GP 2013 Resources

Anything marked with a λ requires access to either CustomerSource or PartnerSource.  If you have questions about accessing CustomerSource or PartnerSource, check out this post by David Musgrave and Scott Stephenson.

• GP 2013 System Requirements  λ
• GP 2013 Build Numbers in Excel  λ
• GP 2013 Downloads  λ
• GP 2013 Installation Guide  
  
• GP 2013 SQL Server Reporting Services Guide
• GP 2013 Upgrade Guide
• GP 2013 Upgrade Hot Topic  λ
• GP 2013 Upgrade Paths  λ
• GP 2013 System Requirements for Web Client  λ
• GP 2013 Web Client Installation/Admin Guide
• GP 2013 Web Client Hot Topics  λ
• GP 2013 System Requirements for Web Applications  λ
• GP 2013 What’s New
• GP 2013 Printable User Guides on TechNet
• GP2theMax’s List of New Features in GP 2013
• New Dynamics GP 2013 Pricing  λ (PartnerSource only)
• Other Dynamics GP Links

New Features in GP 2013

Below are links to resources about new features in GP 2013 as well as my two cents on them. The features I have found the most exciting have been called out in bold below. I will keep adding new links at the top of the list as I come across them. I may also be skipping some features that are not too exciting or for modules I do not work with too much, so this is not necessarily a complete list. For a more complete list, please check out the GP 2013 What’s New documentation.  If you have any good links that are not here yet, please let me know.

