Microsoft Dynamics GP

Article Dean Dorton

Repost from Avalara

Auditors are on the move. While most businesses expect (i.e., dread) to be audited by their home department of revenue, it often comes as a surprise to learn that state tax authorities routinely send auditors to, or hire auditors from, other states to capture unreported sales and use tax revenue. Some states go so far as to have remote offices.

For example, the Texas Comptroller has audit offices in Los Angeles, New York City, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. California has field audit offices in Chicago, New York, and Houston. There are Missouri Department of Revenue offices near Chicago, Dallas, and New York, while the Florida Department of Revenue has offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and Pittsburg. The Utah State Tax Commission doesn’t specify where all it has sales and use tax auditors but notes that they “spend a majority of their time at taxpayers’ offices looking at detailed sales and purchase transactions” and “travel to locations all over the United States to perform their work.”

Field auditors employed by the Washington State Department of Revenue may audit businesses in multiple states. The Department divides the country into several sections: an Out-of-State North District (Eastern Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), an Out-of-State South District, and so on. Field audit offices develop and implement audit programs to optimize accurate tax reporting and payment by businesses located throughout the target area.

What do auditors in other states do?

Auditors frequently examine sales by companies that are headquartered in other states but have nexus (a connection strong enough to trigger a tax collection obligation) in the auditor’s home state. Yet a company doesn’t have to be registered with a state to be targeted by that state’s audit division. While many audits are selected by a random sampling of registered businesses, auditors knock on the doors of unregistered businesses whenever evidence suggests that they may owe the state tax revenue. This is true both in-state and out.

Many states have increased audits since the Great Recession, hiring new auditors as needed. New Mexico’s Audit and Compliance Division has added approximately 62 FTE employees since economy plummeted. And in 2015, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue announced that it needed 102 additional auditors and 11 additional agents to help uncover what was estimated to be approximately $80 million in unpaid tax revenue. Many of the new hires are focusing on businesses based in other states.

States work together

In addition to sending auditors to other states, state tax administrators frequently work together. Regional information-sharing agreements between states, such as the following, can greatly help facilitate audits:

  • NESTOA, North Eastern States Tax Officials Association (Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont)
  • SEATA, Southeastern Association of Tax Administrators (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia)
  • MSATA, Midwestern States Association of Tax Administrators (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin)
  • WSATA, Western States Association of Tax Administrators (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming)

There are other sorts of information-sharing agreements as well. New Mexico shares information with — and receives information from — three tribal governments. And the Multistate Tax Commission Joint Audit Program for member states “provides obvious economies of scale to the states” and “relieves the taxpayer of the burden on multiple ongoing audits.”

Oklahoma to base auditors in other states

Oklahoma doesn’t currently base auditors in other states. Like Utah, it sends auditors to various out-of-state locations as needed, and between 2014 and 2017, it conducted more than 460 audits of remotely based businesses. But a recently enacted law will soon enable the Tax Commission to develop a stronger presence out of state.

HB 1427 authorizes the Oklahoma Tax Commission to create and maintain an Out-of-State Tax Collections Enforcement Division. It enables the Commission to “employ full-time, unclassified, out-of-state tax auditors or full-time-equivalent contracted auditors” to enhance the following:

  • “Sales and use tax collections related to sales or transactions involving residents of Oklahoma and out-of-state vendors with a nexus to the State of Oklahoma”
  • “Collections of any other unpaid taxes owed the State of Oklahoma by out-of-state individuals, firms, and corporations”

The Tax Commission may audit any individual or business it believes may owe tax revenue to Oklahoma. The law takes effect November 1, 2017.

How would your business fare during an audit?

Get your free copy of the Sales and Use Tax Audits Uncovered report to learn more about audit triggers, how to avoid them, and how to protect your business against unnecessary tax compliance risk.

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Article Dean Dorton

A quick Internet search will tell you that importing and exporting data can be a tiresome process that can bog down productivity, company-wide.

When businesses are working with multiple software solutions, often that means having to pull their people from important projects, time and again, to import and export data as new orders and client information travel through the pipeline. The whole tedious process can slow down your sales funnels, reordering schedules, and invoicing processes. It can also take time away from the other proactive tasks that help keep the company targeted on proactive growth. We see it even more during busy seasons or periods of rapid expansion and change.

For businesses to keep up with sales goals, client demands, and the competition, they need real-time data and accurate inventories. They need a system that can populate data between their various software solutions as fast as possible, whether it needs to go into the GL, against their inventory, or submitted for billing.

Finally, what businesses really need is for information to show up without having to pull someone away from other tasks to import it or export it.

