Getting the Most out of NAV: Lanham EDI Functional Acknowledgement Status Page

Lanham’s EDI includes several underutilized tools. One of those is the Functional Acknowledgement (FA) Status Page.  When you send an EDI document such as an 810 – a sales invoice – the receiver will send back a 997 Functional Acknowledgment to acknowledge receipt of the document.

Figure 1 - The Functional Acknowledgement Status Page in Dynamics NAV

When you mark an EDI Document as Funct. Ack. Required, this sets the Funct. Ack. Required field to Yes on the EDI Send Document. When you open the Functional Acknowledgement Status Page, the Funct. Ack. Required field on the EDI Send Document Header is used to filter only those EDI Send Documents set to Yes.

EDI Send Documents with Errors

The most obvious use of the FA Status Page is to track Send Documents with errors.  When there is a document with errors, select the line with the error.  You can now click on Receive Document in the task bar to see the Received Document. You can view the AK3 and AK4 to see what error caused the rejection.

Figure 2 - Select Receive Document to View Errors

On the Received Document (997)

Figure 3 - Select View on the Received Document

Once you have the document open, you can click List Fields to get a drilled down view of the fields in question.

Figure 4 - Select the List Fields Option from the Ribbon Menu

Figure 5 - List View of the Receive Document Fields

You can also view the Send Document by clicking on Send Document and then View on the Send Document. This will allow you to view the fields noted in the AK3 and AK4 in the 997 received.

Once you are finished with the document you can then remove the Requirement. This will reset the Funct. Ack. Required field to No and the document will be dropped from the Page.

Note:  If you fix an EDI Document that had errors and resend it, you must resend the document from scratch. Do not make changes to the original Send Document and then re-export it.  Exporting the document updates the Group Control No. and Transaction Set Control No. This will break the link with the 997. 

EDI Documents Not Received

You can also use the Functional Acknowledgement Status Page to make sure your Trade Partners have received EDI Documents (e.g., 810’s 856’s etc.) you have sent. As a general rule there should not be any EDI Documents with a Funct. Ack. Status more than a day old. Most Trade Partners will acknowledge receipt within a few hours. If you have Sent Documents unacknowledged more than a day old, you should investigate whether the document has been received by the Trade Partner.

Understanding all the components of the Functional Acknowledgement Status page, and being able to use it to its fullest potential can help your company be more efficient, and ultimately realize a bigger return to your company’s bottom line. For more on Functional Acknowledgements, please contact one of our consultants to help walk you through this tool.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Dynamics NAV How To: BLOB Fields and GUIDs as Primary Clustered Key

Security — Sensitive Data Encapsulation

Early this year the Microsoft Dynamics NAV blog published an article entitled, “Design Pattern: Security – Sensitive Data Encapsulation.” Table 1261 Service Password is used as an example in the article.  However, what really caught my eye (and ultimately led to this article) was the use of GUID as the clustered primary key.

BLOB Field

Before discussing the GUID as primary clustered key, please allow a brief foray into the recommended use of a separate table for BLOB fields. Ever since Jorg Stryk published his article “BLOB Fields with NAV & SQL” discussing NAV performance with regard to BLOB fields, I have used a separate Data Entry table to store XML data.

BLOB fields can store image or textual data up to two gigabytes in size. The clustered index contains a representation of all data in the table/record, so BLOB fields containing data can slow performance. It is better to separate BLOB fields into their own table especially when there is a need to reference images or web service transmission data (such as XML) in transactional tables.

When capturing XML for multiple transaction tables, it is very easy and convenient to reference the Data Entry primary key “Entry No.” in those tables. I even include code in either the OnDrillDown or OnLookup trigger of the Entry No. field in the transactional table to display the referenced data.

GUID as Primary Clustered Key

 There is much debate on the use of GUID (or UNIQUEIDENTIFIER) as the primary key. Searching on this topic will yield many opinions. However, it is generally regarded that the use of GUID as primary clustered key will:

• Consume more space on disk. 16 bytes are used for GUID (4 times the space) as opposed to 4 bytes for Integer.
• Lead to index fragmentation; Microsoft states: “The reason for this is that to insert data into the middle of a clustered index (out of sequential order) causes SQL Server to make room for the data by rearranging the cluster...non-clustered indexes don’t reorder the data as rows are inserted to the table, so they don’t have the performance impact of a clustered index on inserts of non-sequential data.”

For more information, reinforcing this view, please read the articles:

• GUIDs as PRIMARY KEYs and/or the clustering key
• Clustered Indexes Based Upon GUIDs 

The maximum value for a signed Integer is over 2 billion (2,147,483,647), allowing plenty of room for growth in the small- to mid-sized enterprise. For an opposing view prizing scalability over disk space, core processing speed and I/O, please read Thomas Kejser’s comment in this article:

• Indexing a PK GUID in SQL Server 2012  

Conclusion

NAV by default sets the primary key as Clustered. It is possible to change this property and set an alternate index (a key other than the primary key) as Clustered. Using this method, it is possible to set GUID as the primary key and Entry No. as a clustered secondary key. What is not recommended is to keep a GUID primary key as Clustered. For more information on BLOB fields or other NAV technical blogs, please subscribe to our Developer Blog today.

For more step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, see our collection of How-To blogs.

How to Decipher a Functional Acknowledgement

Reading a Functional Acknowledgement

When sending an EDI document such as an 810 – a sales invoice –the Trade Partner will generally send back a 997 Functional Acknowledgment (FA) in acknowledgement of receipt.  The Trade Partner will tell you whether the document was Accepted, Accepted with Errors, or Rejected.  Some Trade Partners will also give information about why a document was rejected.   At the most basic level, the acknowledgement will only contain an acceptance or rejection notification.

Note:  Some Trade Partners will also send an 864 with details of the error.

All Functional Acknowledgements have an AK1, AK2, AK5, and AK9 segments. The AK1 and AK2 provide information to link the Functional Acknowledgment to the document being acknowledged.  If there are errors an AK3 and AK4 may also be included.

• AK1 – Functional Group Response Header
  • AK102 Group Control Number is the control number assigned to the group being acknowledged. It is the value in the GS06 and GE02 of the document sent which comes from the Group Control No. on the EDI Send Document.  

• AK2 – Transaction Set Header
  • This Segment is optional and may not be included if the send document being acknowledged contained only one record (i.e., there was only one invoice in the 810).
  • AK201 is the Document No. (functional group) being acknowledged.
  • AK202 Transaction Set Control Number is the control number assigned to the transaction being acknowledged. It is the value sent in the ST02 and SE02 on the document sent and comes from the Transaction Set Control No. on the EDI Send Document.

