SmartList Builder is an add-on for your Great Plains software.  It is quite simple to configure, and it starts by letting you choose your data source from a list of all the tables within Dynamics GP. There is even the ability to include external SQL Server tables.

You’re then given the option to select the fields to include in the report as separate columns. And yes, the column names can be edited to be different from perhaps less user-friendly field names in a Dynamics table.

And that’s about it, in terms of the basics of building a SmartList. At this point, you can go into the actual SmartList to view the multi-column report you’ve created.

But there’s a powerful feature that can turn a static SmartList report into something more interactive. SmartList Builder provides a “GoTo” function that allows your users to trigger a pop-up window containing the complete Dynamics GP record. They do this by just clicking on a line in the report.

Say that you’ve created a SmartList for your Account Receivables, in which the vendor, amount, and the days-past-due fields are listed as columns.

If you go into SmartList Builder, and click on the “GoTo” menu item, you’re given a list of all the Dynamics GP forms connected to the Receivables table. Be sure to then add a “task” and give it the key fields you’ll need to fetch the record.

Now when users are viewing the Receivables SmartList report and need to learn more about a bill, they can pop it up without having to navigate through the form.

MIG provides powerful solutions that allow NFPs to automate processes while tracking donations and reducing costs. Contact us to find out how our technology can help your business grow and improve in this challenging economic environment.

MIG & Co. – A New York City based Microsoft Dynamics Gold Partner, serving New York with vast nonprofit/ not-for-profit experience

• Is your organization proactive or reactive to needed internal changes because of external challenges?
• Are your systems helping your organization or holding you back from being on top of the financial and operational data you need to compete?

Please Join Us
at an Invitation Only Executive Roundtable sponsored by
ACCOUNTNET
Addressing Nonprofit Challenges in 2012 and Beyond
Learn about innovative strategies to help you sustain and grow your organization in a time of CHANGE.

Reserve Your Seat Today!

Thursday, May 17, 2012
9:00 – Noon
Microsoft Corporation
1290 Avenue of the Americas, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10104

Times are tough for nonprofits right now, according to the Wall Street Journal:  “Hit by a drop in donations and government funding in the wake of a deep recession, nonprofits – from arts councils to food banks – are undergoing a painful restructuring, including mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, cutbacks and closings.”

Could You Use Some Help?

Hear from Anne-Claire McAllister, President of Accountnet, Inc. and Leigh Tucker, Managing Director at Accounting Management Solutions, Inc., about their 20+ years of experience working with nonprofit organizations like yours to address these issues and more.  Learn how leveraging the latest accounting technology trends can help you to manage the CHANGE AHEAD.

Limited seats available.  First come, first serve.  Receive more chances to win prizes totaling over $1,000 in Microsoft software when you register more than two people from the same organization.  Secure your place at a table now!

According the article “9 Ways Board Members Can Raise Money Without Fundraising” by Nell Edgington, President of Social Velocity—a management consulting firm for nonprofits, there are ways  board members can significantly contribute to a nonprofit’s bottom line without fundraising directly. As stated in the article, they are:

1. Help create or evaluate a business plan for an earned income venture.
2. Advocate for government money.
3. Provide intelligence on prospects.
4. Set up a meeting with a prospective customer.
5. Email, call, or visit a donor just to say thanks.
6. Explain to a prospect why you serve.
7. Host a small gathering at their home.
8. Recruit an in-kind service.
9. Negotiate a lower price from a vendor.

All of these items leverage a board member’s connections, expertise, and clout.  They also empower board members to easily contribute to the overall fundraising strategy and potentially exceed expectations.  Read the full article here to get all the details on the “9 Ways Board Members Can Raise Money Without Fundraising”.

AVF Consulting is a leading Serenic partner and Microsoft Silver ERP partner providing financial, donor, and grant management software to nonprofit organizations and NGOs across the United States. Visit our events page and register for a complimentary webinar to see if Serenic Navigator is right for your nonprofit accounting and fundraising needs.

