Fundamentals of Great Plains & Reporting Tools

Transcription

1 Fundamentals of Great Plains & Reporting Tools Accessing GP... 1 Accessing the terminal server... 1 Creating a shortcut to the Remote Desktop Connection command... 2 Configuration options for your terminal server connection... 2 Configuring the size of the terminal server window... 2 Adding your local My Documents folder... 3 Opening Great Plains... 4 Exiting from Great Plains... 5 What happens if you don t exit properly... 6 Ending your terminal server session... 6 Understanding the GP homepage... 7 Adding quick links... 7 Setting user preferences... 9 Setting HR preferences...10 Specifying your printer...10 Getting help in GP...11 Creating a trial balance report...11 Setting a date range for a trial balance...12 Specifying an account code for a trial balance...13 Specifying an account segment...14 Running a trial balance report...16 Closing out of the trial balance report...17 Running a Summary inquiry...17

2 Accessing GP Great Plains lives on a terminal server that you use Remote Desktop to access. The most important thing to remember when accessing anything on one of the terminal servers is that when you are finished, you should log off of the terminal server. Please do not ever choose Shut Down, because you really don t want to run the risk of shutting down the server itself. Accessing the terminal server Click on the Start button, select All Programs, select Accessories, and then select Remote Desktop Connection. Enter the terminal server name: cob-gp-term01 OR cob-gp-term02 Click on the Connect button. It may take a minute to establish the remote connection, but eventually you will see a login screen where you enter your network credentials. Schools folks: remember to change the domain at the bottom to SCHLS, or enter your username as follows: Schls\your_username If you have problems accessing a terminal server, please contact the Local Government Help Desk at (ext. 5895) or helpdesk@albemarle.org. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

3 Creating a shortcut to the Remote Desktop Connection command If you are going to be accessing Great Plains on a regular basis, you should save yourself some clicks by setting up a shortcut to the Remote Desktop command. Click on the Start button, select All Programs, select Accessories, and then right-click on the Remote Desktop Connection command. A shortcut menu appears where you can choose to pin the command to the taskbar running across the bottom of the screen, or to the Start menu. Use one of these commands to save the Remote Desktop command where you can find it quickly and easily. Note: because I already have the Remote Desktop command pinned to my Start Menu, the shortcut menu now gives me the chance to unpin it. Click on the appropriate command. Note: once you have pinned the Remote Desktop command to either your taskbar or start menu, if you right-click on the command you will be given the option to unpin it from that location. Configuration options for your terminal server connection You can customize a number of features about your terminal server connection: Size of the window Add a shortcut to the My Documents folder on your own computer (particularly useful if you need to download information and work with it in Excel or another application) To do any customizations of your terminal server connection, click on the Options command in the lower-left corner of the Remote Desktop Connection window. Configuring the size of the terminal server window Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

4 Once you ve clicked on the Options command as described above, click on the Display tab. In the Display configuration area, use the slider bar to affect the size of the remote desktop window. Click on the Connect command at the bottom of the window to sign in to the terminal server. Note: You may find that you need to tinker with the size until you figure out what works best for you. Just repeat this process until you arrive at the best setup for your monitor. Adding your local My Documents folder Click on the Local Resources tab and then click on the More command in the Local devices and resources area near the bottom of the window. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

5 When the list of devices appears, click on the plus sign beside Drives. Check the box Opening Great Plains Once you are on the terminal server, you should see a GP shortcut on the desktop: If you don t see the shortcut, click on the Start button, select All Programs, select Microsoft Dynamics, select GP 10.0, and then at last you can select the GP application from there. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

6 Note: if the GP shortcut is not on your desktop, right-click on the GP application link shown below, select Send To, and then select Desktop (create shortcut) so that you no longer have to remember this long path! Once you ve opened GP you have a two-step process to get up and running: 1. Log in to GP 2. Select the correct company. The login screen is shown below. The server name will always be Dynamics GP. You do not have do anything to that field. GP uses a separate username/password combination from what you use to log in to the County s network. However, the password is set to expire every 90 days, so if you want to make your life easier, you can synchronize your GP password so that it expires at the same time as your network account, making it easier to keep track of passwords. Enter your user ID and password, and then click on the OK button. The next screen that displays is where you will select your company. The live production company for GP is named County of Albemarle. If you are training on a new function or doing some testing, you may be asked to select a different company. Click on the dropdown arrow here to select the company. Exiting from Great Plains When you are finished with your GP work, be sure that you exit properly so that you are no longer logged into the system. Click on the Microsoft Dynamics GP menu and select Exit from the bottom of the menu. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

