How to Prepare Microsoft Dynamics GP for a Multi-National Deployment, Part 2 - Typical Setup Challenges

In the first part of this series we looked at common localisation needs that accompany an international deployment of Microsoft Dynamics GP.  As we saw, there are both regional and country-specific needs that GP can meet, either with built in features, extra modules, add-on solutions, or customizations.

Beyond these very specific needs, a company that is preparing to roll out Dynamics GP to an international team should be aware of the variety of other locale-specific considerations that can determine a GP deployment's success.  These factors range from the mundane to the unexpected, but as any GP professional can attest, getting each one right is critical for a smooth multi-national deployment.

GP Payroll. GP Payroll is relevant only to US and Canada. To be honest, this is not a huge issue in Europe given the number of quality Payroll systems on the market that can integrate to GP easily, and the increasing tendency of local offices to outsource payroll processing to specialised Bureau's.

International installations will of course encounter Multi-Currency. Multi-currency functionality is embedded in GP along with revaluation options, and FX Gains / Losses calculation (both realised and unrealised).

Date formats. This is not an issue as such - but you do need to be aware of it and follow some simple set up procedures to make sure the foreign subsidiary users are seeing the correct date format. If users are logging into GP from a local client, then Windows handles the date format. Once their local workstation is set up in their preferred format, they are good to go. If they are accessing GP over Terminal Services, there may be some additional set up required - ...