Project Field Depth

Project ID field is 20 characters long in AX 2012 R2 CU7.

AOT – Data Tables – Extended Data Types – ProjID.

The project ID length error sometimes occurs even when the previous project ID is of length of 17. 

This is because the moment the next project is created, the ‘Sub-project ID format’ field from the project is filled with the 'Default sub-project ID format' from the project parameters. 

System validates that assuming that the next project is created and shows the project length error. To get around this problem, go to project parameters remove the default sub-project ID format setup and then setup the sub-project. 

When the limit of the project id length reaches the Sub-project ID format field displays blank. Even if the user tries to enter # in it system errors.

Thanks

Sarang

Expense Ledger Postings

Expense Postings has been the most complex issue because of the number of different areas in which the postings can be setup. The difficult part is when we are asked to correlate what meaning does the posting setup has and what amount posts where based on scenario. On top of it, to add to the complexity, we do have Expense Journal, Expense Report from EP and because that was not enough we do have project and non-project expense. Whoa..!

To cut through the clutter and to present the settings in a much simpler fashion i came up with this grid which will be handy to find out where the postings are coming from, in any scenario and how the system is behaving. The grid is as follows:

Thanks
Sarang

PO, Receipt and Invoicing – Scenarios

Wish to retain these results for future reference:

• If the PO is for Quantity 1 and value 100. If Receipt is for 0.6 (value = 60), the accrual transactions are posted for 60. Now if the invoice is for 0.4 (discrepancy approved), the accrual of 60 is completely reversed and invoice posting for 40 is posted. The difference of 20 is not accrued. However if you go to the PO, the deliver remainder is still 0.4, as 0.6 was received. If you now try to invoice, the quantity suggested is 0.2, as that is still to be invoiced (based on the option ‘Product receipt quantity’ selected on PSI). If this invoice is posted, then there is no accrual reversal transaction and the invoice posting is for 0.2. Deliver remainder after the second invoice is still 0.4 and the PO is open.
• If the PO is for Quantity 1 and value 100. If Receipt is for 1 (value = 100), the accrual transactions are posted for 100. IF now the PO is increased to Quantity 2 (value=200) and confirmed, then even after the invoicing (Amount posted to creditors account = 100) of the receipt quantity, the PO is still open. If the user manually changes the ‘Deliver remainder’ quantity to 0, then the PO status changes to Invoiced.
• If the PO is for Quantity 1 and value 100. If Receipt is for 1 (value = 100), the accrual transactions are posted for 100. IF now the PO is increased to Quantity 1 BUT unit price 200 (value = 200) and confirmed, then even after the invoicing (Amount posted to creditors account = 200) of the receipt quantity, the PO is closed (invoiced). In this case the ‘Deliver remainder’ quantity is 0.
• If the PO is for Quantity 1 and value 100. If Receipt is for 1 (value = 100), the accrual transactions are posted for 100. IF now the PO is decreased to Quantity 0.8 (value=200) and confirmed, then system complains and gives the following error: ‘Quantity cannot be reduced because remaining update quantity changes sign’. However if you wish to change the receipted quantity instead of directly changing the quantity on PO, user can use the ‘Correct’ and ‘Cancel’ feature on the PO receipt. Correct would post / reverse the different between the new and old quantity. Cancel would simply cancel the old receipt transaction.
• Correction / Cancellation to receipt can be done line by line (if the PO is multi-line).
• Correction / Cancellation of receipt will be always posted to the original date. For e.g. Receipt date is 2nd of September 2015, however i realized on 10th of September 2015 that the receipt is wrong and i decided to cancel it. If i corrected / cancelled the receipt on 10th of September 2015, the reversal of the accrual posting will happen on 2nd of September.  
• The reversal of the receipt ledger transactions on account of invoice will posted on the invoice date. 
• If the PO date is 16^th August and PO receipt date is 30^th August. At month end August is closed. In September on 9^th of September, if the PO receipt is corrected, then system gives the following warning message : The packing slip correction cannot be posted to the original accounting date when the fiscal period is closed. The accounting date has been moved to the first day in the next open fiscal period.
• Duplicate Invoice number check on the Pending Supplier Invoice is in-built in AX. This check is based on the combination of the vendor and the invoice number. For e.g. for Vendor 001, if the invoice number Inv_900 is already used and if for the Pending supplier invoice for the same vendor i am using the same invoice number (Inv_900) again, then system will complain and display an error message that this is duplicate. However if the invoice number (Inv_900) is already used for Vendor 001 and now if the same invoice number (Inv_900) is to be used for different vendor, system will not complain.
• Pending supplier invoice can be created for a vendor without a PO, for e.g. for utility bills, where PO is not required. Pending supplier invoice can be created for multiple PO's. (i.e. one invoice for multiple PO for the same vendor)
• User cannot change the sign on the UNIT PRICE. If you wish to change the sign of the PO line, it has to be / must be always  changed on a QUANTITY. If the sign of the unit price is changed, system gives following error - ‘The sign on the quantity and net amount have to same’. 
• (+ve) Quantity * Unit Price = (+ve) Line Net amount – For Invoice
• (-ve)  Quantity * Unit Price = (-ve) Line Net amount – For Credit Note