Microsoft Dynamics GP takes accounting software a step forward with integrated monitoring tools that allow employees to access relevant and timely data and make informed decisions:

SmartList data display
Get immediate notification about business activity. SmartList in Microsoft Dynamics GP allows people to organize and display data from the accounting system in a way that makes sense to them and to then search those records according to specific criteria. People can save their searches as SmartList favorites or export data to Microsoft Office Excel or Microsoft Office Word.

Office Excel analysis screen
Unleash the power of Microsoft Office Excel. Microsoft Dynamics GP has more than 700 Microsoft Office Excel reports out of the box that give you access to real-time data and are customizable. And, with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010, access reports from anywhere you have an Internet connection.

Microsoft Forecaster
Create, forecast, and adjust budgets. With Microsoft Forecaster, people can build budgets that incorporate market conditions and specific business objectives.  And, when the business environment changes, use Microsoft Forecaster to adjust forecasts and budgets so that managers can respond effectively.

Plan more effectively. Create accurate, high-level plans instantly, using up-to-date data pulled directly from the General Ledger in Microsoft Dynamics GP. Integration across Microsoft Management Reporter and Microsoft Forecaster gives you access to all the data, from summaries to transactions.

With Microsoft Dynamics GP, you can know the financial health of your organization at all times and have an accurate forecast of your business that will keep you one step ahead of your competitors. And now with Management Reporter 2012, you can expect:

More flexibility in designing your financial reports with additional opportunities to collaborate with co-workers, auditors and others during the report design, distribution and viewing process.

Receive an interactive report viewing experience to help you drive decisions from the report data that’s delivered to you, deeper integration with your Microsoft Dynamics ERP solution, including drilling back to the Microsoft Dynamics ERP data!

Don’t miss the upcoming event at Microsoft on May 17, 2012
http://www.accountnet.com/event-registration/

Next steps:
View Microsoft Dynamics GP product demos and find Nonprofit and other industry-specific solutions from Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Contact us with questions and for help. www.accountnet.com

• The Dynamics GP Fixed Assets module is fully integrated with Account Payable and Purchase Order Processing.  As such, if you purchase a capital asset and distribute it to a General Ledger Fixed Assets Account (e.g. Furniture & Fixtures), the asset will automatically show up in Fixed Assets.     This saves time and increases  internal controls to ensure that your capital purchases are properly captured and depreciated.
• The Fixed Assets module is also fully integrated with General Ledger.   This simplifies the reporting of your depreciation and ensures that your depreciation is properly recorded.   In addition, the integration with the General Ledger module allows you to quickly and accurately record your depreciation expense on a monthly basis rather than just once a year.
• The Fixed Assets module does much more than just calculate and report depreciation.   It also tracks where your assets are located and who is responsible for them, among other things.
• An integrated Fixed Assets module can help lower your accounting fees.    Many non-profits have their accounting firms maintain their fixed assets and calculate the related depreciation at the end of the year.    By using your built-in Fixed Assets module, you will no longer need your accounting firm to handle that for you and you will save on their fees accordingly.

The preceding are just a few of the benefits of an integrated Fixed Assets solution like the one in Dynamics GP.   Fixed Assets is a hidden gem of Dynamics GP.   If you’re not using it, we encourage you to take a look at it.    If you have any questions on it, please feel free to e-mail me at jmeyer@manersolutions.com.

Maner Costerisan – a Michigan-based CPA firm and technology consulting firm specializing in helping Not-for-Profits improve operations and support their mission through financial accounting, CRM and productivity software solutions.    We are Certified Partners for Microsoft Dynamics GP,  Intacct and Avectra Social CRM.    For more information on how we can help you excel in these challenging economic times, please contact us or visit our website.

Available in your not-for-profit accounting software, Microsoft Dynamics GP, the Forecaster app has a familiar spreadsheet-like interface along with some special features that allow managers to quickly budget for key areas such as equipment, staffing, and revenue. Forecaster has reduced some of the number crunching tedium by providing a percentage or dollar value change function that will automatically update rows and columns of numbers.

