounts Receivable Features ......................................................................... 11-3 Budgeting Features .......................................................................................... 11-6 General Ledger Features ................................................................................. 11-7 Procurement and Accounts Payable Features ................................................. 11-8 Public Sector Reports Overview ..................................................................... 11-10 Public Sector Role Center Overview .............................................................. 11-10 Summary ........................................................................................................ 11-12 Test Your Knowledge ..................................................................................... 11-13 Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned ............................................................... 11-14 Solutions ......................................................................................................... 11-15



Introduction

0 - 1

INTRODUCTION Welcome

We know training is a vital component of retaining the value of your Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 investment. Our quality training from industry experts keeps you up-to-date on your solution and helps you develop the skills necessary for fully maximizing the value of your solution. Whether you choose Online Training, Classroom Training, or Training Materials; there is a type of training to meet everyone's needs. Choose the training type that best suits you so you can stay ahead of the competition.

Online Training Online Training delivers convenient, in-depth training to you in the comfort of your own home or office. Online training provides immediate access to training 24 hours-a-day. It is perfect for the customer who does not have the time or budget to travel. Our newest online training option, eCourses, combine the efficiency of online training with the in-depth product coverage of classroom training, with at least two weeks to complete each course.

Classroom Training Classroom Training provides serious, in-depth learning through hands-on interaction. From demonstrations to presentations to classroom activities, you receive hands-on experience with instruction from our certified staff of experts. Regularly scheduled throughout North America, you can be sure you will find a class convenient for you.

Training Materials Training Materials enable you to learn at your own pace, on your own time with information-packed training manuals. Our wide variety of training manuals feature an abundance of tips, tricks, and insights you can refer to again and again:

Microsoft Dynamics Courseware The Microsoft Dynamics Courseware consists of detailed training manuals, designed from a training perspective. These manuals include advanced topics as well as training objectives, exercises, interactions and quizzes. Look for a complete list of manuals available for purchase on the Microsoft Dynamics website: www.microsoft.com/Dynamics.



What’s New - Application in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 for Finance, PA, CaSe Mgmt., HRM, and Public Sector

0 - 2

Microsoft Dynamics Courseware Contents Test Your Skills Within the Microsoft Dynamics Training Materials you find a variety of different exercises. These exercises are offered in three levels to accommodate the variety of knowledge and expertise of each student. We suggest you try the level three exercises first, if you need help completing the task look to the information in the level two exercises. If you need further assistance each step of the task is outlined in the level one exercise.

Challenge Yourself! Level 3 exercises are the most challenging. These exercises are designed for the experienced student who requires little instruction to complete the required task.

Need a Little Help? Level 2 exercises are designed to challenge students, while providing some assistance. These exercises do not provide step by step instructions, however, do provide you with helpful hints and more information to complete the exercise.

Step by Step Level 1 exercises are geared towards new users who require detailed instructions and explanations to complete the exercise. Level 1 exercises guide you through the task, step by step, including navigation.

Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned At the end of each chapter within the Microsoft Dynamics Training Material, you find a Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned page. This interaction is designed to provide the student with a moment to reflect on the material they have learned. By outlining three key points from the chapter, the student is maximizing knowledge retention, and providing themselves with an excellent resource for reviewing key points after class.



Introduction

0 - 3

Documentation Conventions The following conventions and icons are used throughout this documentation to help you quickly and effectively navigate through the information. CAUTION: Cautions are found throughout the training manual and are preceded by the word CAUTION in bold. Cautions are used to remind you of a specific result of a specific action which may be undesirable.

HINT: Hints are found throughout the training manual and are preceded by the word HINT in bold. Hints are used to suggest time-saving features or alternative methods for accomplishing a specific task.

NOTE: Notes are found throughout the training manual and are preceded by the word NOTE in bold. Notes are used to provide information which, while not critical, may be valuable to an end user.

BEYOND THE BASICS: Advanced information found throughout the training manual is preceded by the words BEYOND THE BASICS in bold. Beyond the Basics provides additional detail, outside of standard functionality, that may help you to more optimally use the application.

EXAMPLE: Examples are found throughout the training manual and are preceded by the word EXAMPLE in bold. Examples bring to light business scenarios that may better explain how an application can be used to address a business problem.



What’s New - Application in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 for Finance, PA, CaSe Mgmt., HRM, and Public Sector

0 - 4

Student Objectives What do you hope to learn by participating in this course? List three main objectives below. 1.

2.

3.



Chapter 1: Overview

1-1

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW Objectives

The objectives are:

• Describe the new user interface elements in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012.

• Describe changes to the organization model. • Use and update the help system. • Describe the Microsoft Office Add-Ins in Microsoft Dynamics AX. • View work items that are based on specific business documents in

one location. • Review improvements made to the document handling feature in

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. • Describe various interest terms for different date ranges. • Describe and set up post-dated checks.

Introduction Microsoft is committed to delivering a people-ready experience to medium-sized organizations and divisions of larger enterprises that operate in the global economy.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is an innovative version that brings users improved and new functionality. The new features improve the way both users and developers interact daily with the application and also how they customize, set up and work with the application to fit their individual needs.

The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 value proposition includes the following:

• Simplifying the complete application life cycle of Microsoft Dynamics AX, from implementation, customization, integration, usability, and maintenance to upgrade and performance, to help reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO).

• Improving financial capabilities to support companies who operate in the global economy.

• Adding more industry-enabling functionality for target industries.




1-2

• Providing best practices in areas such as supplier relationship management (SRM), human resources management (HRM), customer relationship management (CRM), expense management, and compliance and environmental sustainability.

• Supporting new online services, such as site services for case management and vendor on boarding to improve collaborative scenarios.

Part of the Role Tailored design strategy in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is to increase productivity. The Role Tailored design is used so that people can deliver just the information that they need, where and when they need it. It offers perspective by providing an overview of the work ahead so that organizations can plan and prioritize efforts. The Role Tailored design is a key component of improving user productivity in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

The following sections introduce some key new and improved features of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The features are relevant for all audiences and users of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Some of these features are discussed in additional detail in one of the What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 titles; whereas other features are only presented at a high level in this chapter.

DISCLAIMER: During the writing stage of the What’s New training content, functionalities in certain areas of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 were not fully implemented. An example of this includes the changes that are still occurring to the user interface. While the content was approved and developed with the best knowledge, certain functionalities are still subject to change.

New User Interface Elements Following the overall Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 theme of simplifying the user and development experience, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces multiple new user controls for a streamlined user experience. It also provides several benefits to developers, administrators, and end-users through the following client features and improvements.

Jewel Menu

The Jewel menu replaces the Microsoft Dynamics AX menu which was available in earlier versions of the workspace. It also provides drop-down menus which in earlier versions were at the top of each form.



Chapter 1: Overview

1-3

The menus are consolidated under a button similar to the Microsoft Windows® 7 and Microsoft Office® 2010 Jewel menu. To the right side of the Jewel is the Command Bar. This hosts Action Panes, Windows (workspace only), View, and Help buttons.

FIGURE 1.1 JEWEL MENU

Navigation Pane

The Navigation Pane is redesigned to provide navigation options that are more visually appealing and usable. In earlier versions there were three panes which displayed Favorites, Places, and Forms, and now they are condensed into a single pane that flows and scrolls as one unit. This makes it easier to control and customize. The footer area of the Navigation Pane now displays small module buttons. This makes it possible to access more modules with one click.




1-4

The Navigation Pane cannot be controlled by developers, but can be personalized by users through the View button in the command bar.

FIGURE 1.2 NAVIGATION PANE

Status Bar

The status bar provides access to actions and in earlier versions it was at the top of each form in a toolbar. The status bar can be personalized by the user, by using the User Options form (Tools > Options) and is still controlled for each form by using the StatusBarStyle property within the form design.

FIGURE 1.3 STATUS BAR

Shared List Page Metadata

The Form.FormTemplate=ListPage restriction is added to enable developers to model list page metadata that is shared between the client and Enterprise Portal. When Form.FormTemplate is set to ListPage, the form is restricted to only include the Action Pane, Custom Filter Group, and a grid. When the form template is set to ListPage, the form cannot have code that is running on the client. Use these restrictions so that the Shared ListPage Metadata is displayed in both the client and Enterprise Portal.



Chapter 1: Overview

1-5

Action Pane Strip

The new Action Pane strip control provides an action presentation that resembles the Microsoft Windows 7 Windows Explorer bar. The Action Pane strip control can be used at the top of forms that do not have sufficient actions to justify the use of a full action pane. They are also used within the form to position actions close to their related records and data fields.

FIGURE 1.4 ACTION PANE STRIP

Preview Panes

The Preview pane component displays more information about the selected record in a List Page.

FIGURE 1.5 PREVIEW PANE




1-6

Fast Tabs

A Fast Tab is a new vertical presentation style for the existing tab control. The Fast Tabs figure displays an example of the Customer details form. It shows the General fast tab expanded and the Address, Contact information, Details fast tab, and so on are collapsed. To expand or collapse a Fast Tab you must click the header or description of the Fast Tab.

FIGURE 1.6 FAST TABS

Fast Tabs are used in the Windows 7 and Microsoft Office when lots of data must be displayed in a highly accessible way. Fast Tabs display tab pages in a vertical sliding way to activate the options in the following list:

• More than one tab page can be displayed at a time. • Longer, more explanatory tab page names are provided to the user. • The display of summary fields that give the user information from

the tab page without having to be expanded.

Fast Tabs are used extensively in Details forms and Simple List and Details form patterns. Fast Tabs can be seen when the Tab.Style property is set to Fast Tabs.

Summary fields are displayed without labels. Therefore, the visual noise is reduced but labels are available when you rest the mouse pointer over them.



Chapter 1: Overview

1-7

Document View

The concept of a document view is introduced into client forms to provide developers and users the ability to have a read-only representation of data that reduces the risk of accidental changes.

Users can switch the mode of the form between View and Edit by using the Edit record button in the status bar, the Edit record option in the Jewel menu, or the corresponding keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+E).

Users have personalization options to specify the mode that their forms open in. They can use the User options (File > Tools > Options) form to specify a default View or Edit mode for all forms. You can personalize individual forms to specify the default View or Edit mode for that form.

Grid Check Boxes

In earlier versions, the gray box-shaped row labels were displayed on the left side of each grid row. Now they are replaced with grid check boxes that resemble those found in Windows Explorer in Windows 7. Grid check boxes are a visible indication to users, that they can select multiple records and even select all records, if it is necessary.

FIGURE 1.7 GRID CHECK BOXES




1-8

Enhanced Previews

When a user moved their mouse pointer over a field in earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, a tooltip was displayed that provided the user a one- or two-field preview of that record. Those previews are improved to make them more visible, available on any grid row, and available, as specified by developers, on other fields.

FIGURE 1.8 ENHANCED PREVIEW

Improved previews are displayed to the user when they rest the mouse pointer over any foreign key field or over any control on which the developer has set the properties.

Segmented Entry Control

Segmented entry control simplifies the task of entering complex account and dimension combinations. The following list describes how account and dimension data entry is improved.

• A simple cheat sheet window shows the user-defined title for each segment.

• Recent values entered by the user for the current segment are displayed.

• A lookup window lets the user select from a list of valid values or all values for the current segment.

• Instance specific options for a control include the ability to turn off the recent entries window.



Chapter 1: Overview

1-9

• The ability to show only abbreviated values (six characters) for non-focused segments.

• To provide improved readability, both the cheat sheet and lookup windows open up aligned to the currently focused segment.

FIGURE 1.9 DIMENSION ENTRY DISPLAY

Organization Model Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces new organizational modeling capabilities. This helps make your organization structure easier to manage by providing the following benefits.

• More organization types • Security more independent of the organization structure • Addition of organization hierarchy • Data sharing between organizations

About Organizations and Organizational Hierarchies

An organization is a group of people who work together to perform a business process or to achieve a goal. Organizational hierarchies represent the relationships between the organizations that comprise your business. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, you can define two types of organizations:

• Legal entities • Operating units.

Legal Entities

A legal entity is an organization that is identified through a registration with a legal authority. Legal entities can enter into contracts and are required to prepare statements that report on their performance.

A company is a type of legal entity. Companies are the only type of legal entity that you can create in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Every legal entity record is associated with a company ID. This is because the data security for many tables in Microsoft Dynamics AX is still based on company ID.




1-10

Operating Units

An operating unit is an organization that is used to divide the control of economic resources and operational processes in a business. People in an operating unit have a duty to maximize the use of scarce resources, to improve processes, and to account for their performance.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX, operating unit types include cost center, business unit, value stream, and department. For more information about each operating unit type, refer to the table.

Operating Unit Type

Description

Cost center An operating unit whose managers are accountable for budgeted and actual expenditures.

Business unit A semi-autonomous operating unit that is created to meet strategic business objectives.

Value stream An operating unit that controls one or more production flows.

Department An operating unit that represents a category or functional part of an organization that performs a specific task, such as sales or accounting.

NOTE: In addition to legal entities and operating units, you can create teams as a part of the organizational structure. A team is an organization whose members share a common responsibility, interest, or objective. For more information about teams, refer to the Human Capital Management documentation. Teams cannot be used in organizational hierarchies.

NOTE: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports the financial statement with balance sheet only for a legal entity. For example, if you are using a new operating unit type, such as business unit, or a custom operating unit type like branch, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 does not support the creation of a balance sheet by those types of organizations.

Organizational Hierarchies

You can set up organizational hierarchies to view and report on different perspectives of your business. For example, you might set up a hierarchy of legal entities for tax, legal, or statutory reporting.



Chapter 1: Overview

1-11

You can set up a hierarchy based on operating units to report financial information that is not legally required, but is used for internal reporting. For example, you might create a purchase hierarchy to control purchasing policies, rules, and business processes.

Organizations in a hierarchy can share parameters, policies, and transactions. An organization can inherit or override the parameters of its parent organization. However, shared master data—such as products, address books and currencies—is organization-wide, and cannot be overridden for individual organizations.

There are several steps that are involved with creating the organizational hierarchy.

1. Create organizations including legal entities and operating units. 2. Create a new hierarchy. 3. Assign a purpose to the hierarchy. 4. Add organizations to the hierarchy.

The Organizational Hierarchy figure displays an example of an organization chart for Contoso.

FIGURE 1.10 ORGANIZATIONAL HIERARCHY




1-12

Organizational Hierarchy Purposes

Before you add organizations to a hierarchy, you should select a purpose for the hierarchy. The purpose that you select determines the types of organizations that can be included in the hierarchy. The table shows the organization types that are allowed by the default hierarchy purposes.

Hierarchy purposes Organizational types allowed Procurement internal control All

Expenditure internal control All

Organization chart Departments

Signature authority internal control Legal entities

Vendor payment internal control All

Audit internal control Legal entities

Security All

Help System A new Help system is used to supply Help documentation for the application and development workspaces. You can add new help content by adding correctly formatted HTML files to the help server. No compilation, rebuilding, or AOT deployments are necessary to add Help documentation.

Help System Features

The following list describes the features of the new Help system.

• New HTML-based help content is provided by a single deployment to the help server.

• AOT changes are not required to add or change content. • Modifications can be displayed side by side with existing content, or

you can replace content supplied by other publishers. • Updates to Microsoft Dynamics AX content will not affect content

published by an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) or a customer. • Feature parity in content enables any publisher to use label

replacement, integrated search, and other features of the Help system.



Chapter 1: Overview

1-13

Microsoft Office Add-Ins Now, business users who use Microsoft Office Add-ins in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 can interact with data in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. For example, in earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, users could only export data out of Microsoft Dynamics AX. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the Microsoft Office add-ins lets a user export and import data. The four main uses for the Microsoft Add-ins are as follows:

• Lightweight reporting: From any grid in the client or Enterprise Portal, export data, extend and build upon it in Excel, then update as conditions change.

• Editing data in Excel: Update Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 data by using the Excel add-ins.

• Import data by using Excel: Excel can be used as a template to collect reference and master data to be imported into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

• Templates and documents: Incorporate Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 data in Word or Excel documents (for example: collection letter, quotation, sales forecast, project forecast, aging report, and so on.)

The following topics provide more information about each feature of the Microsoft Office add-ins.

Lightweight Reporting

The Excel add-ins provide a lightweight reporting solution. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 users have an Export to Excel option in list pages from the client or Enterprise Portal. When the data is in Excel additional columns can be added, filters can be added, and data can be refreshed to populate those columns. With the data in Excel it can be manipulated by using Excel options including: adding calculated columns, creating pivot tables, adding conditional formatting, and so on. The features of using the Microsoft Office Add-ins as a lightweight reporting tool include the following:

• Exports can be created from any list page or grid in the client or Enterprise Portal.

• Exports can be extended with additional data. o For example: Phyllis, the Accounting Manager, needs a list of all

customers and the customer group they are in. Customer group is not included on the customer export to Excel, but can be added.

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 style query filters can be added to limit data being passed to Excel from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.




1-14

• Export can be refreshed as conditions change. • Columns not bound to data in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

(Unbound columns) can be added to the Excel spreadsheets. • Office integration can now export to the Terminal Services Client

computer.

Edit Data in Excel

Using the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Office Add-ins any data published as an available service can be edited. To do this connect to an AOS, specify a document service, drag the fields of interest onto the excel workbook, update data to populate the workbook, edit the workbook, and then click Update data. The features of editing data in Excel include the following:

• Connection management is used to define the connection between Excel, and the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 AOS.

• Real time data integration from Microsoft Office. • Document services integration.

o Information from any Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 service can be read, updated, and sent to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 with full security and business logic intact.

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Office Add-ins uses lookups and query infrastructure from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

• Matrix fields can be defined to aggregate data. o When matrix fields are updated the value is incremented equally

among the records making up the aggregate.

Improved Export to Excel for Remote Desktop Services

Many implementations use hosting on a Remote Desktop Server (previously known as Terminal Server).

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, when you exported grid data to Excel by using the Export to Excel option in the Action Pane, the Excel data would be exported to a copy of Microsoft Office Excel hosted alongside the Microsoft Dynamics AX client. In that scenario, you could not manage the data on your local computer, and would have to save the Excel worksheet and copy it to your local computer.

By default in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the Export to Excel option will export the Microsoft Office Excel data to your local computer. The option exists to direct the export to the hosted copy of Microsoft Office Excel.



Chapter 1: Overview

1-15

Import Data By Using Excel

Data model changes in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 have made some imports more complex, especially those that use the global address book. A list of how Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Office Add-ins simplifies these processes follows.

• Imports to multiple related tables are simplified by using AIF document services. o For example: when you enter a customer, both the customer and

party information are in a single Excel list object, validation is performed, default data is populated, and record ID "patching" happens automatically.

• Data imports can be done either interactively or published to a folder for an Integration port to detect. o Interactive data import allows for synchronous interaction with

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. This is a simpler mode of operation, but can be slow for large imports.

o Data import through publishing to a folder provides an asynchronous import where AIF inbound ports can be used to scale out performance. Additionally the Excel client will be responsive as soon as it generates files telling Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 what to update, not when the update is completed.

• Data imports can be brought offline, and lookups can be performed against local caches. o For example: if customer groups and customers are in the same

Excel template, and a new customer group is created, and it can be referenced by the customer, and then both tables can be imported/updated.

Templates and Documents

Office templates let you incorporate Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 data in Word or Excel documents, and they are now extended in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. They support a header line pattern, support drag-and-drop fields, previews, and are easier to localize for different languages.

• Header line pattern is supported. o Microsoft Office Add-ins are extended to use the Word table

construct so that elements can be repeated. o For example: A collection letter is authored by using a Word

table to show a list of overdue invoices that grows based on the number of invoices in the notice.




1-16

• Localization is simplified. o Document properties in Microsoft Office are used to locate the

correct document based on the user locale or programming settings.

o For example: A German collection letter is sent to a German customer, and an English collection letter is sent to an English customer.

• Drag-and-drop designer enables the content controls to be visible on a document surface.

• Previews are available through Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Office Add-ins to let the designer see what the final documents will resemble without having to associate a document together with a process then generate that document in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Work Items The concept of work item queues is introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to provide an alternative assignment and management model for task elements in workflows. Workflow tasks can now be managed by a team by using a shared work list.

If you use either internal teams, or external partner organizations, to process business transactions, such as purchase requisitions, purchase orders, or new vendor justifications by using workflow, you might have to set up work item queues to help these teams manage the flow of the transactions as they come in from your company and as they are processed by the appropriate organization. The work item queue provides the infrastructure needed to perform the following tasks:

• Users who belong to a queue can claim work items that are not assigned to anyone else and take the available workflow actions on the work items in the queue.

• Users can reassign work items from one work item queue to another work item queue within the same work item queue group.

• Queue owners can reassign work items from one queue user to another queue user within the same work item queue group.

Procedure: Create a Work Item Queue

To use work item queues, follow these steps:

1. Create a queue for a specific document type. 2. Assign the queue to a queue group. 3. Add users to the queue.



Chapter 1: Overview

1-17

4. Activate the queue. 5. Create a workflow and add a task element. 6. Set up the assignment to a specific queue. Then, when a record of

that document type is submitted to workflow, a work item will be created and assigned to the queue.

Document Handling Document handling is improved in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to include support for URLs and a document file web service.

Document Type URL

The following improvements can ease the document handling process for companies that are geographically dispersed and that want to maintain their paper-based documents in one location:

• A URL can be attached to a transaction and a workflow definition can be configured to route paper-based document files for review.

• A new document file web service is added that can be used to retrieve document file metadata and route the data to the appropriate parties by using workflow.

• Document data can be entered, and the document file can be attached to the new transaction. This creates an audit trail for the original document.

Interest Terms and Date Ranges Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 does not support the use of multiple posting profiles in a single interest calculation job for different invoices associated with a single customer. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces a new option so that interest calculation can use the posting profile associated with individual transactions and derive the interest codes from them. Transactions that do not have an associated customer record in the posting profile will use the posting profile defined in Accounts receivable > Setup > Accounts receivable parameters > Ledger and sales tax > Posting (Posting profile field).

This enables different transactions that belong to a customer to specify their own interest codes for interest calculation. One interest note will continue to be created for each customer who will be associated with the Accounts receivable parameter Posting profile. Interest ledger accounts and corresponding offset or summary accounts are also selected from the posting profile associated with the interest note transactions when the interest note is posted.




1-18

Scenario: Apply Different Interest Profiles on Customer Invoices

Contoso wants to charge different interest rates on customer sales orders and project invoices. As an OEM, they want to charge a larger interest rate on sales orders to cover the charges they pay to their suppliers.

They have set up two interest codes and associated them with different posting profiles. They create sales orders and project invoices with these different posting profiles with the intention of applying different interest rates on overdue invoices based on invoice type.

Post-Dated Checks The issuing and receipt of Post-Dated Checks (PDCs) is a common business practice in many parts of the world. Many businesses use checks as the primary way to make and receive payments.

The PDC functionality is available on both the Accounts receivable and Accounts payable modules and fully integrates with dimensions, check printing, centralized payments, settlements, and the standard banking functionality available in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Post-Dated Check Features

The following list is a high level overview of the features that are included with the PDC functionality:

• Independently activate or deactivate PDCs in Accounts receivable and Accounts payable.

• Independent clearing accounts for issued and received post-dated checks.

• Separate clearing accounts for withholding taxes. • Settlement of the PDC against one or more transactions. This

includes cross company transactions when centralized payments are used.

• Canceling a PDC. • Identifying PDCs maturing on or before a specified date. • Support for creating PDCs with installment schedules.



Chapter 1: Overview

1-19

Scenario: Create Post-Dated Checks

PDCs are enabled in Accounts Receivable. Contoso receives a PDC for 100.00 U.S. Dollars (USD) from customer ABC. Arnie, the Accounts Receivable Administrator, must now enter and print the check.

NOTE: Post-dated checks can only be created if the General ledger > Postdated checks configuration key is enabled.

Procedure: Set up the Process for Post-Dated Checks

There are several steps involved with setting up the system for PDCs.

1. Enable the Postdated checks configuration key. 2. Enable postdated checks functionality in the General ledger

parameters form, and then select the options for postdated checks. 3. Set up a method of payment in the Accounts receivable and/or

Accounts payable module and mark the Postdated check clearing posting check box.

4. Create a Payment journal in the Accounts payable or Accounts receivable module.

5. Enter the payment information, and select the method of payment set up as the postdated check method of payment.

6. Enter additional information on the Postdated checks tab. 7. Optionally, use the Functions > Settlement button to mark invoices

for settlement against the payment. 8. Post the journal by using the Post > Post payment journal button.




1-20

Summary Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 helps mid-sized organizations and entities of large enterprises address the challenges of operating in a fast changing global economy.

The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 delivers functionality that is relevant and necessary for organizations by adding functionality to help ensure they have productive people, adaptable business processes, and a connected ecosystem.

The Overview module covered several high level improvements including the following:

• User Interface Elements • Organizational Model • Help System • Microsoft Office Add-Ins • Work Items • Document Handling • Interest Terms and Date Ranges • Post-Dated Checks



Chapter 1: Overview

1-21

Test Your Knowledge Test your knowledge with the following questions.

1. Match the terms on the left with their purpose on the right:

_____ 1. Jewel Menu _____ 2. Navigation Pane _____ 3. Status Bar _____ 4. Action Pane Strip _____ 5. Fact Boxes _____ 6. Fast Tabs _____ 7. Grid Check Boxes

a. Provides information related to the record displayed by the host form or List Page.

b. Replaces the Microsoft Dynamics AX menu c. A visible indication to users, that they can select

multiple records or even select all records. d. Provides access to actions that were previously at

the top of each form in a toolbar. e. Used at the top of the forms that do not have

sufficient actions to justify the use of a full action pane.

f. A new vertical presentation style. g. Displays Favorites, Places, and Forms in a single

pane that flows and scrolls as one unit.

2. TRUE or FALSE: You can attach a URL to a transaction and configure a workflow definition to route paper-based document files for review.

( ) TRUE ( ) FALSE

3. The Post-Dated Check functionality fully integrates with which of the following? (Select all that apply)

( ) Dimension ( ) Check Printing ( ) Centralized Payments ( ) Standard bank functionality

Fill in the blanks to test your knowledge of this section.

4. Replaces the companies that were used in earlier versions. _____

5. Used to divide the control of economic resources and operational processes in a business. _____

6. A semi-autonomous operating unit that is created to meet strategic business objectives. _____

7. Represents a category or functional part of an organization that performs a specific task. _____




1-22

8. An operating unit whose managers are accountable for budgeted and actual expenditures. _____

9. An operating unit that controls one or more production flows. _____

10. An organization whose members share a common responsibility, interest, or objective. _____

11. Which of the following are benefits of the work item queue feature: (Select all that apply)

( ) Users who belong to a queue can claim work items that are not assigned to anyone else and take the configured workflow actions on the work items in the queue.

( ) Lets users reassign work items from one work item queue to another work item queue within the same work item queue group.

( ) Queue owners can reassign work items from one queue user to another work item queue.

( ) Queue owners can reassign work items from one queue user to another queue user within the same work item queue group.

12. TRUE or FALSE: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 does not support the use of multiple posting profiles in a single interest calculation job for different invoices associated with a single customer.

( ) TRUE ( ) FALSE

13. Which of the following is not a feature or benefit of the new Help system?

( ) HTML-based content is published by a single deployment to the help server.

( ) AOT changes are required to add or modify content. ( ) Updates to Microsoft Dynamics AX content will not affect content

published by an ISV or a customer. ( ) Feature parity in content enables any publisher to use label


14. Which of the following is not supported by the Microsoft Office Add-Ins? (Select all that apply)

( ) Importing and exporting data by using Excel ( ) Importing and exporting data by using Word ( ) Use of templates with Excel ( ) Use of templates with Word



Chapter 1: Overview

1-23

Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned Take a moment and write down three key points you have learned from this chapter

1.

2.

3.




1-24

Solutions Test Your Knowledge

1. Match the terms on the left with their purpose on the right:

b 1. Jewel Menu g 2. Navigation Pane d 3. Status Bar e 4. Action Pane Strip a 5. Fact Boxes f 6. Fast Tabs c 7. Grid Check Boxes

a. Provides information related to the record displayed by the host form or List Page.

b. Replaces the Microsoft Dynamics AX menu c. A visible indication to users, that they can select

multiple records or even select all records. d. Provides access to actions that were previously at

the top of each form in a toolbar. e. Used at the top of the forms that do not have

sufficient actions to justify the use of a full action pane.

f. A new vertical presentation style. g. Displays Favorites, Places, and Forms in a single

pane that flows and scrolls as one unit.