• Web Client  - This is the biggie for GP 2013. While there are many other new features, the Web Client is the feature that most people are talking about and that many customers have been waiting for. Keep in mind that because it’s brand new, you should expect some ‘growing pains’ as well as a learning curve, not only for Dynamics GP partners,  consultants and ISV’s, but for Dynamics GP support, as well. Also not all GP functionality will be available for the web client right away, so most companies will still need the ‘traditional’ desktop client as well as the web client. Another consideration is that you may need additional infrastructure to support the web client that you may not currently have. In conclusion, while the web client is a great and very anticipated feature, you should approach it carefully with enough planning and testing. 
• Computer Prepayments and Manual Prepayments for PO’s - These features allow entering a prepayment for Purchase Orders and having that follow the Purchase Order through the system. I personally have been asking for this feature for over 10 years and I know many of our customers will really appreciate this new functionality.
• Prevent PO Close with Unmatched Quantity  - Not something I have really run into before as an issue, this option will pop up a warning when a user tries to close a Purchase Order that has unmatched quantities.
• Document Attach - This new feature allows for a much nicer interface to attach files to GP transactions – another long requested feature. The only caveat may be that it is only available for some windows/documents.
• Return Quantity Types  - This will allow for changing the type of quantity when items are returned using an RMA. Definitely nice to have for many companies that use RMA’s.
• Inactivate Inventory Site and Item/Site  - Very nice new feature to allow inactivating either an Item/Site combination or the entire Inventory Site. Inactivating will prevent new transactions from posting, but will keep history for reporting and inquiry purposes.
• Reprint Payable Remittance  - This is one of the most requested features I have seen on Dynamics GP forums – the ability to reprint a payables check stub/remittance and show not only what invoices were paid, but also what credits were applied and shown on the original check stub.
• RMA SOP Consolidate  - Nice new feature that will allow adding additional items from RMA’s to open SOP orders, so as to not need to create a new SOP order each time.
• Print 1096 Form  - Great new feature that has been long requested, glad to see this finally!
• Default Sort Order View for SmartList Favorites  - Looking at the more detailed description of this feature, I think it may be somewhat misnamed. That aside, this is another small but often requested feature that will allow setting the default view for a select list of key Dynamics GP lookups including Customers, Vendors and Items.
• Multi-tenant SQL Reports  - Definitely about this was added. Although, I have heard many people complain that these reports don’t work very well. Not sure if any of that is being addressed as well.
• Credit Card Vendor’s Invoice Void  - Long awaited feature for those, like me, that use credit card a lot in the Payables module. Now when you void a payment for a vendor, if it was made with a credit card and the associated credit card invoice is still open, that will be voided automatically. Excellent!
• Update 1099 Information  - Awesome new feature to give us a lot more flexibility in updating 1099 information. This will allow updating all historical transactions for a vendor and/or making changes at the transaction level as needed and will be really helpful for many companies.
• Edit Remit To Address  - Nice addition to Payables functionality allowing you to edit the Remit To Address after an invoice is posted. I have had to do this for customers directly in SQL in the past, especially when they were switching over to EFT, so I know this is something users need.
• GL Journal Entry History Inquiry  - Another small, but nice, feature that’s been a long time coming. Versions of Dynamics GP prior to 2013 only allowed looking at open year GL entries in the inquiry window, so most users ended up using SmartList instead. It will be nice not to have this limitation anymore.   
• Pay Code, Benefit & Deduction Modifier  - This looks like a new PSTL tool that would be very useful for Payroll users.
• Update Back Order Item Qty in Field Service  - This addresses Service Call Management and Depot Management, which I have not worked with, but looks like something that would be a needed feature for a company using Inventory with those modules. 
• Unapply Credit Documents when Voiding a Check  - This is a biggie, and will hopefully address a lot of requests we have seen about this. However, I am sure that we will now start seeing the reverse of this request, where users do not want the credits to be unapplied automatically. Overall, still a positive change, I think.   
• Print SSRS Reports directly from GP forms windows  - This is very nice and I think many would say ‘about time!’ However, looks like it is limited to only a select number of windows in GP. Hard to judge how useful companies will find this, in my experience SSRS has still not taken off like we thought it would, so there are still many companies out there that prefer  Crystal Reports or even Excel reports to SSRS. Also, the name of this feature is slightly misleading, as many people think ‘forms’ are reports, whereas in GP Dexterity terminology forms are actually what most typically call ‘windows’.
• Reconcile Inventory to GL  - Many users have been waiting for this feature, however, the AP and AR reconciliations to GL were also eagerly awaited and many users have found them lacking for a number of reasons. Hopefully this feature will take those lessons into consideration and be as useful as we all want it to be. 
• Email Indicators  - This looks like a great idea, unfortunately there is not enough detail in the PowerPoint for me. I am guessing that this will be for SOP as well as POP transactions, but the screenshot only shows SOP. Also, if the indicators are only going to be visible on the navigation lists, then they are pretty useless for many customers who do not use the navigation lists.
• Fixed Assets Historical Depreciation Report  - This has been a long requested feature and should address the needs of many companies. You will have an ‘as of’ date to run depreciation for. This one gets a thumbs up!
• Additional Word Templates  - I could easily (but will not, so as to keep this list somewhat manageable) go on a rant about how ridiculous I think Word Templates are for Dynamics GP’s SOP and POP reports. However, this feature also adds the ability to email Packing Slips and Picking Tickets, which may be nice for some companies, although certainly not something that I have heard requested a lot.
• Tenant Service  - This will add functionality for web services and the upcoming GP web client in GP 2013. Hard to talk about this without seeing more, but sounds good so far and certainly the web client is something many companies are eagerly awaiting.
• Enhancements to the Alternate/Modified Forms and Reports Window  - Very nice feature that addresses one of the pet peeves I have had for a long time when working with modified windows and reports by adding a ‘Change All’ button.
• Tracking Serial/Lot Numbers on Drop Ship PO’s  - Excellent feature and something that should get more companies using the GP drop ship functionality that is often done ‘manually’ now by receiving into and selling from a dummy (or real) inventory location.
• Inactive Inventory Items  - This is another big new feature for anyone using Inventory! We’ll finally have the ability to mark any item Inactive to prevent sales and purchases of it. This has been a frequent request and will be anticipated by many.
• Ship To Address Name  - Adds the ability to include a Name for each Customer or Vendor Address. This is nice, but has easily been handled by putting the name in another field by those customers that needed it. (Note: I could not open the PowerPoint file until I saved it, opened PowerPoint first, pointed to the file, then ran a repair when prompted. Hopefully it will be fixed soon, but until then, this is a workaround.)   
• New Year End Close Features  - Options to clear Unit Account balances and keep Inactive accounts. I am very excited about the feature to clear Unit Account balances and have many customers that will also benefit from this.  
• POP Tolerance Handling  – Works for both Inventory and Non-Inventory items. I am reserving judgement on this one, some companies may not like the automatic cancelling of under-received quantities. However, we get an inadvertent(?) sneak peak at the set up for POP Prepayments, which is something I have been waiting for since I started using Dynamics GP back in the stone age.
• Naming User Defined Fields on Customer Address Maintenance  - This is a feature that does not really do anything for me. While I have had customers ask about renaming these in the past, this was never terribly important for anyone and certainly never a show stopper. Nevertheless, it is nice to see some of these small annoyances being addressed in new GP versions.
• Print Picklist Shortage Inquiry  - I do not work with Manufacturing, however, this certainly looks like a nice feature for these that do. What I found interesting on this feature is the fact that this is a SQL Reporting Services report which would force users to set up SSRS if they want this, even if they are not using it for anything else. 
• Inventory Bin Transfer History  - Very nice feature for companies using Multiple Bins in Inventory and another one that has been requested for quite a while.
• EFT Format Enhancements  - Includes ability to have a Settlement Date that is different from the Transmission Date, which is something that I have been asked for by customers.
• Inventory Transaction Reason Codes  - Introduces Reason Codes for inventory movements entered in the Inventory Module. A nice feature, but not a must have. Certainly would make reporting easier for companies that have a lot of inventory movements and start using this functionality.