Thanks

Sarang

Exchange Rate Issues in AX

I have always wanted to know how exchange rates behave in AX (as to when the auto posting to realized accounts happen and when it doesn't). I did some testing and this is what i thought i should record, before i forget.

11. Exchange Rate difference postings to realized exchange rate profit and loss accounts happen automatically when the sales invoice and the payment is in different currency than the company currency AND the payment is posted in the system on the date other than the invoice date.

Company Currency - GBP

Transaction Currency - USD

Exchange rate GBP / USD is different on the date of invoice and on the date of payment.

Based on the scenario mentioned above, if there are any exchange rate gain or loss, then it is AUTOMATICALLY posted.

22. If the sales invoice is in the company currency (GBP) and the payment is posted in transaction currency (USD), then the exchange rate posting will NOT be done automatically to the exchange rate gain or loss accounts. System will take the exchange rate defined in the system, calculate the value and post it in the system. However there are many different scenarios to it:

•      If there arises the need to change the exchange rate, then it can be done by changing the Cross rate. If the cross rate is changed, then the auto postings take place in the exchange rate profit and loss accounts.
•             If there arises the need to change the exchange rate, it can also be changed from the general tab by actually changing the exchange rate. However this will not change the amount in the journal and the journal will post. This will automatically not post to exchange rate profit and loss accounts. The only thing system will do in this case is, it will determine the value based on the exchange rate changed and then will either keep the invoice open or the payment open on the customer account.    

33. There is also one more scenario which is of credit note. If the invoice is raised in different currency than the company currency on certain date. After few days if the credit note is to be raised for the same, then what exchange rate the credit note should have, is the question. To manage this there is a setting in Sales Ledger parameters (Updates - Use exchange rate from source document) . If we do not turn the parameter on and go ahead the try to raise the credit note, then system complains and gives error, as the value does not match because of exchange rate fluctuations. The setting that I am talking about makes sure that the credit note also has the same exchange rate that of invoice. On the projects side though this thing can be managed, if the contract is a fixed rate contract.   

Just wanted to note this down so that I wont forget in the long run.

Kind Regards

Sarang

                                                                                              

Process to bring the Enterprise Portal up and running if it is not working in the VPC...

Process to bring the Enterprise Portal up and running if it is not working in the VPC...

1.       First Part

a.       Navigate to: - C drive > Windows > system32 > Drivers > etc

b.      Open the ‘hosts’ file in Notepad and type - 127.0.0.1 dynamicsax.contoso.com

2.       Second Part

a.       Click on the ‘Server Manager’

b.      Click on “All Servers” in the left nav bar

c.       Right click on the first server and then select “Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager”

d.      Expand the server name in the left nav bar and click on “Sites”

e.      Select “DynamicsAX”

f.        Click on “Bindings” under Edit site in the right nav bar

g.       Select the first line and click “Edit”

h.      Change the IP address to “127.0.0.1”

i.         Type the host name as “dynamicsax.contoso.com” and click OK

This will make the Enterprise Portal up and running. For the first time run of the EP after these changes, system will take time, but it will be working for sureJ.

Thanks!