2. TRUE or FALSE: You can attach a URL to a transaction and configure a workflow definition to route paper-based document files for review.

(•) TRUE ( ) FALSE

3. The Post-Dated Check functionality fully integrates with which of the following? (Select all that apply)

(√) Dimension (√) Check Printing (√) Centralized Payments (√) Standard bank functionality


4. Replaces the companies that were used in earlier versions. Legal Entity

5. Used to divide the control of economic resources and operational processes in a business. Operating Unit

6. A semi-autonomous operating unit that is created to meet strategic business objectives. Business Unit

7. Represents a category or functional part of an organization that performs a specific task. Department



Chapter 1: Overview

1-25

8. An operating unit whose managers are accountable for budgeted and actual expenditures. Cost Center

9. An operating unit that controls one or more production flows. Value Stream

10. An organization whose members share a common responsibility, interest, or objective. Team

11. Which of the following are benefits of the work item queue feature: (Select all that apply)

(√) Users who belong to a queue can claim work items that are not assigned to anyone else and take the configured workflow actions on the work items in the queue.

(√) Lets users reassign work items from one work item queue to another work item queue within the same work item queue group.

( ) Queue owners can reassign work items from one queue user to another work item queue.

(√) Queue owners can reassign work items from one queue user to another queue user within the same work item queue group.

12. TRUE or FALSE: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 does not support the use of multiple posting profiles in a single interest calculation job for different invoices associated with a single customer.

( ) TRUE (•) FALSE

13. Which of the following is not a feature or benefit of the new Help system?

( ) HTML-based content is published by a single deployment to the help server.

(•) AOT changes are required to add or modify content. ( ) Updates to Microsoft Dynamics AX content will not affect content

published by an ISV or a customer. ( ) Feature parity in content enables any publisher to use label


14. Which of the following is not supported by the Microsoft Office Add-Ins? (Select all that apply)

( ) Importing and exporting data by using Excel (√) Importing and exporting data by using Word ( ) Use of templates with Excel ( ) Use of templates with Word




1-26



Chapter 2: Compliance and Internal Controls

2-1

CHAPTER 2: COMPLIANCE AND INTERNAL CONTROLS Objectives

The objectives are:

• View the control library and manually create new controls. • Map and import controls from the default library.

Introduction One challenge that customers face today is identifying which controls to use to make sure that their business complies with laws, business rules, policies and regulations. The Default controls library, introduced in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012, contains many of the most frequently used controls. This library provides a resource for customers who are searching for various types of controls that will help meet their needs.

Customers who have their own control matrix can use the Default controls library to supplement their control matrix by adding controls in the Compliance Center. For customers who do not have a control matrix, the Default controls library can be repurposed and used as a control matrix from which to select the controls to add to their Compliance Center.

Entries in the Default controls library can be used as a guide for customers who decide to manually enter controls to the Compliance Center. Customers can also use the Import and mapping wizard in Compliance Controls to automate the addition of some or all of the Default controls library controls on the Compliance Center.

Default Controls Library A workbook that contains many common compliance controls is now available on the Compliance site in Enterprise Portal. You can refer to this library when you manually enter controls on the Compliance site; or, you can use the library as the source file to import controls to the Compliance site.




2-2

Terminology

The new compliance and internal controls process involves several new terms and concepts. The following table introduces these new terms and concepts.

Term Definition

Control matrix

Refers to a file, almost universally a Microsoft Office® Excel spreadsheet, that customers use to list, manage, and keep track of their controls. This file can be used as the source file for importing and mapping a compliance environment and importing activities into the Compliance Center.

Control A means by which users manage identified elements of their business to make sure that the policy, regulation, tenet, or other requirement is followed during business operations.

Control environment

The environment that is set up within the Compliance Center to which controls are associated. Environments are typically a hierarchical node structure.

The Default Controls Library contains various controls for users to select from. The Default Controls Library Excel spreadsheet is installed and stored in the Compliance Center Compliance Resources document library.

Scenario: Manually Add Controls

Contoso has some, but not all, of the controls they need added to the Compliance Center. Sara, the CFO, has asked Ken, the Controller, to create the additional required controls.

Procedure: Manually Add Controls

To manually add new controls types to the Default Controls Library in the Compliance center, follow these steps:

1. Open the Enterprise Portal website through your web browser. 2. Click Compliance. 3. Click Compliance resources on the left pane. 4. Click the Default Controls Library file and then click Download a

copy on the Action pane. 5. Enter a Name for the file such as "Default Controls Library". 6. Select a location for the file to be saved to and then click Save. 7. Browse to the location where the file was saved, and then double-

click to open it in Microsoft Office Excel. 8. Create a new line in the spreadsheet. 9. Save the file.




2-3

Import and Mapping Wizard The Import and mapping wizard lets you import your internal controls into the Compliance Center from an existing, preformatted control matrix spreadsheet that your company uses. Before you use the Import and mapping wizard you must set up the following:

• Establish the document templates • Create the control environment

When the control environment is set up, users will open the Import and Mapping wizard, open their control matrix, and for every entry they want to import, select two settings.

1. Select the compliance environment(s) node that the control should fall under.

2. Select the document template that the control will use when it is loaded onto the system. This includes mapping template properties to corresponding data in the matrix.

Scenario: Importing Controls

Contoso has an Excel spreadsheet that contains all the current controls. Sara, the CFO, has asked Ken, the Controller, to import the spreadsheet into the compliance center.

Procedure: Importing Controls

To import controls into the Compliance Center, follow these steps:

1. Open the Enterprise Portal website through your web browser. 2. Click Compliance. 3. Click Import on the left pane, and then click Next.

NOTE: The wizard cannot be completed unless at least one environment is configured and at least one template exists.

4. Select the file to be imported, and then click Next.

NOTE: The file selected must be in the correct format to import. Use the Formatting guidelines link on the first page of the wizard for more information about allowed formats. Use the Back button to return to the first page of the wizard.




2-4

5. Review the data that is displayed from the selected file, and then click Next.

6. Select the column that will be used to map the control matrix environment data to the Compliance Center environment, and then click Next.

FIGURE 2.1 IMPORT CONTROLS

7. Continue mapping each column from the spreadsheet to the corresponding Compliance Center control, and then click Next.

8. Select the document template and the template properties (one at a time), and then select the corresponding control matrix. When you are finished, click Next.

9. Click Import to process the import. 10. When the import is complete, the system will display a message;

click Finish.

Summary The Compliance Center was introduced in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 as a new page inside Enterprise Portal. Several usability improvements are made in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Compliance Center to make sure customers can complete the tasks that are required to meet their compliance objectives.

This feature focuses specifically on the following:

• Improvements to the Internal Controls feature in Compliance Center • Introduction of the Default controls library • Introduction of the Import and mapping wizard




2-5


1. Approximately how many controls are provided in the Default controls library?

( ) 300 ( ) 400 ( ) 800 ( ) 1000

2. Put the following steps in order:

Step:

_____: Click the Next button, and then select a file to be imported.

_____: Click the Next button, and then select the column that will be used to map. the control matrix environment data to the Compliance Center environment

_____: Open the Enterprise Portal website through your web browser. Open the Enterprise Portal web site through your web browser

_____: Click the Next button, and then click the Import button to process the import.

_____: Select the document template and the template properties, and then select the corresponding control matrix.

_____: Click the Next button, and then review the data from the file.

_____: Click the Next button, and then map additional columns by clicking the Next button after each column.

_____: Click Compliance > Import Controls on the navigation pane.

3. Which of the following are valid techniques for creating controls in the Compliance Center? (Select all that apply)

( ) Manually add controls from the Microsoft Dynamics AX client ( ) Manually add controls from Enterprise Portal ( ) Activate Controls in the Default Control Library ( ) Import controls by using the Import and Mapping Wizard




2-6


1.

2.

3.




2-7


1. Approximately how many controls are provided in the Default controls library?

( ) 300 (•) 400 ( ) 800 ( ) 1000

2. Put the following steps in order:

Step:

3 : Click the Next button, and then select a file to be imported.

5 : Click the Next button, and then select the column that will be used to map. the control matrix environment data to the Compliance Center environment

1 : Open the Enterprise Portal website through your web browser. Open the Enterprise Portal web site through your web browser

8 : Click the Next button, and then click the Import button to process the import.

7 : Select the document template and the template properties, and then select the corresponding control matrix.

4 : Click the Next button, and then review the data from the file.

6 : Click the Next button, and then map additional columns by clicking the Next button after each column.

2 : Click Compliance > Import Controls on the navigation pane.

3. Which of the following are valid techniques for creating controls in the Compliance Center? (Select all that apply)

( ) Manually add controls from the Microsoft Dynamics AX client (√) Manually add controls from Enterprise Portal ( ) Activate Controls in the Default Control Library (√) Import controls by using the Import and Mapping Wizard




2-8



Chapter 3: Accounts Payable

3-1

CHAPTER 3: ACCOUNTS PAYABLE Objectives

The objectives are:

• Set up a prepayment, post a prepayment, make a payment, and settle it against the final invoice for a purchase order.

• Review the workflow process for purchase order invoice matching. • Review the setup procedure and workflow process for vendor

invoice processing. • Set up tolerances and explain how the settings affect the purchase

order invoice process.

Introduction The Accounts Payable module in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 is updated significantly to help improve several purchasing processes:

• Ability to add lines to invoices that are not related to purchase orders • New invoice matching methodologies • Miscellaneous charge allocation improvements • Vendor remittance address improvements • Ability to process and track prepayments for purchase orders

The goal is to organize the data, improve efficiency, and enable users to take actions.




3-2

Prepaid Purchase Orders In Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009, a manual process was required for making a prepayment that was related to a purchase order. Additionally, there was no link between the prepayment and the purchase order.

A new feature is introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 that helps automate a process for making a prepayment for a purchase order. This feature allows for the prepayment to be settled against the purchase order to help prevent over or double payment.

In addition, parameters allow for the posting of prepayments to be directed to a different posting profile.

Prepayment Process

Five basic steps involved with processing a prepayment for a purchase order include the following:

1. Create the purchase order. 2. Set up the prepayment. 3. Post the prepayment. 4. Make a payment. 5. Settle the payment against the final invoice.

Scenario: Prepaid Purchase Order

Alicia, the Purchasing Agent, has created a purchase order for 100 televisions from a local television supplier. The sales representative at the vendor has communicated to Alicia that a 10 percent prepayment is required before the order can be processed.

Alicia must create the purchase order and submit a request to April, the Accounts Payable Coordinator, to process the prepayment. When April has received the request, she must post the prepayment and print the check to the vendor.

When the televisions are delivered, April receives the invoice for the goods. She must now settle the invoice from the purchase order against the prepayment that was made previously.

Procedure: Set Up the Prepayment

To create a purchase order with a request for a prepayment, follow these steps:

1. Open Accounts payable > Common > Purchase orders > All purchase orders.

2. Click New > Purchase order to create a new purchase order. 3. Select the Vendor account.




3-3

4. If it is required, click Yes to transfer the vendor information to the purchase order.

5. Click OK to create the order. 6. In the Lines tab, select the desired Item number. 7. Type the Quantity and Unit price. 8. Click the Purchase tab on the action pane. 9. Click Prepay > Prepayment to open the Create or edit a

prepayment form.

FIGURE 3.1 CREATE OR EDIT A PREPAYMENT FORM

10. Optionally, type a Description for the prepayment. 11. Select an option for Fixed or Percent based prepayment. 12. In the Value field type the amount.

a. If Fixed is selected for the type, the Value field represents a flat amount in the currency of the purchase order.

b. If Percent is selected for the type, the Value field represents a percentage of the purchase order total.

13. Select the desired Prepayment category ID. 14. Click Save. 15. Click Generate > Confirm on the Purchase tab to confirm the

purchase order. 16. Close the Purchase order form.




3-4

Procedure: Post the Prepayment Invoice

To post a prepayment invoice, follow these steps:

1. Open Accounts payable > Common > Purchase order > All purchase orders.

2. Search for the desired purchase order. 3. Click the Invoice tab. 4. Click Invoice to create an invoice. 5. A message box will appear and prompt the user, that an unposted

prepayment exists for the order. Click Yes to continue and post the prepayment.

6. Enter a unique invoice number into Number field. 7. Verify the invoice information, to make sure that the Prepayment

check box is selected. 8. Click Post to post the transaction and then click Post again to

confirm. 9. Close the Purchase order details form.

A new transaction is posted to the vendor account for the value of the prepayment.

NOTE: This procedure cannot be completed in the Virtual Machine image for this course because of an error in the prerelease build.

Procedure: Make a Payment

To make a payment for the prepayment invoice, follow these steps:

1. Open Accounts payable > Journals > Payment > Payment journal.

2. Press New > Payment journal on the Action pane to create a new journal header.

3. Click New on the Journal form and then select a journal name from the Name field.

4. Enter a brief Description. 5. Click Lines. 6. Select the desired vendor in the Account field. 7. Click Functions > Settlement. 8. Select the desired prepayment invoice to be paid. 9. Close the Open transaction editing form. 10. Click Post > Post the vendor payment journal. 11. Close the Journal voucher form. 12. Close the Payment journal form.




3-5


Procedure: Settle the Payment

To settle the payment, follow these steps:

1. Open Accounts payable > Common > Vendor invoices > Open vendor invoices.

2. Click New > Invoice > Vendor invoice in the Action pane. 3. Select a vendor account in the Invoice account field. 4. Enter a unique invoice number into the Number field. 5. Enter additional invoice information as necessary. 6. Click Apply prepayment on the Action pane. 7. In the Apply prepayment form, select each purchase order invoice

to settle against the current invoice. 8. Click OK to apply the prepayment invoices against the current

invoice. 9. Click Post to post the transaction and then click Post again to

confirm.





3-6

Lab 3.1 - Set Up a Prepayment This lab provides practice for creating a vendor prepayment.

Scenario

Alicia, the Purchasing Agent, must create a purchase order for 100 LCD Monitors, item number 10003, for a unit price of 2,565.00 U.S. Dollars (USD). The sales representative at the vendor has communicated to Alicia that a 10 percent prepayment is required before the order can be processed.

Alicia must create the purchase order and submit a request to April, the Accounts Payable Coordinator to process the prepayment. When April has received the request, she must post the prepayment and print the check to the vendor.

When the televisions are delivered, April receives the invoice for the goods. She must now settle the invoice from the purchase order against the prepayment that was made previously.

Challenge Yourself!

Using the information that is provided, create a new purchase order and set up a prepayment for 10 percent of the purchase order total.

Need a Little Help?

1. Create a new purchase order for Vendor 1003. 2. Add Item 10003 to the order. 3. Set up a prepayment for 10 percent of the purchase order total.

Step by Step

To create a purchase order with a request for a prepayment, follow these steps:


2. Click New > Purchase order to create a new purchase order. 3. Select 1003 in the Vendor account field. 4. Click Yes to transfer the vendor information to the purchase order. 5. Click OK to create the order. 6. In the Lines tab, select 10003 in the Item number field. 7. Enter "100" into the Quantity field and "2,565.00" into the Unit

price field.




3-7

8. Click the Purchase tab on the action pane. 9. Click Prepayment to open the Create or edit a prepayment form. 10. Type a Description for the prepayment. 11. Select Percent based prepayment. 12. In the Value field enter "10.00". 13. Select the desired Prepayment category ID. 14. Click Save. 15. Click Generate > Confirm to confirm the purchase order. 16. Close the Purchase order form.




3-8

Invoice Matching Task for Workflow Invoice matching is now available as a workflow task that can be performed without user interaction. The workflow can be started, based on a Microsoft Dynamics AX business event, such as when new records are created by using the vendor invoice service.

Vendor portal scenarios and import scenarios in which vendor invoices are processed without requiring user intervention are supported.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, invoice matching was performed automatically through the user interface when an invoice was created, modified, or retrieved. The new tasks in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 use the same underlying logic that is used in the user interface to do invoice matching.

Scenario: Invoice Matching Task for Workflow

Phyllis, the Accounting Manager, has decided that all purchase orders will require a three-way match before posting.

The workflow configuration will let users model the steps of the approval process and Phyllis will leverage the predefined information in the template of the workflow provided with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Vendor Invoice Processing Workflow Two new workflow types, Vendor invoice and Vendor invoice line, let users create user-defined workflows for vendor invoices that are typically entered in the Posting invoice form and other forms that have the VendInvoiceInfo tables as the data source. The workflow process operates on data that is imported into the VendInvoiceInfo tables and can be used to model the processing steps for the vendor invoices.

The workflow type contains the following elements:

• Approval elements for creating approval tasks. • A task element for use in completing and correcting vendor invoices. • Automated tasks that can be run programmatically without requiring

user intervention, to perform selected validations, and to post the vendor invoices.




3-9

Overview

Vendor invoice validations that include matching, are performed programmatically when the workflow is run. The validations use relevant Accounts payable parameter settings for these functions.

Security is used to determine the behavior that is supported while the vendor invoice has an active workflow instance associated with it. The standard Microsoft Dynamics AX workflow infrastructure for the creation of workflows by users, the run-time behavior of the associated workflow instances, and the creation of workflow history are used.

Scenario: Vendor Invoice Processing Workflow

Phyllis, the Accounting Manager, has decided that an approval process will be required for vendor invoices. The workflow configuration will let users model the steps of the approval process and Phyllis will take advantage of the predefined information in the template of the workflow provided with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

It is determined by company policy that some invoices for purchase orders will require approval at the purchase order level line level and some at the purchase order header level.

Invoice Matching Improvements In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the Invoice Matching framework is extended to support several new matching scenarios. The new types of invoice matching include the following:

• Extended price matching • Invoice total matching • Line matching

o Two-way matching o Three-way matching

• Miscellaneous charge matching

Invoice Matching: Extended Price Matching

If the parameter to use extended price matching in the Accounts payable parameters form is selected, the net amount of an invoice line plus the net amount of any pending invoice lines and previously posted invoice lines is compared with the purchase order line.

If the variance amount, in the company currency, exceeds the tolerance percentage, the amount, or the percentage and amount for extended price matching, a matching discrepancy warning is displayed.




3-10

This type of variance might occur when partial invoices meet quantity and price tolerances individually, but when they are combined, they exceed a specified percentage or currency value as defined by the company. Extended price matching tolerances can be set up for each company.

Invoice Matching: Invoice Totals Matching

Invoice totals on a purchase order invoice are compared with the expected totals, based on the purchase order information. If the variance exceeds the tolerance percentage for invoice totals matching, a matching discrepancy indicator is shown.

Invoice totals matching tolerances can be set up for each company or for individual vendors.

Invoice Matching: Line Matching Policy

The line matching policy can be set to three-way (matching compares the invoice, purchase order, and product receipt), two-way (matching compares the invoice and purchase order), or not required (unit price matching and extended price matching is not performed).

The line matching policy can be set up for each company and for items, vendors, or item and vendor combinations.

Invoice Matching: Miscellaneous Charges Matching

If the parameter to use miscellaneous charges matching is selected in the Accounts payable parameters form, miscellaneous charges on a purchase order invoice can be compared with the expected miscellaneous charges from the purchase order. If the variance exceeds the tolerance percentage for miscellaneous charges, a matching discrepancy indicator is displayed.

Miscellaneous charges tolerances can be set up for each company or for individual miscellaneous charges codes.

Scenario: Extended Price Matching

April, the Accounting Manager, has decided to enable extended price matching for Contoso. April wants to make sure that an extended price tolerance of 500 USD is set up.

This means that the system will validate that the total of the each invoice line does not exceed 500 USD from the original purchase order line total. If more than one invoice is posted for the same purchase order line, the 500 USD variance will be calculated in combination with each invoice.




3-11

Example

A purchase order has two previous invoices posted. The first invoice had no variance, and the second invoice had a variance of 250 USD on the line total. The variance from the second invoice was not enough to trigger the invoice matching violation.

Now, you are posting the third invoice and it has a variance of 300 USD on the line total. The third invoice by itself is not enough to trigger the invoice matching violation. However, the system combines the 300 USD variance with the 250 USD variance from the second invoice for a total variance of 550 USD.

Because 550 USD is greater than the allowed tolerance of 500 USD, the system will trigger the price match violation by displaying the price match icon, and depending on the system setup, an approval may be required.

Procedure: Set Up Extended Price Matching

To set up extended price matching parameters for a selected company, follow these steps:

1. Open Accounts payable > Setup > Accounts payable parameters. 2. Click Invoice validation.

FIGURE 3.2 INVOICE VALIDATION PARAMETERS

3. Make sure that the Use invoice matching validation field is selected.




3-12

4. In the Use extended price matching field, select an option: a. None - extended price matching will not be used. b. Percentage - the system will validate each purchase order

invoice based on the percentage amount entered into the Extended price tolerance percentage field.

c. Amount - the system will validate each purchase order invoice based on the flat amount entered into the Extended price tolerance amount field.

d. Percentage and amount - the system will validate each purchase order invoice based on the percentage amount entered into the Extended price tolerance percentage field but not to exceed the flat amount entered into the Extended price tolerance amount field.

5. If it is required, enter the Extended price tolerance percentage. 6. If it is required, enter the Extended price tolerance amount.

Summary Although many functions in the Accounts payable module are improved in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the basis and main principle of the module remains the same. The greatest changes are in the following areas:

• The ability to create and track prepayments for a purchase order • Improvements to workflow • Improvements to invoice matching

Most of the changes are based on efforts to simplify and streamline work, and to make the processes more understandable.




3-13


1. Which of the following are valid workflow elements for vendor invoice processing? (Select all that apply)

( ) Approval elements ( ) Task for completing and correcting vendor invoices ( ) Task for automatically posting the vendor invoices ( ) Task for automatically updating accounting distributions on vendor

invoices

2. Put the following steps in sequence for the Prepayment process:

Step:

_____: Create the purchase order.

_____: Set up the prepayment.

_____: Post the prepayment.

_____: Settle the payment against the final invoice.

_____: Make a payment.

3. Categorize the following items:

_____ 1. Extended price matching _____ 2. Invoice totals matching _____ 3. Line matching _____ 4. Miscellaneous charges matching

a. Invoice totals on a purchase order invoice are compared with the expected totals, based on the purchase order information.

b. Miscellaneous charges on a purchase order invoice can be compared with the expected miscellaneous charges from the purchase order.

c. The net amount of an invoice line plus the net amount of any pending invoice lines and previously posted invoice lines is compared with the purchase order line.

d. Can be set up with two-way matching, three-way matching, or no matching.




3-14


1.

2.

3.




3-15


1. Which of the following are valid workflow elements for vendor invoice processing? (Select all that apply)

(√) Approval elements (√) Task for completing and correcting vendor invoices (√) Task for automatically posting the vendor invoices ( ) Task for automatically updating accounting distributions on vendor

invoices

2. Put the following steps in sequence for the Prepayment process:

Step:

1 : Create the purchase order.

2 : Set up the prepayment.

3 : Post the prepayment.

5 : Settle the payment against the final invoice.

4 : Make a payment.


c 1. Extended price matching a 2. Invoice totals matching d 3. Line matching b 4. Miscellaneous charges matching

a. Invoice totals on a purchase order invoice are compared with the expected totals, based on the purchase order information.

b. Miscellaneous charges on a purchase order invoice can be compared with the expected miscellaneous charges from the purchase order.

c. The net amount of an invoice line plus the net amount of any pending invoice lines and previously posted invoice lines is compared with the purchase order line.

d. Can be set up with two-way matching, three-way matching, or no matching.




3-16



Chapter 4: Accounts Receivable

4-1

CHAPTER 4: ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Objectives

The objectives are:

• Explain how to organize work, document actions, communicate with customers, and take actions for collections management

• Review the improvements made to the Free text invoice form for creating and posting free text invoices.

• Discuss the Quantity and Unit price field in a free text invoice.

Introduction The Accounts Receivable module in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 is updated significantly to help improve the collections management process. The goal is to let the user organize the data, and enable the collection manager to take actions.

In addition, the free text invoice process is improved with several features such as a new process for correcting free text invoices, the ability to create recurring free text invoices, and the addition of Quantity and Unit price fields to the free text invoice lines.




4-2

Managing Collections and Collection Agents Managing and collecting for overdue transactions is a necessary function in many organizations. In Microsoft Dynamics AX, most collections functionality is centralized in the Collections form and on the following related list pages:

• Collections • Collection cases • Collection activities

Sometimes one person handles a company's collections for all customers. In other situations, a team of collection agents may work together to manage collections.

If your business needs require it, you can set up collections agents. Each collections agent can have one or more customer pools (a query that contains a set of customers) assigned.

For example, a collections pool might consist of customers 4000 through 4500, and several customer agents can be assigned to the pool. This enables each customer agent in the customer pool to view customer 4000 through 4500.

The new collections management process involves several new terms and concepts- These are introduced in the following table:

Term Definition Collection agent

A person who works with customers to make sure that payments are collected in a timely manner

Activity Four types of activities represent action that a collections agent will take; these activities are the same types of activities that are used in the Sales and Marketing module

Task An action that must be done in the future

Action An action that was completed

Appointment An appointment in the future that is not completed

Event An event that has already occurred

Customer pool

A query that defines a group of customers who will be displayed and managed

Aging snapshot

A calculation of the aged balances for a group of customers at a point in time




4-3

Term Definition

Aging period definition

Open customer transactions are typically aged based on the number of days that they are overdue. A range of aging days represents a period. These were known as aging buckets in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009. Several aging periods can be used to better understand the distribution of overdue transactions.

Scenario: Setting Up Collections Management

Connie, the Credit and Collections Manager, is responsible for setting up the new collections management feature. She must create and assign each accounting user to the collections agents so that they can be assigned to specific customers.

In addition, Connie must create some aging snapshots and aging periods to be used by the collection agents for reviewing the customer balances based on different criteria.

Customer Pools

You can set up customer pools to represent groups of customers. You can use customer pools as filters for the customer information about collections in list pages, in the Collections form, or when you create aging snapshots. The following are examples that might be used for customer pools:

• Customers who have balances over a specified amount • Customers in specific countries/regions or districts • Types of customers • Customers grouped by size, volume, or frequency of ordering

Procedure: Create Customer Pools

To create a customer pool, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Setup > Collections > Customer pools.

2. Click New to create a new record. 3. Type a Pool ID and Description. 4. Select a Pool type. 5. Click Select pool criteria to open the query form and select the

query criteria, and then click OK. 6. Click Preview customer pool to preview the customers in the pool.




4-4

Creating and Assigning Collection Agents

Use the Collections agent form to set up employees and contractors as collections agents and optionally assign customer pools to them. A collections agent is a person who works with customers to make sure that payments are collected in a timely manner. In Microsoft Dynamics AX, collections agents are employees and contractors that have a user relationship with a Microsoft Dynamics AX user.

NOTE: The user must also belong to a collections team in the Human resources module.

You can assign a customer pool to a collection agent. Customer pools are used to filter the customers who each collection agent is responsible for. If you do not assign any customer pools to a collections agent, the collections agent has access to all customer information on the collections list pages.

Procedure: Create a Collection Agent

To create a collection agent, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Setup > Collections > Collections agents.

2. Use Add team members to create a new collection agent. 3. On the right pane of the form, you can select the Allow agent to

view all customer pools check box. 4. Use the Add button to create a list of customer pools that the

selected agent is responsible for.

Aging Period Definitions

You can use the Aging period definitions form to analyze the maturity of customer accounts and vendor accounts, based on a date that you enter.

To open the form, click Accounts receivable > Setup > Collections > Aging period definition.

The date entered, together with the Unit and Interval information that you enter on the Periods tab in this form, is used to calculate a date interval for each Aging period (column header) in the Aging period definition form.

Each aging period that you set up for the aging period definition corresponds to a column on the list page or in the form or report when the analysis is performed. The aging periods are shown on the list page or in the form or report in the order in which you set them up in this form. You must use aging period definitions to create customer aging snapshots. The aging snapshots are used to display information in the Collections form and in related list pages.