7 If you simply click on the X in the upper-right corner of the GP window, you may not be properly logged out of the system, so please don t do that! What happens if you don t exit properly If you forget to close out of GP, or if your connection to the terminal server gets dropped, you will see the following error message the next time you open and try to log into GP: Click on the Yes button, and the Current User Login Activity appears, showing when you last logged in: Click on the Delete button to eliminate that login. You should now be returned to the Company Login window, where you will be able to proceed normally with the login process. Ending your terminal server session Once you have properly closed out of GP, you must also end your terminal server session. Click on the Start button and select Log Off. Note: whatever you do, do NOT select shut down, which will shut down the server for you and everyone else! Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

8 Understanding the GP homepage On the GP homepage you see a setup that looks somewhat like the Outlook Today homepage Breadcrumbs Dropdown menus offer same navigation as area pages Shortcut to area pages in Outlook. On the homepage you can access all of the different parts of GP to which you have been given access through several different methods: Area pages: in the lower-left corner of the screen are shortcuts to the homepages for different areas of GP. Click on one of these to see options available to you there. Menus: a dark gray menu bar runs across the top of the screen; select a menu option and then navigate to open directly into wherever you need to go. Note: once you re familiar with GP, the menus are the most efficient way to move around. The area pages are a useful way to familiarize yourself with the options available to you. You will not be able to open, or in many cases even see, items to which you don t have access. Adding quick links The Quick Links tool on the homepage is the best way to customize the homepage so that, in most cases, you can get to the screens you need to see quickly. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

9 Hover on the right side of the Quick Links title bar until you see a pencil icon appear. Hover in this area until you see the pencil and Help icon appear. Click on the pencil icon to open the Quick Links Details window. Click on the Add button near the bottom of the window and select Microsoft Dynamics GP window. These are items I have already added. Choose an item from the Menu Groups list on the left side of the screen. Its relevant options will then show up on the right side of the screen. Highlight the item you want to add and then click on the OK button. You will be returned to the Quick Links Details window, where you will see the new item added to your list. If you think the display name is unclear or lacking in detail, select it in the list and then click on the Modify button near the bottom of the screen. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

10 The Properties window opens; here you can change the name to whatever makes the most sense to you. Click on OK to return to the Quick Links Details window. Use these commands to rearrange the order in which your quick links appear. Use the Delete command to get rid of a link that you no longer need. You can modify the order in which the links appear by using the Move Up and Move Down commands on the right side of the screen. To remove any links you no longer need, select the link and then click on the Delete command. When you have finished adding and modifying links, click on the OK command. You will need to refresh the homepage by selecting one of the area pages in the lower-left corner and then returning to the homepage. Then you should be able to see the changes you made to Quick Links. Setting user preferences Click on the Microsoft Dynamics GP menu and select User Preferences. The items you are most likely to want to modify are discussed below. You can reset your password here; you get the same 2-week countdown period as with your network password Determine how many autocomplete items GP will remember for you; autocomplete carries across all of GP Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

11 Default Report Destination: you can choose whether the default destination is the printer or your screen. Note: even though you set your default to screen, you will still be able to print to a printer, if necessary. Entry Key: determines how Tab and Enter keys work. If you are accustomed to using the Tab key for moving from field to field, then leave the selection at Tab. If you prefer to have the Enter key function as a tab key, then select Return. Display button: opens another window where you can specify how required fields display. I would suggest leaving the settings at their defaults. Once you have made your desired changes, click on the OK command to save them. Setting HR preferences If you work with the Human Resources components of GP, you may want to modify how some of that coded information is displayed, so that you see the text description rather than the code itself. On the main User Display Preferences window, click on the HR button. When the HR preferences window appears, select Description in the Organizational Display area. Click on the OK command to return to the main window, and then click on OK there to save your changes. Specifying your printer One of the peculiarities of GP is that you must specify your printer on the homepage. If you decide while running a report that you need to print to a different printer, you must come back to the homepage and change the printer there. Click on the Microsoft Dynamics GP menu and select Print Setup. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

12 In the Print Setup window, click on the dropdown arrow beside Name and then select your printer of choice. Note: because we are still working out the logistics of how users can print from the terminal server to their departmental printer, at this time your best bet will be to create a PDF. Click on the OK button to save your setting. Now you should be able to return to your report or inquiry and print to the designated printer. Getting help in GP Most screens you see in GP will have the standard blue circle Help icon on them somewhere; click on this icon to open the Help system. No matter where you are in GP, hitting the F1 key on your keyboard will bring up a context-sensitive help screen. The Help window itself looks quite similar to help windows in other Microsoft products. You can enter in a search term on the left side of the window. Note that the Context, Index, and Search tabs allow you different ways to search. Use these links to read about the fields and command buttons found in a particular window. On the right side of the screen is help information specific to the window you were in when you hit the F1 key. Depending on your GP location, you may just have a single page of information, or there may be links near the top of the page to additional information on that window, as well as related topics at the bottom of the page. Creating a trial balance report You can find the trial balance report in the Financial section s Reports area. The trial balance report requires you to set report options before running it. You can choose what accounts to view, a date range, or specify a certain segment of the budget code, among other options. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