• AK5 – Transaction Set Response Trailer
  • AK501 – Transaction Set Acknowledgment Code
    • A – Accepted
    • E – Accepted but Errors Were Noted
    • R – Rejected

• AK9 – Functional Group Response Trailer
  • AK901 Functional Group Acknowledge Code
    • A – Accepted
    • E – Accepted but errors noted
    • P – Partially Accepted; at least one Transaction Set was Rejected
    • R – Rejected

When a Document has been Rejected

The Functional Acknowledgment may also contain AK3, AK4 and AK5 segments.  These segments will provide details about why a document has been rejected.

• AK3 -  Data Segment Note
  • AK301 Segment ID Code – this defines the segment with the error, for example CTT
  • AK302 Segment Position in Transaction Set – this is numerical count position of the data segment (starting from the ST – which is number 1)
  • AK304 Loop Identifier Code
  • AK304 Segment Syntax Error Code
    • 1 – Unrecognized segment ID
    • 2 – Unexpected segment
    • 3 – Mandatory segment missing
    • 4 –  Loop occurs over maximum times
    • 5 – Segment exceeds maximum use
    • 6 – Segment not in defined transaction set
    • 7 – Segment not in proper sequence
    • 8 – Segment has data element errors

• AK4 – Data Element Note
  • AK401 – Element position in segment.  If AK401 is 3 then the third element in the segment has an error.
  • AK402 – Data Element Reference Number.  This element is optional
  • AK403 – Data Element Syntax Error Code
    • 1 – Mandatory data element missing
    • 2 – Conditional required data element missing
    • 3 – Too many data elements
    • 4 – Data element too short
    • 5 – Data element tool long
    • 6 – Invalid character in data element
    • 7 – Invalid code value
  • AK404 – Copy of Bad Data Element.  This is a copy of the data element in error.

Importance of Reconciliation

Reconciling Functional Acknowledgements, “FAs” or “997s” is important and often overlooked. Just because the FA is automatically generated, doesn’t mean that it should be ignored. The FA provides information on problems found with the structure or content of EDI transactions, such as a mandatory segment or element missing, or invalid code. It isn’t just a data receipt. So, FA reconciliation should not just ask the question, “Did I get an FA?” It should also ask whether the document has been validated.

Any questions about Functional Acknowledgements, please contact one of our consultants today. And be sure to visit our resource centerfor more information on FAs, EDI solutions, and Dynamics NAV in general. 

NAV Coffee Break: Filters and Formulas in Dynamics NAV

Dynamics NAV is a fantastic tool and provides a lot of information. Sometimes it can be too much to sort through all the information when using NAV. This short video provides some tips on how to set up filters and formulas so you can easily access information in NAV. It covers using wild cards, inclusions, case-sensitive queries, specific dates, and much more. Take a few minutes now to watch the video, and save yourself a lot of time in the future: and we mean a lot.

If you are attending NAVUG Summit this week, stop by booth 406 for your free laminated copy of our Filters Guide and Shortcut Keys.

You can view this video and many other video tutorials for NAV on ArcherPoint's YouTube Channel. 

You Must Defeat Lookups to Stand a Chance: Programming Lookups Using Pages 

Often in NAV development, we have times on pages when we need to do a lookup into a table, find a record, and return it to our original page. There are some super-easy ways to do this that come with constraints, and some less-easy ways to do this that are significantly more robust. I’ll try to talk about them, since I don’t see any good tutorials out there on “el Google”. (You may believe that “el Google” is Spanish for “the Google”, but that’s incorrect. It’s actually Spanish for “the chupacabra”; I use some unusual methods for web searches.) 

Setting up a Lookup into a Table: Easy Way

The first super-easy way to set up a lookup into a table comes when you have a table field that relates to another record. If you set the TableRelation property on a table field, and the related table has a LookupPageID property assigned, and you then add the field to a page, NAV will automatically give you a drop-down box showing the records from the table.  (To customize the drop-down box, see this blog entry, written by ArcherPoint’s most handsome developer.) The drop-down box looks like this: 

(That’s a picture from NAV 2013 that I already used in another blog entry, because I’m lazy.)

If you have a page field that’s NOT actually related to a table field, there’s an easy to do a lookup on that, too.  All you have to do is set the TableRelation property of the field to the table you need a lookup for, and NAV will automatically give you the drop-down box lookup, just like if you’d set TableRelation on a table field.

(Not only does setting the TableRelation property work on the newfangled versions of NAV with pages, but it will even work with forms in the NAV legacy client; at least, I believe it does as far back as I recall.)

Setting a Lookup into a Table: A Bit More Complex, Using a Dynamic Filter

All of that is great when you have a simple, straightforward relationship.  But sometimes things are more complex, like when you want to dynamically filter your lookup somehow. That’s when you have to write some actual code. 

Let’s say you had customization request for the Sales Order page. If the Sell-to Customer No. begins with “0”, you need to do a lookup into the Item table on items beginning with “1.” If the Sell-to Customer No. begins with any other character, you need to do a lookup into the Resource table where the Resource begins with “M.” Whatever the chosen record is, you’re going to put the primary key value into a variable called LookupExperiment. 

To pull this off, we start by creating a global code variable called “LookupExperiment” and we add it to the Sales Order page. It looks like this:

And to make our lookup happen, we add some local variables and code to the OnLookup trigger for the LookupExperiment field.  The local variables are as follows:

Lookup Experiment - OnLookup(VAR Text : Text) : Boolean
Next, we add the following code to the OnLookup trigger:

IF COPYSTR("Sell-To Customer No.",1,1) = '0'THEN BEGIN
  Item.RESET;
  Item.SETFILTER("No.",'1*');
  CLEAR(ItemList);
  ItemList.SETRECORD(Item);
  ItemList.SETTABLEVIEW(Item);
  ItemList.LOOKUPMODE(TRUE);
  IF ItemList.RUNMODAL = ACTION::LookupOK THEN BEGIN
    ItemList.GETRECORD(Item);
    LookupExperiment := Item."No.";
  END ELSE BEGIN
    LookupExperiment := 'ITEM NOT FOUND';
  END;
END ELSE BEGIN
  Resource.RESET;
  Resource.SETFILTER("No.",'M*');
  CLEAR(ResourceList);
  ResourceList.SETRECORD(Resource);
  ResourceList.SETTABLEVIEW(Resource);
  ResourceList.LOOKUPMODE(TRUE);
  IF ResourceList.RUNMODAL = ACTION::LookupOK THEN BEGIN
    ResourceList.GETRECORD(Resource);
    LookupExperiment := Resource."No.";
  END ELSE BEGIN
    LookupExperiment := 'RESOURCE NOT FOUND';
  END;
END;

We use COPYSTR to evaluate the value in Sell-to Customer No. Based on that, we set our filter on an Item or Resource record according to our needs. After that, we send the record to the appropriate list page using SETRECORD, and we make sure the list page uses the same view as the record variable by using SETTABLEVIEW. (If you leave out the SETTABLEVIEW, no filters will be shown on the list page.)  We make sure the list page is primed for a lookup by calling LOOKUPMODE and passing a value of TRUE.  Doing the IF [list page].RUNMODAL = ACTION::LookupOK tells NAV to run the page and look at the results. If the user hits OK, then the returned value from RUNMODAL is equal to Action::LookupOK. (Action is a system-level Option field that we use to evaluate the result from running the page in LOOKUPMODE.) 

