You Don't Have to Like It, But You Have to Understand It

It's not unusual for users of any software to decide that they don't like something. There may be very good reasons why a particular feature was built a particular way but once someone decides they don't like something all rational thought stops there. Yes, this happens with Microsoft Dynamics GP users too.

As a professional, you're allowed to not like something. However, you are still required to understand it. I may not like some of the rules around lease accounting. That doesn't mean that I can simply decide to do lease accounting my way. Nor can I, as a GP user, say to a CFO, "I don't like lease accounting so I've chosen not to figure out how do it in GP." Features work the same way.

Usually this type of resistance comes up with users who are struggling to let go of another system. For example, in Quickbooks, you can delete posted transactions with little control and no audit trail. This is really convenient for users. It's a nightmare for compliance. That's why you can't delete posted GL transactions in GP.

There are other times when a decision to not like things manifests itself as "GP doesn't work". This comes up a lot in Inventory. With FIFO perpetual, GP stores the inventory FIFO layers by location but for 'convenience' it displays the current cost on some reports. Often folks tell me that Inventory doesn't work. Once we work through an item from beginning to end, they understand. GP inventory works just fine, even if we don't like parts of it.

In a few cases I've even worked through a transaction with someone. They agree that the results are correct. However, GP didn't get there the way that they wanted it ...