Murray Fife

Having users perform their own reporting has been a dream on both sides of the organization. The IT group don’t particularly like creating reports for the users when they could be spending their time on cooler projects, and users don’t particularly like waiting for IT to create the reports that they need to track the data because it’s never quite what they wanted, and also takes so long to get (because of the first reason) that it’s usually out-of-date. If only there was a solution…

Well… Show more

Having users perform their own reporting has been a dream on both sides of the organization. The IT group don’t particularly like creating reports for the users when they could be spending their time on cooler projects, and users don’t particularly like waiting for IT to create the reports that they need to track the data because it’s never quite what they wanted, and also takes so long to get (because of the first reason) that it’s usually out-of-date. If only there was a solution…

Well there is, because there are so many tools built into Dynamics AX and also the productivity tools like Excel and Word that the users can easily create their own reports themselves without having to get the IT group involved. Everybody wins!

In this guide we will show you how the users can do just that, it’s so easy that they may not even realize that they are creating reports. Show less

When you are first introduced to Dynamics AX, it may seem a little overwhelming because there is so much that it is able to do. It may seem like you’ve been dropped in a completely foreign land, unable to speak the language, and not knowing which direction to start walking in.

It may be even worse if you are in the middle of a software selection where you are looking at a number of different options (including Dynamics AX) because you need to understand what the differences are, and also… Show more

When you are first introduced to Dynamics AX, it may seem a little overwhelming because there is so much that it is able to do. It may seem like you’ve been dropped in a completely foreign land, unable to speak the language, and not knowing which direction to start walking in.

It may be even worse if you are in the middle of a software selection where you are looking at a number of different options (including Dynamics AX) because you need to understand what the differences are, and also remember which feature applies to which application. In that case, you are in multiple foreign lands, and no-one is speaking the same language.

You may have picked up a book or two on Dynamics AX to start your self-guided learning, but even then it may be too much because they usually assume that you have had some familiarity with the system, and you still don’t have a basic foundation knowledge. Rather than wanting to read Lord of the Rings, you are at more of a See Spot Run level when it comes to Dynamics AX.

This is what this book is designed to achieve, and is aimed to give you a high level introduction to Dynamics AX. It is split into two parts as well, the first is a general overview of the system, showing you all of the usability features, and the second part is a functional overview that highlights all of the functional features within Dynamics AX.

In essence it teaches you the language of this new land, and also gives you a map of the land so that you can then start heading in the direction that is important to you.

Hopefully this will help you quickly get comfortable with Dynamics AX and get you on the right track.

Topics Covered

• The Dynamics AX Clients
• Microsoft Office Integration
• Introduction to Portals
• Introduction to Role Centers
• The Role Center Parts
• Navigation Menus
• Navigating Forms
• Personalizing Dynamics AX
• Self Service Reporting and Analysis
• Using Office with Dynamics AX
• The Lifecycle Management Tools Show less

Dynamics is a great product, because anyone is able to master the basics with just a little bit of a test drive. As you use it more, you will probably stumble on feature that no-one mentioned that makes Dynamics AX even better, and you store it away in your back pocket to use later on. The more you use the system, the more of these you will find, and with enough of these you turn from just a User to a Power User.
To give you a head start though we have compiled 50 of the most useful tricks… Show more

Dynamics is a great product, because anyone is able to master the basics with just a little bit of a test drive. As you use it more, you will probably stumble on feature that no-one mentioned that makes Dynamics AX even better, and you store it away in your back pocket to use later on. The more you use the system, the more of these you will find, and with enough of these you turn from just a User to a Power User.
To give you a head start though we have compiled 50 of the most useful tricks and tips that you can take advantage of within Dynamics AX. They range from tips on tweaking the Dynamics AX client to some of the hidden features within Dynamics AX itself that you may not know you can do. They also include tips on how to use other tools that are available to you to report better from the system, and how to use the office suite to really power charge Dynamics AX.
You may not use all of these tricks and tips, but we are sure that you will be able to use a lot of them. Show less

Once you have mastered the core functions within Dynamics AX like Order To Cash, Procure To Pay, or Production you don’t need to stop looking for things to do. Your journey has just begun because you now have the foundation for some even more exciting features, and they aren’t very hard to configure either. The big hurdle is to know what you can do, and also how to get there.
This book is aimed to demystify some of the additional features within Dynamics AX that you may want to configure… Show more