Once the user has chosen a record, we use GETRECORD to set our record variable to the chosen record from the list page. We can then set our LookupExperiment variable to the primary key value from the record. And, if the user hits the Cancel button on the list page, we set LookupExperiment to give an error message.

That’s really all there is to it.  Note that if you’re using the NAV legacy client to try to work on NAV 2009 or previous versions, you basically do the same thing, just with forms instead of pages. Good luck coding!

For more information on programming lookups in tables NAV, and other NAV-related programming topics, please visit our resource center today.

SPECIAL STREET FIGHTER UPDATE: It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I learned that I need to block more and do fewer dragon punches on wakeup to achieve victory in Street Fighter V. Once I got those two things to click and started to get the rhythm of a setup for my critical art, I went on a 14-win streak and pulled myself from bronze rank up to silver. Perseverance is the key.  (Now if I could only make the time to play even more . . . maybe someday I’ll achieve platinum rank.)

For more step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, see our collection of How-To blogs.

NAV Coffee Break: Who did What and When did they do It?

How many times have you seen a transaction posted in Dynamics NAV that you just knew wasn’t right? Maybe the numbers looked off, or the date was wrong, or perhaps you are just curious who entered the transaction; or better yet, how to fix an entry to ensure accuracy. This short video will walk you through all of these tasks.

You can view this video and many other video tutorials for NAV on ArcherPoint's YouTube Channel. 

For more information on this or any other Dynamics NAV topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

For more step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, see our collection of How-To blogs.

Increase Efficiency using Dynamics NAV: Maximizing Storage Density

Maximizing storage density may not have the most immediate impact on costs, but if you have not maximized your storage density, then the chances of needing to move to a larger facility, or renting space at an outside warehouse will eventually be an issue for you. Many times the cost to maximize your storage density is cheaper than moving or renting outside space. Keep in mind, moving to a new building, or business being so good that you need to rent outside space is not necessarily a bad thing! I mean if business is booming, then you need to do what you need to do. The point of focusing on this critical concept is that you want to make sure you avoid those additional costs until you have to.

So what do I mean when I use the terms Maximize Storage Density? Storage density is defined as the percentage of available space that is filled with product. Now let’s be clear the goal is not to buy so much inventory that you fill your available space. In fact, it is the opposite, the goal is to use as little space as possible to hold just enough inventory to meet your order fulfillment goals. This blog is focused on warehousing logistics, so I will not spend time in this blog discussing planning strategies.

Measuring Density

When we measure density, we are measuring the percent of the warehouse storage space that is filled with product. This is a tricky measurement because if you have excess warehouse storage capacity, then you don’t want to include the excess area in your calculation. Having excess storage capacity is a good thing, but you shouldn’t allow it to hide poor warehouse practices. Humans have the propensity to consume all time, space and money available. Just because you have it, doesn’t mean you have to use it.  Remember, one of our efficiency goals is to minimize travel time. If you spread product out when you don’t need to, then you are increasing travel time in either your pick or replenishment processing.  So the density measurement should be based on how densely you are using the space that is holding product.  This means you will want to deduct from your available space the portion that is not actively holding product.

Density measuring calculates how effectively you are using the cubage space of your warehouse, meaning the length, width, and height of your warehouse. As an example, let’s assume the storage area of your warehouse has the dimensions of 100 feet long, by 100 feet wide, and 15 feet tall. Your warehouse therefore has 150,000 (100 *100 *15) cubic feet of storage. 

Now imagine that this space had no storage capabilities other than stacking the product on the floor. If you now measure the square feet that your pallet storage take ups (excluding the aisles), then your space utilized is the storage square feet times the average height of your pallet. 

Let’s use an example assuming that your warehouse has three aisles that are 10-feet wide. That means 3,000 square feet must be deducted from our total square footage because that is our aisle space. The balance, or 7,000 square feet is storage (remember that we had filled all the floor space with pallets of product except for the aisles). Let’s also assume that the average pallet height is 5 feet high. The cubage space that we have consumed is 35,000 cubic feet (7,000 square feet at a height of 5 feet).  In our example, we have used only 23% of our available storage space (35,000/150,000).

Ways to Better Utilize Warehouse Space

Utilize Vertical Space

The obvious solution is to take advantage of the height of the warehouse. Installing pallet racking will increase the ability to store product vertically. There is more to consider though; pallet racking will allow vertical usage, but be careful about over-estimating how much it will densify your storage. The assumption is that you can triple your density by adding three shelf pallet racking. This assumption is not accurate; here are some reasons why:

• Lift trucks require wider aisles so you will lose floor space there.
• Long narrow aisles limit how many people can be picking in an aisle, so you will likely need to add crossing aisles. This too will reduce floor space.
• Each shelf must allow space for the beam and clearance (top and on both sides), so by definition this becomes dead space.
• You must allow for fire codes and sprinklers so even though your building is 15-feet tall, you may not have 15-feet of storage capacity.
• Finally, if your pallet is 5-feet high, you will not be able to stack three shelves high, because the sum of the pallets, shelving beam, and clearance will be taller than 15 feet.

This does not suggest that pallet racking is not a good solution, it is just is a reminder that as Newton said, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

So what can you do to densify your storage in this example?

1. Consider stacking your pallets two or three levels high if your product allows.
2. Install pallet racking, but make sure to evaluate all options such as:
   • Flow racking
   • Push back racking
   • Narrow aisle lift trucks
   • Modifying your pallet configuration so that your pallets are shorter in height allowing more levels in your racking
   • Considering mezzanine racking that would basically provide two levels of storage
   • Considering shelving units on the first level with pallet racking over the shelving units

The point is, there are so many things to consider when trying to densify storage, and as I always say the “Best Practice” solution is unique to your warehouse.  Don’t let current parameters lock you into a bad decision.  Maybe my pallets can be four layers rather than five.  That will allow me to use three shelf pallet racking rather than just two shelves.  Yes, push back racking is much more expensive to purchase than a standard simple pallet rack, but, if that push back rack provides a significant gain in densification, it may well be worth it.  When compared to renting off site space, paying to move it to and from the offsite storage, it may not look so bad after all.

Utilizing vertical storage space suggests a need to create bin identification so that the product can be found where it is stored. Unlike the process of lining up the product on the floor, you now need to be able to find the product wherever it has been placed.

This can be done by turning on the “bin” logic in NAV. This will require that every transaction references a bin so that the bin information is always correct. The first thing to do when turning on bin logic is to set the “Bin Mandatory” flag on the Location card.

