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Protect Your Investment: Five Things You Must Document in a Microsoft Dynamics GP Solution

by Victoria Yudin
Founder, Flexible Solutions Inc. ,

Quite often in the last few years I have received a call or email that sounds something like this: "I have recently started working for a company that is using Dynamics GP and have been tasked with helping users address their various questions on it.  At the same time, management would like to make sure we are utilizing Dynamics GP to its fullest potential and would like to add/streamline functionality.  However, my first task is to get a handle on all the various components we have, as nothing is currently documented." 

This is, of course, the cleaned up version.  The real conversations usually touch on how difficult it is to find any information, turnover in the IT and accounting departments, and how no one in the company remembers anything about customizations, modifications or any reasoning behind them.

I believe there is an important lesson in this: no matter how fabulous your GP partner is, no matter how ‘vanilla' your Dynamics GP implementation, you still have to be responsible for your own documentation and need to make sure there is an internal resource in charge of gathering and maintaining all of it. 

Whether you are just starting to implement Dynamics GP or have been using it for 15 years, here are five things to make sure you have a well documented system:

  • Your Microsoft Dynamics GP licensing. Don't forget to include FRx, Management Reporter, and any 3rd party (aka ISV) products. This can be important when planning changes - for example your licensing might be limited to a certain number of users or already include modules you want to use in the future, making the decision to add functionality a lot easier. This ...

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Documentation Dynamics GP Implementation
About Victoria Yudin

Victoria has been designing, implementing, integrating, and customizing business management and accounting systems for over 20 years. She has been a user of Microsoft Dynamics GP (and its Great Plains Software predecessor) since it was available on DOS and has been a Dynamics GP consultant for almost 15 years. Victoria has the distinction of being the only person in the world named a Microsoft Dynamics GP Most Valuable Professional (MVP) each consecutive year since 2005. Victoria has an undergraduate degree from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and has numerous certifications for Microsoft Dynamics GP and related technologies.

In November 2000, Victoria started Flexible Solutions, Inc. to bring together her experience in accounting and business with her love for technology. Flexible Solutions is a Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner, offering the GP Reports Viewer add-on for Dynamics GP, as well as Microsoft Dynamics GP implementation, reporting, and support services.

In September 2008, Victoria started her blog, called Ramblings and musings of a Dynamics GP MVP to share her experiences and thoughts with the Dynamics GP community.  Victoria is the author of the book Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Implementation and Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Implementation.

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