Once you have mastered the core functions within Dynamics AX like Order To Cash, Procure To Pay, or Production you don’t need to stop looking for things to do. Your journey has just begun because you now have the foundation for some even more exciting features, and they aren’t very hard to configure either. The big hurdle is to know what you can do, and also how to get there.
This book is aimed to demystify some of the additional features within Dynamics AX that you may want to configure and start using, and will show you how to:

Create configured products
Improve costing analysis through costing sheets
Use lean manufacturing processes to streamline productions
Manage service jobs through service management
Streamline the vendor onboarding process through the Vendor Portal
Track vendor performance and scorecards
Create retail stores and use POS registers
Show more
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Dynamics AX is such a full featured product, it is hard to illustrate all of the things that it is capable of tracking and managing without creating a textbook style book. Even then, it is hard to piece everything together with all of the detail that is provided, and even then, you probably are not interested in most of the detail. A better starting point for you as you are discovering an exploring Dynamics AX is to get a more holistic view of the application showing all of the different… Show more

Dynamics AX is such a full featured product, it is hard to illustrate all of the things that it is capable of tracking and managing without creating a textbook style book. Even then, it is hard to piece everything together with all of the detail that is provided, and even then, you probably are not interested in most of the detail. A better starting point for you as you are discovering an exploring Dynamics AX is to get a more holistic view of the application showing all of the different general features that are available. Knowing that something is possible within Dynamics AX is 90% the battle, learning how it does it is a relatively simple after that. This companion for Dynamics AX is designed to do just that. It is a high level reference that you can use to see what you can do if you want to leverage the many features within the system. Show less

When you are first introduced to Dynamics AX, it may seem a little overwhelming because there is so much that it is able to do. It may seem like you’ve been dropped in a completely foreign land, unable to speak the language, and not knowing which direction to start walking in.
It may be even worse if you are in the middle of a software selection where you are looking at a number of different options (including Dynamics AX) because you need to understand what the differences are, and also… Show more

When you are first introduced to Dynamics AX, it may seem a little overwhelming because there is so much that it is able to do. It may seem like you’ve been dropped in a completely foreign land, unable to speak the language, and not knowing which direction to start walking in.
It may be even worse if you are in the middle of a software selection where you are looking at a number of different options (including Dynamics AX) because you need to understand what the differences are, and also remember which feature applies to which application. In that case, you are in multiple foreign lands, and no-one is speaking the same language.
You may have picked up a book or two on Dynamics AX to start your self-guided learning, but even then it may be too much because they usually assume that you have had some familiarity with the system, and you still don’t have a basic foundation knowledge. Rather than wanting to read Lord of the Rings, you are at more of a See Spot Run level when it comes to Dynamics AX.
This is what this book is designed to achieve, and is aimed to give you a high level introduction to Dynamics AX. It is split into two parts as well, the first is an general overview of the system, showing you all of the usability features, and the second part is a functional overview that highlights all of the functional features within Dynamics AX.
In essence it teaches you the language of this new land, and also gives you a map of the land so that you can then start heading in the direction that is important to you.
Hopefully this will help you quickly get comfortable with Dynamics AX and get you on the right track. Show less

The Sales and Marketing area within Dynamics AX does a lot more than just track Customers, Sales Orders and Invoices. It has a whole lot of CRM functionality included that that allows you to track:
• Activities
• Cases
• Contacts
• Prospects
• Opportunities
• Leads
• Campaigns, and also
• Telemarketing Call Lists.
In most cases, it is just as good as (if not better than) any of the other stand-alone CRM system, especially because you don’t need to buy any… Show more

The Sales and Marketing area within Dynamics AX does a lot more than just track Customers, Sales Orders and Invoices. It has a whole lot of CRM functionality included that that allows you to track:
• Activities
• Cases
• Contacts
• Prospects
• Opportunities
• Leads
• Campaigns, and also
• Telemarketing Call Lists.
In most cases, it is just as good as (if not better than) any of the other stand-alone CRM system, especially because you don’t need to buy any more licenses, or load any more software, because all of the functionality is delivered with the system.
In this blueprint we will show you how to all of the base CRM features within the Sales and Marketing area of Dynamics AX.
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Dynamics AX 2012 now has a retail module that includes store management, and also the ability to set up Retail Point of Sales (POS) terminals to take orders, manage store inventory and also track customers. It may seem a little bit daunting to set up, but it’s really not that hard. In this blueprint we will go through all of the steps that are required for you to set up your first retail store and then configure the POS register so that you can take orders through the touch screens.