Figure 1 - The "Bin Mandatory" checkbox on the Dynamics NAV location card

Once Bin Mandatory is turned on, NAV will require the user to reference a bin on every transaction that is processed. This will make sure you know where your product is in this more complicated warehouse configuration.

Combining Items in Bins

One of the common reasons that there is unused space in a warehouse is that a bin has only one item in it, but that item will never have enough inventory to fill that bin. When that happens, the bin is left partially filled, thus poor space utilization. The best way to maximize space in this scenario is to store multiple items in the same bin. This will allow you to densify the storage in that bin.

There is a downside to this in that now there are two items in the same bin, which means the warehouse staff needs to be more diligent during picking to make sure they pick the correct item. When we focus on picking accuracy we will talk about ways to mitigate the exposure of picking errors when products are combined in one bin.

Dynamics NAV allows you to combine items in a bin. There is no special setup unless you are using the “Directed Pick and Put” functionality. You can create a bin content record if you like, but NAV will create a bin content record for the second item in that bin automatically when you process the Move, Receipt, Put-Away or Adjustment transaction. The screen shot below shows how to create bin contents manually for two items in the same bin:

1. Search or navigate to the Location List Page.
2. Select the location by highlighting the Location code line.
3. Click the Bins icon on the ribbon.
   
4. The list of bins in this location is displayed.
5. Select bin for which you would like to create the bin contents records.
6. Click the Bin Contents Icon.
   
7. The list of In Contents records for this item is displayed.
8. As you can see from the screen shot below, you can create records for multiple items in the same bin.
   

If you want Directed Pick and Put to suggest combining products in a bin, then you will need to create put-away rules to do so. To create the rules for Put-away suggestions, you will need to update the Put-Away Template that is used for items that you would want to combine. The example below shows the kind of rule you might setup for this type of item:

The put-away template tells NAV the logic it should follow to make the suggestion. NAV reads through the list of rules in the template and uses the first valid rule to make the suggestion. It continues through the rules top to bottom until it finds a rule that works. The example above would work as follows:

1. The first rule looks for bin content records that:
   • Have been set as “Fixed”, meaning that the bin does not get deleted when its balance falls to zero.
   • The Item has been assigned to that fixed bin.
   • The unit of measure of the bin contents record matches the unit of measure of the quantity being put away.
   • Have less inventory then the minimum amount that has been set for this bin content.
2. The second rule looks for bin content records that:
   • Have been set as “Fixed”, meaning that the bin content record does not get deleted when its balance falls to zero,
   • The Item has been assigned to that fixed bin
   • The unit of measure of the bin content record matches the unit of measure of the quantity being put away.
   • Has less inventory then the maximum amount, weight or cube that has been set for this bin.
3. The third rule looks for bin content records that:
   • Have not been permanently assigned for this item.
   • There is inventory of this item in that bin already
   • The unit of measure of the bin content record matches the unit of measure of the quantity being put away.
   • Has less inventory then the maximum amount, weight or cube that has been set for this bin.
4. The third rule looks for bin content records that:
   • Do not have this item stored in it as of yet
   • Has less inventory then the maximum weight or cube that has been set for this bin.

You can see that fourth rule only cares if there is room in this bin. If there is room in this bin, then it will use the bin priority rule and combine products in this bin as the two conditions are met.

As you can see, there is a great deal of planning that must go into densifying your storage. This blog only scratches the surface of things to look at and consider. Remember, there is no best practice that applies to all warehouses. Also remember that almost every option you consider could have a detrimental effect on something else. Regardless of your specific requirements, Dynamics NAV can help you densify your storage.

Read the first blog in this series for more on optimizing your warehouse system. And for any questions about how you can use Microsoft Dynamics NAV to help improve your overall efficiency, please contact one of our Dynamics NAV experts today.

Dynamics NAV Coffee Break: Creating Budgets in NAV 

There are three main ways to create a budget in Dynamics NAV: manually entering; exporting from NAV to Excel then reimporting back into NAV; and finally, coping a previous budget from the general ledger and saving as your new budget. This short video walks through a demonstration of each of these methods with easy to follow step-by-step instructions. Grab a cup of a coffee, sit back, and watch to see how easy it can be to set up your budget in NAV. 

You can view this video and many other video tutorials for Dynamics NAV by subscribing to ArcherPoint's YouTube Channel. 

Dynamics NAV Deep-Dive: Item Availability By Location

Looking for some clarity regarding the availability information in Dynamics NAV? This blog explains the availability information that displays when the “Item Availability by Location” option is selected. This option is available from several screens, but it typically accessed from the Item Card.

Multiple View Options

The first thing to note about the Item Availability by Location view is that there are multiple ways you can run the function. The option you select to run depends on what you are trying to understand. You can use this function to understand the inventory available at the end of a period of time (Balance At Date), or you can view the volume of activity in each functional area in a time frame (Net Change). Notice on the options tab, there are two option boxes. 

View By:

This controls the date range that will be used as the filter set that will drive the totals. The options you can choose from are:

• Day – sets the date filter as of today
• Week – sets the date filter as of the last day of the week
• Month – sets the date filter as of the last day of the month
• Year – sets the date filter as of the last day of the year

View As:

This controls the type of information being shown in the totals. It also controls how the date filter is set. The date filters will be set as a range, or as a total from the beginning of time.

• Balance at Date - this option shows the totals as the balance as of the date defined in the “View By” option. NAV will set the filter so that all records through that date are calculated (e.g., 12/10/17).
• Net Change: - this option shows the change in the date range defined by the “View By” option. If net change is used, then the date filter looks only at the date range of the “View By” option (e.g., 12/04/17..12/10/17).

Using the Correct "View As" Option

It is important to make sure you are using the correct “View As” option. If you have Net Change set as the “View As” option, the Expected Inventory, Available Inventory, or Projected Available Balance fields will not make sense by totaling the other columns. The Net Change is used more to see the totals of the supply and demand in a given date range. Net Change will not help you understand the inventory balance based on supply and demand. If you want to understand the “Available Inventory” calculation then make sure you have selected “Balance at Date” as the “View As” option.

The explanation of each field is explained below.

Figure 1 - The Item Availability by Location View in Dynamics NAV

Field Options

I have shown all fields, and arranged them in a sequence that makes sense to me. I have started with the Quantity on Hand field. Next I show “arriving product”, then outgoing product, and finally the ending inventory information. Note that you can click on a number and in most cases, it will show you the filtered list for how the number was calculated.

Quantity on Hand: 

This is the sum of all item ledger entry records for this location where the remaining quantity >0. This reflects the quantity that is on hand in the location at this time (regardless of the View By and View As option that have been selected).

Quantity on Assembly Order:

This is the sum of all the Assembly Orders that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Quantity on PO:

This is the sum of all Purchase Order lines that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Scheduled Receipt:

This is the sum of all inbound orders (Purchase, Transfer, Released Production, and Assembly Orders) that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. Clicking this number will list the totals for each type of receipt. Clicking on any of those numbers will show the filtered set that was found.