4-5

Aging Snapshots

An aging snapshot form contains the calculated aged balances for a group of customers at one point in time.

To open the form click, Accounts receivable > Periodic > Collections > Customer aging snapshot.

Aging snapshots provide quick access to aging information for collections personnel by using the Collections form and related list pages.

For each customer, an aging snapshot contains the following elements:

• An aging snapshot header • One or more company aging snapshot headers • Detail records for each aging period in the aging period definition

The calculations for the company aging snapshot headers include all customer transactions for the companies that are selected. The calculation for the aging snapshot detail records contains only transactions with dates that are in the aging period.

View and Manage Collections Information

Use the Collections form to manage collections information, activities, and cases for a customer.

You can double-click a transaction in the top pane to view more information about the transaction in the Customer transactions form. You can double-click an activity in the bottom pane to view more information about the activity in the Activities form.

• Use the Contacts Fact Box to view collections contact information for the customer. You can click the email icon next to the E-mail or Salesperson fields in the Fact Box to create an email message for the contact or the salesperson. The default contact is the collections contact for the customer.

• Use the Aged balances Fact Box to view aged balances for the customer, based on the selected aging period definition. The default aging period definition is taken from the customer pool that is selected on the list page from which you opened this form, for the aging period definition specified on the pool query.

• Use the Credit information Fact Box to view the credit limit and current balance information for the customer. By default, amounts are shown in the company currency of the company that you are logged on to. You can change the currency by using the Currency button in Select group on the Action Pane.




4-6

Accounts receivable > Places > Collections

FIGURE 4.1 COLLECTION DETAILS

NOTE: You must double-click a record in the Collections list page to open the details form.

The Collections form can be used to perform many tasks, for example:

• Create and track activities • Create cases and group transactions and activities • Mark transactions for dispute or follow-up • Write off transactions • Process Non-Sufficient Funds (NSF) documents • Send email messages • View customer transactions • View customer balances • Print relevant customer documents • Drill down into details for:

o Transactions o Cases o Activities




4-7

The Change status button lets users update the status of each transaction to track the state of the transaction. The following statuses are available:

• Not disputed - No collections action has occurred for the transaction.

• Disputed - The customer has notified you that there is a problem with the transaction.

• Promised to pay - The customer has agreed to pay the transaction. • Resolved - All problems with the transaction are solved and no

additional collections action is necessary.

Procedure: Create a New Action, Task, Appointment, or Event

You can manage and organize collections information for a customer in the Collections form. To create a new activity, follow the steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Common > Collections > Collections. 2. Double-click a customer. 3. You can create actions, tasks, appointments, and events to represent

the work that you do as a collections agent. a. To create an action, click Action. An action is a unit of work that

is completed. b. To create a task, click Task. A task is a unit of work that is to be

done in the future. c. To create an appointment, click Appointment. An appointment

is a scheduled meeting. d. To create an event, click Event. An event is something that has

already occurred.

4. Type the Purpose of the activity. This is how the activity will be identified in lists and in the subject line if the activity is synchronized with Microsoft® Office Outlook®. Only tasks and appointments can be synchronized with Office Outlook.

5. Enter additional information, and then click Create.

The activity is created and displayed in the Activities list in the lower-left pane of the form.




4-8

Working with Cases and Activities

Use cases to organize collections activities and transactions. For example, if you have to collect for three transactions, you can add them to a case, and then manage activities that are related to your collections work on those three transactions together.

When transactions or activities are grouped into a case, use the Case ID filter on the top pane to filter the list to only transactions and activities for a specified case. In addition, you can use the Collections cases list page to view a list of all cases. Drill down into the details by double-clicking a case in the list page.

Procedure: Add Transactions and Activities to a Case

To add transactions or activities to a case, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Collections > Collections. 2. Double-click a customer. 3. To add transactions to a case, select the check box next to the

transaction on the top pane, and then click Assign to case. a. Select New case, or select Existing case and then select a case

ID. b. If you specified a new case in the previous step, enter a

Description and select a case Category. A Case ID will be assigned automatically.

c. Click Assign to case.

4. To add activities to a case, select the check box next to the Activity on the bottom pane, and then click Assign to case. a. Select New case, or select Existing case, and then select a case

ID. b. If you specified a new case in the previous step, enter a

description, select a case category, and select whether to create an activity. A Case ID will be assigned automatically.

c. Click Assign to case.

Send an Email Message

From the Collections form, you can send an email message through Office Outlook. You can also automatically attach information about selected transactions or customer statements as a Microsoft Office Excel attachment.




4-9

Procedure: Send an Email Message to a Customer Contact or Salesperson

To send an email message to a customer contact or salesperson, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Collections > Collections. 2. Double-click a customer.

a. To send an email message to the contact for the customer, click the icon next to the E-mail field in the Contact fact box. If no icon appears, the contact record does not have an email address.

a. To send an email message to the salesperson for the sales group that is associated with the customer, click the icon next to the Salesperson field. If no icon appears, the salesperson's contact record does not have an email address.

FIGURE 4.2 COLLECTIONS FORM

3. A new email message is created in Office Outlook. 4. Compose the message, and then click Send.

Procedure: Send an Email Message that has Selected Transactions

To send an email with an attachment including selected transactions to a customer contact or salesperson, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Collections > Collections. 2. Double-click a customer. 3. Select one or more transactions by selecting the check box to the left

of each desired gridline.




4-10

4. On the Action Pane, click the Communicate tab. a. To send an email message to the contact for the customer, click

Transactions to contact. b. To send an email message to the salesperson that is associated

with the sales group for the customer, click Transactions to salesperson.

NOTE: These buttons are available only if a contact is set up for the customer who has an email address.

5. A new email message is created in Office Outlook. Information about the transactions is included in an attachment in Office Excel format.

6. Compose the message, and then click Send.

Procedure: Send an Email Message that has an Attached Statement

To send an account statement to a customer contact or salesperson, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Collections > Collections. 2. Double-click a customer. 3. On the Action Pane, click the Communicate tab. 4. Click Statements to contact. 5. Select criteria and type the Aging date for the range of transactions

to include on the statement. 6. Optionally, select the Include settled transactions check box to

include both open and settled transactions, and then enter a starting date for the settled transactions.

7. Click OK. A new email message is created in Office Outlook. Information about the transactions is included in an attachment in Office Excel format. The statement includes transactions for the same set of companies that are displayed in the Collections form. The statement address is used, if one is specified for the customer.

8. Compose the message, and then click Send.

Perform Write-Offs

You can write off bad debts by clicking Write off in the Collections form, and on the Collections, All customers, and Open customer invoices list pages.

When you write off transactions for a customer, all transactions for the customer are automatically selected for settlement. The amount that is written off depends on the net amount of the selected transactions. The write-off transaction is created in a general journal and can contain up to three types of journal lines.




4-11

The first type of journal line contains the customer write-off entry. If the selected transactions contain multiple combinations of currency code, dimension, and posting profile, a separate journal line is created for each combination.

The second type of journal line contains the general ledger write-off entry. If the selected transactions contain multiple combinations of currency code, dimension, and posting profile, a separate journal line is created for each combination.

The third type of journal line contains the general ledger write-off information for sales taxes. This journal line is created only if the Separate sales tax check box is selected in the Accounts receivable parameters form. If the selected transactions contain multiple combinations of sales tax payable account, dimension, and sales tax code, a separate journal line is created for each combination.

Procedure: Write Off a Customer Transaction

To write-off a customer transaction, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Collections > Collections. 2. Double-click a customer. 3. Select one or more transactions by selecting the check box to the left

of each desired line in the grid, and then click Write off. 4. Enter the Write-off date. 5. Optionally, select a Reason code and Comment. 6. Click OK. 7. An Infolog form will open and display the General journal number

that was created by the process. Click Close to exit the Infolog form. 8. Close the Collections form. 9. Click General ledger > Journals > General journal. 10. Select the journal created by the process. A user who is authorized to

post transactions can post the journal by clicking Post > Post the general journal. After the write-off transaction is posted, you can settle the transaction.




4-12

Lab 4.1 - Manage the collection process This lab provides practice for managing collections.

Scenario

Connie, the Credit and Collections Manager, has set up an aging period definition based on the Contoso's standard collections terms of 0, 90, and 180 days. Earlier this week, Connie had a telephone call with the Accounting manager at Desert Wholesales about the invoices on their account that are overdue.During the call, Tim Kim, the accounting manager at Desert Wholesales, promised to pay customer invoice 100972 for 7,100 U.S,Dollars (USD).

Your task is to help Connie by updating the aging snapshot, and then marking the customer invoice as Promise to pay.

When you are finished, send an email including the customer statement to Tim Kim and confirm the telephone call that he has promised to pay customer invoice 100972.

Challenge Yourself!

Use the information that is provided to update the aging snapshot. Next, update the status on the customer invoice. When you are finished, send an email message to the customer including the customer statement.

Need a Little Help?

1. Update the aging snapshot. 2. Update the status for customer invoice 100972. 3. Send an email including the customer statement.

Step by Step

To update the customer aging snapshot, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Periodic > Collections > Customer aging snapshot.

2. Select 0_90_180 from the Aging period definition field. 3. Accept the other default values, and then click OK. 4. Click Close to close the information log when the process is

completed.

To update the status for invoice 100972, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Collections > Collections. 2. Highlight Desert Wholesales in the list, and then double-click to

open the Collection details form.




4-13

3. Highlight customer Invoice 100972 in the list. 4. Click Change status. 5. Set the Collection status to Promised to pay. 6. Optionally, select a Reason code, and type a description in the

Reason comment field. 7. Click Change status.

To send an email including the customer statement, follow these steps:

1. From the Collections details form, click the Communicate tab on the Action Pane.

2. Click the Statement to contact button. 3. Accept the default values and then click Open. 4. Draft the email including information about the invoice that Tim

Kim promised to pay. For example your email might read:

"Dear Tim,

According to our telephone conversation, you have agreed to pay invoice number 100972 for 7,100.00 USD. I have also attached a copy of your account statement for your reference. We look forward to seeing your payment.

Contoso Collections Dept."

5. Click Send to complete the email. 6. Close the Collections detail form.

Free Text Invoice Improvements Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 includes many improvements to free text invoices, and introduces the following:

• Customer invoice correction process • Recurring free text invoices • Ability to enter quantities and unit prices on free text invoice lines • Addition of a review (workflow) process for free text invoices

Customer Invoice Correction Process

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, correcting a free text invoice involved issuing a credit note against the incorrect customer invoice and creating a new customer invoice. In addition, you could not link the new customer invoice, corrected customer invoice, and customer credit note to one another.




4-14

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, a new Correct Invoice button is added to the Free text invoice details form and the Free text invoice list page. A new form will open where the user can adjust the necessary information and then post the correction.

NOTE: The invoice correction feature is not enabled by default. You must enable the General ledger > Free text invoice correction configuration key in the License configuration form under System administration.

Procedure: Correct a Free Text Invoice

The process for correcting a free text invoice involves the following steps:

1. The user clicks Correct on the Free text invoice form. 2. The system creates a copy of the original free text invoice. 3. The user makes changes to the copied free text invoice. 4. The user posts the changes. 5. The system creates a credit note and all the original settlements are

reversed and reapplied to the new credit note. 6. The system creates a link between the Corrected, Credited

(Canceling), and Original customer invoice for a clear audit trail.

NOTE: You can also use the new free text invoice workflow configuration to approve the change.

Recurring Free Text Invoice Process

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, a new feature is introduced to let you set up a customer to be billed on a recurring basis. The new feature involves a three step process for enrolling a customer for a recurring free text invoice.

1. Create a Free text invoice template a. One template can be used for multiple customers b. Accounts receivable > Setup > Free text invoice templates

2. Assign the template to a customer

a. This step enrolls the customer b. Each customer can have multiple templates c. Accounts receivable > Common > Customers >

All customers > Invoice tab > Post recurring invoices button




4-15

3. Generate and post the recurring invoice a. Periodically generate an invoice based on the recurrence

assigned at the customer level b. The process can be set up as a batch process c. Accounts receivable > Periodic > Recurring invoices >

Generate recurring invoices

When the free text invoices are generated, they can be viewed, modified, or posted from the Free text invoice details form.

A new Recurring invoices form can also be used to manage the recurring free text invoices under Accounts receivable > Periodic > Recurring invoices > Post recurring invoices. Groups of recurring invoices are grouped in this form. Use the Lines button to view each invoice for a selected batch.

Workflow for Free Text Invoices

The standard Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 workflow framework is extended to work for free text invoices. This framework enables users to decide whether a review process should be required on free text invoices.

When a workflow configuration is enabled for free text invoices, the following tasks are possible:

• Designate who the approver(s) of the invoice will be • All free text invoices must be submitted by using the Submit button • Users can approve the invoice, request a change from the submitter,

recall and resubmit the invoice, or reject the invoice • After the invoice is approved, the Post button becomes available • Optionally, user-defined tasks can be added to the workflow

configuration.

Free Text Invoice Quantities and Unit Prices Frequently, a free text invoice line can be used to sell a quantity of a kind of goods, services, or rights. Providing this information to the user and a basic amount calculation in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will help better identify and explain charges to customers.




4-16

Scenario: Adding Quantities and Amounts to a Free Text Invoice Line

Contoso Entertainment is selling surplus widgets left over from a large project recently completed. The widgets were not purchased through the inventory system. Therefore, they cannot be sold through a sales order.

Instead, they must be sold through a simple free text invoice transaction. A subcontractor has requested to purchase 15 pieces and Contoso Entertainment agreed to sell all 15 for 50 USD.

Arnie, the Accounts Receivable Administrator, must now quickly create a customer invoice for surplus material by using the total amount.

Procedure: Create a Free Text Invoice with Quantities and Amounts

To create a free text invoice with quantities and amounts, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Common > Free text invoice > All free text invoices.

2. Click New > Free text invoice to create a new free text invoice. 3. Select a customer in the Customer field, and enter any additional

information. 4. Click Add lines in the Invoice lines grid.

FIGURE 4.3 FREE TEXT INVOICE DETAIL LINES

5. In the Description field, type a description for the invoice line.




4-17

6. In the Main account field, select the ledger account to be used for posting.

7. In the Quantity field, type a number for the quantity. 8. In the Unit price field, type an amount for each quantity in the

invoice line. Notice the Amount field is updated with the extended amount.

9. Click Close when you are finished.

Free Text Invoices Without Quantities

When a quantity or unit price is not available for the free text invoice line, the fields can be left blank.

For example, Arnie does not have a unit price and quantity for the line, only a total amount for the line. Arnie can ignore the Unit price and Quantity fields, and then enter an amount for the line. The system will display the amount entered, and the Unit price, and Quantity fields will remain blank.

You can also enter a Quantity and enter an Amount, leaving the Unit price field blank.

Summary Although many functions in the Accounts receivable module are improved in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the basis and main principle of the module remains the same. The greatest changes are in the areas of:

• Free text invoices o Recurring free text invoices o Added workflow for free text invoices o The addition of quantity and unit price

• Collections management

o Addition of collection agents o Addition of customer pools o Addition of aging period definitions and aging snapshots o New forms for managing collections o Integration with Sales and Marketing for tracking activities o Ability to write off transactions and process Non-Sufficient Fund

(NSF) checks





4-18

Test Your Knowledge 1. Match the Collections details Fact Boxes on the left, with the matching

description of the purpose on the right:

_____ 1. Contacts Fact Box _____ 2. Aged Balances Fact Box _____ 3. Credit Information Fact Box

a. View the credit limit and current balance information for the customer.

b. View collections contact information for the customer.

c. View balances for the customer, based on the selected aging period definition.

2. Which of the following is not a step in setting up and processing a recurring free text invoice?

( ) Assign a free text invoice template to customer ( ) Set up a customer template for free text invoices ( ) Set up a free text invoice template ( ) Run the generate free text invoice process

3. True or false, the Quantity and Unit price fields are mandatory on free text invoices.

( ) TRUE ( ) FALSE

4. List the four types of activities that can be added to a collection and their purpose.




4-19


1.

2.

3.




4-20


1. Match the Collections details Fact Boxes on the left, with the matching description of the purpose on the right:

b 1. Contacts Fact Box c 2. Aged Balances Fact Box a 3. Credit Information Fact Box

a. View the credit limit and current balance information for the customer.

b. View collections contact information for the customer.

c. View balances for the customer, based on the selected aging period definition.

2. Which of the following is not a step in setting up and processing a recurring free text invoice?

( ) Assign a free text invoice template to customer (•) Set up a customer template for free text invoices ( ) Set up a free text invoice template ( ) Run the generate free text invoice process

3. True or false, the Quantity and Unit price fields are mandatory on free text invoices.

( ) TRUE (•) FALSE

4. List the four types of activities that can be added to a collection and their purpose.

MODEL ANSWER:

1. Action - is used to document a unit of work that is completed 2. Task - is used to log a unit of work that is to be done in the future 3. Appointment - is used to schedule a meeting 4. Event - is used to record something that has already occurred



Chapter 5: Budgeting

5-1

CHAPTER 5: BUDGETING Objectives

The objectives are:

• Describe the use of workflows for budget register entries. • Enable dimensions in an account structure for budget usage. • Explain how to define rules and specify attributes for budget control. • Describe how to use budget control on a purchase order. • Describe how to enter budget data. • Review and run new key reports used for budgets. • Describe the features supported by the system for transferring budget

data from a third-party application or by using the Microsoft® Office Excel® add-in.

Introduction Every business entity, whether it is private or public, sets some financial and operational goals by creating budgets. When the budget is established, the management or responsible person monitors the activities within the budget framework.

In Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 the Budget module is redesigned emphasizing new methods for entering budget amounts and introducing budgetary controls. Workflows are also introduced for Budget register entries.

For example, if an approval is required for transferring a budget amount from one department to another, then workflow functionality is introduced to create an approval workflow.




5-2

Workflows for Budget Register Entries When you create budget register entries, you can set up workflows so that a budget manager can approve the budget register entry. You can define an approval workflow for the budget account entries; which would require all account entries of a budget register entry to be approved before you update the budget balance.

Or, you can create a workflow for the budget register entry which indicates that the whole entry is approved, instead of each account entry requiring approval.

Independent of any review processes, you can also set up budget transfer rules to enable, for example, transfers of budget funds among only a subset of departments. If you use workflow, when transfer rules are violated, the budget register entry can be assigned to a specific person for approval.

Scenario: Workflow for Budget Register Entries

The manager of the sales department at Contoso is requesting additional budget for a new sales convention that is occurring in a few months. Because the convention is new this year budget funds were not allocated during the usual budget planning phase. The Sales department manager can request the budget adjustment which is subject to approval by the Budget manager.

You can define an approval workflow for the budget account entries or you can create a workflow for the budget register entry which indicates that the whole register entry is approved versus each account entry requiring approval.

NOTE: Workflow on budget account entries will only be invoked for budget account entry codes that contain a workflow.

Dimensions for Budgets The process of defining dimensions for budgets enables an organization to determine which dimensions within the account structures associated with the chart of accounts are available for budgeting.

Some organizations may select not to include specific dimensions (including the main account) for budget purposes. This allows for flexibility in determining how budgets are established.

For example, you could enable budgeting for just the Department and Cost center dimensions within the chart of accounts. This means that combinations of departments with cost centers can hold budget amounts without regard to the specific usage (main account).




5-3

Procedure: Define Dimensions for Budgeting

To define dimensions for budgets, follow these steps:

1. Open Budgeting > Setup > Dimensions for budgeting.

FIGURE 5.1 BUDGETING DIMENSIONS

2. Select the dimension(s) from the Chart of accounts dimension panel on the right side for which you want to enter budget amounts against.

3. Click the Left arrow to move the selected dimensions to the Budget dimension panel on the left.

4. Click Close

Configuring Budget Control The budget control configuration allows for both an active version and a draft version which provides additional flexibility to change the configuration. Upon initial setup, no active configuration exists. The process of configuring budget control involves the following steps:

1. Define budget control parameters. 2. Define over budget permissions. 3. Define budget funds. 4. Define documents and business transactions that require budget

checking. 5. Define budget models. 6. Define budget control rules. 7. Define user permissions. 8. Define other settings.




5-4

NOTE: The Budget control configuration key must be enabled under the General ledger - advanced II key in order to use this functionality.

Scenario: Configure Budget Control

Ken, the Controller, has decided to implement budget control within the company. Ken decides which source documents and journals should use the budget control, the definition of the budget funds available calculation, and the financial dimensions that are subject to a budget check. He must also decide which users, if any, can exceed the budget.

Procedure: Define Budget Control Parameters

To define budget control parameters, follow these steps:

1. Open Budgeting > Setup > Budget control configuration.

FIGURE 5.2 BUDGET CONTROL CONFIGURATION

2. Select an Account structure. After you select the account structure, you can see all the dimensions within the selected account structure that are enabled for budget entry populated on the right side panel.

3. Select the Budget dimensions that will be subject to a budget check by moving them to the left panel.

4. Select the default Budget control interval, Budget cycle time span, Budget manager, and Budget threshold. These settings are defaults, and can be changed for specific budget control rules and budget groups.




5-5

Budget Control Terminology

The primary budget control parameters are described in the following table:

Field Description

Budget control interval

Determines how amounts will be aggregated for a budget check. The budget control interval works together with the budget cycle. Options include Fiscal year, Fiscal period, Fiscal year to date, month, quarter, total budget (spreads across the budget cycle), Budget to date, months to date, quarters to date. The “to date” is determined by mapping the accounting date of the source document or accounting journal being checked for budget funds available to the associated fiscal period.

Budget cycle time span

A time period specified as a number of fiscal calendar periods. The budget period can differ from the accounting period.

Budget manager

Determines which user can approve a register entry, for optional use when you configure a workflow.

Budget threshold

Determines whether a budget threshold should be in place. The threshold can be used to provide warning messages to user or to define budget permissions for users to prevent specific users from exceeding the budget threshold. This field is optional.

NOTE: The budget threshold can be set for a percentage that exceeds 100 percent. This allows for scenarios where an organization could allow for exceeding the budget by a specific percentage. For example, if you want to allow for exceeding budget by 5 percent, you set the threshold value to 105.00.

Procedure: Defining Over Budget Permissions

Over budget permissions are used to determine whether specific user groups can exceed budget funds available, or if they are restricted from exceeding budget funds available or budget thresholds. By default, if a user is not in a user group, the default setting of "prevent over budget processing" is applied. The available selections for over budget options are as follows:

• Prevent over budget processing • Allow for over budget processing • Prevent processing at over budget threshold

To define over budget permissions, follow these steps:

1. Open Budgeting > Setup > Budget control configuration. 2. If the current budget control configuration is active, a message will

appear at the top of the form. Click Edit to modify the configuration. 3. Click the Over budget permissions tab.




5-6

4. Click Add to create a new rule. 5. Select the desired User group. 6. Select the Over budget option. 7. Click the Activate budget control tab. 8. Click Activate, and if the Budget control configuration is not

turned on, click Turn on. 9. Click Close to exit the Budget control configuration form.

Define Budget Funds Available Calculation

The Budget funds available tab on the Budget control configuration form is used to define the budget funds available calculation. By default both Original budget and Actual expenditures are selected.

A description of each option is provided in the following table:

Field Description

Include carry forward amounts

Includes amounts that were carried forward as part of the Purchase order fiscal year close process, or budget register entries that use a budget type of carry forward.

Original budget Includes budget register entries that have the budget types of Original budget, Fixed asset, Project, Demand, and Supply and have a document status as Completed.

Budget amendments

Includes budget register entries with the type of Amendment and that have a document status Completed.

Draft budget amendments

Includes budget register entries with the type Amendment and that have a document status Draft.

Budget transfers Includes budget register entries with the type Transfer and that have a document status Completed.

Draft budget transfers in

Includes budget register entries with the type Transfer, have a document status Draft, and the effect to budget is an increase.

Draft budget transfers out

Includes budget register entries with the type Transfer, have a document status Draft, and the effect to budget is a decrease.

Actual expenditures

Includes actual expenditures because of expense reports, vendor invoices, or accounting journals that are subject to a budget check.

Unposted actual expenditures

Includes vendor invoices and expense reports that are entered, but not yet recorded in the sub-ledger journal, and accounting journals they are entered, but not yet posted to ledger.




5-7

Field Description

Budget reservations for encumbrances

Includes budget reservations that are created for Confirmed purchase orders or travel requests in addition to budget register entries that are in a status of Completed that use the transaction type of Encumbrance.

Budget reservations for unconfirmed encumbrances

Includes budget reservations that are created for Unconfirmed purchase orders or travel requests in addition to budget register entries that are in a status of Draft that use the transaction type of Encumbrance.

Reductions to budget reservations for unconfirmed encumbrances

Select this option to prevent a reduction in budget reservation caused by a purchase order correction until the correction is confirmed.

Budget reservations for pre-encumbrances

Includes budget reservations that are created for Approved or Confirmed purchase requisitions in addition to budget register entries that are in a status of completed with the transaction type of Pre-encumbrance.

Budget reservations for unconfirmed pre-encumbrances

Include budget reservations that are created for Unconfirmed or Unapproved purchase requisitions in addition to budget register entries that are in a status of Draft with the transaction type of Pre-encumbrance.

Define Budget Checking Rules

The Source documents tab on the Budget control configuration form is used to define which business documents should validate against the budget control configuration.

NOTE: If purchase requisitions are enabled for budget control, all documents downstream (purchase orders and vendor invoices) are also enabled. This is to make sure that the budget reservations are relieved appropriately throughout the “procure to pay” cycle.

Additionally if purchase orders are enabled for budget control, Vendor invoices are enabled by default for the same reasons.

Use the Accounting journals tab to select the accounting journal types that should be subject to a budget control check.

Define Budget Cycles

Budget cycle time spans define the length of a budget cycle. Budget cycles are associated with the periods in a fiscal calendar and can be shared across legal entities. Budget cycles determine the starting and ending periods for budget control.




5-8

You can map a budget cycle time span to a fiscal year, or you can specify the number of periods for part of a fiscal year or to span fiscal years.

To implement a budget cycle time span for budget control, assign a budget model to the budget cycle time span. Use the Budgeting > Setup > Budget cycles form to specify the fiscal year or the number of periods in a budget cycle and to associate budget cycles with fiscal calendars.

Define Budget Models and Control Rules

Within the Budget model tab, on the Budget control configuration form, create an association between a Budget cycle and the Budget model. Budget models are an identifier of a budget. The budget model that is associated to a budget cycle will be the budget that is used when you perform the budget funds available check for source documents and accounting journals that contain an accounting date that falls within that budget cycle.

NOTE: Budget cycles must be defined before you set up the association between the budget cycle and the budget model.

To define budget control rules, click the Define budget control rules tab. Budget control rules determine the combinations of dimension values for the dimensions that are selected for budget control and are subject to a budget check. For example, if you define a budget control rule in which all combinations of department and cost centers are subject to the budget check, then the check will be performed on all valid combinations. The default user group permissions can be overridden for specific budget control rules. This allows for different settings based on the financial dimension combinations being checked for the budget.

HINT: Another way to define a rule covering all combinations is by using wildcard characters.

NOTE: If the organization wants to assign a different budget threshold to one department versus all other departments, this can be defined by creating two budget control rules; one covering the department that has a different budget threshold and then another covering all other departments.

Define Other Settings

When the main account is not included as a budget control dimension on the Define parameters tab, you must select the main accounts for which the budget control rules should be applied on the Select main accounts tab. If the main account is already included as a budget control dimension, then this step is not necessary.




5-9

NOTE: Only main account types of Total, Profit and Loss, and Expense are available for selection because these are the accounts typically used in recording actual expenditures. Total accounts are included for the purposes of budget register entries because you can create budget against main accounts that are marked as total.

Use the Define budget groups tab to create a budget pool or collection of dimension values whose budget amounts will be pooled for a secondary budget check. Budgets will always be checked against the dimension combinations that are found in the budget control rule. If that dimension combination is also found in a budget group, a secondary budget check will be performed at the budget group level.

Activate Budget Control and Configurations

When you are finished making changes or setting up the budget control configuration, you must activate it. In addition, budget control must be enabled so that you can start using the settings. Use the Activate budget control tab to activate the configuration or to start or stop by using budget control.