If you want to personalize your products a little, or if you are more of a configure to order operation where every product that you ship out the door is tailored to your customers specifications and needs then you will probably want to take advantage of the Product Configurator that is built into Dynamics AX. This feature allows you to create a product with a number of different attributes, and rules that will allow Dynamics AX to build a custom BOM every time the product is ordered, and also… Show more

If you want to personalize your products a little, or if you are more of a configure to order operation where every product that you ship out the door is tailored to your customers specifications and needs then you will probably want to take advantage of the Product Configurator that is built into Dynamics AX. This feature allows you to create a product with a number of different attributes, and rules that will allow Dynamics AX to build a custom BOM every time the product is ordered, and also tell you if the product is even possible to make. Show less

Built into Dynamics AX is a feature for managing the setup of new Vendors which allows users to request for new vendors to be added, for the purchasing group approval process by the way of workflows, and finally automatically create new vendor records. Additionally, if you are using the Vendor Portal, the on-boarding process will allow you to co-ordinate the setup of the vendor users, and if you want to, you van also have the prospective vendors update and approve their information before they… Show more

Built into Dynamics AX is a feature for managing the setup of new Vendors which allows users to request for new vendors to be added, for the purchasing group approval process by the way of workflows, and finally automatically create new vendor records. Additionally, if you are using the Vendor Portal, the on-boarding process will allow you to co-ordinate the setup of the vendor users, and if you want to, you van also have the prospective vendors update and approve their information before they are approved to ensure that their details are correct, and that they want to do business with you as well. This process is a great way to streamline the vendor setup process and is also a time saver because people are involved through the workflow process and all activities are tracked. In this blueprint we will show how the vendor on-boarding process is handled through the Vendor Requests function within Dynamics AX. Show less

If you are using the production module within Dynamics AX, then you are probably wanting to get a better handle on your costs. You can easily configure Dynamics AX to calculate costs of BOM’s, and if you want to get a little more industrious then you can also create cost sheets broken out by your particular cost categories, incorporate routing costs, and even add surcharges and other indirect costs. In this blueprint we will walk through an example that shows how to set up your costing controls… Show more

If you are using the production module within Dynamics AX, then you are probably wanting to get a better handle on your costs. You can easily configure Dynamics AX to calculate costs of BOM’s, and if you want to get a little more industrious then you can also create cost sheets broken out by your particular cost categories, incorporate routing costs, and even add surcharges and other indirect costs. In this blueprint we will walk through an example that shows how to set up your costing controls within Dynamics AX. Show less

The Lean Manufacturing capabilities are new with Dynamics AX 2012, and they give you a different way of managing your manufacturing processes as compared to the traditional discrete manufacturing models of BOM’s and Routes. Don’t be scared away though by its new terminology and constructs that it uses to model the manufacturing processes. It shares a number of the processes that the traditional manufacturing models use, and is pretty easy to configure if you know the right steps. Also, you… Show more

The Lean Manufacturing capabilities are new with Dynamics AX 2012, and they give you a different way of managing your manufacturing processes as compared to the traditional discrete manufacturing models of BOM’s and Routes. Don’t be scared away though by its new terminology and constructs that it uses to model the manufacturing processes. It shares a number of the processes that the traditional manufacturing models use, and is pretty easy to configure if you know the right steps. Also, you don’t have to be a pure “Lean” organization to use the Lean manufacturing processes that are built into Dynamics AX. You can pick and choose what you use, and even create hybrid manufacturing models that blend both the traditional and lean processes. In this worked example I will show you how you can create a simple set of Lean Manufacturing processes and see them in in action. Show less

Everyone has used Pivot Tables within Excel at one point in time to create simple reports against Dynamics AX, and some of you may have also used Power Pivot to create more elaborate dashboards and charts. Recently Microsoft extended out the query and reporting capabilities within Excel with the Power BI suite. In addition to extending the Power Pivot capabilities, they also added three more tools called Power Query, Power View & Power Map, and that means that you have a whole new set of… Show more

Everyone has used Pivot Tables within Excel at one point in time to create simple reports against Dynamics AX, and some of you may have also used Power Pivot to create more elaborate dashboards and charts. Recently Microsoft extended out the query and reporting capabilities within Excel with the Power BI suite. In addition to extending the Power Pivot capabilities, they also added three more tools called Power Query, Power View & Power Map, and that means that you have a whole new set of reporting options. In this blueprint we will show you how you can use all of the Power BI tools to analyze your Dynamics AX data. Show less

Perhaps you have heard about the new tool in Excel 2010, PowerPivot, but wonder how it can enhance your use of Excel. In this blueprint we will show how PowerPivot can assist you with advanced data analysis and reporting, making those extracts from Dynamics AX to Excel even more valuable.

