Plumbline Solutions - Software Consulting Services

December 2009 Newsletter

In this Edition:

Solution of the Month

Hints and Tips

Upcoming Events

Meet the Plumbline Team

Happy Holidays!

As we approach the end of the calendar year, many of us find ourselves in a flurry of activity. The Dynamics SL year-end updates are now available (links are provided in the "What's New" article). We also provided some links to checklists that you may find helpful during the year end closing process in the "Hints & Tips" section below.

If you need a bit of a breather, there is still funding available from the Microsoft Pre-Sales Support Program. Under this program, Dynamics SL partners can schedule Plumbline resources to conduct a product demo on their behalf. If interested in taking advantage of free pre-sales services, please drop us an email at: demorequests@plumblinesolutions.com.

SL Shared Booth update: We are checking to see if there is enough interest in securing a Silver booth and two Bronze Booths to have a whopping 10' x 70' area at the Convergence 2010 Expo. Price to participate in the SL Booth will depend on how many companies sign up - if you would like to secure a spot in the booth, please email Diane, who will be coordinating the event again for next year.

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, Business Intelligence and SOA and Business Process.

Unanet delivers a powerful web-based solution to help companies optimize project profitability and resource planning

Unanet provides a ‘best-of-breed solution’ for government contractors and other professional services providers. When serious resource management is required, including strong forecasting functionality to optimize future staffing on projects, the Unanet solution ensures that both capacity and skills criteria are matched to deliver profitably on the project.

Project-based organizations also find great benefit in Unanet’s detailed project budgeting and forecasting capabilities (including planning for other direct costs as well as resources).

Enhancing Microsoft Dynamics SL, Unanet empowers organizations to view project profitability, revenue, expenses and financials in one place via a digital dashboard, giving management greater visibility into project and workforce performance – with real time reporting.

How Unanet Adds Value to the Dynamics SL Solution:

All functions are 100% web based
Planning and Forecasting with Bottom-Up Budgeting
Resource Scheduling/Planning and Forecasting by Availability and Skills
Real-Time Project Management, Dashboards and Reporting
Robust Time and Expense Tracking (complies with DCAA)
Regulatory Compliance Safeguards

To learn more about Unanet and the power it delivers to improve project profitability and optimize critical resources, visit www.unanet.com. You can also sign up for a free webinar or request a demo.

Use these checklists to ensure a smooth year-end close!

GL year-end checklist

AP year-end closing checklist

1099 year-end checklist

AR year-end closing checklist

PR year-end checklist

Additional Payroll and W-2 processing tips

Enhancements to project maximums functionality

Two major enhancements were made to the Project Maximums (otherwise known as bill-to-a-max) feature in Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 Feature Pack 1. The first is the ability to specify task level maximums, and the second is the ability for the maximums to automatically correct themselves if a change is made to the maximum amount.

Learn more about these changes in the CustomerSource and PartnerSource articles.

When installing a SY hotfix for Microsoft Dynamics SL, you may receive the message "An unknown error (-2147010895 occurred."

This situation can occur if the 32bit version of the Updated C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable package is required for the system hotfix. Read more about this error on CustomerSource and PartnerSource.

An interesting tidbit...

The real reasons that we eat too much may not be what you think:

· Not enough sleep: Lack of shut-eye impacts eating by decreasing leptin, a hormone that indicates you’re full - and increases ghrelin, which triggers hunger.

· Stress: Constant stress causing your body to pump out hormones, which over time can boost your appetite. Cortisol and insulin shift our preferences towards comfort foods. Fat cells also produce Cortisol, so if you’re overweight and stressed, you get a double-whammy.

· Hardwiring: Like our ancient ancestors, we’re still hardwired to forage for fatty, sugary, salty foods.