Modern businesses using the cloud have a better option when it comes to managing data between cloud software solutions.  Our mConnect data transfer solution is an invisible liaison that bridges the gap between your Intacct and ConnectWise systems to automatically shuttle your most important data effortlessly between systems, to integrate only the data you want and need from ConnectWise to transfer into Intacct.

  • Customize your synchronization options for complete control over your data and how you use it.
  • Fortify your sales department with up-to-date information and sales numbers for reliable forecasting and informed sales strategy decisions.
  • Uplift accounting with more automatic processing with integrations and invoice processing for greater accuracy and improved efficiency.
  • Harness data with real-time visibility on just what you need to support your customers and work seamlessly with vendors.
  • Simplify collections, track invoicing and get invoices up-to-date automatically.
  • Sync inventory from a single location, to access stock counts from the field, with real-time visibility.

Are you ready to give your teams the tool they need to streamline your workday, and the transfer data of between systems? Our team of expert controllers and accountants understand the pains of transferring data to support financials. To uplift teams who are spinning their wheels to get critical information where it belongs, let us show you how mConnect can speed up importing and exporting to kick productivity into high gear.

Article Dean Dorton

Are you running Connectwise and Dynamics GP but struggling with how to get the two systems to work together without a lot of manual entry?  Did you know that mConnect, formerly known as DynamicsConnect, enables real-time two-way customizable integrations between your Connectwise system and Dynamics GP?   In today’s blog post we are going to cover a few of our most popular integrations between Connectwise and Dynamics GP.

CUSTOMERS/VENDORS:  Most of our mConnect customers are integrating customers and vendors from Connectwise into Dynamics GP.  The integration is setup to pull over any new customers and/or vendors as well as any changes that are made to an existing customer or vendor in Connectwise.  For example, if you had a customer add a new phone number or address you would enter that information into Connectwise and the integration would automatically take that new address and phone number and update Dynamics GP.  The integration is fully customizable so you can decide what types of customers and vendors you want to integrate into Dynamics GP, how often you want it to integrate as well as what fields you want to update.  For example, maybe you don’t want prospects coming into Dynamics GP or maybe you want customers that are marked on hold in Connectwise to also be marked on hold in Dynamics GP, any of this is easy to do using the mConnect integration.

SALES INVOICES:  Our sales invoice integration is also very popular with our customers.  We offer you the option of bringing in sales invoices from Connectwise into Dynamics GP as a Receivables Transaction (Transaction Entry) or as a Sales Invoice (Sales Transaction Entry).  We also eliminate the need for any type of batch processing in Connectwise.  Our integration has been used to bring in deferral invoices into GP as well as credit memo’s and returns.  Once we import an invoice into GP we then have the ability to write back to CW so that if you can easily see that the invoice successfully integrated without having to check both systems.  Again because this is a customizable integration you can customize it to fit your company’s needs.

PURCHASE ORDERS/PURCHASE RECEIPTS:  You can integrate purchase orders and receipts into Dynamics GP as well.  We have even customized integrations for customers to allow them to not only enter the purchase order and the purchase receipt but to also create the vendor invoice in GP using the integration.  This process alleviates a lot of manual entry for our customers.

EXPENSE REPORTS:  Like sales invoices, you have options on where you want your employee expense reports to come into Dynamics GP.  Some customers have them come over as a journal entry and others have them come in as a purchase receipt so they can create a payable transaction in GP.

INVENTORY TRANSACTIONS:  We have the ability to import inventory transactions into Dynamics GP from Connectwise as well.  We have some customers who keep inventory in both systems and need to make sure that both systems are in sync.  Our integration allows them to put inventory receipts, shipments, transfers, picks, etc in both systems.   This integration is able to work with serialized items as well as non-serialized items.

CASH RECEIPTS:  As an invoice is paid in full inside of Dynamics GP we can then write back that information into Connectwise to show that the invoice is paid in full.  This eliminates the need to constantly check both systems to see if an invoice is paid in full.

With mConnect, our goal is to make your life easier by creating integrations that you can customize to fit your company’s needs.  If you would like additional information about mConnect please contact Massey Consulting at 877-875-3577.

Article Dean Dorton

“I Hate January! My Dynamics GP Year End Close Is So Hard”

Let me start by saying congratulations! You made it through another year-end closing. You made it through another set of those wonderful techknowledge documents Microsoft updates every year.  We plod through numerous module closes in order to “start over” in the new year when all we really want to do is to keep working.  We download the techknowledge articles, make sure we have good, restorable backups, lots of coffee and caffeine and we begin. It’s what we have to do, right? It’s what EVERYONE does, right?