NOTE: When the budget control configuration is active, the Edit button must be used to make modifications. The active budget control configuration continues to be used until the draft version is activated.

Using Budget Control When budget control is configured, source documents and accounting journals can be checked for budget funds availability. By configuring budget control, an organization can decide which source documents and accounting journals the budget check should be applied.

You can enable budget control for a specific dimension or a set of dimensions that are subject to budget check. By applying budget check, you can prevent the source documents-such as Purchase requisitions, Purchase orders, or Vendor invoices-from additional processing if they exceed the budget funds available.

Scenario: Using Budget Control

Recently, expenses are larger than previous years because of growth. Ken, the Controller, has decided that the budget available for the combination of Department 010 and Cost center 0101 should be increased. He must first establish the budget amounts, and then users can start to enter the expenses.




5-10

Procedure: Create Budget Register Entries

To enter and view budget register entries, follow these steps:

1. Open Budgeting > Common > Budget register entry. 2. Click Budget register entry in the New group of the Action pane. 3. Select the Budget model and Budget code.

NOTE: Budget codes must be set up before you create budget register entries.

4. Optionally, select a Reason code and enter a Reason comment. 5. Save the record. 6. Click Add line in the Budget account entry fast tab.

FIGURE 5.3 BUDGET REGISTER ENTRIES

7. Select the Account structure and enter the Dimension values. 8. Enter the budget amount into the Amount field. 9. Click Update budget balances to update the budget amounts for the

budget enabled dimensions. 10. Click OK to complete the update. 11. When the process is completed, click Close on the Info log form,

and then close the Budget register entry form.




5-11

Procedure: Use Budget Control on a Purchase Order

To use budget control on a purchase order and follow the reservation through to vendor invoice, follow these steps:


2. Click Purchase order in the New group of the Action pane and then select a vendor.

3. Click Yes to transfer the address, and then click OK to create the purchase order.

4. In the Purchase lines tab, select the Item number. 5. Enter a Quantity of 1 and Unit price of 200.00. 6. Enter the accounting distributions by clicking Financials tab >

Distribute amounts 7. Enter ledger account: "606300 – OU_2311 – OU_4595". 8. If the user selected the Perform the budget check on line entry for

purchase order setting in the Budget control configuration form, then when you close the Accounting distribution form that you will notice the budget check result displaying on the purchase order line. In this example, the budget check is successful.

9. Review the budget control statistics by opening Budgeting > Inquiries > Budget control statistics from the breadcrumb bar.

10. Select Budget cycle "FY2011" and Dimension values "606300". The system will display a 200.00 USD reservation for encumbrance.

11. Drill down by using the encumbrance's Action Pane to see the transaction making up that balance. The purchase order is shown and the status of the budget reservation is Draft.

12. Confirm the purchase order by going to the Purchases tab on Action Pane and clicking Confirm.




5-12

Lab 5.1 - Use Budget Control on a Purchase Order This lab will provide practice in using budget control on a purchase order.

Scenario

Recently, administrative expenses are larger than previous years because of additional shifts at the manufacturing plants. Ken, the Controller, has decided that the budget available for the Administrative Expense account (606300) should be increased.

He must first establish the budget amounts, and then users can start to enter the expenses.

Challenge Yourself!

Use the information that is provided in the scenario to set up the budget register entries. Use the information in the following table to guide you.

Field Value

Budget model SUB1

Budget code Budget

Account structure Account Structure - P&L

Dimension values 606300

Budget amount 10,000 USD

Create a new purchase order for Topaz Electronics for 1000 pieces in the procurement category Audio > Receivers > 2.1. Perform a budget check on that order and review the budget check errors and warnings.

Next, decrease the quantity on the purchase order to 19 and perform another budget check. When you are finished, confirm the purchase order. Use the information in the following table to guide you.

Field Value

Dimension values 606300 - OU_1 - OU_4571 - Conference/Seminar

Vendor 1201: Topaz Electronics

Procurement category Audio > Receivers > 2.1

Quantity 1000 ea/19 ea

Unit price 199.95




5-13

Need a Little Help?

• Create a new Budget register entry. • Update budget balances. • Open Accounts payable > Common > Purchase orders > All

purchase orders, and then click Purchase order in the New group of the Action pane.

• Select vendor 1201: Topaz Electronics and then add a new line to the purchase order.

• Select the Financials tab and select Distribute amounts. • Enter the ledger account. • Click Financials > Perform budget check, and then click to review

the errors. Financials > Budget check errors and warnings • Decrease the quantity on the purchase order. • Click Financials > Perform budget check. • Confirm the Purchase order.

Step by Step

To create budget register entries, follow these steps:

1. Open Budgeting > Common > Budget Register Entries. 2. Click Budget register entry in the New group of the Action pane. 3. Select "SUB1" in the Budget model field, and then select "Budget"

in the Budget code field. 4. Save the record. 5. Click Add line in the Budget account entries fast tab. 6. Select "Account structure - P&L" in the Account structure. 7. Enter "606300: Administrative Expenses" in the Dimension values

field. 8. Enter "10,000" into the Amount field. 9. Save the record and then click Update budget balances to update

the budget amounts for the budget enabled dimensions. 10. Click OK to complete the update. 11. When the process is completed, click Close on the Infolog form, and

then close the Budget register entry form.




5-14

To use budget control on a purchase order and follow the reservation through to confirmation, follow these steps:


2. Click Purchase order in the New group of the action pane, and then select vendor 1201: Topaz Electronics, and then click Yes to transfer the address.

3. Click OK to create the purchase order, and then a new line will be added to the Purchase order automatically.

4. Select the Procurement category Audio > Receivers > 2.1. 5. Enter "1000" in the Quantity field, enter "ea: each" in the Unit field,

and then enter "199.95" in the Unit price field. 6. Enter the accounting distributions by clicking Financials >

Distribute amounts. 7. Enter Ledger account: "606300", and then close the Accounting

distributions form. 8. Click Financials > Perform budget checking. 9. An error message is received warning the user that the budget is

exceeded. Close the Infolog form, and then click Financials > Budget check errors or warnings.

10. Review the errors or warnings in the Budget check errors or warnings form, and then close the form when you are finished.

11. Change the Quantity on the purchase line to 19, and then click Financials > Perform budget checking.

12. Notice the green validation check box on the left side of the purchase line grid row. Confirm the purchase order by clicking the Purchases tab on the Action pane and then click Confirm.

13. Close the Purchase order form.




5-15

Budget Amounts The budget data is entered through the Budget register entry form which consists of a header and lines. The header information is applied to the whole budget register entry and the lines (account entries) are where budget amounts for specific dimension combinations are entered.

NOTE: If you intend to use budget control, you should configure budget control before you enter budget amounts. Budget control must be configured for the budget amounts to be included in the budget control system. Refer to the Configuring Budget Control lesson for more information.

Procedure: Entering Budgets

To create budget registry entries, follow these steps:

1. Open Budgeting > Common forms > Budget register entry. 2. Click Budget register entry in the New group of the Action Pane. 3. Select the Budget model (identifier of budget) whose budget balance

will be affected by the processing of this transaction. 4. Select the Budget transaction code to classify the budget register

entry. 5. Optionally, specify a Reason code for the budget register entry. 6. Set the focus in the lines grid. The Date for the budget register entry

line determines the period that the budget will be recorded to. 7. Select an Account structure.

NOTE: The step of assigning an account structure to a budget account entry is required because not all dimensions in an account structure may be enabled and the same budget enabled dimension may be in use within multiple account structures for the chart of accounts.

8. Enter the Dimension values for the budget enabled dimensions. The order in which the dimensions are entered is based on the order in which the dimensions appear within the account structure.

9. Enter the budget Amount and the budget Amount type. The budget amount type will default to expense, but can be changed. The amount type is needed because the main account is not a required element for budgeting.

10. Specify the transaction Currency. 11. Click Update the budget balances. By taking this action, the budget

balance for the budget model and dimension combination will be updated based on the amount for the period in which the line date falls.




5-16

Create Recurring Budget Register Entries

For some expenses, such as rent or lease, the amount that was budgeted will typically be the same amount for each period. You can replicate a budget account entry to accommodate this need.

For example, you decide to create a budget account entry every month until 12/31/2010. You are performing this function on 6/22/2010. Therefore, after you apply this function, you will have budget transaction line for every month through the end of the year.

To perform this action;

1. Select the budget account entry. 2. Click Enter recurrence from the budget account entry action strip. 3. Select the Interval type, Interval, and Expiration date on the

Create recurrence form.

Procedure: Allocate a Budget Amount Across Dimension Values

Budget allocation terms can be used to define a pre-determined allocation to dimension values by percentage.

As an example, if specific budgeted amounts for travel are allocated based on a percentage by department; that allocation can be defined by using an allocation term that is later used when you creating budget amounts. The use of an allocation term provides an automated way to create the breakdown of a budget amounts across dimension values or combinations of dimension values.

To perform this function, the set up of budget allocation terms is required. Follow these steps:

1. Open Budgeting > Common > Budget register entry. 2. Follow the steps outlined in Procedure: Entering Budgets to create a

budget account entry and save it.




5-17

3. Select the line just created. 4. Click Allocate to dimensions. This opens the dialog box where you

can select the budget allocation term to apply.

FIGURE 5.4 ALLOCATE TO DIMENSIONS FORM

5. Select the Allocation term and then click Allocate. Notice that the original budget account entry is reversed and new budget account entries are created based on the definition of the budget allocation term.

Procedure: Allocate Budget Amounts Using a Period Allocation Key

Period allocation keys let you define allocations by percent to specific periods. The period allocation key functionality is not new to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and can be defined from General ledger > Setup > Periods > Period allocation key.

1. Define the Period allocation key and give it a name on the Period allocation key form.

2. Click Lines and create lines. You can allocate percentages by month. You can also specify the dimension values that should be allocated the defined percentage.

3. Click the Financial dimensions tab and enter the dimensions values.




5-18

4. To apply the period allocation key to a budget account entry click Allocate across periods from the Budget register entry form. After you apply the period allocation key, a reversal is created for the budget account entry entered together with new budget account entry based on the percent allocation by month that was defined in the period allocation key.

FIGURE 5.5 ALLOCATE ACROSS PERIODS FORM




5-19

Lab 5.2 - Create and Manage Budgets This lab provides practice for creating and allocating budget register entries.

Scenario

Contoso has recently expanded their business and has decided to create a contract with a local distributor to purchase car audio equipment in bulk over the course of the next year. The quantities of the equipment to be shipped will vary from month to month based on the projected sales for a given month.

Brad, the Budget Manager, must update the budget to account for the additional expenses. He will use a period key to allocate the amounts over each month based on the projected sales curve.

Challenge Yourself!

Use the information that is provided in the scenario to create a new budget register entry, and allocate the amounts over the 12 month period by using the Sales curve period allocation key.

The following table provides additional details.

Field Value

Budget model SUB1

Budget code Budget

Account structure Account structure

Dimension values 140120: Car Audio Receipts

Amount 65,000.00 USD

Need a Little Help?

1. Create a new budget register entry. 2. Add an account entry to the budget register entry. 3. Allocate the amount across periods by using the sales curve period

allocation key.

Step by Step

To create and manage budgets, follow these steps:

1. Open Budgeting > Common > Budget register entry. 2. Click Budget register entry in the New group of the Action Pane. 3. Select "SUB1" for the Budget model. 4. Select "Budget" for the Budget code to classify the budget register

entry.




5-20

5. Save the record by clicking in the lines. 6. Click the Budget account entries tab and then click Add line. 7. Type the Date for the budget account entry that determines the

period that the amount will be recorded to. 8. Select "Account structure" in the Account structure field. 9. Enter the Dimension values "140120". 10. Enter "65,000.00" in the Amount field. 11. Specify the transaction Currency as "USD". 12. Save the record by pressing Ctrl+S. 13. Click Allocate across periods. 14. Select "20: Sales curve" from the list, and then click Allocate. The

system will automatically reverse the original budget account entry and create new budget account entries for each period.

15. Click Update budget balances. 16. Click OK to process the budget register entries. When the process is

completed, the Infolog form will open. Click Close to exit the Infolog form.

17. Close the Budget register entry form.




5-21

Budget Reporting The following new budget reports are included in the Budgeting module in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for a better and transparent reporting:

• Actual versus budget report • Budget funds available report • Budget detail report

Procedure: Generating a Budget Report

To run a budget report, follow these steps:

1. Open Budgeting > Reports > Budgets, and then click the desired report from the folder.

2. Enter any report parameters required. 3. Click Select to enter additional filtering criteria 4. Click OK to start the report.

Budget Transaction Web Services Budgets are frequently created outside Microsoft Dynamics AX by using varous budget formulation tools and software. If you are using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 budget control functionality, you may have to bring this information into Microsoft Dynamics AX. In addition, you may want to create, update, delete, and read existing budget register entries from a third-party product.

This feature provides a web service for budget register entries to communicate with the third-party applications and enables organizations to Create, Read, Update, and Delete budget register entries.

Scenario: Importing Budget Register Entries

Brad, the Budget manager, has developed an annual budget for Contoso by using a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet to create the budget amounts. Now, he wants bring the data into Dynamics AX. He starts the budget transaction service and the budget register entries are created or updated in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.




5-22

Summary Budgeting has provided an overview of the new budgetary control features that are introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.The key areas of improvement are as follows:

• Budget Control Configuration steps • Introduction of Workflow for certain types of budget register entries • Budget Transaction Web Services to interface with external

budgeting tools • Dimensions for Budgets to determine which dimensions within the

account structure(s) associated with the chart of accounts are available for budgeting.

These new features will help organizations enforce tighter budgetary control and improve their efficiency, as far as financial goals are concerned.




5-23


1. Budget control rules can be defined for which of the following?

( ) One dimension value ( ) Any combination of dimension values ( ) All dimension values for a specified dimension

2. Match the terms on the left with their definitions on the right side:

_____ 1. Budget checking rules _____ 2. Allocation terms _____ 3. Period allocation keys _____ 4. Budget cycle time spans _____ 5. Budget threshold _____ 6. Commitment accounting

a. Used to provide warning messages to user or to define limits for users to prevent them from exceeding the budget.

b. Lets you define allocations by percent to specific periods.

c. Enables the posting of expenses before the creation or collection of the underlying documents and before those committed funds are paid out.

d. Used to define a pre-determined allocation to dimension values by percentage.

e. Used to define which source documents should validate against the budget control configuration.

f. Determines the length of a given budget.

3. The main account must be included as one of the dimensions on the budget control configuration.

( ) True ( ) False

4. Which of the following business documents can have budget control enabled? (Select all that apply)

( ) Purchase requisitions ( ) Request for quotes ( ) Purchase orders ( ) Vendor invoices




5-24


1.

2.

3.




5-25


1. Budget control rules can be defined for which of the following?

( ) One dimension value (•) Any combination of dimension values ( ) All dimension values for a specified dimension

2. Match the terms on the left with their definitions on the right side:

e 1. Budget checking rules d 2. Allocation terms b 3. Period allocation keys f 4. Budget cycle time spans a 5. Budget threshold c 6. Commitment accounting

a. Used to provide warning messages to user or to define limits for users to prevent them from exceeding the budget.

b. Lets you define allocations by percent to specific periods.

c. Enables the posting of expenses before the creation or collection of the underlying documents and before those committed funds are paid out.

d. Used to define a pre-determined allocation to dimension values by percentage.

e. Used to define which source documents should validate against the budget control configuration.

f. Determines the length of a given budget.

3. The main account must be included as one of the dimensions on the budget control configuration.

( ) True (•) False

4. Which of the following business documents can have budget control enabled? (Select all that apply)

(√) Purchase requisitions ( ) Request for quotes (√) Purchase orders (√) Vendor invoices




5-26



Chapter 6: Travel and Expense

6-1

CHAPTER 6: TRAVEL AND EXPENSE Objectives

The objectives are:

• Define different travel requisitions, expense reports, and other expense related workflow approvals.

• Define budgets to be applied on travel requisitions and expense reports.

• Explain how to define travel and expense policies. • Describe the process for importing credit card transactions.

Introduction Improvements are made to the existing expense management functionality in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 with additional features to help companies increase employee productivity and decrease expense processing costs.

The following are key areas of improvements:

• Improvements to the user experience in the Client and the Enterprise Portal

• Ability to maintain and manage receipts • Automation of the expense management process with improved

credit card import and dispute handling • Preventive compliance and enforcement with company travel

policies • Support of policies that span multiple companies and operating units • Ability to apply budgetary control • Ability to enter cross-company expense reports • Improvements to the expense management workflow • Tighter integration with the Project management and accounting

module • Support for Value-Added Tax (VAT) recovery




6-2

Expense Reports Improvements In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the Expense Management application for the Enterprise Portal is improved in many areas to help streamline processes and improve productivity. This includes the expense entry, cash advance request, credit card dispute, travel requisition, and expense report delegation.

In addition, the approval experience for expense reports, travel requisitions, and cash advances are improved or introduced.

Enterprise Portal Improvements

In Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009, all employee related tasks were included in a drop-down menu from the Employee Services menu in Enterprise Portal.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, there are several new employee related tasks, so a more scalable solution is now available.

The new Employee Services page on Enterprise Portal provides a centralized location for all employees to complete their daily tasks.

FIGURE 6.1 EMPLOYEE SERVICES PAGE

Scenario: Expense Management on Enterprise Portal

Nancy, an employee with Contoso, is planning an upcoming business trip to Chicago and is submitting a travel requisition on Enterprise Portal.




6-3

Some weeks after the trip, Nancy must create her expense report by using the actual amounts incurred from her trip. She links her travel requisition to the new expense report so her manager can quickly review and approve the expense report.

Procedure: Create a Travel Requisition

To create a travel requisition, follow these steps:

1. Open the Employee services webpage in your Internet browser. 2. Click the Travel requisitions link under the Expenses section. 3. Click New > Travel request to create a new record.

FIGURE 6.2 NEW TRAVEL REQUISITION FORM

4. Select a Business purpose and Destination, and then enter a brief Travel description for the requisition.

5. In the Estimated expenses tab, click Add new expense. 6. Select the Expense category. 7. Optionally, select the Project. 8. Enter the Estimated date, Estimated amount, and Currency for

the requisition. 9. Enter any additional information available into the Expense line

details tab. 10. Click Save and repeat steps 5-10 for each expense. 11. If workflow is enabled for travel requisitions, click Submit.

Otherwise, click Save and close.




6-4

Procedure: Create an Expense Report

To create an expense report, follow these steps:

1. Open the Employee services webpage in your Internet browser. 2. Click the New expense report icon under the Manage Expense

section. 3. Optionally, select the Travel requisition to relate a travel requisition

to the new expense report.

NOTE: If you do this additional fields on the expense lines must be mapped to the specific lines in the Expense Report.

4. Click Create, and the New expense report - Step 2 of 2 form will open.

5. Click Add new expense to create a new line. 6. Select the Expense category. 7. Optionally, select the Project. 8. Enter the Transaction date, Transaction amount, and Currency

for the requisition. 9. Enter any additional information available into the Expense line

details tab. 10. Click Save and repeat steps 5-10 for each expense. 11. Click Attach receipts to add a copy of the receipts. 12. Click Print expense report to print a copy of the expense report

details. 13. If workflow is enabled for expense reports, click Submit. Otherwise,

click Save and close.

Workflow for Travel and Expense Management

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, posting of expense reports was a manual task that is typically performed by the Accounts Payable Clerk after the expense report was approved by the manager. They could be posted at both document level and at line level. This gives all the flexibility to the Accounts Payable Clerk while he or she is posting.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides an option to automate the process of posting by making posting a part of the expense work flow itself. You can select to include this automated task in the workflow configurations if it is required.




6-5

In addition, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 enables queuing for two of the expense workflow types (templates):

1. Expense Reports 2. VAT Recovery

Queue enabling these workflows enables scenarios where expense reports are routed to shared service centers where a queue of users can take actions on the expense reports after they are approved to verify such things as original receipts having been received.




6-6

Lab 6.1 - Create and Process an Expense Report This lab provides practice to creating a travel requisition and an expense report.

Scenario

You are an employee with Contoso, and are planning an upcoming business trip to Los Angeles, CA in two weeks. As part of Contoso's policy, you must submit a travel requisition for approval before booking the travel.

You also returned from a similar trip to Los Angeles, CA yesterday. You must create an expense report for the actual amounts incurred.

Challenge Yourself!

Use the information that is provided to create the travel requisition for the estimated amounts expected for the trip to Los Angeles, CA in two weeks:

Line Category Amount Currency

1 Flight 357.00 USD

2 Hotel 445.00 USD

3 Meals 200.00 USD

Use the information that is provided to create the expense report for the trip to Los Angeles, CA that you returned from Yesterday.

Line Category Amount Currency 1 Flight 424.87 USD

2 Hotel 467.34 USD

3 Meals 189.78 USD

Need a Little Help?

1. Open the Enterprise Portal. 2. Create a new Travel requisition. 3. Add three lines to the travel requisition and then submit it. 4. Create a new Expense report. 5. Add three lines to the expense report and then submit it.




6-7

Step by Step

To create a travel requisition, follow these steps:

1. Open the Employee services webpage in your Internet browser. 2. Click the Travel requisitions link under the Manage Expense

section. 3. Click New > Travel request to create a new record. 4. Select "Customer Visit" in the Business purpose field. 5. Select "US" in the Destination field. 6. Enter a brief Travel description for the requisition such as

"Quarterly Client Site Visit". 7. In the Estimated expenses tab, click Add new expense. 8. Select "Flight" in the Expense category field. 9. Enter the Estimated date (two weeks from today) 10. Enter "357.00" into the Estimated amount field. 11. Click Add new expense. 12. Select "Hotel" in the Expense category field. 13. Enter the Estimated date (two weeks from today) 14. Enter "445.00" into the Estimated amount field. 15. Click Add new expense. 16. Select "Meal" in the Expense category field. 17. Enter the Estimated date (two weeks from today). 18. Enter "200.00" into the Estimated amount field. 19. Click Add new expense. 20. Click Save and close.

To create an expense report, follow these steps:

1. Open the Employee services webpage in your Internet browser. 2. Click the New expense report icon under the Manage Expense

section. 3. Select "Customer Visit" in the Expense purpose field. 4. Select "US" in the Location field. 5. Click Create. 6. Click Add new expense to create a new line. 7. Select "Flight" in the Expense category field. 8. Enter the Transaction date (yesterday). 9. Enter "424.87" into the Transaction amount field. 10. Click Add new expense to create a new line.




6-8

11. Select "Hotel" in the Expense category field. 12. Enter the Transaction date (yesterday). 13. Enter "467.34" into the Transaction amount field. 14. Click Add new expense to create a new line. 15. Select "Meals" in the Expense category field. 16. Enter the Transaction date (yesterday). 17. Enter "189.78" into the Transaction amount field. 18. Click Add new expense to create a new line. 19. Click Save and close.




6-9

Budgetary Control Generally, the success of a budget is limited to an organizations ability to monitor actual spending and the tools and policies that are enforced to control in the following lists:

• Pre-Trip o Creation of pre-trip requisitions o Approval of pre-trip requisitions

• Post-Trip

o Submission of expense report that has all the expense transactions from the trip.

o Approval of expense report. o Posting of expense reports.

Budgets within the public sector are more than just an expected spending amount. They are enacted to law and cannot be exceeded or revised without multiple levels of approval. It is necessary for all governments to make sure they do not incur expenses that will allow overspending.

A sound budgeting program for travel and expenses typically involve various tasks as part of the end-to-end process.

Budgetary Control Setup

Budgetary control is an optional feature that can be turned on or off based on your business requirements. There are options to check budget settings at the header and line level of travel and expense transactions. Use the parameters on the Budget parameters form to enable or disable the feature.

Individual budget transactions are entered on the Budget transactions form. Budgets can be defined for individual ledger accounts, dimensions, or combinations of the two.

For more information about how to set up budgets, please refer to the Budgeting module in the What's New - Application in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 for Finance, PA, Case Mgmt., HRM and Public Sector course.

Scenario: Travel Requisition with Budgetary Control Enabled

Contoso requires that all employees must submit a travel requisition, and it must be approved before any business travel. They have also enabled budgetary control on travel requisitions and expense reports. Nancy, an employee with Contoso, is planning an upcoming business trip to Chicago and is in the process of submitting a travel requisition.




6-10

From the Enterprise Portal, Nancy creates the travel requisition and fills in the required fields. Nancy creates several lines on the requisition for airline, hotel, and meal expenses, entering the estimated amounts for each. Because budget control is enabled on the lines, the system validates each line as they are entered and saved.

The amounts entered for the airline and meals pass the budget check. However, the hotel amount entered exceeds the budget. Nancy receives a warning message and is still able to submit the requisition. Because approval is required, the requisition is assigned to Kevin, Nancy's manager, to review and approve or deny.

Scenario: Travel Requisition Approval

Kevin is currently logged in to the Enterprise Portal reviewing travel requisitions. He notices that a requisition from Nancy has a budgetary control warning. This indicates that one of the lines is over budget. Kevin understands the need for Nancy's business trip. Kevin is authorized to overrun budgets. However, he decides to make an adjustment before approving.

Kevin browses to the budget transactions and completes a budget transfer to suffice the budget overrun. When Kevin is finished he returns to the travel requisition form and clicks Check budget to refresh the budget control check. The check is now successful and he approves the requisition.

Travel and Expense Policies Organizations have different ways to exercise control over any travel and expense costs. Travel and Expense (T&E) policy is usually formed on an enterprise basis, with some provision for adaption at the legal entity level, operational unit level, or even a more detailed level to accommodate various conditions. The policy violations framework is extended in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

The key areas of focus are as follows:

• Ability to define more policies than are available in earlier versions by adding more attributes on which policies can be defined such as Level II and III credit card data attributes

• Removing attributes that do not make sense for defining policies • Adding the capability to create policies for Travel Requisitions. This

is in addition to the expense policies that are currently available in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

• Moving the Policy violation functionality onto the new Policy Framework. This framework is useful for the following reasons: o Helps ensure a consistent user experience across applications o Provides support for the enterprise organization model o Provides date affectivity support




6-11

Scenario: Expense Policy Setup

April, the Accounts Payable Administrator, is responsible for setting up expense policies for Contoso. This process involves several steps, as follows:

1. Plan how the policies should be organized 2. Create expense policies 3. Create travel policies 4. Begin the travel and expense reporting process

Procedure: Set up Expense Policies

To set up an expense policy, follow these steps:

1. Open Travel and Expense > Setup > Policies > Expense. 2. Click Policy in the New group of the Action pane. 3. Enter a Name for the policy, and optionally enter a detailed

Description. 4. In the Policy organization tab, select the Select Organization

hierarchy.




6-12

5. Select the desired organization entity from the Available organizations node, and then click Add >>. The entity will move to the Selected organizations node.

6. Click Create policy rule in the Policy rules tab. 7. Use the Condition editor to create the rule.

FIGURE 6.3 EXPENSE MEALS RULE DETAILS

8. Select an action in the Do the following field. Available options are as follows: a. Allow users to submit and approve but display a warning

message b. Do not allow users to submit or approve and display a warning

message c. Do not allow users to submit until they enter a justification d. Do not allow users to approve until they enter a justification e. Do not allow user to submit or approve until they enter a

justification




6-13

Credit Card Dispute Management Disputes and chargebacks are an unavoidable part of credit card processing. Managing the whole dispute process until it is completed has traditionally been a manual process that could end up being a complex, labor-intenstive and paper-intensive task. This usually results in high processing costs in terms of human resources spent and could also result in losses to the enterprises if they do not keep an audit trail of potential transactions that might be disputed and make sure chargeback occurred for the ones that were actually disputed, as applicable.

Credit card dispute management provides a framework that will help enterprises automate their credit card transaction dispute process independent of the card provider for dispute management.

• Ability to identify corporate credit card transactions for dispute and start the dispute process.

• Ability to generate the dispute cover letter. • Workflow based dispute management process. • Automatic notification of deadlines throughout the dispute process. • Status tracking of disputed transactions. • Electronic documentation support. • Ability to record additional case details. • Ability to reconcile temporary credit to the dispute. • Audit trail.