Planned Receipt:

This is the sum of all Planned Production Orders that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Scheduled Receipt (Qty):

This is the sum of all Released Production Orders that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Transfer Receipt:

This is the sum of all Transfer Receipts that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Quantity in Transit:

This is the sum of all transfer order shipments that have been made and therefore are now in transit.

Gross Requirements:

This is the sum of all transactions that will consume inventory (Sales, Transfer shipments, Assembly Component lines, Production Component lines, Service, and Job lines) in the timeframe that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. This is a summary of what is detailed below. Clicking this number will list the totals for each type of Receipt. Clicking on any of those numbers will show the filtered set that was found.

Quantity on Sales Orders:

This is the sum of the sales order lines that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Quantity on Assembly Orders:

This is the sum of the Assembly Order component lines that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Schedule Issue:

This is the sum of the Production Order component lines that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options.

Transfer Order Shipment:

This is the sum transfer order shipment lines that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Quantity on Service Order:

This is the sum of items on Service Item Worksheet lines that meet the date range set by the View By and View As options. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Quantity on Job Order:

This is the sum of items listed on Jobs. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Net Change:

This shows the net change of the inventory of the item during the period entered in the Date Filter field.

Planned Order Releases:

This is the sum of all lines in the planning worksheet. Clicking on this number will show the filtered set that was found.

Expected Inventory:

This is the same as the Projected Available Balance except that it does not include the Assembly Component when calculating the inventory, so shows more inventory than the Projected Available Balance.

Available Inventory:

This is the same as the Projected Available Balance except that it does not include the Assembly Component when calculating the inventory, so shows more inventory than the Projected Available Balance.

Projected Available Balance:

This is the sum of inventory, inbound and outbound transactions. It shows the projected inventory by adding the inbound transactions (Assembly Orders, Released Production Orders, Transfer Order, and Purchase Order lines), to current inventory, and then subtracting all outbound transactions (Production Order component, Assembly component, Sales Order and Transfer Order shipment lines). Clicking this number will list the totals for each type of Receipt. Clicking on any of those numbers will show the filtered set that was found.

For more information on inventory control in Dynamics NAV and other general Dynamics NAV how-to blogs, please visit our resource center, and be sure to subscribe to our blogso you’ll never miss an update. 

Dynamics NAV Coffee Break: How to Use the Adjust Cost/Price Function

What do you do if you have to update the price of your entire warehouse? Or if one vendor has decreased a specific item by a certain amount? You could manually go through and update every item, if you had endless time on your hands. Or, you could use the Adjust Cost/Price Function in Dynamics NAV. In this installment of our NAV Coffee Break video, Gwen demonstrates how to use this particular batch function of NAV to adjust costs/prices of items in bulk. She discusses the various options including filtering on Item Card or Stock Keeping Units; as well as opting for Adjustment Factor and/or Rounding method. Grab a coffee, and watch this short video to see how you can save time by using the Adjust Cost/Price Function in Dynamics NAV.

You can view this video and many other video tutorials for Dynamics NAV at ArcherPoint's YouTube Channel.

For more information on this or any other Dynamics NAV topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

For more step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, see our collection of How-To blogs.

Increasing Warehouse Efficiency Using Dynamics NAV: Maximize Pick Accuracy – Part 1

Total Cost of Quality

In previous blogs, we reviewed that there are three areas that can generate cost savings in your warehouse: Maximizing Storage Density, Minimizing Travel Time, and Maximizing Pick Accuracy. This blog focuses on the concept of Maximizing Pick Accuracy. 

Maximizing pick accuracy can have a huge impact on your overall profitability. In writing this blog, I am reminded of the time I spent in a previous life studying Phillip Crosby’s book titled “Quality is Free.” This was required reading in our journey to Six Sigma. The book revolutionized my understanding of how to measure quality. The book defined the concept of Total Cost of Quality, which is defined by the total cost of everything you do all day. All of your company costs can be associated with one of four categories:

1. Prevention Costs (time and costs spent preventing an error)
2. Inspection Costs (time and costs spent checking to eliminate errors if they have occurred)
3. Internal Error Costs (time and costs spent dealing with errors found internal to your company)
4. External Error Costs (time and costs spent dealing with errors found by your customers).

If you track the time each person spends in these categories, you will find that your External Error Costs are exponentially more expensive than Prevention Costs. Simply put, if you have an error that gets to your customer, it will cost you substantially more than if you had spent a few seconds preventing the error from happening. In other words, maximizing pick accuracy from the get go, is essential.

Maximizing Pick Accuracy

Let’s review an example to understand why maximizing pick accuracy is so important. Let’s say you are in the retail world, and you are dealing with any of the biggest chains (sometimes referred to as big box stores). Your customer sends you an order, you enter it, ship it, but in doing so have picked and shipped a wrong item. Any of you that work with these large chains knows what happens next:

• They send the product back at your expense.
• They take a deduction for the inconvenience you have caused them. Sometimes they will take multiple deductions: shipped something not ordered, short shipped their order, handling fee, late delivery fee, etc.
• They call to complain.
• You have to create an authorization to return.
• You now have to process the return.
• You likely need to inspect and/or repair the item before you put it back on the shelf.
• You likely need to pick and expedite a replacement shipment for the item that was not shipped.

All of these costs are avoidable if you had picked the order correctly when you shipped it the first time.

The teachings of Total Cost of Quality is that you should reduce your time spent in external error, to:

• time spent finding the error before shipping it (Internal Error),
• time spent inspecting to make sure an error does not get passed on, and/or
• time preventing the error from happening in the first place.

So the goal is to find any error before the customer gets involved. Even better is to build in an inspection process to find the errors at processing time. Best of all, is to spend time preventing that error from happening in the first place. The next blog in this series will focus on preventing external errors to maximize pick accuracy. To ensure you receive the next installment, and all future updates on issues, topics, and helpful hints regarding Dynamics NAV, please subscribe to our blog.

Read more Dynamics NAV How-To blogs here.

Dynamics NAV 2017, What’s That? Account Category

Dynamics NAV 2017 and Account Category

I recently had the opportunity to explore some of the new features that Dynamics NAV 2017 has available.  One of them looks very interesting, so I thought that I would share it with you. In the G/L Chart of Accounts a few new fields have been added. These fields are to provide a better experience when analyzing your Chart of Accounts and your financial position. 

In older versions of NAV, the field Income/Balance has been used to identify the G/L Accounts that should be adjusted to 0.00 when performing a Close Income Statement as a part of your fiscal year-end process. NAV relied on the accountants to determine which accounts were Income Statement or Balance Sheet accounts. In NAV 2017, Microsoft added a field to G/L Account called the Account Category.  (See image below)

Figure 1 - The Account Category Field on the G/L Account Card in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017

Users can select from the following options for the category:

• Assets
• Liabilities
• Equity
• Income
• Cost of Goods Sold
• Expense

Based on the selection of the Item Category, NAV will assign the appropriate Income/Balance setting, on the G/L Account card. 

