Whether you have used Microsoft Dynamics GP for years or you are contemplating switching to a new accounting system, 2016 may be the year for you! Microsoft plans to release Version 2016 of Dynamics GP around April of this year just in time for Envision, Microsoft’s new conference meant to bring together business leaders to discuss the next big thing in technology. In keeping with the promise to follow a six-month cadence, Microsoft is committed to releasing a feature rich service pack or product release every six months to ensure the Dynamics GP user community continues to find value in their Dynamics GP investment.
So what do we know so far about this new version? Well, Microsoft gave a sneak peek to its partners during the reIMAGINE conference this past September. The focus of this conference is to empower partners to better support their customers, and what better way than informing us of the new features coming soon that will benefit our customers!
Dynamics GP Version 2016 promises to have features to benefit all areas, including the following:
Financial & Analytical Accounting (AA)
- Budget Import Exception Report
- When importing a budget from Excel, an Exception Report will print, displaying accounts that are not set up in Dynamics GP.
- AA User Access Settings
- Option to automatically grant users access to all AA transaction dimension codes rather than defining access individually for all users to all codes.
- Payables Credit Card Payment
- Option for a Computer Check Batch to be paid by Credit Card similar to the Check & EFT Options currently available.
- The credit card payment will create an invoice for the credit card vendor and allow for immediate printing/emailing of Vendor Remittances.
Distribution
- Sales All-in-One View & Inventory All-in-One View
- Mimics current Purchasing All-in-One View window, which was first introduced in Dynamics GP Version 2015 R2.
- Allows you to view all related Sales or Inventory documents for a single transaction in one window.
- Accessible from Customer or Item Maintenance windows, many Inquiry windows, Navigation Pane Lists and Home Page.
- Prepayment on Purchase Order (PO) Total Amount
- Prepayment amount on POs can now include Taxes, Freight and Miscellaneous such that the entire PO amount can be included in the prepayment.
Project Accounting
- Project Expenses – Doc Attach
- Use Doc Attach feature in Project Time & Expense (PTE) Employee Expenses & Employee Expense Entry windows to attach documents such as receipts to header or line items.
- Attachments will flow from PTE to Project Accounting to Payables.
- Project Accounting fields now appear in Requisition Entry Window
- Project Number and Cost Category ID fields available in Purchase Requisition Entry window and can go through Workflow process as well as flow into the Purchase Order Processing module.
Payroll
- Inactive Pay Codes Lookup Options
- Option to exclude inactive pay codes from the pay codes lookup.
- Works for Employee Pay Codes Lookup and Pay Codes Lookup windows.
- Ease of Payroll Posting Accounts Setup
- See all posting accounts in Navigation List.
- Easily filter and sort accounts with Navigation List functionality.
- Export and Import payroll posting accounts using Excel.
Workflow
- Two new options for what happens when step conditions are NOT met: Continue to Next Step or Reject.
- Email notifications can be sent to the new approver for Delegation, Escalation or Alternate Approval.
- Workflow Batch Approvals can now include Edit List in email attachment for GL Batch Approvals, Payables Batch Approvals and Receivables Batch Approvals.
System
- Ability to scan multiple pages using the Scan functionality with Doc Attach, including a document feeder option.
- Now supports Named User Pricing for Self Service User Types.
- SmartList Designer (SLD) Improvements
- Create new SmartLists in SLD from SmartList Favorites so user does not have to remove extra columns from the default SmartList.
- Import/Export SmartLists from SLD into another installation such as a Test environment.
- Export numbers to Excel formatted as Numbers as opposed to Text.
- Power BI Reports on Home Page
- New part on Home Page to display Power BI reports.
- Power BI is a cloud-based business analytics service offered by Microsoft.
Management Reporter (MR)
- Ability to deploy MR for access over secure HTTPS communication.
Web Client
- HTML 5 Web Client available on any browser (i.e. IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari) and all devices.
- Includes search feature that can also look in third party windows.
Granted, we never truly know what Microsoft has planned until the actual code is released, but it is exciting to think that the features above are in the works. Moreover, as the roadmap below shows, Microsoft continues to invest in Dynamics GP.
Now is a great time to contemplate migrating from your legacy system to Dynamics GP or if you are already a Dynamics GP user, start planning for your upgrade to Dynamics GP Version 2016. There are exciting things in the works, and you do not want to miss out this year!