13 Click on the Trial Balance link and the following window opens: If the report you want is already in here and you know the parameters are correct, click to select and then click on the Insert command. Click on the Modify button to changet he parameters for the report. If you set up your own trial balance report and the parameters do not need to be modified, you can select the name under the Options list, click on the Insert command, and then click on the Print command. However, it is more likely that you will need to modify the parameters. Click on the name of the report type you want to use and then click on the Modify command. The Trial Balance Report Options window opens. If there are any existing parameters, they will be displayed. To create your very own trial balance report, give it a name in the Option textbox. Choose whether or not to include subtotals here. Use the Ranges area to set criteria for dates, account codes, or segments. Once you ve created a criteria, be sure to click on the Insert command to add it into your report. To remove old parameters, click to select in the Restrictions area and then click on the Remove command. Setting a date range for a trial balance Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

14 Click on the dropdown beside Ranges and select Date. Select a start and end date in the From and To fields. Note: to give yourself maximum flexibility, you can click on the dropdown arrow and select a generic date parameters such as Start of fiscal year. Once you have set your start and end dates, click on the Insert command to add them into the list of criteria at the bottom of the window. Specifying an account code for a trial balance Click on the dropdown beside Ranges and select Account. If you know the budget account code, enter it into the From box. If you don t know the correct account code click on the magnifying glass icon to open the Accounts window. Click on the magnifying glass to search for the account code. In the Accounts window, you can search by description, Type, Fund, or Dept. Enter the desired search term and click on the Enter key to see the results. Once you find the desired account, double-click on the account in the list of results to add it to Enter a number into any of these segments to search by that segment. Enter text here if you want to search by account description. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

15 the From field. Repeat the process, if necessary, to add another budget code as the end point for your report. Remember that you are selecting a range of accounts here, rather than two separate accounts. Once you have all the desired account codes, click on the Insert command. Specifying an account segment If you want to see the data from all departments/locations for a specific segment of the budget code, you can do that via the account segment option. Click on the dropdown beside Ranges and select Segment ID. If you already know the segment number, you can enter it into the Segment ID field. If you already know it, enter the Segment ID here. l If you do not know the segment ID, click on the magnifying glass to open the Segment IDs window, where you can select the correct one and then click on the Select command. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

16 Now you must select the actual segment s corresponding piece of the budget code. Enter the correct code here, or click on the magnifying glass icon to look it up on a list. If you know it already, enter it into the From field and then click on the Enter key on your keyboard. If you don t know it, click on the magnifying glass icon to see a list of available choices. Below is the Object lookup window. You can scroll through the list to find the segment code you need, You can scroll through the list of segments or enter the beginning numbers to get closer to what you need. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

17 or you can enter part of the number in the Find by Segment ID box near the top of the window to jump to a specific location in the list. Once you find the correct segment, click to select it and then click on the Select command. If you only want to look at that one segment, click on the Insert command to move it into the Restrictions window. If you want to look at a range of segments, repeat the selection process for the To field and then click on the Insert command. Running a trial balance report Once you have set up all of your desired criteria, you can save your changes, if desired, by entering a new name in the Option text box at the top of the window and then clicking on the Save command. When you are ready to run the report, click on the Print command near the top of the window. A Report Destination window appears where you can specify printing to the screen or a printer. Click on the OK command to finish running the report. If you choose to print to screen, a new window appears displaying the report. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

18 Closing out of the trial balance report When you close the trial balance window, you will see a window asking about saving changes: If you want to save your parameter settings, click on the Save command. Running a Summary inquiry The summary inquiry shows you a by-month summary of transactions/gl postings in a specified budget account code. It also allows you to drill down to get more-specific information about certain transactions. You can find the summary inquiry in the Financial section s Inquiry area. Click to open the Summary Inquiry window. If you know the account code, enter it in the Account textbox. If you need to search for the correct code, click on the magnifying glass icon. In the Account window, you can search by account code description or by entering a code segment in the appropriate textbox. Once you see the correct budget code in the search results list, double-click on it to add it to the You can search here by specific code segments. Enter a search term here to find an account based on its description. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

19 summary inquiry window. The summary inquiry window now shows each month that is currently available. To drill down Once you select a month, you can click on any of the blue-underlined links to view detail for that month. and get more information, select the month you want to look at in greater detail and then click on one of the blue links for Debit, Credit, Net Change or Period Balance. When you get to the Detail Inquiry screen, you may be able to continue drilling down. Click to select a transaction and then click on the blue link for Journal Entry. If there is an accessible journal entry, it will open in a separate window. For more information about a transaction, click to select and then click on the Journal Entry link to see if more information is available. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools

20 When the Transaction Entry Zoom window opens, you may be able to go one level deeper by Click here for more information (possibly) about the source document for this transaction. clicking on the blue link for Source Document. The Payables Transaction Entry Zoom will give you more information about that particular transaction, if it is available. Fundamentals of GP & Reporting Tools