In a future Dynamics NAV 2017: What’s That? blog, I’ll explore the concepts of G/L Account subcategory and the new analysis features.

Learn more about the features and functionality of Dynamics NAV 2017. And be sure to subscribe to our blog so you’ll never miss an update.

Dynamics NAV 2017, What’s That? Account Subcategories

Dynamics NAV 2017 and Account Subcategories

I recently have explored some of the new features that Dynamics NAV 2017 has available, and the Account Subcategories deserves a closer look. In a prior blog I mentioned how the Account Category in Dynamics NAV 2017 can be used to set the Income/Balance Field. In this blog, we will discuss Account Subcategories. 

In NAV 2017, Microsoft added a field to G/L Account called the Account Subcategory.  Subcategories are related to the Account Categories, and can be added by users for high level analysis needs.

Defining Subcategories in NAV 2017

From the CRONUS USA, Inc./Departments/Financial Management/General Ledger menu, select G/L Account Categories:

Figure 1 - How to Access Account Categories in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017

The page that opens up reveals the G/L Account Categories and the Subcategories that are related to them.

Figure 2 - G/L Account Categories Page in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017, Showing Account Categories and Subcategories

From this screen you can do a few tasks such as:

• Click the triangle next to each category line, which will explode the Categories to Subcategories.
• Look at the Balance from the assigned G/L accounts associated with the Categories.
• Add and reclassify Subcategories.
• Add additional report definitions from the choices of:
  • Operating Activities
  • Investing Activities
  • Financing Activities
  • Cash accounts
  • Retained Earnings
  • Distribution to Shareholders.
• Open the G/L Account Cards associated with a Category or Subcategory by reviewing the Factbox on the side.

Assigning Subcategories to G/L Accounts in NAV 2017

On the G/L Account card, after assigning an Account Category, you can assign a Subcategory by drilling into the Account Subcategory field. This will open a view of the G/L Account Categories page filtered to the Category assigned to the Account. From here you can easily assign the correct Subcategory.

Figure 3 - Assigning Account Subcategories in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017

This tool gives users quick access to the status of various accounts and allows you to group them as needed. 

In a future blog, I’ll discuss the use of defaulting Account Schedules and shortcuts for running a Default Balance Sheet and Income Statement with Dynamics NAV 2017.

For more on the features and functionality of Dynamics NAV 2017, please visit our website. And be sure to subscribe to our blog so you’ll never miss an update.  

Using Dynamics NAV to Report Unclaimed Property

Unclaimed Property Laws

Unclaimed property laws have been around since the 1930s, but have become much broader and more strongly enforced in the last 25 years or so. Most recently a concerted effort has been made by many states to locate and assist in resolving Unclaimed Property. As a result, newer requirements for filing Unclaimed Property are being put in place each year.  It is each business’ responsibility to review Unclaimed Property found, and file returns to remain in compliance with the established laws. 

According to the NAUPA (National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators), some of the common types of unclaimed property include:

If processing any of these are a part of normal business in your organization, reach out to your state to understand the requirements and  practice of filing and returning property.

Several states have established a coordinated effort to standardize the reporting process. As a result, a freeware application called HRS Pro was developed to assist in filing claims with each state. Basically this application will allow you to export an Excel template, load data into the template and then import the template. The application will then allow you to print a report in a format that has been accepted by some states. If your state doesn’t participate in the NAUPA File format, you may need to purchase the enterprise edition of the application. 

How can Dynamics NAV assist with Compliance?

Dynamics NAV is a great tool to help you identify and prepare Excel files of any Unclaimed Property in the form of Uncleared Accounts Payable checks and Accounts Receivable Credit balance. Users can also easily identify any Accounts Receivable Credit balances by using NAV’s great filtering capabilities. 

Use of the bank reconciliation tool makes it easy to identify AP checks that have been issued and not cleared the bank. When printing a check, NAV creates a record in the Bank Account Ledger entry. This entry is updated during a bank reconciliation when the transaction is marked as having cleared the bank. A very simple analysis of bank account entries can be performed where the Document type = Payment and the Field Open = yes.  This will represent the entries that have not cleared the bank account. 

The examples below will provide a high level overview of how to use the Customer Ledger and Bank Ledger to identify possible Unclaimed Property. In the examples I will be using Dynamics NAV 2017, but these features are common in older versions of the NAV product. The only assumption made is that you are using Bank Reconciliations to regularly review and mark transactions that clear your bank accounts. 

Using Bank Ledger entries to Identify Uncleared Payments

1. From the CRONUS USA, Inc./Departments/Financial Management/Cash Management menu select Bank Accounts
   
   Figure 1 - Navigating to the Bank Accounts Section of Dynamics NAV 2017
2. Select the Bank Account that you use and on the Navigate tab of the ribbon menu, select Ledger Entries
   
   Figure 2 - Navigating to Ledger Entries from Bank Account in Dynamics NAV 2017
3. Using a detail filter, set the appropriate filters for identifying outstanding payments. Highlight the lines and send the list to Excel.
   
   Figure 3 - Send Selected Ledger Entries from Dynamics NAV 2017 to Excel

Using Customer Ledger Entries to Identify Uncleared Credits

You can easily access all of your outstanding customer ledger entries from any customer card by setting a filter for all open transactions that are less than 0.00. This represents the outstanding credits that can be investigated for meeting the filing requirements. 

1. From the CRONUS USA, Inc./Departments/Sales & Marketing/Order Processing menu select Customers
   
   Figure 4 - Opening the Customer List in Dynamics NAV 2017
2. On the Navigate tab of the Ribbon menu, select Ledger Entries.
   
   Figure 5 - Navigating to Customer Ledger Entries in Dynamics NAV 2017
3. Set a filter for all open transactions that are less than 0.00, and send to Excel for your analysis
   
   Figure 6 - Filtering on Open Transactions in Dynamics NAV 2017

Understanding how to use Dynamics NAV to ensure you are compliant with Unclaimed Property laws is just one of the many ways Dynamics NAV can help your business. For more on the many capabilities of Dynamics NAV, please visit our resource center. And, be sure to subscribe to our blog so you’ll never miss another update. 

Dynamics NAV Year-End Wrap Up To-Dos

Are you looking forward to the New Year? Or feeling stressed about everything you need to get done before year’s end? Fortunately, there’s still time to end the year on a high note, and set yourself up for a successful 2017. And, we can help. (At least as far as Dynamics NAV is concerned.) To help you start 2017 with your best NAV foot forward, we’ve compiled a list of “to dos” for year-end Dynamics NAV wrap up.