Scenario: Credit Card Transaction Dispute

Nancy, an employee at Contoso, just returned from a sales event where she used her corporate credit card for all expenses. She is now in the process of filing her expenses when she identifies an error in the credit card transactions.

Nancy identifies one transaction with an incorrect amount. It should have been 50.52 U.S. dollars (USD). However, it was 56.52 USD instead. After posting the expense report, Nancy must dispute the error on her credit card.

Procedure: Submit a Dispute

To submit a dispute on a corporate credit card transaction related to an expense report, follow these steps:

1. Open the Employee services webpage in your Internet browser. 2. Click the Credit card disputes link under the Manage Expense

section. 3. Click New > Submit a dispute to start a new dispute. 4. The Credit card transaction dispute wizard will open; click Next

to begin the dispute.




6-14

5. Select or verify the Employee, Credit card number, and Transaction dates, and then click Next.

6. A list of available transactions will be displayed. Select the transactions that will be disputed and then click Next.

7. Select the Dispute reason. 8. Enter the Expected amount and Expected amount currency. 9. Use the Attach document button to attach any evidence or proof for

the dispute. 10. Click Next and verify the information on the Dispute summary

screen. 11. Click Submit to finalize the dispute. 12. The system displays the Dispute submitted successfully page. Use

the Print button to print a copy of a dispute letter, and then click Finish to exit the wizard.

Summary The Expense management functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is improved significantly.

The key areas of improvements are as follows:

• Ability to maintain and manage receipts • Automation of the expense management process with improved

credit card import and dispute handling • Preventive compliance and enforcement with company travel

policies • Support of policies that span multiple companies and operating units • Ability to enter cross-company expense reports • Improvements to the expense management workflow




6-15

Test Your Knowledge

1. Which of the following allow for queuing within the workflow framework? (Select all that apply)

( ) Travel Requisitions ( ) Expense Report ( ) VAT Recovery ( ) Policy Violations

2. Budgetary control allows for which of the following? (Select all that apply)

( ) Enables options for preventing users from exceeding the budget. ( ) Enables options for checking budgets at the header or line level. ( ) Prevents users from submitting an expense report or travel requisition

when the budget is exceeded. ( ) Prevents users from posting an expense report or travel requisition

when the budget is exceeded.

3. Put the following steps in sequence for the expense policy procedure:

Step:

_____: Begin the travel expense reporting process.

_____: Create travel and expense policies.

_____: Setup travel and expense policy parameters.

_____: Plan how the policies should be organized.

4. Credit card dispute management provides a framework that automates the credit card transaction dispute process with the card provider.

( ) True ( ) False




6-16


1.

2.

3.




6-17


1. Which of the following allow for queuing within the workflow framework? (Select all that apply)

( ) Travel Requisitions (√) Expense Report (√) VAT Recovery ( ) Policy Violations

2. Budgetary control allows for which of the following? (Select all that apply)

(√) Enables options for preventing users from exceeding the budget. (√) Enables options for checking budgets at the header or line level. (√) Prevents users from submitting an expense report or travel requisition

when the budget is exceeded. ( ) Prevents users from posting an expense report or travel requisition

when the budget is exceeded.

3. Put the following steps in sequence for the expense policy procedure:

Step:

4 : Begin the travel expense reporting process.

3 : Create travel and expense policies.

2 : Setup travel and expense policy parameters.

1 : Plan how the policies should be organized.

4. Credit card dispute management provides a framework that automates the credit card transaction dispute process with the card provider.





6-18



Chapter 7: General Ledger

7-1

CHAPTER 7: GENERAL LEDGER Objectives

The objectives are:

• Explain how to create a new currency, and set up exchange rates. • Create shared fiscal calendars for use by different entities. • Describe how to set up, view, and transfer subledger journal entry

balances to the General ledger. • Review the documents that support accounting distributions and

modify an accounting distribution. • Create financial dimensions from custom lists and existing sources. • Explain how to create chart of account structures and link them to

the chart of accounts. • Create posting rules for the chart of account structures. • Learn about changes in commitment accounting. • View the various amounts related to a purchase order when the

encumbrance process is enabled. • Review the process for posting encumbrances to the general ledger

to track liabilities related to confirmed purchase orders. • Describe how to transfer budget reserves for purchase order

encumbrances at the fiscal year end. • Review how to create a reconciliation report that is grouped by the

general ledger chart of account dimensions.

Introduction To make the General ledger functional, you must set up the chart of accounts, fiscal calendars, and currencies. The chart of accounts is a list of main accounts and financial dimensions that are defined by the account structures that are used by the chart.

Fiscal calendars specify what time period financial data is posted in, and currency setup determines which currencies are available for business transactions.

These settings have always been available in earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics® AX. However, in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 significant changes are made to help improve the daily procedures in the General ledger.




7-2

Currencies and Exchange Rates Setup Currency setup is a mandatory step in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to record financial transactions. Multicurrency functionality is also provided if your company does business in more than one currency.

If your organization has multiple legal entities and transacts in multiple currencies, then maintaining currencies and their corresponding exchange rate in each legal entity can be a cumbersome task.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, currencies and exchange rates can be shared across all legal entities. This means that you can set up or maintain currencies that are available for use in all legal entities that make up the organization.

Currencies Overview

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, all currencies are provided by default. The currencies are loaded the first time that a user opens the General ledger parameters form.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 only one currency can represent the Euro (EUR). By default, the EUR currency is selected as the Euro currency. To change the Euro currency, you must first clear the Represents the Euro currency check box on the EUR record in the Currencies form. Then, you can select the Represents the euro currency on the desired currency.

Because exchange rates types are shared data across the system, they only have to be set up one time.




7-3

Procedure: Share Exchange Rates Globally

To set up exchange rate types and exchange rates available to all legal entities, follow these steps:

1. Open General ledger > Setup > Currency > Currencies > Exchange rate types.

FIGURE 7.1 CURRENCIES FORM

2. Press CTRL+N or click New to create a new record. 3. Enter the identification of the exchange rate type in the Exchange

rate type field and a description in the Name field. 4. Click the Exchange rates tab to enter exchange rates for the

exchange rate type. 5. Define the necessary exchange rates between a currency pair (from

and to currency). 6. Define the Exchange rate multiplier. Typically the system is based

on either one unit or one hundred units. If the field is set to one hundred units, the exchange rate should specify the equivalent of one hundred units of the foreign currency. For example, if the "from" currency is U.S. dollars and the "to" currency is Euro, the exchange rate should specify how many U.S. dollars equal one hundred Euros.

7. Save the record and close the form.




7-4

Procedure: Maintain Legal Entity Specific Data

When you run currency revaluation, exchange rate differences may occur because of a change in the exchange rates. For each legal entity you must define main accounts to appropriately account for the exchange rate loss or gain.

To set up legal entity specific exchange rate loss/gain accounts, follow these steps:

1. Open General ledger > Setup > Currency > Currency revaluation accounts.

2. Select the legal entity in the Legal entities field. 3. Select a Currency and define the main accounts that will be posted

to for any unrealized and realized gains/losses for the currency in that legal entity.

4. Repeat the same steps for each legal entity/currency. 5. Save the record and close the form.

NOTE: This setup can also be completed from the General ledger > Setup > Ledger form if different gain/loss accounts are not required for each currency.

Accounting and Reporting Currencies

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces the concept of an accounting currency and a reporting currency.

• Accounting Currency: the usual monetary unit of measure that is used to record the converted monetary value of economic transactions in ledger accounts. In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, this was called the Company currency.

• Reporting Currency: the monetary unit of measure used to record the converted monetary value of economic transactions in ledger accounts for financial and management reporting.

An example of this would be if you have a subsidiary company in Canada, and your primary company is in the United States. When you run reports, you want to see the results of the business operations in Canadian dollars (CAD). You must convert your U.S. dollars (USD) into CAD. The system uses the exchange rate that is defined on the Exchange rates form to convert the amounts for reporting.




7-5

Procedure: Change the Display Currency

After a currency is enabled for currency conversion, you can display financial information in a form or in a report by using a currency other than the ledger accounting currency, by following these steps:

1. On the status bar, click the Currency field to open the Currency converter form.

2. Select any of the currencies that are set up for conversion in the Currency converter form.

3. Enter the date used for the conversion in the Date of rate field. 4. Click a currency to select the new currency.

The Currency converter form will automatically close, and the Currency field on the status bar displays the new currency. All the forms, inquiries, and reports that originally displayed amounts in the company's currency now display the currency selected.

To return to the default company currency, follow these steps:

1. Open the Currency converter form. 2. Click the Reset button to return to the ledger accounting currency.

NOTE: When you change the display currency, the ledger accounting currency of a legal entity does not change. Also, this is not a global change. It does not affect any other users in the legal entity, nor does it change the original transaction.

Shared Fiscal Calendars Global organizations frequently operate as different legal entities in different geographies. Each legal entity frequenty shares data such as Chart of Accounts, Currencies, Exchange rates, and Calendars. Enabling these types of data to be defined one time and shared across legal entities helps reduce the cost to maintain such data for all organizations.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, fiscal calendars are now shared across multiple legal entities.

The benefits of sharing fiscal calendars include the following:

• Supporting multiple fiscal calendars for each legal entity. For example, for fixed assets that you may require two calendars one for auditing and one for tax. This lets you run parallel depreciations.

• Sharing fiscal calendars across multiple legal entities. This reduces how much setup is required for each legal entity.




7-6

Scenario: Set Up Shared Fiscal Calendars

Phyllis, the Accounting Manager, wants to define calendars for different purposes and share them across different ledgers without having to create them in each legal entity.

Procedure: Create Shared Fiscal Calendars

When you create a new fiscal year, the system creates:

• A number of periods with the status of Open • A closing period with the status of On hold • The opening period into the new fiscal year with the status of Closed

To create a new fiscal calendar, follow these steps:

1. Open General ledger > Setup > Fiscal Calendar.

FIGURE 7.2 FISCAL CALENDARS FORM

2. Click New fiscal calendar. 3. Enter fiscal calendar details such as Calendar, Description, Start

date, End date, Name, Length of the period, and Unit on this form. 4. Click Create to finalize the new calendar. 5. Click New fiscal year to create a new year copying the selected

years settings.

NOTE: There is no Period status control on the Fiscal Calendar form. This is because, when you are sharing a calendar across multiple legal entities, all the legal entities may not be ready to be closed at the same time. Therefore, you control the period status on a per-legal entity basis, in their ledger.




7-7

Procedure: View the Fiscal Calendar for the Ledger

To view the fiscal calendar for the Ledger, follow these steps:

1. Open General ledger > Setup > Ledger. 2. Select the calendar from the drop-down menu in the Fiscal

Calendar field. 3. Click Ledger calendar on the upper-left corner of the form and it

will open the desired calendar.

Procedure: Set the Period Status

To view and control the Period status, follow these steps:

1. Open General ledger > Setup > Ledger.

FIGURE 7.3 LEDGER CALENDAR FORM - MODULE ACCESS LEVEL TAB

2. Select the calendar from the drop-down menu in the Fiscal Calendar field.




7-8

3. Click Ledger calendar on the upper-left corner of the form and it will open the desired calendar.

4. Click the Periods tab. 5. Use the Period status field to set the period status.

a. Open b. Closed c. On hold (this was earlier named Stopped)

Subledger Accounting Improvements are made for previewing and updating the accounting entries in the subledger before journalizing a source document in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The subledger journal entries provide the preview of the accounting entry, and the accounting distributions can be used to correct the subledger journal entry to make sure that the correct ledger accounts are being updated.

Options are also now available for how the subledger journal entries will be transferred to general ledger: synchronously or asynchronously, also whether in detail or summary.

When the Asynchronous or Batch transfer option is selected, source documents will not immediately transfer to General ledger. Instead, a periodic job must be initiated to transfer the amounts-in detail or summary-from the subledger to the General ledger.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the following source documents have implemented the accounting distribution and subledger journal entry functionality.

• Free text invoice • Purchase requisition • Purchase order • Product receipt • Vendor invoice • Travel requisition • Expense report

Asynchronous Processing

Asynchronous processing is useful when you are processing a large volume of source documents. It enables the processing to be scheduled and the user to return to data entry more quickly.




7-9

When you are transferring source documents asynchronously, the option is also available to transfer in summary. When this option is selected and the transactions are posted into the General ledger, users can drill down from a summarized general ledger journal entry to the detailed source documents in the subledger.

Accounting Distributions

Before you post a source document, you can view the full accounting entry of the source document. This includes debits and credits. This lets you verify that the source document is being posted to the correct accounts. This view of the full accounting entry is named a subledger journal entry. You cannot edit subledger journals entries directly. To edit subledger journal entries, you must correct the accounting distributions, posting profile, or posting definition.

Accounting distributions are used to define how an amount is be accounted for, such as what revenue or expense ledger account an amount will journalize to in the General ledger. The primary information on an accounting distribution is the amount on the source document line, and the ledger account for which to distribute that amount.

The ledger account on the accounting distributions can be defaulted based on the following:

• The default main account on a posting profile or source document line.

• The template defined on the purchase order line. • The default financial dimension values on the purchase order line.

NOTE: If financial dimension values exist on the source document header, they are copied to the source document lines by default. These values can be overridden on a line-by-line basis.

Procedure: View Subledger Journals Entries for a Free Text Invoice

You can use the Subledger journal form to view the debits and credits of transactions for purchase orders.

To view the subledger journal entries for a free text invoice before posting, follow these steps:

1. Click Accounts receivable > Common > Free text invoices > All free text invoices.

2. Double-click the invoice that contains the line with the subledger journal entry to view.




7-10

3. Click the Invoice lines tab and select the invoice line with the subledger journal entry to view.

4. In the Accounting group, click Subledger journal to open the Subledger journal form.

Financial Dimensions Default Templates

When there are common patterns that you use to distribute source document amounts, you can use a template. Use this form to create a template of percentage and financial dimension value combinations. The information in the template will be used to display default financial dimension values when you distribute source document amounts.

General ledger > Setup > Financial dimensions > Financial dimensions default templates

FIGURE 7.4 FINANCIAL DIMENSION DEFAULT TEMPLATES FORM

Accounting Distributions When you define how to account for an amount on a source document line, the accounting distribution may be split based on percentage, quantity, or amount.

Two versions of the Accounting distributions form can be accessed from any of the supported source documents.

• The accounting distributions can be accessed from each source document line by selecting the Distribute amounts button.

• The accounting distributions can be accessed for the complete source document by selecting the View distributions button.




7-11

This example uses a free text invoice to open the accounting distribution form.


2. Double-click the invoice that contains the line for which to create an accounting distribution.

3. Click the Invoice lines tab and select the invoice line for which to view an accounting distribution.

4. On the Action Pane strip, click the Distribute amounts button.

FIGURE 7.5 ACCOUNTING DISTRIBUTIONS FORM

Procedure: Create Distributions

To create accounting distributions, follow these steps:


2. Double-click the invoice that contains the line for which to create an accounting distribution.

3. Click the Invoice lines tab and select the invoice line for which to create an accounting distribution.

4. On the action pane strip, click the Distribute amounts button. 5. Select how to distribute by selecting Amount, Percent, or Quantity.




7-12

6. You can create distributions in the following ways: a. To create multiple distributions with the same quantity, percent,

or amount distribution, click New for each accounting distribution to create, select a ledger account for each distribution, and then click Distribute equally.

b. To create distributions one at a time, on the action pane strip, click New. Select the ledger account to distribute the invoice line to and enter the quantity, percent, or amount to distribute. For example, if you selected Amount in the Distributed by field, enter an amount in the Amount field. Information will be displayed in the Quantity and Percent fields when you tab off of the record.

7. Repeat until you are finished creating distributions. 8. Close the form.

Financial Dimensions The main purpose of financial dimension is to provide more detail about the activity in your chart of accounts. For example, you have ten departments in your organization and you must create a salary expense account for the payroll.

Instead of creating ten separate payroll accounts for each department you can assign the same payroll expense account to each department. By doing this, you can keep your chart of accounts short and more manageable.

The following are the main features and changes that are made to financial dimensions in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012:

• The Financial dimension wizard is removed. The user can create and rename financial dimension in a form, exactly like other base data entities. It is no longer required to synchronize the database when adding a new financial dimension.

• Valid from and to dates on each financial dimension value. • The users can mask the financial dimension. The mask is used to

validate the financial dimension value.

Procedure: Create Financial Dimensions

To create a financial dimension and assign attributes to it, follow these steps:

1. Open General ledger > Setup > Financial dimensions > Dimensions. Use this form to create financial dimensions that you can use as account segments for your shared chart of accounts.

2. Press CTRL+N or click New to create a new record.




7-13

3. In the Use values from field select an option: a. To create a user-defined financial dimension, select <Custom

dimension>. b. Select a system-defined entity upon which to base the financial

dimension. Financial dimension values will be created from this selection. For example, to create dimension values for projects, select Projects. A dimension value will be created for each project name.

4. After you have created the financial dimension, use the Value details form to assign additional properties to each financial dimension.

5. Optionally, enter a format mask to use for creating new financial dimension values. A format mask limits the amount and type of information that you can enter for financial dimension values.

NOTE: Masking is available only when you select Custom list in the field.

Financial Dimension Sets

Financial dimension sets have several purposes in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. As in earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, Financial dimension sets are used to determine how reports and inquiries related to the general ledger are rendered.

Financial dimension sets can now be used to calculate balances during the posting process. Balances in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 are now only stored based on the dimension set, and calculated based on whether the option to calculate with posting or the batch schedule. Financial dimension sets also drive the data displayed in the Trial balance list page.

Financial Dimension Sets Example

The sequence in which dimension focuses are considered in reporting effects how transactions are sorted and fields are presented.

For example, the set Department and Cost center indicates that the Department dimension type is first and Cost center second. Therefore, the considered focus is the composite of Department and Cost center. Department amounts are presented first and Cost center amounts are presented second.

The focuses defined can be used alone or in pairs when you inquire or report on financial transactions. Select a main and secondary focus to be considered when presenting the results. The secondary focus details the figures of the main focus. The selection of a secondary focus is limited to focuses that do not share a dimension type with a main focus. Therefore, if the main focus is the composite of Ledger account and Department, you can only select Cost center and/or Purpose as the secondary focus.




7-14

General ledger > Setup > Financial dimensions > Financial dimension sets

FIGURE 7.6 FINANCIAL DIMENSION SET FORM

Multiple Charts of Accounts It is common for large organizations to have the same chart of accounts that is used across multiple legal entities. This feature is included in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and lets you define legal entity specific data, such as the default sales tax code on the main account or the ability to inactivate a financial dimension value for a specific legal entity.

The following entities/objects have legal entity specific data:

• Main account • Dimension values

The following elements make up the shared chart of accounts.

• Main account templates • Chart of accounts • Main accounts • Account structures • Advanced rules • Financial dimensions • Financial dimension values




7-15

Procedure: Set Up a Chart of Accounts

Use the Chart of accounts form to create, manage, and view the organization’s chart of accounts. The chart of accounts also provides the main account and financial dimension value combination rules. The main accounts contain the financial data about the activity of the legal entity.

To set up chart of accounts, follow these steps:

1. Click General ledger > Setup > Chart of accounts > Chart of accounts.

2. Press Ctrl+N or click New. 3. Enter the name and description in the Chart of Accounts and

Description fields, respectively.

Chart of Accounts Form

The following tables provide the description of the tabs and buttons available in the Chart of accounts form.

Tabs

Tab Description

Main accounts

View the main accounts that are included in the selected chart of accounts.

Account Structures

Add account structures to the selected chart of accounts or remove account structures from the selected chart of accounts. You must create at least one account structure before you can enter transactions.

Buttons

Button Description

New Open the form, where you can create one or more account structures, also known as a chart of accounts

Automatic account type selection

Open the Automatic account type selection form, where you can set up the selection of the account type according to the first character that you enter.

New from template

Create a new main account based on a template that is set up in the Main account templates form.




7-16

Procedure: Create a Main Account

To create a new main account, follow these steps.

1. Click General ledger > Setup > Chart of accounts > Chart of accounts.

2. Select a chart of accounts. 3. On the Main accounts tab, click New. 4. Click New to create a new line. 5. Enter an account number in the Main account field and enter an

account name. 6. Select the type of account in the Type field. Profit and loss will be

displayed as the default value unless you have defined automatic selection of account type by prefix in the Automatic account type selection form.

7. Enter or select an account category, if the account type is anything other than Total.

8. Enter or select a reporting type, if the account type is Reporting. 9. Enter any available information in the additional fields. 10. In the Select the level of main account to display field, select Legal

entity to enter and view legal entity specific data for the main account.

11. Use the Add legal entity and Remove legal entity buttons to select which legal entities the main account is valid for.

NOTE: A message will display below the Legal entities form that displays for which legal entity you are viewing the main account.

12. Enter any legal entity specific data into the General and Setup tabs. 13. Repeat steps 11 and 12 for each legal entity that the main account

should be valid for.

Account Structures Overview

Account structures consist of main accounts and can include financial dimension segments. The account structures are used to define the valid combinations that, together with the main accounts, form a chart of accounts. The account structures allow you to define the sequence for the entry of the main account and financial dimension.

NOTE: It is not required that the main account be the first segment in the account structure.




7-17

Multiple account structures enable a company to track information for specific accounts while not affecting other accounts.

For example, balance sheet accounts may not require as many dimensions as profit and loss type accounts. For balance sheet accounts, you might only be interested in Department. For profit and loss accounts, you might also want to track Cost Center, Purpose, and Country/Region.

Procedure: Configuration of Account Structures

To configure account structures, follow these steps:

1. Open General ledger > Chart of accounts > Configure account structure.

FIGURE 7.7 CHART OF ACCOUNT STRUCTURES FORM

2. Click New or press Ctrl + N to create a new record. 3. Click Add segment to add financial dimension to the structure from

the list. 4. Click Validate to check whether you created a valid combination of

financial dimensions. 5. Click Activate when the validation is completed. 6. Save the record and close the form.

NOTE: This form can also be accessed from the Chart of accounts form.




7-18

Lab 7.1 - Create Financial Dimensions and Chart of Account Structures

This lab provides practice for creating a financial dimension and chart of account structure.

Scenario

Contoso has a holiday sale that runs from November 1 to December 31.

Phyllis, the Accounting Manager, wants all sales transactions entered during this time to track "Fall" as the financial dimension attribute value for a new financial dimension called "Holidays". Help Phyllis create a financial dimension and assign values to it.

Challenge Yourself!

Use the information that is provided to create a financial dimension and assign attributes to it.

1. Ledger account 401190 - "Sales-Other". 2. Department OU_1 - "Internal Sales".

Need a Little Help?

1. Create a new financial dimension titled "Holiday". 2. Add a new Financial dimension value called "Fall" to the new

Holiday dimension. 3. Add a date range of 11/1/2011 to 12/31/2011 to the Fall dimension

value. 4. Create a new account structure including Main account, Dimension-

Shared, and the new Holiday dimensions. 5. Set the Main account to ledger account 401190, and the Dimension-

Shared to OU_1.

Step by Step

1. Open General ledger > Setup > Financial dimensions > Dimensions.

2. Click New. 3. Select < Custom dimension > in the Use values from field. 4. Enter "Holiday" in the Dimension name field. 5. Click the Financial dimension values button. 6. Click New to create a new value. 7. Enter "Fall" into the Dimension value field and Description field.




7-19

8. Enter "11/1/2011" in the Active from field on the General fast tab. 9. Enter "12/31/2011" in Active to field. 10. Close the form. You can see the Holiday financial dimension in the

Dimension name list. 11. Close the form. 12. Open General ledger > Setup > Chart of Accounts, and then click

Configure account structures. 13. Click New. 14. Enter Account structure ID "Holiday sales", enter a Description,

and then click OK. 15. Click Add Segment. 16. Select Main Account from the existing financial dimensions. 17. Enter account number 401190 - "Sales-Other". 18. Click Add Segment again. 19. Select Department-Shared from the existing financial dimensions. 20. Enter OU_1 - "Internal Sales". 21. Click Add Segment again. 22. Select Holiday from the existing financial dimensions. 23. Click Validate. 24. Close the Infolog form. 25. Click Activate. 26. Click Yes to continue and complete the activation, and then close the

Configure account structures form when the process is completed.




7-20

Advanced Rule Structures for Ledger Posting You can use advanced rule structures to link a financial dimension or multiple financial dimensions to an account number or range of account numbers so that additional information can be collected for reporting and analysis.

For example, you want to track the travel expense account by the airlines. You could set up 'Travel Expense" as the main account and create another financial dimension called "Airlines" and set criteria for that financial dimension such as "Airline 1", "Airline 2", and "Airline 3". Now, you can easily track travel expense by each airline that is defined.

Scenario: Create Accounting Rules

Phyllis, the Accounting Manager, is setting up the charts of accounts for Contoso Enterprise. For some accounts, the organization wants to track additional information that is not captured in the account structures. She must make sure that for the customer group (one of the financial dimensions)"80: Other customers" only certain departments can be used.

Procedure: Create Accounting Rules

To create an accounting rule, follow these steps:

1. Open General ledger > Setup > Chart of accounts > Advanced rule structures.

2. Click New to create a new record. 3. Enter a unique identifier for the Advanced rule structure, enter a

brief description, and then click OK. 4. Click Add segment to add financial dimension to the structure from. 5. Select the desired Financial dimension from the list and then click

Add segment. 6. Click the Filter icon under the selected segment to define which

values for the financial dimension are applicable for the selected rule.

7. Select the Specify which values are allowed option. 8. Click in the Enter a value field and then enter the desired value. 9. Optionally, mark the Allow blanks check box to allow blank values

for the segment in the advanced rule that you are defining. 10. Click OK to save and close the form. 11. Click Add segment to add another financial dimension to the

structure. 12. Select the next desired financial dimension from the list and then

click Add segment. 13. Click the Filter icon under the new segment to define which values

for the financial dimension are applicable for the selected rule.




7-21

14. Select the Specify which values are allowed option. 15. Click in the Enter a value field and then enter the desired value. 16. Optionally, select the Allow blanks check box to allow blank values

for the segment in the advanced rule that you are defining. 17. Click OK to save and close the form. 18. Click Activate to save the changes and make them effective in the

ledger.

Ledger Account Alias

You can set up ledger account number aliases to provide a shortcut to a complete account number or a partial account number.

You can also define a date range on an account that will be used to determine whether an account is valid for entry and posting and define an account mask to dictate the format of account values (length, symbols, alpha-numeric values, and so on). Regardless of the date range, the user can mark an account as closed (inactive).

Commitment Accounting Commitment accounting is also known as Encumbrance Accounting.

Commitment accounting enables the recording of a commitment in the general ledger for future or planned expenses before the creation or collection of the underlying documents, such as, invoices or purchase orders, before those committed funds are paid out. This enables the financial records to reflect the allocation of budgetary resources when they are committed instead of when the actual expenditure is recorded. This provides financial information earlier than “budget to actual” reports. Examples of commitments might include internal purchases or monthly utility payments.

Commitment accounting records the reservation of funds for future payment obligations in the general ledger. In Commitment accounting the accounting entries are made and the appropriation is charged when a contract is started or when an order is placed for goods or services. The entries record the amount to be reserved out of the unencumbered balance that is remaining in an appropriation to honor the commitment.




7-22

About Purchase Order Encumbrances

An encumbrance is a reservation of budget funds that are set aside to make sure that actual expenditures do not exceed the available budget. If the encumbrance process is enabled, you can create purchase order encumbrances that are recorded in the general ledger when a purchase order is confirmed. Encumbered amounts can then be spent when vendor invoices that reference a purchase order are confirmed. Encumbered amounts on a purchase order are relieved when a vendor invoice is confirmed to spend all or part of the encumbered amount. Relieved amounts are subtracted from the amount of the purchase order encumbrance.

NOTE: You must use budget control in order to perform budget funds availability check and to create reservations of budget funds against the budget balances. Commitment accounting only records the commitment of funds in the form of a sub ledger journal entry and then in the general ledger.

A pre-encumbrance is a request to reserve budget funds for planned expenditures. The funds arerequested, but have not yet been approved for a purchase order. If the pre-encumbrance process is enabled, you can create purchase requisitions with a pre-encumbered amount for the planned expenditure. The pre-encumbered amounts are then recorded in the general ledger.