Health

Mark your calendars for these upcoming events:

The Dynamics SL User Group is now offering monthly webinars. Some are restricted to user group members, but some will be available to all, such as this one:

Tips and Tricks of Upgrading
December 17^th at 12:00 pm EST

Todd Michael and David Subry will be presenting the Tips and Tricks of Upgrading. For anyone who missed this session at the Dynamics SL User Group Fall Conference and/or is planning to upgrade to the newest release of SL, you are welcome to attend (please email Carolyn Blaylock for meeting details)! Join us to gain insight on how to make upgrading a smooth transition.

Big discount offered on Dynamics SL SDK training

Tom Malia, with T&T Data Solutions, will be holding a Dynamics SL SDK training class on Jan. 20^th – 22^nd in Havre de Grace, Maryland (location is half way between Philadelphia and Baltimore). The fee for the class is normally $3,600. However, if 3 individuals sign up for the class, Tom will offer it for $1,900 per student, with an even lower price point if 4 or more sign up. If interested, please send Tom an email right away!

Convergence 2010
Will be held in Atlanta, GA April 24-27.
Sign up for early alerts for registration!

Name: Brian Lauer

Background: Brian is a consultant at Plumbline and provides consulting services to partners. These services include development, training, testing and database repair. Prior to joining Plumbline Solutions, Brian was a member of the Microsoft Solution Analyst team, where he assisted Priority, Managed and Premier customer sites with Distribution issues. Brian also brings six years of experience working in Technical Support while employed at Solomon Software. Brian has an Associate’s degree in criminal justice and a dual Bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance.

Likes best about consulting: Every day is different. There are always lots of opportunities to learn new things and take on new challenges.

Hobbies: Enjoys golfing, watching sports on TV and attending Ohio State football and Columbus Blue Jackets hockey games.

http://www.linkedin.com/companies/
plumbline-consulting

Year-End Updates Now Available

For Tax Year 2009 (TY2009), Microsoft has issued year-end updates for the following versions of Dynamics SL:

Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 Feature Pack 1
Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 Service Pack 2
Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 Service Pack 1
Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0
Microsoft Dynamics SL 6.5 Service Pack 3
Microsoft Dynamics SL 6.5 Service Pack 2

These updates are now available on PartnerSource and CustomerSource.

Microsoft Dynamics SL version 7.0 (no service pack) will be retired from mainstream support on January 12th 2010

It is recommended that users upgrade to a more recent version such as version 7.0 Service Pack 1, 7.0 Service Pack 2, or 7.0 Feature Pack 1 to maintain support.

For information on upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics SL 7.0 FP1, visit the Feature Pack Download Page. If you are planning to upgrade soon, you may want to take advantage of the "Tips and Tricks of Upgrading" webinar, shown under Upcoming Events.

What's new in Office 2010?

We found this fun video clip on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5_GrWyicZ8

Partners - see the updated Microsoft Dynamics SL Statement of Direction for some exciting planned changes!

Take advantage of Plumbline's free newsletter subscriptions

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 information.

Following is feedback we received from one subscriber, who uses the newsletter to help get their new employees up to speed.

"I love the Plumbline newsletter! We just had a new Sr. Developer start at our company and I forwarded your newsletter to him. I told him IT IS A MUST READ. The Hints & Tips provided are perfect for new individuals starting in our organization. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to teach our IT dept. about Solomon.ini. Another tip I found valuable was the one on how to fix partially released batches. We use Cash Manager and sometime batches have something critical missing like sub account, so of course users need to know to resolve this situation. Your newsletter touches on just the type of information our new employee needs - thank you!"

Carolyn Blaylock
VP Systems & Processes, Lee Technologies Group
President, Dynamics SL User Group

The November 2009 issue Carolyn refers to above is available in our newsletter archives, as well as all previous issues.

Get information about your solution in front of hundreds of customers, partners and ISVs that subscribe to the Plumbline Newsletter.

If you would like to have your product highlighted as the "Solution of the Month" in Plumbline's newsletter, send us an email. More details about this advertising opportunity can be viewed here.