Dynamics NAV Year-End Check List:

1. Transaction Dates: Be sure your transaction posting dates are set to the correct year in the General Ledger. You can change dates in the General Ledger Setup and User Setup sections of NAV.
2. Accounting Calendar: Make sure your accounting calendar is set to 2017 with all the appropriate accounting periods for 2017.
3. Budgets and Financial Statements: If you use Financial Budgets, they should be updated for the new year before you print financial statements containing any budget information.
4. Processing Year-End Close: While it’s a fairly simple process, most of us only process the year-end close once per year and often forget the steps involved. Gwen Britt has created a short video entitled Processing the Year-End Close in Dynamics NAV which walks through all the steps.
5. 1099 Vendors: Be sure to review your vendor setups for 1099 Reporting.  Confirm that all of your vendors that require 1099s are set up appropriately so you can start capturing 2017 information.
6. Be Aware of Posting Dates: Be sure your posting dates are set for 2017. Remember, NAV automatically defaults to the current year. And, the current year will be 2017 on January 1. So if you’re not careful, entries for 12/31/2016 will be posted to 12/31/2017. This happens more than you’d image, so take the time to ensure all posting dates reflect the new year, 2017.

Complete this checklist and your Dynamics NAV-related transition to the new year should be as painless as possible.

For more information on this or other Microsoft Dynamics NAV topics, please be sure to visit our resource center. And, be sure to subscribe to our blog so you’ll never miss another update.

How-to Create Column Layouts for Account Schedules in Dynamics NAV

In Dynamics NAV, the Column Layout screen allows you to determine how you want to see the columns on your account schedules. You may define columns that are visible on the financial reports or columns that are strictly used for calculations. This blog will illustrate how to create custom layouts for account schedules in Dynamics NAV.

You may define columns that are visible on the financial reports or columns that are strictly used for calculations. Each line on the Column Layout page represents a column.

Unless otherwise stated, the following examples assume a fiscal calendar year.

Let’s get started!  Go to: Departments > Financial Management > General Ledger > Account Schedules.  Select the Edit Column Layout Setup button on the ribbon.

Figure 1 – The Edit Column Layout Setup button on the Account Schedule Names list

From the Column Layout screen, click into the Name field.

Figure 2 – The Name field on the Column Layout page

From the Column Layout Names page, click the New button on the ribbon. Create a Name and Description for your new column layout.

Figure 3 – Creating a new column layout from the Column Layout Names page

Once you have created the new Column Layout Name, select it and complete the line information in the Column Layout page. The following is one example of a simple column layout.   

BAL ONLY– Represents the balance at date as determined by the Date Filter used. Used for balance sheet accounts. 

Figure 4 – BAL ONLY Balance Only

The following are samples of additional column layouts that may be created for use with the account schedules.

BAD– Represents the balance at date for each of the twelve months. Typically used for the Balance Sheet.

Figure 5 – BAD Balance at Date – 12 Mo of Fiscal Year

BADA (alternative)– Represents the balance at date for each of the twelve months. Typically used for the Balance Sheet.

Figure 6 – BADA Balance at Date – 12 Mo of Fiscal Year (Alternative)

BUDGANALYS: Represents the deviation from the budget. 

Figure 7 – BUDGANALYS Budget Analysis

CASHFLOW– Represents the statement of cash flow comparing month to year.

Figure 8 – CASHFLOW Comparison Month -Year

CP – Represents the current period. If the Date Filter is set to April, report displays April. 

Figure 9 – CP Current Period

CPA (alternative)– Represents the current period. If the Date Filter is set to April, report displays April.

Figure 10 – CPA Current Period (Alternative)

DAY– Represents one day of activity. The Date Filter must be set to one day.

Figure 11 – DAY One day of Activity

DEGREE– Represents the key cash flow ratio.

Figure 12 – DEGREE Key Cash Flow Ratio

EY – Represents the entire year. Will display data from January to December regardless of Date Filter.

Figure 13 – EY Entire Year

MY – Represents multiple years. Displays four years of activity.

Figure 14 – MY Multiple Years

NC– Represents the net change for 12 months of the fiscal year. This is typically used for income statements.

Figure 15 – NC Net Change

NCA (alternative)– Represents the net change for 12 months of the fiscal year. This is typically used for income statements. This is an alternative method as it relies on the Date Filter being set to the last month of the year.

Figure 16 – NCA Net Change (Alternative)

PERIODS– Represents the current period and two prior periods.

Figure 17 – PERIODS Periods Definition for Mini Charts

PTD + YTD– Represents the period to date and the year to date net change.

Figure 18 – PTD + YTD Period and Year to Date

PTD + YTD + %– Represents the period and year to date percentage of the budget.

Figure 19 – PTD + YTD + % Period and Year to Date with Percent of Total Revenue

PYTD – Represents the balance of one fiscal year prior to the Date Filter.

Figure 20 – PYTD Prior Year to Date

PYTDA (alternative)– Represents the balance of one fiscal year prior to the Date Filter.

Figure 21 – PYTD Prior Year to Date (Alternative)

QP – Represents a column for each quarter of net change.

Figure 22 – QP Quarterly Period

RFY– Represents the remaining amount for the fiscal year.  This is typically used for budget entries.

Figure 23 – RFY Rest of Fiscal Year

SMP– Represents the first six periods of the current fiscal year summarized in one column.

Figure 24 – SMP Specific Multiple Periods

SP6 – Represents a specific period regardless of the Date Filter.  In this example, the period for June is used.

Figure 25 – SP6 Specific Period - June

SPPY– Represents the same period of the prior fiscal year, based on the Date Filter.

Figure 26 – Same Period of Prior Year

SP-PY– Represents a specific period in the prior fiscal year regardless of the Date Filter.

Figure 27 – SP-PY Specific Period of Prior Year – June

WK– Represents the previous 7 days. The Date Filter must be set to the last day of the week.

Figure 28 – WK Last Seven Days

YTD – Represents the year to date depending on the Date Filter. If the Date Filter is set to June, the report will display data from January to June.

Figure 29 – YTD Year to Date

YTDA (alternative) - Represents the year to date depending on the Date Filter. If the Date Filter is set to June, the report will display data from January to June.

Figure 30 – YTDA Year to Date (Alternative)

YTDCOMPARE– Represents the year to date activity compared to the prior year.

Figure 31 – YTDCOMPARE This Year to Date vs. Prior Year to Date

The following Column Layouts will need to be created for each of the day of the month options.

Figure 32 – Column Layout Names

31MO– Represents each of the days in a given month. The Date Filter must be set to the last day of the month.

Figure 33 – 31MO All the Days in a 31 Day Month

Check out our blog for more information on setting up columns in Dynamics NAV.

And, be sure to subscribe to our blog so you’ll never miss another NAV-related update. 