AXAPTAMANIAC

Information about Expense Categories in Project Accounting and Travel & Expense

Expense Categories can be created in the Project Accounting Module as well as the Travel & Expense Module. So the whole procedure is as follows:

1. First you create a Shared Category and specify whether this category should be available in either Projects and/or Expenses and/or Production.
2. Then you create a Category Group and specify the ledger accounts for the Project Cost and Revenue.
3. Then you create a Project Category and associate the category created in step 1 to the Category Group created in step 2. (Only if the "Can be used in Projects" checkbox is checked)

Project Expenses can be booked via two methods, namely:

• From the Expense Journal in the AX client
• From the Expense Report in Enterprise Portal (This will be Expenses submitted by the employees)

The default accounts that come into play during both these methods is what one needs to be aware of.

Expense Journal from AX client

If the user is posting an expense journal from the AX client (from the Project), then the DEBIT account is defaulted from the ledger account setup done in the "Cost" field of the "Cost Accounts" section either at the Category Level OR Category Group Level. If different ledger accounts are defined at both the category as well as the category group, then the system will always follow the ledger account defined at the least level .i.e Table .i.e category in this case.

The CREDIT account can either be selected manually (which is mostly Vendor) or can be defaulted by defining the appropriate offset account at "Default Offset Account for Expenses" under Posting sub-section in the Setup section of Project Accounting.

Expense Journal from Enterprise Portal

If the user is posting the Expense Report from the Enterprise Portal for solely Expense category (which is not a project expense), then the DEBIT account is defaulted from the "Main Account" field in the Expense fast tab of the Category record. If the expense is project related, then the DEBIT account is governed by the ledger account setup done in the "Cost" field of the "Cost Accounts" section either at the Category Level OR Category Group Level and NOT from the DEBIT account is defaulted from the "Main Account" field in the Expense fast tab of the Category record .

The CREDIT account  is either manually filled in or is defaulted from the "Default Payment Method" (Offset Account field) defined in the Expense fast tab of the Category record.

However when the employee enters the expense report and posts it from the Enterprise Portal, it lands up as a General Journal in the AX client. If the Offset Account is not defined in the "Default Payment Method", then before posting the Expense Journal in AX, the user has to manually key it in.

Hence the entire determination of the DEBIT and CREDIT accounts for the Expense line is determined whether it is a Project Expense or a non-project Expense. If it is a project expense, then DEBIT account is from the Category/Category Group and if it is a non-project (pure expense), then DEBIT account is from the Main Account field.

I found this quite confusing while posting expenses in my VPC, hence thought of noting it down somewhere.

Hope this was helpful for you as well...

Thanks!

AXAPTAMANIAC




 

Essentials to start posting trasnactions in new legal entity in AX 2012

Following are some of the bare minimum configurations to be in place, in the new legal entity, so as to start posting the transactions.

1. Legal entity creation
2. Number Sequences (either wizard or manual)
3. Chart of Accounts
4. Creation of Accounting Structure
5. Fiscal Calendar
6. Currency and Exchange Rate Setup
7. Configuration of Ledger:
            o Chart of Accounts
            o Accounting Structure  
            o Selection of Fiscal Calendar
            o Selection of Accounting and Reporting Currency  
            o Selection of Exchange Rate Type
            o Defining the Realized and Unrealized Forex Gain / Loss accounts (if applicable)
8. Dimensions and Dimension Values
9. Journal Names, mandatory of them are as follows:
            o General Journal (GENJ)
            o Vendor Invoice (VINV)
            o Vendor Payment (VPAY)
            o Customer Payment (CPAY)
            o Write-Off (WRFJ)
10. Vendor and Customer Group
11. Vendor and Customer Master
12. Vendor and Customer Posting Profile
13. Bank Account Information
14. Bank Transaction Types
15. Terms of Payment
16. Methods of Payment
17. Date Interval
18. General Ledger Parameters
19. Accounts Payable Parameters
20. Accounts Receivable Parameters
21. Bank Parameters
22. Reason Codes
23. Aging Period Definition
24. Users creation
25. Employee Creation
26. Define Security Roles / Edit existing roles
27. Assigning the Security Roles to the Users
28. Associating the Users with the Employees
29. Form Setup
30. Form Notes
31. Configuring the System Accounts (Penny Difference, Error Account, Year End Balance etc.)
32. Workflows, if applicable

I think if all the above are in place then a user should not find any problem posting entries into a newly created entity.

Thanks!

AXAPTAMANIAC