When purchase requisitions are approved, you can create purchase orders for the requested amounts. When you create and confirm a purchase order for the pre-encumbered amount on a purchase requisition, a purchase order encumbrance is created for that amount. The pre-encumbered amount is then automatically relieved. This avoids having a budget reservation be counted two times in the general ledger, as both a pre-encumbrance and an encumbrance.

Scenario: Purchase Order Encumbrances

A department manager in your organization creates a purchase requisition for expected purchases for the department. One of the lines in the purchase requisition is for 12,000.00 U.S. dollars (USD) for new office furniture.

The request is later approved and a purchase order is created that has a line to cover the 12,000.00 USD cost.

The 12,000.00 USD pre-encumbrance on the purchase requisition is automatically relieved when the new purchase order is confirmed. The relieved amount on the purchase requisition line is then replaced by a 12,000.00 (USD) encumbrance on the purchase order.




7-23

Procedure: Enable Purchase Order Encumbrances

To enable encumbrances or pre-encumbrances for purchase orders, follow these steps:

1. Open General ledger > Setup > General ledger parameters. 2. Click Ledger, and then click the Accounting rules fast tab. 3. Select the Use posting definitions check box. Click Yes if you are

asked to confirm the selection.

IMPORTANT: You should create and test all posting definitions before you select the Use posting definitions check box. When you select that check box, all posting definitions are active immediately. Posting definitions can be used only for the transaction posting types that are shown in the Transaction posting definitions form. Transaction posting types that are not shown in this form always use posting profiles.

4. Select one or both of the following check boxes: a. Select Enable encumbrance process to create encumbrances

only. b. Select Enable pre-encumbrance process to create both pre-

encumbrances and encumbrances. If you select this check box, the Enable encumbrance process check box is automatically selected.

5. Close the General ledger parameters form.

Posting Definitions

Posting definitions are used in addition to posting profiles to create sub ledger journal lines for originating transactions that meet selected criteria. Posting definitions contain the accounts or dimensions to generate when a posting definition is used.

After you create posting definitions, you must assign them to transaction posting types. Transaction posting definitions identify which posting definitions to use with a specific posting type.

Procedure: Set Up Posting Definitions

To set up a posting definition, follow these steps:

1. Click General ledger > Setup > Posting > Posting definitions. 2. Press CTRL+N to create a new posting definition. 3. Enter a name and description for the posting definition. You may

enter a longer description on the Memo tab. 4. Select the module for which the posting definition applies.




7-24

5. Under Match criteria, click Add, and then enter the account number that must be in the originating entry.

6. Optional: If you have multiple match account numbers, in the Priority field, select a number to indicate the order the transactions should be processed. Accounts marked 1 are processed first.

7. Under Generated entries, click Add, and then enter the account number where the system will generate a ledger line when a match exists.

8. In the Generated debit/credit field, select the way to generate the debit or credit.

9. Optional: To link to an existing posting definition, select the definition on the Linked definitions tab. Linked posting definitions must be associated with the same module. This tab is visible only if the current posting definition is not linked to another posting definition. If it is already linked to another definition, the Test tab is visible.

10. Optional: To test the posting definition, click Test. A test lets you enter sample transaction data and then view the system-generated ledger lines that will result when the posting definition is used.

11. Close the form.

Procedure: View Encumbrances for Purchase Orders

You can view encumbrances by ledger account for a selected purchase order, and view any amounts that are relieved. Encumbered amounts on a purchase order are relieved when a vendor invoice is confirmed to spend all or part of the encumbered amount. The relieved amount can include any invoice credits or price adjustments to the encumbered amount. You can also view the remaining amount of any encumbered amounts for a purchase order, if the whole encumbered amount was not relieved.

To view encumbrances for a purchase order, follow these steps:





7-25

2. Double-click a purchase order. 3. On the Action Pane, click the Purchase tab, and then click View

subledger journal.

FIGURE 7.8 SUBLEDGER JOURNAL FORM

Process Purchase Orders at Year-End Overview

If you record encumbrances for purchase orders in the general ledger or have budget control enabled for recording reservation of budget funds, you can generate closing transactions to the general ledger and against budget reservations at the end of each fiscal year.

NOTE: This process can be used if you are using budget control only, commitment accounting only, or both budget control and commitment accounting. If budget control is not enabled, then this process does not affect budget reservations. Instead it only creates general journal entries according to the accounting rules (posting definitions) for commitment accounting.

At the start of the new fiscal year, you can create opening transactions to correctly record the encumbrances and budget reservations. These transactions help make sure that the reservations for purchase order encumbrances are correctly recorded on the year-end financial statements and in budget control.

Closing purchase order encumbrances is a separate process from closing a fiscal year, and is usually performed before a fiscal year is closed. There are two year-end processing options to close purchase order encumbrances in the fiscal year that is ending and re-encumber them in the new fiscal year.




7-26

Year-End Close Options If you select this option...

The following closing and opening steps will occur for purchase order encumbrances.

Process and do not carry forward budget

Closing steps: 1. The remaining encumbrances in the general ledger

and outstanding budget reservations for encumbrances are reversed.

2. Year-end closing transactions are generated in the general ledger.

Opening steps: 1. Closing transactions are reversed. 2. Encumbrances are reestablished in the general ledger. 3. Budget reservations for encumbrances are created for

the purchase orders that are being processed against next year's budget.

Process and carry forward budget

IMPORTANT: This option is available only if budget control is enabled. Closing steps: 1. The remaining encumbrances in the general ledger

and outstanding budget reservations for encumbrances are reversed.

2. Year-end closing transactions are generated in the general ledger.

3. Budget adjustments are created to reduce the budget in the fiscal year that is being closed.

Opening steps: 1. Closing transactions are reversed. 2. Encumbrances are reestablished in the general ledger. 3. Budget reservations for encumbrances are created for

the purchase orders that are being processed and classified as carry forward encumbrances.

4. Budget adjustments are created in the new fiscal year to re-establish the budget register entries that were carried forward from the previous fiscal year and classified as carry forward budget.




7-27

Procedure: Run the Purchase Order Year-End Process

To select purchase orders and run the purchase order year-end process, follow these steps:

1. Open General ledger > Periodic > Fiscal year close > Purchase order year-end process.

2. Click Retrieve purchase orders in the bottom pane to select purchase orders for the year-end process. This opens a query form where you can select purchase orders by criteria such as date, date range, vendor account, purchase order type, purchase order balance, or financial dimensions.

3. Click OK in the Inquiry form. 4. The results of the query are displayed in the bottom pane of the

Purchase order year-end process form. Select the Include check box for each purchase order to include in the year-end processing.

5. Encumbrances for those purchase orders will be reversed in the fiscal year that is ending and the encumbered amounts will be made available in the new fiscal year. You can click Include all to select all the purchase orders in the list or click Exclude all to clear your selections.

6. In the Year-end option field, select how to process purchase order encumbrances.

7. Select an original budget code, if you selected the Process and carry forward budget year-end option. This code will be used for budget adjustments that are made in the closing fiscal year. The code that you select must not have a workflow selected, because the year-end processing would stop for workflow approvals.

8. Select a carry forward budget code, if you selected the Process and carry forward budget year-end option. This code will be used for budget adjustments that are made in the new fiscal year. The code that you select must not have a workflow selected, because the year-end processing would stop for workflow approvals.

9. Verify the default values in the Calendar and Fiscal year fields and make any changes.

10. Verify the default values for the Closing parameters fields and make any changes. a. The default value for the Accounting date field is the last day of

the selected fiscal year. b. The Type field is typically set to Operating for a period that can

be used to record accounting transactions. You can select Closing if you are using a closing period to separate the closing transactions.

c. If you selected a type of Closing, select the closing period that you want to use.




7-28

11. Verify the default values for the Opening parameters fields and make any changes. a. The default value for the Accounting date field is the first day

of the opening fiscal year.

b. The default value for the Period field is the first period that has a type of Operating in the opening fiscal year. This type of period is used to record accounting transactions. You can select a different period. However, it must have a type of Operating.

12. Click Process when you are ready to run the purchase order year-end process.

13. If any messages are displayed, make the necessary corrections and run the process again for the affected purchase orders.

Encumbrance Reconciliation Report

You can select general ledger parameters that let you record encumbrances in the general ledger. An encumbrance is a reflection of a reservation of budget funds recorded in the ledger to budgetary accounts. If the purchase order encumbrance process is enabled, the encumbered amounts are recorded on the balance sheet.

A new form is introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to prepare a reconciliation report that is grouped by the general ledger chart of accounts dimension that you select. Open General ledger > Reports > Reconciliation > Vendor > Encumbrance to access the report.

This report identifies imbalances between budget reservations for encumbrances and the corresponding encumbrances that are tracked in the general ledger. You can view a detailed version of the report, or view only the differences.

The detailed version shows totals by transaction or document number for all encumbrances.

The differences-only version shows only instances where the budget reservation for encumbrances does not balance with the corresponding encumbrance accounts in the general ledger.

NOTE: The commitment accounting ledger accounts must be set up to use the appropriate account category either pre-encumbrance or encumbrance for the amounts to be reflected on the report.




7-29

Summary This modulde reviewed the new features that are included in the General ledger module of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

The key areas of improvement are as follows:

• Shared currencies across multiple legal entities. • Subledger journals entries that let you preview the accounting entry

on a source document before you post it. • New functionality for accounting distributions on many source

document. • Ability to create structures of a main account and the financial

dimensions assigned to it. • Advanced rules that provide you additional information for a specific

general ledger account. • Shared fiscal calendars used by multiple legal entities.




7-30


1. Where can you change the period status?

( ) On the Fiscal calendar form when you create it. ( ) On the Fiscal calendar form when you open it from the Ledger form. ( ) On the Fiscal year form. ( ) On the Working days calendar.


_____ 1. Account Structure _____ 2. Accounting Distribution _____ 3. Shared Chart of Accounts_____ 4. Accounting Currency _____ 5. Reporting Currency

a. A process of splitting the source accounting documents

b. The monetary unit of measure used to record the converted monetary value of economic transactions in ledger accounts for financial and management reporting.

c. The same chart of accounts that are used by the multiple legal entities

d. The usual monetary unit of measure that is used to record the converted monetary value of economic transactions in ledger accounts.

e. A configuration of the main account financial dimension and other financial dimensions.

3. Define the steps that are required to enable a currency for conversion.

Step:

_____: On the General fast tab, select the Conversion check box to enable a currency for conversion.

_____: Select a currency.

_____: Open General Ledger > Setup > Currencies.

4. What are the Account aliases used for?

( ) To create main account in the chart of accounts. ( ) To create an account template. ( ) To create a shortcut to a complete or partial account number. ( ) To configure the accounting rule.




7-31

5. When do you use Financial dimension default templates?




7-32


1.

2.

3.




7-33


1. Where can you change the period status?

( ) On the Fiscal calendar form when you create it. (•) On the Fiscal calendar form when you open it from the Ledger form. ( ) On the Fiscal year form. ( ) On the Working days calendar.


e 1. Account Structure a 2. Accounting Distribution c 3. Shared Chart of Accounts d 4. Accounting Currency b 5. Reporting Currency

a. A process of splitting the source accounting documents

b. The monetary unit of measure used to record the converted monetary value of economic transactions in ledger accounts for financial and management reporting.

c. The same chart of accounts that are used by the multiple legal entities

d. The usual monetary unit of measure that is used to record the converted monetary value of economic transactions in ledger accounts.

e. A configuration of the main account financial dimension and other financial dimensions.

3. Define the steps that are required to enable a currency for conversion.

Step:

3 : On the General fast tab, select the Conversion check box to enable a currency for conversion.

2 : Select a currency.

1 : Open General Ledger > Setup > Currencies.




7-34

4. What are the Account aliases used for?

( ) To create main account in the chart of accounts. ( ) To create an account template. (•) To create a shortcut to a complete or partial account number. ( ) To configure the accounting rule.

5. When do you use Financial dimension default templates?

MODEL ANSWER:

When there are common patterns that you use to distribute source document amounts, you can use a template.



Chapter 8: Project Management and Accounting

8-1

CHAPTER 8: PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTING Objectives

The objectives are:

• Create a timesheet for a project. • Allocate fixed price revenue by resources. • Set up budget controls, and create and revise budgets. • Review the process for creating and managing projects on Enterprise

Portal. • Set up funding sources, limits, and rules. • Set initial balances for a project.

Introduction The Project management and accounting module in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 is improved to help simplify and streamline project-related processes. In addition, many features from the Microsoft Dynamics client are extended to now be available in Enterprise Portal.

Key areas of improvement include the following:

• Improvements to timesheets in the client and the Enterprise Portal. • Additional methods for allocating revenue on fixed price projects are

introduced. • Budget control for projects is introduced. • Users can create projects in the Enterprise Portal. • Users can create and manage funding for project contracts including

funding sources, funding limits, and funding rules. • Ability to add beginning balances to projects that do not affect the

general ledger.




8-2

Project Timesheets Improvements are made to the process for submitting project timesheets in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. This includes the following:

• Users are now able to enter time for multiple projects. • Timesheet support in Enterprise Portal includes the ability to manage

favorites and to quickly create a new timesheet based on a previous timesheet or based on favorites.

• Instant access to hours already logged in a timesheet week from a fact box. This also helps prevent users from entering duplicate hours.

• Quick manual entry of timesheet lines by letting the user key in partial activity/category IDs. The system will automatically resolve to the first matching activity/category.

• Improved readability of the timesheets by displaying both the ID and names concatenated for project, activity and category fields.

• The timesheet list page lets you preview the timesheet lines without having the need to open the timesheet.

• The timesheet line-level approvals now use support from the workflow framework for lines to achieve consistency with other tasks.

• The timesheet review experience is improved by not displaying timesheet lines with zero hours. The system now automatically deletes such lines upon submission.

Scenario: Viewing Timesheets

Users of the project system play one or more roles in one or more projects. Improvements in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 help you make sure that project users can view only timesheets that they are allowed to view based on the role(s) they play in one or more projects.

The following table displays an example of users and their roles in various projects:

User Role Project

Prakash Project Manager Project 1 and Project 2

Kevin Project Supervisor All projects

Nancy* Team Member Project 1

Tricia Team Member Project 2

*Nancy is also set up as a delegate for Tricia from 7/1/2010 through 7/15/2010.




8-3

Based on the outlined roles, the users can view the following timesheets:

• Prakash - can view all his own timesheets, and the timesheets for which he is a project manager (Nancy and Tricia's timesheets).

• Kevin - can view all his own timesheets, and the timesheets for which he is a project supervisor (Prakash, Nancy, and Tricia's timesheets).

• Nancy - can view all her own timesheets, and Tricia's timesheets for the delegated time period.

• Tricia - can view all her own timesheets.

Procedure: Create a Timesheet

To create a new timesheet in Enterprise Portal, follow these steps:

1. Open the Employee Services page on Enterprise portal in your Internet browser.

2. Click My timesheets under the Manage time section. 3. Click New > New timesheet to start a new timesheet.

FIGURE 8.1 NEW TIMESHEET FORM

4. Select the Date for the timesheet. 5. In the Lines tab, select an option to add a line:

a. Click New line to manually add a new timesheet line. b. Click Copy from > My favorites to create lines from your

favorites. c. Click Copy from > Timesheet to copy lines from a timesheet

that you are asked to select from.




8-4

6. Enter the Customer or Project and the Activity, Category, and Line property.

7. Enter the number of daily working hours into each cell. There is one column for each day in the period.

8. Click Save to update the lines on the timesheet.

Allocate Project Revenue The revenue recognition system in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 for fixed price projects can only allocate revenue for each project based, on a completion percentage. This is usually sufficient for Construction and Engineer-to-order (ETO) companies.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces the ability to allocate and post revenue based on an internal sales price for each employee, category, and dimension. This enables companies to monitor the profitability for each allocation area. This is a necessity for professional services and consulting companies.

Fixed Rate Allocation Overview

The estimate system in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 can only post the revenue through a fee transaction for the estimate period, whereas Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will allocate the revenue posting to each hour, expense and item transactions. The earlier functionality is still available in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

There are two methods to allocate the revenue to each transaction:

• by a fixed rate • by adjustable rates.

When fixed rate is selected, each transaction receives a fixed sales rate based on the sales price setting. If there is a cost over/under run, the estimate would post a fee transaction to adjust to the contract value.

When Adjustable internal sales rate is selected, each transaction receives a sales rate based on the sales price setting. If there is a cost over/under run, the estimate will adjust each hour, expense and item transactions based on the new profit markup rate.




8-5

The Revenue Recognition for Fixed Price Flow figure shows how the postings flow through the system for the various types of transactions.

FIGURE 8.2 REVENUE RECOGNITION FOR FIXED PRICE FLOW




8-6

The Behavior of Revenue Recognition figure shows the behavior of how the revenue is posted and related to the various transactions types.

FIGURE 8.3 BEHAVIOR OF REVENUE RECOGNITION

Percent Based Overview

When you post revenue based on the completion percentage, the revenue is only associated with the fee transaction posted by the estimate system. The revenue is not allocated to the individual lines or transactions.

Instead, the cost is posted to a new fee transaction based on the percentage of the project that is completed.

Fixed Rate Overview

When you use the Fixed rate revenue recognition option, each transaction is allocated revenue based on the sales price posted in the journal.

The formula used for calculating the estimated revenue is as follows:

Contract value – Sum of sales amount of transactions (Hours + Expense + Item)




8-7

Markup Percent Total Overview

By using the markup percent of the estimate to accrue the revenue, the hour, expense, and item transactions will acheive the same profitability.

For example, all transactions have a 60 percent markup for the third and fourth quarters in 2008. However, because cost of business increases over time, cost is added to each of the cost estimate transactions in 2009. This causes the profit to slip and the markup percent gradually decreases.

Every time the markup percent changes from the previous estimate, the system uses the new percent for all new transactions found by the estimate. Then the system adjusts the transactions from the previous estimate by creating incremental sales amount posting to reduce the revenue from 60 percent to the new markup percent.

The Estimates Revenue formula is as follows:

Transaction (Hour, Expense, and Item) cost * Contract value / Total estimated cost

Markup Percent for Each Estimate Line Overview

By using the markup percent for each estimate line, a fixed price amount is allocated to the sub fixed amount that is associated to each of the cost lines in the estimate. In this manner, the individual transaction, such as hours, will live a life of its own, and only cost overruns in hours will affect the profitability of the hours. Other cost transactions will not be affected by the hours; instead they can have their individual fixed amount associated.

The Estimates Revenue formula is as follows:

Transaction (Hour, Expense, and Item) cost * Sales amount of estimate line / Cost amount of estimate line

Value Added Markup Percent

When you use the value added amount all profits are related to the hours.

For expense and item transactions, production revenue that is equal to the cost is accrued; whereas for the hours, both production revenue plus the profit revenue is posted to the individual hour transactions.

For example the value added rate of 225 (which can be assumed to be equal to 125 markup) is posted for the first two quarters. All employees have the same markup percent. Therefore, an employee with a high cost rate is also associated with a larger sales price.




8-8

Value Added Hour Rate

Using the value added hour rate means that all profits are related to the hours.

For expense and item costs, production revenue equal to the cost is accrued; whereas for the hours, production revenue plus profit revenue is posted to the individual hour transactions.

For example, the value added hour rate is 108.00 for all employees for the first two quarters. All employees have the same sales price. Therefore, the profitability will vary in percent, depending on the employee cost rate. A low cost rate for an employee assumes a high profitability and vice versa.

Project Budgeting When project managers create an original project budget, especially one with a complex structure, they need a comprehensive view of the budget as it is being defined. This gives the project managers ability to do the following:

• See the overall budget in a summary presentation. • Compare the budget that is being entered to the agreed-on funding

(both internal and external). • Make corrections to the budget entries before to submission.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces new budget control functionality for projects. This feature focuses on providing a comprehensive, and user-friendly tool to manage a project’s budget over the life of the project.

This feature has two primary components:

• Creation of the project’s original budget • Processing of project budget revisions

Original Project Budgets

The original project budget component of the project budgeting feature lets you perform the following tasks:

• Define the original project budget at various levels of the project hierarchy

• View the original project budget as it is being developed • Submit the original project budget for review and approval.




8-9

Throughout the life of a project, comparison of the project budget amounts to actual and committed amounts at the project activity level is important. This detail of comparison can help identify specifically where the project is on track and where it is not. This visibility frequently allows for appropriate corrective action to be taken at specific activity levels before the deviation becomes significant.

Budget Revision and Tracking

The second component of the project budgeting feature lets you capture individual requests to revise the project budget as uncommitted budget revisions, and manage the project budget revision submit/review/approval process. This ultimately results in an update to the overall project budget.

A key feature of this is the maintenance of an audit trail of all project budget revisions, those awaiting approval, those approved, and those rejected.

Maintaining a comprehensive audit trail of project budget revisions also allows for better estimation of future projects, because it is easier to see where projects have lost or gained profitability. Additionally, the nature and degree of the change requests that were made during the life cycle of these projects is also useful.

Scenario: Implement Budget Control for Projects

Prakash, the Project Manager, must define an original project budget against the project’s activity structure (instead of at the project summary level). This lets Prakash monitor budget versus actual amounts at a reduced level of detail. This includes how much of the project budget is consumed.

Prakash can determine whether his team is on target for costs and revenue, or if they will exceed the project budget and therefore need to change the project activity structure or the project budget to adjust for any additional work needed.

Prakash has the following information available and must enter it into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Project Activity Structure Amount at level Total for level

Project: Condominium renovation 60.00 320.00

Sub-project: Kitchen renovation 45.00 120.00

Sub-project: Cabinets renovation 25.00 45.00

Activity: Sand cabinets 10.00 10.00

Activity: Refinish cabinets 10.00 10.00

Sub-project: Floor renovation 30.00 30.00

Sub-project: Bathroom renovation 100.00 100.00




8-10

Procedure: Set Up a Project for Budget Control

To enable budget control for a project, follow these steps

1. Open Project management and accounting > Common > Projects > All projects.

2. Select the desired project and then click Edit. 3. Click the Budget and forecast tab.

FIGURE 8.4 PROJECT DETAILS - BUDGET AND FORECAST TAB

4. Select the Use budget control to enable budget control tracking for a project.

5. Select an option for Transaction types controlled: a. Revenues and Costs b. Costs only c. Revenues only




8-11

6. Select an option for Budget overrun default: a. Allow overruns - users will be allowed to post transactions

against a project that exceed the budget. b. Warn overruns - users will receive a warning message when

they post a transaction against a project that exceeds the budget. c. Disallow overruns - users will be restricted from posting

transactions against a project that exceed the budget.

7. Use the Settings button next to User group override to create specific settings for a group of users who differ from the Budget overrun default value.

Procedure: Create Budget Amounts for Projects

To enter budget information for a project and its related sub-projects, follow these steps:


2. Select the main project from the list. 3. Click the Plan tab on the action pane and then click Project budget.

FIGURE 8.5 PROJECT BUDGETS FORM




8-12

4. Click New in the Costs, Revenues, or On-account tab to create a budget line for the related budget type.

5. Select the project or sub-project in the Project field. 6. Optionally, select an Activity the budget amount is for. 7. Select the Transaction type and select the Category. 8. Enter the Original budget amount. 9. Continue to enter each budget amount for each project and sub-

project. 10. If workflow is enabled for project budgets, click Submit. Otherwise,

save and close the form.

NOTE: Use the New revision or Edit revision button on the Project budgets form to create or modify existing budgets.




8-13

Lab 8.1 - Set Up Budget Controls Scenario

Prakash, the Project Manager, must enter budget information for the Contoso Retail Los Angeles project number 10001. Prakash must enable budget control for the project and enter the budget amounts.

According to Contoso's policy, the project should budget and track costs only, and budget overruns are not allowed.

Challenge Yourself!

Enable budget control for the Contoso Retail Los Angeles project. Make sure that only cost transactions are controlled and that overruns are not allowed.

Use the information in the following table to enter budget amounts for the Contoso Retail Los Angeles project.

Project Amount Transaction type Category

10001 4000.00 Hour Internal

10001 6500.00 Expense Flights

10001 3000.00 Expense Car rental

10001 1500.00 Expense Meals

10001-1 400.00 Hours Internal

10001-2 800.00 Hours Internal

Need a Little Help?

1. Enable budget control for the project on the Budget and forecast tab of the Projects form.

2. Open the Project budget form for project 10001. 3. Enter the details into the Cost tab.

Step by Step

To enable budget control for a project, follow these steps:


2. Select the "10001: Contoso Retail Los Angeles" project and then click Edit.

3. Click the Budget and forecast tab.




8-14

4. Select the Use budget control to enable budget control tracking for a project. If transactions already exist for the project a warning message will appear and you must click Yes to activate budget control.

5. Select "Cost only" in the Transaction types controlled field. 6. You are prompted to Update subprojects. Select an All subprojects,

and then click OK. 7. Select "Disallow overruns" in the Budget overrun default field. 8. You are prompted to Update subprojects. Make sure All

subprojects is selected, and then click OK.

To enter budget amounts for a project, follow these steps:

1. From the Projects detail form for project 10001, click Plan on the action pane and then click Budget > Project budget.

2. Click New in the Costs tab to create a budget line a. Select "10001" in the Project field. b. Select "Hour" in the Transaction type field c. Select "Internal" in the Category field. d. Enter "4000.00" in the Original budget field.

3. Repeat step 2 for each budget line transaction in the table provided. 4. Click Submit. 5. Optionally enter a Comment and then click Submit. 6. When you are finished click Close.




8-15

Manage Projects in Enterprise Portal Project managers can now create and maintain projects in Enterprise Portal. In addition, users can create and update project quotations and convert approved quotations to active projects in Enterprise Portal.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, time and expense entry were the only project-related features that were available.

Web-based support simplifies project managers' ability to work remotely, and frees them from having to deal with software installations, upgrades, and updates.

The primary goals for the improvements made to projects in the Enterprise Portal in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 include the following:

• Improve usability of existing features: Rendering core project accounting functionality in the Enterprise Portal provides project managers the flexibility of creating and managing projects remotely when they are in the field or away on travel.

• Reduce deployment complexity and manageability: Rendering core project accounting functionality in the Enterprise Portal enables project managers to access project and employee information without having to install or deal with upgrades or software updates.

• Extend analytical and visualization capabilities: A free-form entry grid with Gantt and resource views. This simplifies the task of creating and managing the project schedule. Surfacing key project information on profitability, invoicing, resource utilization, committed costs, and cash flow provides key project stakeholders insight into potential risks.

Procedure: Create a Project in Enterprise Portal

Prakash, the Project Manager, is responsible for creating and managing projects. Next week a new project will begin, and he must enter all the information into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Because he is traveling, Prakash must use Enterprise Portal to enter the required information.




8-16

To create a new project from Enterprise Portal, follow these steps:

1. Open the Enterprise Portal in your Internet browser. 2. Click Projects. 3. Click New > Project to create a new record. The Create project

form will open.

FIGURE 8.6 NEW PROJECT FORM

4. Select the Project type. 5. Enter a unique identifier for the project in the Project ID field. 6. Enter a brief description into the Project name field. 7. Select the project contract that the project is related to in the Project

contract ID field. 8. Select the Customer account that the project is for. 9. Select the default line property to be used with the project in the

Line property field. 10. Click Create to save the changes.

Project Funding Many organizations frequently run projects that are paid for from multiple pools of money.

For public sector organizations, payment could be from multiple grants or from a mix of internal and external dollars.

In the commercial sector split funding can be used in large construction projects or it might be used when doing projects for a large customer that wants to split funding of the project to multiple divisions or sub-organizations.




8-17

For example, if a new data center was going to be constructed for Contoso to be used by Hotmail and Exchange Hosted Services, then Contoso might ask the vendor doing the work to split the costs between the two divisions to more accurately charge the internal organizations.

Revenue limits on Time and Material (T&M) projects are known as T&M to a Cap. The work being done will be billed as a time and material project. However, the customer has specified a maximum that they are willing to pay for the work. Invoicing and revenue recognition are performed by using T&M processes. However, you must make sure that the customer is not invoiced over a certain amount.