Dynamics NAV Pricing

I’ve often asked myself why the prices for cloud computing for Dynamics NAV (Navision) haven’t dropped in line with Microsoft and Amazon price decreases. I set out to answer that question and what I discovered has now convinced me that no one should ever buy another physical server to run NAV ever again.

Starting with Dynamics NAV 2016 and later we can now use Azure SQL which eliminates the need to license Microsoft SQL separately on either a physical or virtual machine. The cost savings using Azure SQL means that we can now run NAV 2016 or later on Azure SQL from a half to a quarter of the cost of traditional hosting or running it on premise. In addition to an Azure Subscription the only other thing you need is an SSL Certificate.

To see for yourself all you need to do is go to the Azure Pricing Calculator.

For a standard configuration that should easily support 25 users, all you need is an Azure Windows Virtual Machine and an Azure SQL Database. I’m including a screen shot of the configuration below so that you can replicate my configuration in the pricing calculator. You’ll notice that the estimated monthly cost is only $283.32 per month. What is even more amazing is that for this price you can also use point-in-time restore as far back as 35 days along with the ability to restore databases from geo-redundant copies of recent backups, or failover to database replicas in a different region. To create that kind of capability in a hosting or an on premise environment is often cost prohibitive.

Figure 1 - Azure SQL Server Pricing Configuration for Dynamics NAV 2016

Hopefully, once you do your own analysis, you’ll come to the same conclusion that I did. That no one should ever buy another NAV server again.  If you would like to learn more please feel free to contact me at gkaupp@archerpoint.com. For more information on Microsoft Dynamics pricing, visit our site.

And, be sure to subscribe to our blog so you’ll never miss another NAV-related update. 

Creating (or Extending) a Shop Calendar in Dynamics NAV

One of the most frequent requests we receive is with regard to the error message that is received when trying to create a Production Order. The error message looks similar to the error message below:

Figure 1 - Error Message

The message is communicating that it is trying to calculate the start date for the order, but could not find a shop calendar (also known as capacity calendar) going back far enough to know what capacity is available in the work center. If the order has been backward scheduled, then the error message will say “When calculating Backward.” If the error happened as a result of using forward scheduling, then the message will say “When calculating forward.” 

The fix to this message is to calculate the capacity for the work center so that the system can calculate the number of days required to produce the production order. The information below walks you through the process of creating/extending the shop calendar for a work center.

To create or extend the shop calendar:

1. Go to the Work Center card for the work center involved.
   
   Figure 2 - Work Center Card in Dynamics NAV
2. Confirm that the “Shop Calendar Code” field has a value (field is identified with the arrow in the figure above).
3. Select the Calendar Icon on the ribbon (identified by red rectangle in the figure above).
   
   Figure 3 - Work Center Calendar
4. The page above displays.  This page allows you to set the options to view the “Shop Calendar” or capacity calendar for the work centers. 
5. Select the Show Matrix icon on the ribbon (highlighted by the red rectangle in the figure above).
6. The page below displays showing the capacity information that has been calculated at this point.
   
   Figure 4 - Dynamics NAV Work Center Calendar Matrix
7. Select the ACTIONS tab as highlighted by the red rectangle in the figure above.
8. Select the Calculate Icon on the ribbon of the ACTIONS tab (highlighted by red arrow in the figure above).
   
   Figure 5 - Calculate Work Center Calendar
9. The above options box displays allowing you to apply any filters and set the date range to use to calculate capacity for the selected work centers.
10. Enter the Starting and Ending dates.
11. Select the work center you want to calculate the shop calendar for (Leave the No. filter field blank to calculate the capacity/shop calendar for all work centers).
12. Click the OK button to start the calculation.
13. Refresh the screen to see the capacity that has been calculated for your work center.
    
    Figure 6 - Shop Calendar Error Fixed
14. You have now corrected the Shop Calendar error you had received.

For more information on Microsoft Dynamics NAV and production order calendars, please visit our Resource Center. And, be sure to subscribe to our blog so you’ll never miss another NAV-related update.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 and the Change Log

As a Dynamics NAV user, you may need to identify who and when someone has modified a Field Value. For example, if you want to record all changes in the Allowed Posting Dates field within in the General Ledger Setup, using the Change Log is ideal. While you can use the Roles and Permissions tool, this only allows for controlling who can make the changes, it does not record which user changed it and when. With the Change Log, we can log the Insert Modify and Delete operation in the whole table or selected Fields to record any changes.

Activating the Change Log in Dynamics NAV

To activate the Change Log navigate to Departments/Administration/IT Administration/Tasks, under General select Change Log Setup. From there set Change Log Activated to TRUE.

Figure 1 - Enable Change Log in Dynamics NAV 2016

Now from the Action Tab, select Tables. This will open the Change Log Setup (Table) List. Select the tables for which you want to activate the Change Log. And, select the appropriate fields. Please note that if you select All Fields, a log entry will be created whenever any data element in a table changes. If you select Some Fields, a log entry will be created whenever any data element in a selected Table field changes. Using Assist Edit you can select the fields that you want to use to Track Changes.

Figure 2 - Change Log Setup Table List with Change Log for All Fields

Figure 3 - Change Log Setup Table List with Change Log for Selected Fields in Dynamics NAV 2016

Once you have setup all tables that you want to change the Log for, you then need to reopen the NAV Client to the Change Log to start recording changes.

View Change Log Entries

To view the Change Log entries, navigate to Departments/Administration/IT Administration/General/Change Log Entries. From here you can find log entries for the tables which you have configured in setup. Each entry will contain primary keys (only first 3 primary keys in a table), type of change, old value, and new value of a field, date, and time of log.

Best Practices for Change Log Setup

Some best practices for setting up and using the Change Log include:

1. Don’t setup Change Log for all tables and all fields in table. While it is very easy to setup, it will have huge impact on database size as each event from each user will be logged.
2. Try to keep Change Log on selected fields of setups that impact your business, again to help manage the size of the database.
3. Don’t setup Change Log on transaction tables like Sales Header and Line, Item Journal Line, or on Ledger tables like Item Ledger Entries or General Ledger Entries.
4. Setup Change Log for setup Tables, and if you want it on transaction tables, then activate the Change Log for selected fields only.

If you have any questions about this function or other Dynamics NAV questions for any version, contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Dynamics NAV Coffee Break: Setting up and Issuing Reminders in Dynamics NAV

Setting up and Issuing payment reminders in Microsoft Dynamics NAV can be quite useful to ensure timely payment from your customers. In this video, Gwen demonstrates everything you need to do to set up reminders in the Financial Management section of Dynamics NAV. You will also see how to create terms,  set up additional fee accounts in customer posting groups, add and choose a text variable for the reminder, and finally issue the reminder.

You can view this video and many other video tutorials for Dynamics NAV on ArcherPoint's YouTube Channel. 

For more information on this or any other Dynamics NAV topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

For more step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, see our collection of How-To blogs.