In addition, there is also an Excel add-in for FRx Forecaster that even lets your budget personnel do some of the work offline.

The bigger issue with budgeting is that it involves several layers of accounting data, usually with different departments or individuals responsible for each part. Microsoft Forecaster recognizes this natural hierarchy by organizing the data down to the account level and then automatically rolling the budgeting numbers up the chain.

To keep track of who’s working on each budget section, Microsoft Forecaster includes a powerful workflow function. After configuring the routing flow, the budget staff then can submit, approve, or reject the proposed numbers. As the process moves along, email notifications are sent out to notify participants of the overall status and potential bottlenecks.

Microsoft Forecaster makes budgeting a collaborative effort, and will help your not-for-profit speed up the time spent on planning for the next quarter or next year’s numbers.

MIG provides powerful solutions that allow NFPs to automate processes while tracking donations and reducing costs. Contact us to find out how our technology can help your business grow and improve in this challenging economic environment.

MIG & Co. – A New York City based Microsoft Dynamics Gold Partner, serving New York with vast nonprofit/ not-for-profit experience

IM is a simple nonprofit software tool that you should be using for several reasons. First it’s a great way to cut across bureaucratic layers, and connect your staff and volunteers with the appropriate expert resource within your organization. For a not-for-profit with a distributed staff that may not all reside in a single location, Microsoft Dynamics GP’s instant messaging feature can save on cell-phone and long distance charges.
Instant messaging is also a natural way to react quickly to ad hoc requests or respond quickly to special needs, which is especially important in a non-profit environment.

In the R2 release of Dynamics GP 2010, Microsoft enhanced the instant messaging capability with further integrations with Microsoft Lync (formerly Office Communicator). The focus of the enhancements were to bring certain customer information and ordering capability directly into the IM session. These are, of course, still important as a nonprofit software function.

But there’s no reason why Microsoft’s IM capability can’t be used to replace cumbersome email exchanges. And with Microsoft Dynamics power to share donor records and other entities such as URL shortcuts, non-profit staff can collaborate quickly and efficiently as they exchange web references to internal Dynamics information in their real-time sessions.

MIG provides powerful solutions that allow NFPs to automate processes while tracking donations and reducing costs. Contact us to find out how our technology can help your business grow and improve in this challenging economic environment.

MIG & Co. – A New York City based Microsoft Dynamics Gold Partner, serving New York with vast nonprofit/ not-for-profit experience

One way to deal with the preceding challenge is to give the program managers, for example, direct access to the financial accounting software.    This can create other challenges, though, because:

1. Software companies typically charge for each additional user so giving the program managers access to the accounting system can be expensive.
2. There are security concerns with letting non-accounting users into the accounting system.
3. Training non-accounting users to use an accounting system is not always easy.

Another option for providing information to various stakeholders like program managers is to periodically run reports and then provide them via either hardcopy or an electronic (e.g. PDF) version of the report.   The problem with this approach, of course, is that it is not very efficient and the information that you provide can be dated depending on when the reports are run.

A better way of addressing the challenge of making information available on a timely basis is to use the dynamic reporting capabilities of Excel.     By linking Excel directly to your accounting software database, you can inexpensively create custom reports and dashboards that provide on demand, real-time visibility into the key metrics of your organization.

With many accounting software solutions, linking Excel directly to the financial database is difficult at best.    Fortunately, Microsoft Dynamics GP makes this relatively easy.  That’s because it uses Microsoft SQL Server as the underlying database and it is designed to work seamlessly with other Microsoft applications like Excel.    In fact, is comes with over one hundred Excel based reports, out of the box.    It even has an Excel Report Builder option to help you create your own reports.

Microsoft Dynamics GP and Excel create a powerful reporting environment that every non-profit can benefit from.   To learn more, please feel free to contact Maner Costerisan, your non-profit financial reporting experts.