The Service Management area within Dynamics AX allows you to track all of your service order contracts and service orders for your customers, will track all of your time and expenses against the service orders, and will also pass along any chargeable items to the receivables department for automatic invoicing to the customer. Service Management has additional functions as well that allow you to track the items that are being serviced, define the tasks that are allowed to be performed against a… Show more

The Service Management area within Dynamics AX allows you to track all of your service order contracts and service orders for your customers, will track all of your time and expenses against the service orders, and will also pass along any chargeable items to the receivables department for automatic invoicing to the customer. Service Management has additional functions as well that allow you to track the items that are being serviced, define the tasks that are allowed to be performed against a service order, and also track the symptoms, diagnosis, and resolution to service order issues, making it a great tracking and analysis tool. In this walkthrough we will show how you can create service agreements and orders, and then how you can use the additional tracking features within Service Management to get a tighter handle on your service orders. Show less

The Task Recorder has always been a useful tool within Dynamics AX, but with the release of Lifecycle Services, it has been upgraded to become even more useful. Now the Task Recorder includes the ability to group your recordings into separate frameworks for different purposes, and also allows you to create a hierarchy structure that you can use to organize your tasks and recordings. In addition to being able to export your task recordings out to Word etc. for off-line documentation, it also… Show more

The Task Recorder has always been a useful tool within Dynamics AX, but with the release of Lifecycle Services, it has been upgraded to become even more useful. Now the Task Recorder includes the ability to group your recordings into separate frameworks for different purposes, and also allows you to create a hierarchy structure that you can use to organize your tasks and recordings. In addition to being able to export your task recordings out to Word etc. for off-line documentation, it also allows you to package up all of the business process structures and import them into Lifecycle Services to use them for managing your project and also collaborating with customers and partners. All of the task recordings are converted to process flow charts within Lifecycle Services to that you can adjust the standard business processes to match your requirements, and also all of the task recordings are viewable as live videos making them a centralized documentation tool for all the key business areas during and after the implementation. In this blueprint we will show how you can set up and configure the business processes within the Task Recorder, create task recordings, and then import the business processes into Lifecycle Services to make them available through via the cloud. Show less

There are a lot of workflow templates that are delivered with Dynamics AX 2012, but that doesn’t mean that those are the only ones that you can use. Developing new workflow templates and actions are pretty straight forward and you can easily extend out the system to incorporate other workflow scenarios that have not been added yet. In this blueprint we will work through one example and show you how you can develop your own workflow process for product approvals that allow you to submit, track… Show more

There are a lot of workflow templates that are delivered with Dynamics AX 2012, but that doesn’t mean that those are the only ones that you can use. Developing new workflow templates and actions are pretty straight forward and you can easily extend out the system to incorporate other workflow scenarios that have not been added yet. In this blueprint we will work through one example and show you how you can develop your own workflow process for product approvals that allow you to submit, track and approve the product review process. Show less

Dynamics AX is built on a number of foundation products from Microsoft that are used to make it bigger, better, and stronger than the average business system. Taking advantage of these products will make your life easier. Use these tools to maximize the efficiency of your business management, taking advantage of a powerful and centralized tool set.

"Extending Dynamics AX Cookbook" will show you how to use tools that you already have to extend out Dynamics AX and discover potential new… Show more

Dynamics AX is built on a number of foundation products from Microsoft that are used to make it bigger, better, and stronger than the average business system. Taking advantage of these products will make your life easier. Use these tools to maximize the efficiency of your business management, taking advantage of a powerful and centralized tool set.

"Extending Dynamics AX Cookbook" will show you how to use tools that you already have to extend out Dynamics AX and discover potential new directions. You will be surprised at what you can do on a shoestring budget. The book will allow you to streamline your work processes, and use the system's powerful and centralised features to the advantage of your organization.

"Extending Dynamics AX Cookbook" will show you how to maximize the potential of Dynamics AX with common and popular tools to enhance your business management systems. We will begin by exploring how to extend Dynamics AX out with SharePoint. After this, the book will guide you through important elements in maximizing business management efficiency, focusing on key aspects like reports, dashboards, and workflows. The book will then finish by teaching you how to customize your management systems, achieving a comprehensive coverage of the most important extension processes relevant to you and your business with very little programming.

This is a book for those of you that want to make the most out of Dynamics AX by using what you already have, and without breaking the bank.
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