Plumbline Solutions - Software Consulting Services

April 2009 Newsletter

In this Edition:

Solution of the Month

Hints and Tips

Upcoming Events

Meet the Plumbline Team

In case you missed it last month...

See the special section below.

Happy Spring!

For those of you who attended Convergence, the SL Shared Booth that Plumbline sponsored at the Expo was a great success. Thank you to the many partners that participated and helped generate synergy and excitement for Convergence attendees! We're planning to have an even a bigger event for Convergence 2010!

If you had customers that were unable to attend Convergence this year, you may want to have a Post-Convergence User Event so they don't miss out on all the important information provided at Convergence. In the past, Microsoft had offered this type of program to Partners, but with limited availability. If you are interested, please email me right away!

Now that Busy Season is over, you may be planning your customer upgrades – do you have time for testing? If not, we do! Please give us a call if you could use help with either upgrade services and/or testing.

Best Regards,

Todd Michael
Director
Plumbline Solutions, Inc.
(419) 581-2973

Plumbline provides software engineering services for Microsoft Dynamics^® Channel Partners and Microsoft Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). We offer software development, application support, technology and business process consulting, with a focus on delivering excellence and building lasting relationships. Our Microsoft Competencies include: Data Management Solutions, Information Worker Solutions, Microsoft Business Solutions, Small Business Specialist Community, Custom Development Solutions and Business Intelligence.

What are the effects of the economic stimulus package?
The March quarterly tax bulletin will provide details about the payroll changes that go into effect in April. Partners can download the March Tax Update here, and Customers can download it here.

Warren Jahn, from Silverbrook Systems, provides Human Resources software solutions for Dynamics SL. He offers this additional insight on the recent government changes:

You may want to ensure your Payroll/HR clients are also aware of other employment law changes occurring at about the same time.

1. A revised Form I-9 must be used starting April 3, 2009. The change to the form itself is pretty simple (a new checkbox for non-citizen nationals) but there is a fine for using the old form. More importantly, the documents acceptable for List A, B, and C have changed. GOOD NEWS: There is no need to obtain new I-9s from existing employees.

Users of Silver Brook Human Resources may obtain an updated I-9 (XH.150.00) screen from their web site. Everyone else can download the new I-9 form here.

2. There are RETROACTIVE changes to COBRA. These changes are much more far-reaching than the I-9 and require action. In short, most
employees who were involuntarily terminated on or after September 1,2008 up to and including December 31, 2009 are eligible for COBRA at 35% of the cost instead of the normal 102% for up to 9 months. The employer needs pay the remaining premium and obtains reimbursement by a credit on payroll taxes.

One very important part of these revisions is a requirement to send by April 18, 2009 new COBRA notices to all employees who were involuntarily terminated from employment after September 1, 2008 whether the employee elected COBRA coverage or not.

There is a very useful summary of these new COBRA provisions and requirements on
the "Pennsylvania Employment Law Blog" maintained by Russell, Krafft & Gruber, LLP.

Will SL 941 reporting be modified to allow the capturing of the employer COBRA credit?

Bug 18742 was submitted to support the revised 941 form for 2009. The line for COBRA will not be calculated. Instead, it will appear as an underline so that the user can specify the amount. Keep in mind that the 941 in SL is a worksheet.

Will SL run on virtual servers?

7.0 FP1 is supported on Windows 2008 Hyper-V, but prior versions are not officially supported in virtual environments. Refer to the System Requirements document for each specific version of SL to see what is supported.

RE: SL Support for SRS 2008?

If you create SSRS reports using BIDS 2008, they will only run with SQL 2008 RDL. SQL 2008 RS is very different than SQL 2005 architecturally and therefore it is not backwards compatible, nor is there an option to generate reports in SQL 2005 ‘format’ when working in BIDS 2008. This poses a problem with SL 7.0 FP1 because all of the development was done using 2005. If you want to run SSRS reports in SQL 2005 (which implies SL 7.0 FP1), you must create them using BIDS 2005. This SQL limitation has been written up and is expected to be corrected in SQL 2010.

When releasing batches, some values not saving or receive Sys Msg 818

After applying a systems hotfix to Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 Service Pack 1, you notice that certain values won't save unless you tab out of the field. You may also notice a System Message 818 - batch is out of balance message when trying to release a batch. This behavior may appear in a number of screens including:

- Voucher and Adjustment Entry
- Invoice and Memo Entry
- OM Shippers
- Journal Transactions
- Scheduled Billings and Revenue Entry
- Project Controller - Budget Maintenance

This issue is due to bug 18504. There is a hotfix available which can be downloaded from CustomerSource or PartnerSource.

Mark your calendars for these upcoming events:

Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0: Convergence 2009 Recap

April 14, 2009, at 11:00 A.M. PST
Get a high level view of all the great happenings at Convergence 2009 in this one hour Microsoft Partner Program web seminar.