Maner Costerisan – a Michigan-based CPA firm and technology consulting firm specializing in helping Not-for-Profits improve operations and support their mission through financial accounting, CRM and productivity software solutions.    We are Certified Partners for Microsoft Dynamics GP,  Intacct and Avectra Social CRM.    For more information on how we can help you excel in these challenging economic times, please contact us or visit our website.

Connected Organizations—Better Informed People Make 

Better Decisions
Modern business solutions not only connect people inside and outside the organization, they also give them context and insight which drives better decisions and boosts productivity.

An important part of Microsoft’s mission is to drive connections with people, with customers and with Accountnet across processes, data and the ecosystem in which organizations operate. This commitment to connected organizations includes our vision of anywhere, in-context collaboration services that link people and companies to the right people in the right place, in the right context, at the right time, through the right communications channel.

“Instant On” Workloads and Suites
Traditionally, businesses have had to choose between best of breed solutions that could target a single workload or entire suites. The best of breed approach presented enormous integration challenges as the separate workload solutions rarely came from the same application vendor. The suites naturally delivered integration, but don’t support workload-at-a-time implementation.

To solve this problem, Microsoft Dynamics is evolving into a suite solution, composed of workload services that are designed together but can be deployed independently. Businesses can consume the Microsoft Dynamics technology in the model that works for them – as an integrated suite in a business or subsidiary, or workload by workload in larger enterprises, with the workloads together composing the simplicity of a suite.

Tailor your solution to work the way your business does—without complicated IT efforts
No two organizations are alike—and industry specific needs vary widely. With Microsoft Dynamics GP, you can quickly add new capabilities using built-in personalization tools: Create specialized views and new windows, automate tasks specific to your business, and even build light applications. Using Webservices and the Microsoft .NET Framework, you can integrate with many data sources and applications, even if they’re built on non-Microsoft platforms. You’ll also find custom development is easier and more cost-effective with familiar Microsoft technologies and with nonprofit industry standards.

Contact Accountnet to join our Non Profit Shoot-out on May 17^th at the Microsoft NYC customer briefing center.  Get the software your organization deserves.

See how Microsoft Dynamics GP is helping Non Profits by visiting here.  How to buy?  Call Accountnet at 212.Dynamics.

And thanks to Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s Quick Campaigns function, setting up an ad-hoc fundraising effort doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming. It will be your non-profit solution to your fundraising challenges.

How might this work in a real campaign for a community-based charity raising money in response to, say, a building damaged by a storm? The Quick Campaigns feature can be triggered from several places, but you’ll most likely do this from Marketing Lists.

After selecting Marketing Lists in the Navigation Panel, the Quick Campaigns button appears at the top menu bar. Once clicked, a wizard pops-up, guiding you through a straight forward process. You can choose from several different channel options–email, phone, or fax.

Phone campaigns are very effective so let’s assume you choose the phone channel. In this case, you would enter the agent script in the pre-configured Phone form. The Phone form also includes a Notes area. Leave that blank since this is where your agents will record results of conversations–in terms of commitments or future follow-up plans.

The progress of Quick Campaigns can be monitored as agents make calls and populate the Phone form. To do this, simply navigate to the Marketing area from the Navigation Pane, and then click on Quick Campaigns to bring up the active campaigns. There’s a Campaign Responses section, which can be viewed by campaign managers when they click on their specific campaign.

Quick Campaigns may not be the answer to a more specialized kind of fundraising project. For that you’ll need to learn how to do form customizations and workflows.

But for many non-profit fundraising projects, out-of-the-box Microsoft Dynamics CRM might just be the right non-profit fundraising software solution.

MIG provides powerful solutions that allow NFPs to automate processes while tracking donations and reducing costs. Contact us to find out how our technology can help your business grow and improve in this challenging economic environment.

MIG & Co. – A New York City based Microsoft Dynamics Gold Partner, serving New York with vast nonprofit/ not-for-profit experience