Funding Terminology

The following table introduces several new terms and concepts that are part of project funding.

Term Definition

Funding limit An amount that is imposed on all or on some part of the project. If there is a Time and Material project with a cap, it may be the revenue amount that is funded. In other cases it may be amount restrictions on how the funds are allocated to the project.

Funding type This is either a customer, a grant, or an internal organization unit.

Funding source

A relationship entity that is a project contract specific relationship to a funder. It is a combination of a funder with an additional attribute to enable multiple revenue sources from a single funder. For example, the federal government provides multiple grants to a project for funding.

Funding rule A set of business logic that defines how a transaction is funded. Rules can be defined by several criteria including, project, category, or transaction types.

Scenario: Multiple Internal Funds for a Project

Prakash, the Project Manager, wants to allocate costs of a project across multiple departments within the company who have agreed to share the costs of the project.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, it was only possible to have one internal organizational unit fund on a project. This was performed by setting up a project type of Internal, Investment, Cost, or Time.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, Prakash is now able to set up multiple funding sources in the Project contract and define rules for how the project costs will be allocated to each department.




8-18

Scenario: Using Internal and External Funds for a Project

Prakash wants to allocate costs of a project between an internal organization and an external customer because his company has agreed to share the costs of a large capital project with an external organization. Contoso has agreed to pay 60 percent of the project costs internally, and they will invoice the remaining 40 percent to the customer.

Procedure: Set Up Project Funding

To define project funding on a project contract, follow these steps:

1. Open Project management and accounting > Common > Projects > Project contracts.

2. Click Edit to modify the information. 3. Click the Funding sources tab. 4. Click Add line to create a new source. 5. Select the Funding type:

a. Customer - select the Customer number in the Customer field. b. Organization - select the organization unit in the Customer

field. c. Grant - select the grant customer in the Grant customer field.

6. Click the Funding limits tab 7. Click Add line to create a new funding limit. 8. Select the funding source to create a limit for in the Funding source

field. 9. Enter any additional criteria for the limit. 10. Enter the maximum amount allowed for this funding source in the

Amount field. To restrict transactions from being posted against a funding source enter 0.00 into the field.

11. Click the Funding rules tab to create rule for allocation of multiple funds on a project.

12. Click Add line in the Funding rules grid to create a new rule or select an existing funding rule.

13. Click Allocations in the Funding rule allocation tab to open the Funding rules allocations form.

14. Select a funding source and enter the amount to be allocated to the selected funding source as a percentage into the Allocation percentage field.

15. Repeat the previous step for each additional funding source until the sum of each allocation percent for the funding rule equal 100 percent.




8-19

Project Beginning Balances In some cases, users must post project-only transactions without an effect on the general ledger. One situation where project beginning balance transactions are useful are for existing projects that may have been tracked offline or through another application that must now be tracked in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces a new feature that allows users to enter beginning balance transactions for a project. Project beginning balance transactions allow the user to input catch-up balances for the project without adversely impacting the general ledger (double entry, inflated balances, and so on).

Scenario: Enter Beginning Balances

Cassie, the Accountant, is notified of a project that is tracked offline in an external spreadsheet. The departmental user wants to have a new project defined in Microsoft Dynamics AX Project Accounting with beginning balances based on the tracked information. All the costs and revenues were previously posted to accounts in the General Ledger.

Cassie must create the new project and enter beginning balances for all the associated project and subprojects without affecting General Ledger.

Procedure: Enter Beginning Balances

To enter beginning balances for a project, follow these steps:


2. Select the desired project and then click Beginning balances in the Action pane.

3. The Beginning balance journal form will open, and then click New. 4. Select the Journal name and enter a brief Description. 5. Click Lines to create the details for the journal. 6. The Journal lines for beginning balances form will open. 7. Use the Add button in the desired tab to create a new balance for

Expense/Hour/Items, Fees, or On-account balances. 8. Enter the Project ID for which to create balances. 9. Select the Transaction type (this is only required when the New >

Expense/Hour/Item button is used). 10. Select the Category for the balance. 11. Select the Item number for the transaction (this is only required if

Item was selected in the Transaction type field).




8-20

12. Enter the Quantity for the balance 13. Enter the Cost price for the balance.The Cost amount field will be

updated with the extended cost (Quantity * Cost price). 14. Enter the Sales price for the balance.The Sales amount field will be

updated with the extended sales price (Quantity * Sales price). 15. Select an option for the Cost status. 16. Repeat steps 7-16 for each balance. 17. Click Close, and then click Post to finalize the balances

Summary Although many functions in the Project management and accounting module are improved in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the basis and main principle of the module remains the same.

The greatest changes are in the following areas:

• Improvements to project timesheets • Improvements to the Enterprise Portal • Additional project functionality

o Funding o Budget control o Allocation methods o Beginning balances





8-21


1. Which of the following options are true? (Select all that apply)

( ) All users can view all timesheets. ( ) Each user can view all timesheets that he or she created. ( ) Project directors can view all timesheets for all employees. ( ) Project managers can view all timesheets for users for whom they are

approvers.

2. Describe the difference between a project that uses a fixed rate to recognize revenue, and project that uses an adjustable internal sales rate to recognize revenue.

3. Which of the following are valid options for budget overrun? (Select all that apply)

( ) Allow overruns ( ) Warning overruns ( ) Error overruns ( ) Disallow overruns




8-22

4. Match the terms on the left with their definition on the right

_____ 1. Funding limit _____ 2. Funding type _____ 3. Funding source _____ 4. Funding rule

a. A relationship entity that is a project contract specific relationship to a funder. It is a combination of a funder with an additional attribute to enable multiple revenue sources from a single funder.

b. An amount that is imposed on all or on some part of the project. If there is a Time and Material project with a cap, it may be the revenue amount that is funded. In other cases it may be amount restrictions on how the funds are allocated to the project.

c. A set of business logic that defines how a transaction is funded. Rules can be defined by several criteria including, project, category, or transaction types.

d. This is either a customer, a grant, or an internal organization unit.




8-23


1.

2.

3.




8-24


1. Which of the following options are true? (Select all that apply)

( ) All users can view all timesheets. (√) Each user can view all timesheets that he or she created. ( ) Project directors can view all timesheets for all employees. (√) Project managers can view all timesheets for users for whom they are

approvers.

2. Describe the difference between a project that uses a fixed rate to recognize revenue, and project that uses an adjustable internal sales rate to recognize revenue.

MODEL ANSWER:

When fixed rate is selected, each transaction receives a fixed sales rate based on the sales price setting. In case of a cost over/under run, the estimate would post a fee transaction to adjust to the contract value. When adjustable internal sales rate is selected, each transaction receives a sales rate based on the sales price setting. In case of a cost over/under run, the estimate would adjust each individual Hour, Expense and Item transactions based on the new profit markup rate.

3. Which of the following are valid options for budget overrun? (Select all that apply)

(√) Allow overruns (√) Warning overruns ( ) Error overruns (√) Disallow overruns




8-25

4. Match the terms on the left with their definition on the right

b 1. Funding limit d 2. Funding type a 3. Funding source c 4. Funding rule

a. A relationship entity that is a project contract specific relationship to a funder. It is a combination of a funder with an additional attribute to enable multiple revenue sources from a single funder.

b. An amount that is imposed on all or on some part of the project. If there is a Time and Material project with a cap, it may be the revenue amount that is funded. In other cases it may be amount restrictions on how the funds are allocated to the project.

c. A set of business logic that defines how a transaction is funded. Rules can be defined by several criteria including, project, category, or transaction types.

d. This is either a customer, a grant, or an internal organization unit.




8-26



Chapter 9: Case Management

9-1

CHAPTER 9: CASE MANAGEMENT Objectives

The objectives are:

• Create, assign, plan, resolve, follow up on, and analyze cases for a customer in the Microsoft Dynamics Client.

• Review the process for creating cases for a customer on the Enterprise Portal.

• Create and work with knowledge articles.

Introduction Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 introduces a new feature for Case management. The new case management feature supports managing different types of cases or issues that can be leveraged in many modules.

In addition, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces Knowledge articles in the Sales and marketing module.

Knowledge articles help manage the case resolution and knowledge retention of information throughout the company. This feature improves and re-engineers the encyclopedia feature that was available in earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX.




9-2

Case Management in the Rich Client Companies frequently experience customers who contact the company to resolve a problem, to have their questions answered, replace bought items, and so on. The Case management functionality registers such cases enabling for the registration, assignment, planning, resolution, follow up and analysis of cases.

Examples of Case Management

There are many locations within Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 where Case management can be leveraged. The following table contains some examples:

Case Category Description

Expense Audit The audit system analyzes expense reports and submits cases to be inspected. An auditor then reviews each case to resolve.

Accounts Receivable Collections

The Collections Manager can attach multiple overdue customer invoices to a case to be dealt with as a unit of work.

Customer Service

The Customer Service Representative receives inquiries or complaints. He or she uses the information received to log cases and resolve them after research.

An Information Technology (IT) department

An IT department receives requests from employees about issues with their IT equipment. They use cases for tracking the requests and assigning the correct internal and external resources to respond within the time given by the Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Case Management Overview

The primary goals for the new Case management feature include the following:

• Link the correct people with various categories of issues. • Share knowledge and documents to resolve incoming cases. • Track the time used in case resolution. • Track the case resolutions against the Service Level Agreements

(SLA). • Record and invoice case costs and revenues. • Follow-up on cases with surveys.




9-3

Case Management Terms and Concepts

Several new terms and concepts are introduced with the new Case management feature that are outlined in the following table.

Term Description

Case category

A hierarchical structure for classifying the type of cases. The more specific the categories, the more targeted the knowledge articles can be associated to the various categories.

Case process A container or list of tasks and responsibilities required for resolving a case.

Knowledge article

A note, hyperlink to a website, document, or other file that contains a solution to an issue being handled through a case.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

A contract between two people, companies, or entities that typically defines the maximum duration before a service is provided. SLAs can be set up as defaults on case categories, or entered manually on a case-by-case basis.

Associations A relationship formed between the case and a Lead, Opportunity, Customer, Vendor, Vendor invoice, Prospect, Project, Sales order, Purchase order, Service order, Product, Interest notes, Expense reports, or Expense lines. Each case can have multiple associations.

Case log A tracking mechanism for keeping history of notes and changes that were made to a specific case.

Activities Used to track appointments, tasks, actions, or events related to a case. Each activity represents a given amount of work for one worker while a case may involve the effort of several workers inside and outside the company.

Scenario: Creating a Case for a Sales Order

Lisa, the Customer Service Representative, has received a call from the customer Owl Wholesales.

The customer has explained that they recently purchased a television and have problems with the display flickering. Lisa must find the sales order and create a case related to the order so that she can have the appropriate person respond to the customer.




9-4

Procedure: Create a Case for a Sales Order

To create a new case related to a sales order, follow these steps:

1. Open Sales and Marketing > Common > Sales orders > All sales orders.

2. Find the desired sales order. 3. Click the General tab in the action pane. 4. Click Cases > Create case in the Customers group of the Action

pane. 5. Select a category from the Case category field that will default some

fields from the Case category. 6. Enter a brief Description for the case. 7. Select a Priority for the case. 8. Optionally, select another case to link the current case to in the

Parent case field. 9. Optionally, enter additional information under the Other cost and

Case log field groups. 10. Click Create to create the case. 11. Close the Case details form.

Procedure: Review a Case

When a case is created, depending on your company's business rules, the case will be assigned to another employee for review.

To review a case, follow these steps:

1. Open Home > Common > Cases > All cases.

NOTE: Additional list pages exist that will automatically filter cases to My cases, Open cases, My open cases, Cases assigned to you, or Cases assigned to your queues are available.

2. Select the desired case. 3. Click Change status > In process to begin the case.

NOTE: When the status of the case is updated to In process, the system starts logging the time that is spent on the case. Use the Stop button to pause the time recording.

4. If the Advance prompt option is selected for the Case category that you are reviewing, the Create activity form will open automatically. Optionally, enter the appropriate information and then click OK. If you do not want to create an activity, click Cancel.




9-5

5. Expand the Notes tab to enter additional notes. 6. Expand the Associations tab to see a listing of relations for the case.

For example, each sales order the case is linked to. 7. Click Case process to select a different process for the case. Case

processes are used to determine the hierarchical steps required for managing a given case. You can create one or more activities for each hierarchy level and assigning those activities to workers responsible for the area.

8. Click Change stage to select the next stage to move to in the qualifying process. Case stages are user-defined based on the case process assigned to the case.




9-6

Lab 9.1 - Create a Case This lab provides practice for creating a case related to a sales order.

Scenario

Lisa, the Customer Service Representative, has received a call from Valley Hotel, customer number 2004.

The customer has explained that they recently purchased 16-inch speaker enclosures. One of the enclosures was damaged upon receipt.

Lisa must find the sales order and create a case related to the order so that she can have the appropriate person respond to the customer.

Challenge Yourself!

Use the information that is provided in the scenario to create a case for the sales order.

Need a Little Help?

1. Locate the sales order SO-101234 for Valley Hotel (2004), that includes item number 2009 (16 inch speaker enclosure).

2. Create a case and set the priority to Low.

Step by Step

To locate and create the case for Valley Hotel, follow these steps:

1. Open Sales and Marketing > Common > Sales orders > All sales orders.

2. Filter for Customer 2004 Valley Hotel. 3. Select sales order SO-101234. 4. Click the General tab in the Action pane. 5. Click Cases > Create case in the Customers group of the Action

pane. 6. Select a category from the Case category field. 7. Enter a brief Description for the case such as "Damaged speaker

enclosure". 8. Select a Priority for the case. 9. Click Create to create the case. 10. Close the Case details form.




9-7

Case Management in Enterprise Portal Some users, both internal and external to the company, must access the Case management functionality. This requires access to cases through Enterprise Portal.

The availability of Case management in Enterprise Portal will let infrequent users of the case management functionality access lists of current cases and create new cases.

The Case management tool set version in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides the experts who are using the rich client a set of strong tools to handle cases.

Scenario: Case Management in Enterprise Portal

Lyn, an employee at Contoso, receives telephone calls from customers about products they have purchased. Lyn must enter the information received and assign the case to a category so that the correct persons can follow up on the cases.




9-8

Procedure: Create a Case in Enterprise Portal

To create and view a case from the Enterprise Portal, follow these steps:

1. Open your Internet browser, and browse to the Enterprise Portal website.

2. Open Sales > Cases > All my cases. 3. Click Case in New group of the Action pane.

FIGURE 9.1 CASES IN ENTERPRISE PORTAL

4. Enter a Description for the case. 5. In the Name field select the Customer to relate the case to. 6. Optionally, select another case to link the current case to in the

Parent case field. 7. Select a category from the Case category field. 8. Optionally, select a Primary owner and Department. 9. Select a Case process and Status. 10. Select a Priority. 11. Optionally enter additional information under the Details, Notes, and

Administration tabs. 12. Click Save and close.




9-9

Knowledge Articles Much knowledge is accumulated over time in the organization, and this knowledge should be available to Customer Service Representatives while they perform their job.

Easing the path of solving a specific case requires quick access to documents, links, and other information that are grouped logically.

Knowledge articles let users quickly benefit from the accumulated organizational knowledge of the company while they are handling cases and employing teams of people to resolve cases.

Scenario: Accumulating Organizational Knowledge

Marie, the Customer Service Manager, realizes that much knowledge is accumulated over time within the organization. Marie wants this information to be available to the Customer Service Representatives while they are doing their job.

Marie can create groups to group information that is entered into the system. After she creates the groups, Marie enters knowledge articles in the form of documents, links, and so on, with known resolutions.

After the knowledge articles are uploaded into the system, she associates the knowledge articles to case categories to automatically populate new cases with the related information.

Procedure: Create Knowledge Articles Groups

To create a new knowledge article group, a folder must be added by following these steps:

1. Open Home > Common > Document management > Knowledge articles.

2. Select the node to add a new group or subfolder: a. To create a new top level folder or group, select the Knowledge

article node. b. To create a new subfolder or subgroup, select the desired node.

3. Click Knowledge article on the Action pane strip to create a new

group. 4. Enter a Name for the folder or group. 5. Select Folder in the Type field. 6. Click OK.




9-10

Procedure: Create Knowledge Articles

To add a new file or link to a knowledge article group, follow these steps:

1. Open Sales and Marketing > Periodic > Knowledge articles > Knowledge articles.

2. Select the node to add a file or link to. 3. Click Knowledge article in the Action pane strip. 4. Enter a name for the article in the Knowledge article name field. 5. Select "File" or "Link" in the Type field.

a. If File is selected, copy the file path to the desired file in the Document field.

b. If Link is selected, copy the URL to the desired website in the Internet address field.

6. Click OK.

NOTE: Optionally, you can drag-and-drop files into the appropriate folder.

Procedure: Link Case Categories to Knowledge Articles

To link a case category to a knowledge article, follow these steps:

1. Open Sales and Marketing > Setup > Cases > Case categories or Organization administration > Setup > Cases > Case categories.




9-11

2. Select the desired case category node. 3. Click Related knowledge article.

FIGURE 9.2 RELATED KNOWLEDGE ARTICLE

4. Click New. 5. Select the desired document or link from the Item ID field. 6. Use the Adjusted success and Adjusted attempts fields to increase

or decrease the success ranking of the selected article.

NOTE: The order in which knowledge articles are displayed is based on the articles relative position among other knowledge articles. The article with the highest number in the following formula will appear on the top of the list:

number of successes divided by the number of attempts.

7. Click Close.

Scenario: Using a Knowledge Article

Lisa, the Customer Service Representative, has received a call from a customer and wants to resolve the case as quickly as possible. She will use the knowledge articles available to her to communicate a resolution to the customer.

Procedure: Create a Case and Use a Knowledge Article

To create a new case related to a sales order and use a knowledge article, follow these steps:

1. Open Sales and Marketing > Common > Customer > All customers.

2. Find the desired customer.




9-12

3. Click the General tab in the action pane. 4. Click Case in the New group of the Action pane. 5. Select a category from the Case category field. 6. Enter a brief Description for the case. 7. Select a Priority for the case. 8. Optionally, select another case to link the current case to in the

Parent case field. 9. Optionally, enter additional information under the Other cost and

Case log field groups. 10. Click Create to create the case. 11. Expand the Knowledge article tab. 12. Select the desired Knowledge article and mark the Attempted

check box. 13. Click Open to view the document or website. 14. Review the information and relay the resolution to the customer 15. Close the document or website. 16. Select the Success check box to indicate the information in the

selected article solved the issue. 17. Close the Case details form.




9-13

Lab 9.2 - Working with Knowledge Articles and Cases This lab provides practice for creating a case related to a sales order that uses a knowledge article.

Scenario

Lisa, the Customer Service Representative, has received a call from Tiger Concert Hall, customer 2102, and wants to resolve the case as quickly as possible. The customer has explained that they cannot apply their discount coupon on the website.

She must use the knowledge articles available to her to communicate a resolution to the customer.

Challenge Yourself!

Use the information that is provided in the scenario to create a case for customer 2102, Tiger Concert Hall. Use the "PreSale" case category, and the knowledge article called Waterfall Hotel Website under the Key Customer Links folder.

Need a Little Help?

1. Find Customer 2102, Tiger Concert Hall. 2. Create a case for the customer. 3. Update the status to In process. 4. Add the Waterfall Hotel website knowledge article. 5. Update the status to Closed.

Step by Step

To create a new case related to a customer and use a knowledge article, follow these steps:

1. Open Sales and Marketing > Common > Customers > All customers.

2. Find customer 2102, Tiger Concert Hall. 3. Click the General tab in the action pane. 4. Click Create case > Create case. 5. Select "Sales > PreSales" from the Case category field. 6. Enter a brief Description for the case such as "Cannot apply

coupon". 7. Click Create to create the case. 8. Click Change status > In process. 9. Expand the Knowledge article tab. 10. Click Add.




9-14

11. Select the "Key customer links > Waterfall Hotel website" from the Article ID field. If the knowledge article is new for the case category, you are prompted to link the knowledge article to the case category. Click No to prevent the transfer.

12. Select the Attempted check box. 13. Select the Success check box to indicate that the information in the

selected article solved the issue. The system will automatically increase the ranking for the knowledge article based on the total number of times the knowledge article is used and the total number of times the knowledge article is used successfully.

14. Click Change status > Closed. 15. Close the Case details form.




9-15

Summary Most of the changes that are made in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Sales and marketing are based on efforts to simplify and streamline Case management, and to make the processes more understandable.

The key areas of improvement are in the following areas:

• Case Management • Improvements to the Enterprise Portal • Knowledge Articles




9-16


1. Which of the following are not valid types of case associations? (Select all that apply)

( ) Workflow ( ) Sales orders ( ) Projects ( ) Service orders

2. Which of the following are not valid types of activities? (Select all that apply)

( ) Appointment ( ) Project ( ) Event ( ) Task


3. A relationship formed between the case and business document. _____

4. A hierarchical structure for classifying the type of cases. _____

5. A tracking mechanism for keeping history of notes and changes that are made to a specific case. _____

6. An accepted time span between starting and resolving a case within. _____

7. Used to track appointments, tasks, actions, or events related to a case. _____




9-17


1.

2.

3.




9-18


1. Which of the following are not valid types of case associations? (Select all that apply)

(√) Workflow ( ) Sales orders ( ) Projects ( ) Service orders

2. Which of the following are not valid types of activities? (Select all that apply)

( ) Appointment (√) Project ( ) Event ( ) Task


3. A relationship formed between the case and business document. Associations

4. A hierarchical structure for classifying the type of cases. Category

5. A tracking mechanism for keeping history of notes and changes that are made to a specific case. Case Log

6. An accepted time span between starting and resolving a case within. SLA

7. Used to track appointments, tasks, actions, or events related to a case. Activity



Chapter 10: Human Resources Management

10-1

CHAPTER 10: HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT Objectives

The objectives are:

• Review shared worker information in the Microsoft Dynamics Client.

• Discuss improvements to the worker hiring and termination processes.

• Describe improvements to the employee application and recruiting processes.

• Describe improvements to the department and positions setup. • Create and manage incidents related to worker illness and injuries.

Introduction The Human Resources Management (HRM) module in Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 contains features to improve integration. This enables better decision making across the organization.

The primary goals of the features are as follows:

• Data sharing for workers • Applicant management • Benefits tracking • Improved hire and termination process • Injury and illness management • Improvements to the Enterprise Portal




10-2

Shared Worker Information In Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009, it was necessary for users to log in and out of companies to maintain employees, applicants, and other employee related data. To streamline the user experience for these processes, the data in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is shared across all legal entities in an installation. Approximately 175 tables are shared in the HRM module in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Some key areas of shared data are as follows:

• Workers (employees and contractors) • Applicants • Jobs and Positions • Departments • Teams

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, the Employee form was used to set up employees and contractors. The Employee form is replaced with the new Worker form in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. A worker can be an employee or contractor. Improvements are made to help improve the processes around tasks that are related to employees and contractors.

Scenario: Adding a New Worker

Claire, the HR Manager, must be able to quickly create and manage worker information. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, Claire can use one centralized form to manage and create worker information without logging in and out of legal entities.

When Claire is entering a new worker record, she is interrupted by a telephone call. Claire quickly enters the required information so she can save the record and answer the call. Later, Claire realizes that some information on the worker is incorrect or missing, and she must update it.




10-3

Procedure: Create a New Worker

To create and manage employee information, follow these steps:

1. Open Human resources > Common > Workers > Workers. 2. Click Hire new worker to create a new record.

FIGURE 10.1 CREATE NEW WORKER QUICK ENTRY

3. Enter the First name, Middle name, and Last Name. 4. Select the Legal entity that the worker is to be employed in. 5. In the Worker type field identify whether the worker is an employee

or contractor. 6. Claire is interrupted by a telephone call and tries to save the record.

Click Hire new worker to save the record, and then close the form. 7. After Claire is finished with her call, she realizes that the employee

start date is incorrect. Access the employee record saved in step 6 from the Workers list page.

8. Click Edit to open the Worker details form in the edit mode. 9. Expand the Employment details tab. 10. Update the Employment start date to three weeks from today's

date. 11. Close the Worker details form.




10-4

Hiring Workers and Terminating Workers The mass hire process is updated in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to use shared workers and positions. A common action that must be performed in any organization is the termination of an existing worker. Termination consists of capturing the necessary data to terminate the worker from the organization on the correct date.

Scenario: Mass Hire Project

Luke, the HR Generalist, receives a message from his manager that 25 seasonal workers will be hired to help with the increased sales volume in the months of November and December.

Luke creates a mass hire project and then clicks Create positions to enter default information that is needed to create multiple positions and worker personnel numbers needed for the mass hire project. As people are identified and hired to fill the positions, Luke adds the worker information to the positions.

Terminations

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, terminations can be performed. However, it is a manual process that requires users to access multiple forms to complete the termination.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the termination process is improved to be more streamlined, and manageable.

Scenario: Terminating a Worker

Susan, an existing worker, has submitted a two week notice that she will be leaving the company. Susan's manager notifies HR and then Luke, the HR Generalist, takes action to update her information in the system.

Procedure: Terminating a Worker

To terminate a worker in the system, follow these steps:

1. Open Human resources > Common > Workers > Workers. 2. Find the desired worker. 3. Click Terminate. 4. Enter the Termination date and Last day worked. 5. Select a reason for the termination from the Termination reason

field. Termination reason codes are user-defined. 6. Click Terminate worker.




10-5

Application and Recruiting Improvements The Global Address Book was added to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. By adding Applicant to the Global Address Book, in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the directory subsystem including names, address and contact information is aligned with this structure. Therefore, redundant data is removed.

Also included in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, are several architectural changes to the Applicant entity.

• The Applicant table is upgraded to be a global entity by removing the association of the tables to DataAreaID. This means that the user is now able to create applicant records that will be visible across the Enterprise and not constrained to the Legal Entity.

• Changes to Applications, that now associate the applications directly to Applicants. This helps streamline the process for entering data and reduces the number of duplicated records in the system.

• Additional fields are introduced in the Applicant table. By capturing the additional applicant information and aligning the fields tracked between applicant and workers, the duplicate data entry is reduced, access to the applicant information is quicker, and the information available lets the recruiter and hiring manager make better hiring decisions.

Applicant Overview

Changes to the Applicant process in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 allow for creating the Applicant directly from the Global Address Book (GAB), or from the Applicant list page or details form.

From the Applicants list page and details form, the system lets users create new GAB entries, or link to existing GAB records. In addition, users can create applications for an applicant or directly from a worker.

Scenario: Create and Manage Applicants

Jacob, the Recruiter, recruits for all open jobs within the company. He must enter the applicant and the application into the system quickly so that he can continue to screen the applicants and move them along in the hiring process.

Two applicants have applied for a job. The first applicant is an existing person within the Global Address Book (that does not already have an applicant record). He must create the applicant for an existing person in the Global Address Book and specify that the applicant has an application.

The second applicant is an existing worker who is applying for a different position within the company. Jacob must quickly create an application for the existing worker.




10-6

Procedure: Create an Applicant and Application

To create a new Applicant and Application, follow these steps:

1. Open Human resources > Common > Recruitment > Applicants. 2. Click New > Applicant to create a new record.

FIGURE 10.2 APPLICANTS LIST PAGE

3. Use the drop-down box to select the person from the First name or Last name field. The global address book information will populate into the form, and create a link between the GAB and the new applicant.

4. Enter any additional information available into the Personal information, Address, and Contact information tabs.

5. Click New > Application to create a new application for the selected record.

6. Optionally, select the Recruitment project that the application is related to.

7. Enter the Date of receipt and Expire date for the application. 8. Select the Department and Job that the person is applying for. 9. Close the Application and Applicant forms.




10-7

Procedure: Create an Application for an Existing Worker

To create an Applicant from the Address book for an existing worker, and create the Application, follow these steps:

1. Open Home > Common > Address book. 2. Select the employee that is applying. 3. Click New > Applicant. 4. Enter any additional information available into the Personal

information, Address, and Contact information tabs. 5. Click New > Application to create a new application for the selected

record.

FIGURE 10.3 APPLICATION FORM

6. Optionally, select the Recruitment project that the application is related to.

7. Enter the Date of receipt and Expire date for the application. 8. Select the Department and Job for which the person is applying. 9. Close the Application and Applicant forms.