The Microsoft® 2009 Worldwide Partner Conference

(WPC) will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana on July 13–16, 2009.

Name: Chuck Schroeder

Background: At Plumbline, Chuck is a Development Manager responsible for the Microsoft Dynamic SL application modules. Prior to joining Plumbline, Chuck worked in development and management roles with Solomon Software, Great Plains Software, and Microsoft. He has 10 years experience working with the SL product and an additional 13 years of experience working in developer, DBA and managerial roles with small business software at Goodyear Tire, IBM Consulting and OHM.

Likes best about development: It is always exciting to find a really creative solution to an especially difficult client issue or to develop a new feature that you know will allow clients to be able to do their jobs better or more efficiently. The best part of the job is to go to a conference, customer location or other customer event and see or hear firsthand some of the creative ways that people use the SL product.

Hobbies: Attending his kid's activities, jogging and tennis.

If you have consultants in your organization that are not receiving the Plumbline Newsletter, please forward a copy of the newsletter to them and have them click on the "Subscribe me!" link in the email. Sign-up is also available on our website. We want to make sure we have these professionals “in the know” about the latest SL activities and ensure they have access to the monthly hints & tips.

To read previous issues of our newsletter click here.

Dynamics SL Upgrade Services

Spring seems to be a good time for many customers to upgrade to the latest version of SL. If you are seeing a high demand and anticipate potential delays due to resource constraints, perhaps we can assist you. Plumbline offers both:Upgrade & Testing Services
To inquire about these services, please contact sales@plumblinesolutions.com.

X-Box Drawing Winner...

Congratulations to Laurie Taylor with Servpro for being the lucky winner of the X-Box prize at the Plumbline sponsored SL Shared Booth at Convergence this year!

Convergence 2009 Partner Award Winners...

Two partner awards were given at the SL Partner Award Recognition Breakfast at Convergence this year. Queue and Associates won the award for the most customer adds in H1, and Tribridge won the award for overall software license revenue for the first half of the year. Congratulations!

Access Plumbline Solutions' affiliate web page for a list of Microsoft Dynamics SL add-on products in one easy-to-search area: Dynamics SL Add-On Solutions

Recent profiles added include:

Coalition Computing - FlexAbility Data Collection - is a Windows CE-based wireless barcode solution for Microsoft Dynamics SL. FlexAbility enables you to scan incoming purchases from a receiver or a vendor’s label, then print your own labels upon receipt. The material can be moved from receiving to stock locations, and physical counts are fully supported. Inventory can then be issued to a Project or Work Order, and completion reported from the shop floor. Pick lists may be bar-coded or items scanned to fulfill orders.

Conexxus - is a patent-pending Compliance Content Management software solution that combines document management with an operations monitoring tool; providing organizations with a complete document repository, an internal communication mechanism, and fully-automated tracking of activities pertinent to financial system compliance.

KB Technologies - SL Auditor is an intuitive interface that allows users to easily configure the utility to meet specific needs, as the user selects which tables and processes to audit. For every add, change or delete the utility tracks what was changed, displaying both before and after values, the date and time of the change, the program from which the change was made, the SL user ID of the person who made the change, and more! SL UserAccessLog allows the user to easily sort, view, and report activity in the Dynamics SL system. Track users as they sign in and out of Dynamics SL and as they open and close screens. SL QuickLaunch makes it easy to launch SL directly to pre-defined combinations of Server / System Database / Company ID. Run it from the system tray, and quickly launch SL directly into a pre-defined combination from the right-click menu.

NexVue Analytics - KeyChange enables you to safely change over 40 fields in your Microsoft Dynamics SL database without losing history. Account Master helps you master the details of your accounts, right down to the transaction level.

SIS, LLC - EAC Maintenance Module is a comprehensive and powerful tool for Project Managers to update Estimate at Completion (EAC) and Cost to Complete (CTC) numbers on each of their projects. Project Managers need to monitor the variance between the current budget and EAC, and this module is designed to aid them in this process. SSRS Reporting Services is a server-based enterprise reporting environment, managed via web services. It provides quick access to business data; shielding report consumers from the complexity of the underlying data sources while providing them with personalization and interactivity. Compass for Project Management - provides project-based companies with tailored SharePoint portal sites for complete project management, document tracking, issue tracking, and project task tracking. Document management can be consolidated around departments, projects, or customers for quick and easy access to all documentation related to executing business.

Vicinity Formula Manufacturing Software - Written specifically for the process manufacturing industry, Vicinity automates and integrates critical information along the supply chain. Vicinity Manufacturing understands the unique challenges of batch manufacturing and addresses these issues in an easy and affordable solution.

To profile your products in our Dynamics SL Add-On Solutions Directory and gain greater visibility for your products or services, e-mail us or read the participation details.