Recruitment Projects List Page

List pages are where users can find data, analyze data, and then take action upon that data quickly. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, improvements are made to the Recruitment projects list page.

The primary goal of the improvements made is to enable users to surface and act upon information about a Recruitment project in a single view reducing the number of clicks or drill down’s needed.




10-8

Some list page features are outlined in the following list:

• Application details - this fact box displays a list of applications that are related to the selected recruitment project.

• Media - this fact box displays a list of each media output with their start and end dates.

• Job Advertisement - this fact box displays the job advertisement information.

• Related information - these buttons let users add or view applications, media, developments, job advertisements, and print accommodations with the click of a button.

Human resources > Common > Recruitment Recruitment projects

FIGURE 10.4 RECRUITMENT PROJECT LIST PAGE

Department and Position Improvements Departments are introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to replace the organizational units from earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX. Departments are one of the many entities that are a part of the new organization hierarchy uptake in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Positions in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 now have a direct link to Departments. They are used to help create the reporting relationship hierarchy and to provide an improved flow for creating and maintaining data.




10-9

Scenario: Create Departments

Contoso has decided to create a new department for research and development. The new department will be responsible for doing market research and developing new or improved products for the company based on the research conducted.

Procedure: Create Departments

To create a new department, follow these steps:

1. Open Human resources > Common > Organization > Departments > Departments.

2. Click New to create a new department. 3. Enter a unique Name for the department. 4. Optionally, select the person who is in charge of the department in

the Manager field. 5. Optionally, enter additional information into the Address and

Contact information tabs. 6. When you are finished, close the form.

NOTE: Use the Relocate positions button to move existing positions from one department to another.

Job and Positions Overview

Before you create new jobs, you can set up one or more job templates. Job templates are collections of the same, or similar, types of jobs within your company. A job is a grouping of responsibilities, duties, and job functions that compose an activity.

You can use a job template to define qualifications and responsibilities that apply to a specific job type, and then copy this information to new jobs. By using the job template information, you can improve reporting and provide overview results on jobs in the organization.

A position is a strategic area of responsibility occupied by members of an organization. Each position has one job and one worker associated with it.

Scenario: Create Positions

Two new positions are available in the new Research and Development department. Luke, the HR Generalist, must create the positions for a Research and Development Manager, and a Research and Development Specialist.




10-10

Procedure: Create Positions

To create new positions, follow these steps:

1. Click Human resources > Common > Organization > Positions > Positions.

2. Click New > Position to create a new record. 3. Select the desired job in the Job field. 4. Enter the Activation date. 5. Click Create positions and the Position details form will open.

FIGURE 10.5 POSITION DETAILS

6. Select the Position type and enter "1" into the Full-time equivalent field.

7. Click the Organization tab. 8. Select the Department that the position is for. 9. Optionally, select the Cost center and Reports to position. 10. Click the Relationships tab. 11. Optionally, click Add to add the position to a reporting hierarchy. 12. When you are finished, close the form.




10-11

Injury and Illness Worker safety varies significantly between countries/regions, economic sectors, and social groups. Employers face costly early retirements, loss of skilled staff, absenteeism, and high insurance premiums because of work-related accidents and diseases.

The new Injury and illness feature in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 has several distinct functions or uses. One use is to provide information to employers whose workers are being injured or made ill by hazards in their workplace.

The information in the data helps make employers more aware of the kinds of injuries and illnesses occurring in the workplace and the hazards that cause or contribute to them. When employers analyze and review the information in their records, they can identify and correct hazardous workplace conditions on their own. Injury and illness records are also an important tool to help employers manage their company safety and health programs effectively.

Injury and Illness Terminology

Several new terms and concepts are introduced as a part of the Injury and Illness tracking feature in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Some terms are outlined in the following table:

Term Definition

Occupational injury

An injury such as a cut, fracture, sprain or amputation that results from a work-related accident of exposure involving a single incident in the work environment.

Occupational illness

An illness is a medical condition or disorder, other than one that results from an injury, caused by exposure to environmental factors associated with employment.

Work environment

Work environment is defined as the establishment and other locations where one or more employees or contractors are working or present as a condition of employment. NOTE: The work environment includes not only physical locations, but also the equipment or materials used by employees or contractors during their work.

Medical treatment

Medical treatment is the management and care of a patient to combat disease or disorder.




10-12

Injury and Illness Overview

The primary goal of the Injury and illness feature is to provide a means for employers to quickly and efficiently enter and track information related to injury and illness. This includes the following:

• Ability to track incident details such as date, locations, type, body part, object, and summary of information

• Options to track costs related to the incident • Ability to track treatment information • Ability to follow up and report on the incident information

Scenario: Create and Track an Incident

Alicia Thornber, an employee at Contoso, was leaving work one evening and slipped and fell on the sidewalk because of recent snowfall that caused the cement to be slippery. Her ankle was bothering her the next morning because of the fall. Therefore, she went to the HR department to report the incident.

As part of the company policy, Luke, the HR Generalist, explains that all employeess with injuries are required to visit the local urgent care facility to be evaluated. Luke must enter the information that is provided as part of the incident and keep track of the cost associated.

Procedure: Create and Track an Incident

To create and track an injury or illness, follow these steps:

1. Open Human resources > Common > Workers > Workers.




10-13

2. Highlight the worker for which to report an injury or illness. 3. Click Personal information > Injury or illness incidents.

FIGURE 10.6 INJURY OR ILLNESS INCIDENT

4. Enter a brief Case description, and then enter the Date and time of incident.

5. Select the Injury or illness type and Body part. 6. On the General tab, enter the Date reported, and select the Person

who reported the case. 7. Optionally, use the Attachments icon to attach documents related to

the incident. 8. Click the Incident tab and enter the available information about the

cause and nature of the incident. 9. Click the Injury or illness cost tab. 10. Click Add to create records of the costs incurred. 11. Click the Injury or illness treatment tab. 12. Click Add to create records of each treatment the person receives as

part of the incident. 13. Click Injury or illness filings tab. 14. Click Add to create records of each filing made with a government

agency about the incident.




10-14

Lab 10.1 - Create and Track an Incident This lab provides practice for creating and managing an incident related to an injury that occurred while on the job.

Scenario

Benjamin Martin, an employee at Contoso, was working in the wood shop to cut various pieces of wood to length according to specifications. To help speed up the process, Benjamin decided not to use the safety guard on the table saw. When cutting a piece of wood, his hand slipped and he cut his finger deeply.

Benjamin's manager came over quickly and escorted him to the local urgent care facility where he received stitches and pain medication. Meanwhile, one of Benjamin's coworkers, Andrew Argyle, went to the HR department to report the incident. Luke, the HR Generalist, must enter the information that is provided as part of the incident.

Several weeks later, an invoice is received in the Accounting department. According to company policy, the accounting department forwards a copy of the invoice to Luke. He must now update the case with the cost and treatment information.

Challenge Yourself!

Use the information that is provided to create an incident and enter the costs. The following table provides additional information:

Field Value

Date and time of incident 11/26/2010 9:57 AM

Invoice date 12/05/2010

Cost type 1 Doctor

Amount 1 375.00 U.S. Dollars (USD)

Cost type 2 Medication

Amount 2 49.95 USD

Treatment date 11/26/2010 10:30 AM

Treatment type Clinic

Treatment comments 6 stitches




10-15

Need a Little Help?

1. Find the Worker record 2. Add an Injury or illness incident. 3. Enter Injury or illness costs and Injury or illness treatments.

Step by Step

To create and track an injury or illness, follow these steps:

1. Open Human resources > Common > Workers > Workers. 2. Select "Benjamin Martin" from the list. 3. Click Personal information > Injury or illness incidents. 4. Click New to create a new case, and then enter a brief Case

description such as "cut finger on table saw". 5. Enter "11/26/2010 9:57 AM" into the Date and time of incident. 6. Select "Injury" from the Injury or illness type field and then select

"Hand" from the Body part field. 7. On the General tab, enter "11/26/2010 10:16 am" in the Date

reported field, and select "Andrew Argyle" in the Person who reported the case field.

8. Click the Incident tab and enter a description for the Where incident occurred field such as "Wood shop table saw".

9. Select the On work premises check box. 10. Enter a description for the Cause of incident such as "failure to use

safety guard". 11. Click the Injury or illness cost tab. 12. Click Add to create a cost record. 13. Enter "12/05/2010" in the Date field, select "Doctor" in the Cost

type field, and enter "375.00" in the Amount field. 14. Click Add to create a cost record. 15. Enter "12/05/2010" in the Date field, select "Medication" in the Cost

type field, and enter "49.95" in the Amount field. 16. Click the Injury or illness treatment tab. 17. Click Add to create records of each treatment the person receives as

part of the incident. 18. Click Injury or illness filings tab. 19. Click Add to create a record. 20. Enter "11/26/2010 10:30 am" in the Treatment date field, select

"Clinic" from the Treatment type field, and enter "6 stitches" into the Treatment comment field.

21. Save and close the form.




10-16

Summary Although many functions in the Human resource module are improved in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the basis and main principle of the module remains the same.

The greatest changes are in the following areas:

• Shared data • Hiring and terminating workers • Application and recruiting improvements • Department and position improvements





10-17


1. True or False: Positions must be created before jobs can be created.

( ) True ( ) False

2. Which of the following are examples of shared data in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012? (Select all that apply)

( ) Workers ( ) Applicants ( ) Injury or Illness ( ) Departments

3. You can only associate jobs with which of the following organization unit types? (Select all that apply)

( ) Project ( ) Matrix ( ) Line ( ) Department


4. A cut, fracture, sprain, or amputation. _____

5. A person who is seeking employment for certain position. _____

6. Used to indicate the primary duties that an employee performs. _____

7. A medical condition or disorder. _____

8. Used to indicate duties that an employee performs, in addition to the primary employee duties. _____

9. A commitment to employ a person for a specific job. _____




10-18


1.

2.

3.




10-19


1. True or False: Positions must be created before jobs can be created.


2. Which of the following are examples of shared data in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012? (Select all that apply)

(√) Workers (√) Applicants ( ) Injury or Illness (√) Departments

3. You can only associate jobs with which of the following organization unit types? (Select all that apply)

( ) Project ( ) Matrix (√) Line ( ) Department


4. A cut, fracture, sprain, or amputation. Injury

5. A person who is seeking employment for certain position. Applicant

6. Used to indicate the primary duties that an employee performs. Job

7. A medical condition or disorder. Illness

8. Used to indicate duties that an employee performs, in addition to the primary employee duties. Role

9. A commitment to employ a person for a specific job. Position




10-20



Chapter 11: Public Sector

11-1

CHAPTER 11: PUBLIC SECTOR Objectives

The objectives are:

• Review the features and benefits of the public sector industry solution.

• Review the changes that are made to the Accounts receivable module as a part of the public sector industry solution.

• Review the changes that are made to the Budgeting module as a part of the public sector industry solution.

• Review the changes that are made to the General ledger module as a part of the public sector industry solution.

• Review the changes that are made to the Procurement and sourcing and Accounts payable modules as a part of the public sector industry solution.

• Review the features and benefits of the public sector reports. • Describe the features of the public sector role centers.

Introduction In Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012, industry support is expanded with the release of a public sector solution to support the public sector industry.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides public sector organizations with a comprehensive solution with functionality that helps them operate efficiently and improve productivity, while meeting complex regulatory, budgetary, and grant compliance requirements.




11-2

Public Sector Feature Overview Some major features include the following:

• User-defined Chart of Accounts structure made up of unlimited dimensions to support fund accounting and revenue or expense analysis by various levels of organizations, programs, and so on. This includes the ability to handle departmental or agency reorganizations.

• Introduction of a fund entity that can be used as a financial dimension. The fund entity offers the ability to require that journal entries are balanced by fund. Funds are separate sets of books that are not separate Legal Entities. Typical examples of funds include a general operating fund plus special purpose funds such as capital improvements funds, grant funds, trust funds, and so on.

• Support for multiple hierarchical budgetary controls at user-defined points of the account structure. Budgets can include provisional (temporary) budgets, original budgets, appropriations, amendments, and transfers. Each budget can be consumed by actuals, encumbrances, pre-encumbrances, and budget transfers. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 also provides for optional commitment accounting (balance sheet posting) associated with budgetary transactions.

• Introduction of a transaction distributions function that can distribute a transaction line amount to multiple ledger and project accounts by amount, percent, or quantity. Notice that this feature is application foundation feature (see the Key Public Sector Features figure for more information).

• Introduction of posting definitions setup that controls which offset and additional ledger account entries are generated for each posting process (such as vendor invoices). The generated ledger account entries can be based on which dimensions are entered by the user in the transaction line distribution.

• Tracking of multiple funding sources for multiyear project accounting and grants management.

• Fast book closing and simplified year-end carry-over budget processes.

• Expedited receivables processing, travel expense management, and workflow approvals.

• Ability to support settlements in a pooled cash setup. • Improvements for auditors. • Improvements for vendors who use Enterprise Portal. • Report and role center modifications for easier tracking of budgets,

receivables, and other areas.




11-3

Feature Separation

Some features can be used with any installation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, while other features can be used only after you install the Public sector industry solution.

FIGURE 11.1 KEY PUBLIC SECTOR FEATURES

NOTE: The following lessons only review features that are included as a part of the Public Sector industry applications. For more information about the horizontal applications or application foundation features, please refer to other What's New for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 courses.

Accounts Receivable Features The Accounts receivable module is updated in several key areas to help improve efficiency.

• Free text invoice improvements o Addition of billing codes to define a specific line item charge,

including definable rate calculations and fields o Addition of billing classifications to organize free text invoice

receivables

• Ability to process documents by billing classifications • Ability to support settlements in a pooled cash setup • Addition of customer reporting attributes for United States (U.S.)

governmental reporting requirements




11-4

Free Text Invoice Functionality

Billing classifications let you organize free text invoice receivables across functional areas. Classifications for property taxes, business licenses, municipal airport or marina, special assessments, and miscellaneous finance invoices are all examples of billing classifications.

In addition, you can group billing codes and related charges by billing classification. You can also assign options, such as a common approach to interest, or penalty charges and payment terms, to a billing classification.

Billing Codes Functionality

A new Billing codes form is introduced for defining a charge, represented by a billing code ID. The billing code is then used on free text invoice lines. The code provides default values such as the fee amount, currency, ledger account, and item sales tax group. By selecting a billing code on the invoice line, you can enter non-inventory-related charges quickly and consistently.

Billing codes include unit price and distribution line improvements for free text invoice lines. The features and benefits of billing codes include the following:

• Save data entry time and reduce errors by using billing codes to enter default values automatically into the expanded free text invoice line.

• Display the default billing amount that is determined by the code in either the Unit price field or Amount field.

• Specify multiple ledger account distributions in the billing code setup.

• Calculate the interest for individual free text invoice lines from the interest code that is associated with the line’s billing code or the invoice’s billing classification.

• Create billing codes that are effective on a specified future date. When billing codes are selected on free text invoice lines, the interest code and the default values for the lines are determined by matching the billing code date version to the invoice date.

• Define the rate calculation script in the code setup (programming experience is required). When you use this billing code on a free text invoice line, information such as customer or location is collected from the invoice and is used to calculate the billing amount. This feature enables the system to be used for different invoice requirements and scenarios.

• Settle transactions and transaction lines by using a new billing priority attribute. Billing priorities are customizable by billing classification and billing code. This attribute, is in addition to the other settlement transaction attributes, in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.




11-5

Process Documents by Billing Classification

In addition to the ability to use billing classifications on free text invoices, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 also supports the use of billing classifications on several other business documents.

• Reimbursements - create reimbursement transactions by billing classification.

• Payments - process payments by billing classification in the Enter customer payment and Payment proposal forms.

• Dunning - assign billing classifications to interest notes and collection letters, calculate interest by billing classification, generate collection letters by billing classification, and assign a collection letter sequence to a billing classification.

• Free text invoices - post free text invoices by billing classification. Billing classification information will also appear on the free text invoice report.

• Recurring invoices - create recurring invoice templates, set up the frequency for individual customers, and generate many invoices by billing classification.

Process Settlements in a Pooled Cash Setup

If your organization uses a pooled cash setup, in which a single Treasurer’s fund manages cash while maintaining equity in individual funds, you can set up posting definitions for invoice settlements to automatically generate entries for the Due-to Due-from between the different funds. Additionally, you can recognize deferred revenue at the time of settlement for doubtful receivables or make additional entries for summary accounts.

Customer Reporting Attributes

If your organization is required to follow U.S. governmental reporting rules for accounts receivables activity, you can add attributes that are required by the federal government to the customer account information. You can assign a federal/non-federal indicator, trading partner code, agency location code, and 1099-C indicator.

Additionally, you can track customers by their government identification numbers. This helps you prevent the duplication of customer information. These attributes are available if the United States configuration key is selected.




11-6

Budgeting Features The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Budgeting module improvements are designed to incorporate public sector budgeting requirements. The public sector industry solution is improved in several key areas to help organizations achieve better budgetary control.

• Apportionment budget types • Provisional budgets • Budget carry-forward at year end

Apportionments

Apportionments reflect a part of the original appropriation or budget, typically for a designated time period such as a quarter. They are an additional optional setup within budget control. Apportionment control requires a two-step process before budget funds can be consumed by purchase orders, invoices, and so on:

1. Posting the original budget register entry, typically an annual amount.

2. Posting an apportionment budget register entry for a subset of the original budget amount.

Only after posting the apportionment can budget funds be spent, and only up to the apportionment amount. Later apportionment transactions make the remaining funds available to spend. So apportionments can provide an additional level of control on spending during the operating year.

Provisional Budgets

Provisional budgets let you create a temporary, preliminary budget that expenditures are evaluated against.

For example, if the Original budget is late being approved, you can track the preliminary budget amounts as a separate budget type. When the approved budget is adopted and recorded, the provisional budget amounts are automatically reversed.

Budget Carry-Forward at Year-End

For public sector, the ability to carry forward budgets and budget encumbrances at year end that are related to open purchase orders is improved to offer the option to process by fund. This allows for selective processing in the event certain funds are not on the same fiscal year as the general operating fund.




11-7

General Ledger Features The General ledger module is updated in several key areas to help public sector organizations improve efficiency and process flows.

• General ledger year-end processing improvements • Ability to transfer purchase order encumbrances across fiscal years • Introduction of a fund entity • Ability to correct, adjust, and reclassify transactions by using

advanced ledger entries • Additional attributes can be added to financial transactions to help

perform more detailed analysis

General Ledger Year-End Processes

With the General ledger year-end process, you can select accounts by fund for year-end closing and close the selected accounts to different equity accounts. The account attribute that designates an account as real, nominal, or nominal no-close is used to identify the nominal accounts to be closed and the account balances to be brought forward as opening balances in the new fiscal year.

Fund Entity

Funds are a special public sector entity that defines multiple sets of books within the same Legal Entity. It is also typically used as an account dimension, and offers the ability to require that journal entries balance by fund.

Examples of funds include a general operating fund and special purpose funds such as capital improvements funds, grant funds, trust funds, and so on.

Transfer Purchase Order Encumbrances across Fiscal Years

If you encumber purchase orders, you can process year-end closing transactions to the general ledger and against budget reserves at the end of each fiscal year. When a new fiscal year is created, a new set of adjusting entries are made to correctly reflect the encumbrances in the new fiscal year.

These transactions make sure that the purchase orders are correctly represented on the year-end financial statements. You can also use an override process in the Funds form to select a year-end processing option for specific funds that differ from the option that was selected.




11-8

Advanced Ledger Entities

Advanced ledger entries are used to modify expense transactions that were recorded incorrectly. When the expenditures are reclassified, the fund equity adjustments must be made by using general ledger posting definitions. On the Advanced ledger entry form, you can preview the ledger entries before they are posted to the ledger. You can identify project information, configure workflows, and perform budget checks for each line item.

By using the Advanced ledger entry web service, you can manage advanced ledger entries with a third-party application.

Derived Financial Hierarchies

Derived financial hierarchies let you create financial categories that are separate from financial dimensions, but linked to them. This lets you derive the financial categories from the financial dimensions for analytics.

Financial category values can be associated to the values of the financial dimensions (including the main account), and you can make these financial categories available for analytics without entering these values when you create transactions. The data can be organized and analyzed based on the derived attribute values, as if they were part of the account structure, just as you can do with financial dimension values.

For example, you can create a program category (as a derived financial hierarchy) that contains a value of "Employee benefits", that then contains sub-categories for "Employee wellness" and "Employee education". In this example these categories are related to specific main account values. Therefore, you would create associations between existing main accounts and the program sub-category. After the account number is used in a transaction, the "Employee wellness" and "Employee education" values are derived and ready to be analyzed.

Procurement and Accounts Payable Features The Procurement and sourcing and Accounts payable modules are updated in several key areas to help public sector organizations improve efficiency process flows.

• Ability to allocate percentages of vendor invoices to specific bank accounts

• Addition of DUNS and +4 DUNS fields to the Vendor bank accounts form

• Addition of U.S. 1099-S and 1099-G tax statements • Ability to track unplanned purchases • Purchase agreement improvements




11-9

Designate Invoice Amounts to Specific Vendor Bank Accounts

A new Payment disbursement tab is added in the Vendor invoice form. This tab is used to allocate percentages of the invoice amount to specific vendor bank accounts.

For example, if a vendor requests that 50 percent of an invoice payment is sent to one bank account and the other 50 percent uses a different bank account, those percentages can be entered before you post the invoice.

DUNS+4 Entry

A new DUNS number field and a +4 DUNS segment field is added in the Vendor bank accounts form. DUNS numbers are widely recognized identification numbers for businesses' physical locations and bank data.

1099 United States Tax Statements

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, you can now process the United States 1099-S (Proceeds from Real Estate Transactions) and 1099-G (Certain Government Payments) tax statements.

In earlier versions, the only 1099 forms that you could process were the 1099-MISC, 1099-DIV, and 1099-INT forms.

These features are available only if the Public Sector 1099-G and Public Sector 1099-S configuration keys are selected.

Unplanned Vendor Purchases

In an emergency or special circumstance, you might create an order that circumvents the typical purchasing process.

For example, you might authorize an order with only a purchase order number instead of a printed purchase order document. Use the Confirming PO field in the Purchase order form to track these unplanned purchases.

Purchase Agreements

Purchase agreements are improved in several areas:

• Based on purchase agreement classification, selected new data groups and sub-tables may be enabled on the purchase agreement. This includes Subcontractors, Certifications, and Activities

• Ability to process an invoice directly against a purchase agreement without first requiring creation of a release purchase order.




11-10

Public Sector Reports Overview Several new reports are added to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 as a part of the public sector industry solution.

The following list describes each new report.

• Accounts receivable transaction reports - generate an Internal account statement, Customer transactions report, Open transactions report, History by transaction report, and a Sales tax specification C.O.D. report by billing classification.

• Accounts receivable payment reports - generate the Reimbursement payment journal report and the Customer posted payment journal report by billing classification.

• Accounts receivable invoice reports - generate the Invoice journal report, Invoice specification report, Invoice turnover report, and the Customer invoice journal report by billing classification.

• Customer reports - generate the Customer aging report, Customer balance report, Customer balance list that has credit limit report, and the Customer detailed due date list report by billing classification.

• Payment approval report - ability to add a signature page to the payment approval report. This signature page is useful when a signature is required to approve payments.

• Budget control reports - generate two new reports for review and management of budgets. The Budget control account detail history report lists budget balances and transactions for selected financial dimensions. The Budget control activity by project report is similar, but shows activity by project, in addition to financial dimensions. Both reports let you select transactions by budget year, and also by date or by date range.

Public Sector Role Center Overview Several new features are added to existing role centers as a part of the public sector industry solution. In addition, one new role center, for Finance Director, is introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

General Ledger Role Centers

Three financial accounting role centers are redesigned as a part of the public sector industry solution. This includes the Accountant, Accounting Manager, and Controller role centers.

These role centers provide default home pages that differ from the home pages for the Accountant, Accounting Manager, and Controller role centers available in non-public sector installations of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.




11-11

For example, in these three redesigned public sector role centers, there is an Actuals vs. Budget web part on the default role center, but for the three non-public sector role centers no Budget web part appears.

In addition, the Controller role center for public sector organizations has two key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be added:

• Controller activity analysis • Controller ratios.

Finance Director Role Center

The Finance Director role center resembles the Chief Financial Officer role center available in any Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 installation, except that the Finance Director role center has an Actuals vs. Budget web part on the default role center while the Chief Financial Officer does not.

In addition, the following web parts are available for use with the Finance Director role center:

• Current equity by dimension chart • Year-to year expenditure comparison by period chart • Finance Director KPI reports

o Profitability analysis o Investment analysis o Long-term solvency o Short-term solvency o Operational efficiency o Finance Director ratios

Both the Finance Director and Chief Financial Officer role centers are available to public sector organizations.

Accounts Receivable Role Center

The Accounts Receivable Administrator role center is redesigned to include four new web parts.

• Customers with unposted interest notes list report • Customers with unsettled amounts by billing classifications report • Receivables by billing classification and period chart • Customers with unposted collection letters list report

A billing classification dimension is also available in the Public Sector Accounts Receivable cube.




11-12

Summary Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides public sector organizations with a comprehensive solution, providing streamlined end-to-end integrated public sector scenarios. Modules in the public sector industry solution are highly integrated to increase productivity.

In addition to the features that are available in any installation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 that are especially interesting to the public sector, such as budgetary control, distributions, commitment accounting, posting definitions, project budgeting, grant accounting, advanced funding, audit workbench, and vendor portal invoicing, the following features help make the Public Sector installation comprehensive:

• Accounts receivables – Free text invoice improvements to add billing code and billing classification functionality. Other document improvements to use billing classifications. Settlement priority improvements and customer reporting attributes.

• Budget – Apportionment support, provisional budget support, and budget carry-forward at year-end.

• General Ledger – General ledger year-end public sector processing, purchase order encumbrance transferring across fiscal years, advanced ledger entry support, and customizable reporting hierarchies.

• Procurement and Sourcing and Accounts Payable – Support for designating invoice amounts to specific vendor bank accounts. DUNS number improvements, 1099 United States improvements, and unplanned vendor purchase improvements.

• Reports – Report support for Accounts Receivable billing classifications, new reports that list budget balances and transactions for the financial dimension that you select, and a payment approval report with a signature page.

• Role centers – General ledger role centers and an Accounts Receivable role center that contain a layout specifically for the public sector. A new Finance Director role center.




11-13


1. Which of the following is not a feature for free text invoices?

( ) Ability to sort free text invoices by billing classifications ( ) Assign attributes to billing codes used for free text invoices to achieve

better analytics ( ) Ability to enter non-inventory-related charges ( ) Create billing codes with default values for free text invoice lines

2. Which of the following 1099 tax statements are supported in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012? (Select all that apply)

( ) 1099-G ( ) 1099-K ( ) 1099-S ( ) 1099-Z


_____ 1. General Ledger Role Centers _____ 2. Finance Director Role Center _____ 3. Accounts Receivable Role Center

a. Has only two new web parts that can be added b. Includes unsettled customer amounts, unposted

interest notes, and receivables by billing classification.

c. Includes an expenditure chart and an equity chart.




11-14


1.

2.

3.




11-15


1. Which of the following is not a feature for free text invoices?

( ) Ability to sort free text invoices by billing classifications (•) Assign attributes to billing codes used for free text invoices to

achieve better analytics ( ) Ability to enter non-inventory-related charges ( ) Create billing codes with default values for free text invoice lines

2. Which of the following 1099 tax statements are supported in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012? (Select all that apply)

(√) 1099-G ( ) 1099-K (√) 1099-S ( ) 1099-Z


a 1. General Ledger Role Centers c 2. Finance Director Role Center b 3. Accounts Receivable Role Center

a. Has only two new web parts that can be added b. Includes unsettled customer amounts, unposted

interest notes, and receivables by billing classification.

c. Includes an expenditure chart and an equity chart.




11-16



What's New - Application in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Finance, PA, Case Mgmt., HRM and Public...

Documents

Transcript of What's New - Application in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Finance, PA, Case Mgmt., HRM and Public...