Wrong! Your year end can be one simple step

Traditional accounting systems have long held the belief that everything must have procedures and that things that are rigid are better for us. Hah! Is that true or were they just telling us that because that was the best THEY could do?
 

Have you ever wondered:
 

  • Where is it written that we have to close accounts payable every year in order to print 1099’s correctly?
  • Why shouldn’t the accounting software track it for you regardless of when you click some buttons?
  • Why can’t we get a balance sheet with accurate amounts BEFORE we complete some elaborate processes?

 

“Can I shorten my Dynamics GP close and love January again?” 
 

Well, unfortunately, Microsoft Dynamics GP has a precise set of steps that MUST be done in order to close a year.  For those that are on
Dynamics GP, the procedures are common.  That’s not to say they are easy:  rather they are to be expected.
 

What if I told you there was a better way? A way that does not have eight different tech knowledge articles with up to 25 steps a piece? A way that let you run your balance sheet for January even though you haven’t “closed” December yet? A way that lets you be an accountant or a controller or a CFO and not just a button pusher!
 

Take a look at the modules that potentially need to be closed in order to complete your year end with GP:
 

  • Inventory
  • Purchase Order Processing
  • Receivables Management (Fiscal Year and Calendar Year)
  • Payables Management (Fiscal Year and Calendar Year)
  • Fixed Assets
  • General Ledger

 

Granted, everyone does not use all the modules and some modules are not severely affected by late or nonexistent closes.  However, you need to know what the effects are of not closing AP in order to decide if you want to close them.  Why put up with that hassle?
 

Intacct has a one step year end close process!
 

Now let’s look at what needs to be done in Intacct to close a year. Go to “General Ledger”and “Close Books.”  In that window, a period is selected that you want to close and you hit “Ok.”  That’s it.  No backups. No scripts to run! No procedures to check off.  No techknowledges to print.  Just go to the place that says, “Close Books” and close through the period that is applicable.  How cool is that?
 

One step. One single step! And a lot more features.
 

Both Microsoft Dynamics GP and Intacct have a defined process for closing your fiscal year.  The difference is that Dynamics GP has a six- to eight-step process.  Intacct has a one-step process. Which one sounds better to you?
 

The question remains, though, is a one-step year end close enough to make you buy Intacct?  Probably not. But, when you add in tons of other features like dimensions, custom fields, Intacct Collaborate and very robust financial reporting, not only will you save time and lots of headaches at year end, but you’ll save time and effort all year long!
 

Now is the time to look at Intacct so you can stop the madness of closing your Dynamics GP year end!  Contact us to get time back and stop hating January by switching to Intacct!
 
 

Article Dean Dorton

For years I’ve had Microsoft Dynamics GP customers ask me if there was a way to automatically batch deposit cash receipts to a lump sum deposit in Bank Reconciliation bypassing the Bank Deposit Step when posting cash receipts.  Unfortunately for years, my answer to this question has been no but thanks to a new feature that was introduced in Dynamics GP 2016 I can now say yes.

Unlike the options that were in available in previous versions of Dynamics GP that would allow you to deposit individual deposits in Bank Reconciliation this new version allows you to do lump sum deposits.  Now all your cash receipts that are in the same batch will post to Bank Reconciliation as one lump sum deposit.  However if you transaction level post then each transaction you post will create a separate deposit.

If you are on Dynamics GP 2016 and want to turn on this new functionality simply go to Company Setup Options and mark the “Automatically post cash receipt deposits” option.  Once you have the option marked all payments that are entered in The Cash Receipts Entry, Receivables Transaction Entry, Sales Transaction Entry, Invoice Entry and return documents in Payables Transaction Entry will post directly to the Bank Reconciliation window and will update the checkbook balance.  From the Bank Reconciliation window, you still have the drill back capability to view all the cash receipt transactions that make up the deposit.

Contact Massey Consulting if you have questions about this new feature or need help setting it up.

Article Dean Dorton

Have you used the Excel Copy/Paste function to import journal entries from Excel to Dynamics GP? Wouldn’t it be great if you could import other types of data (customers, vendors, inventory items, payables, receivables, etc.) from Excel into Dynamics GP with just a push of the button? You can with eOne Solution’s SmartConnect and SmartConnect Excel Add-in.

The SmartConnect Excel Add-in allows you to kick off an integration to Dynamics GP from within Excel. Users enter their data into Excel in a predefined format and then simply navigate to the Excel Menu Bar and hit “send to SmartConnect”. The Excel Add-in will also let you import data from a data source into Excel by using the “Get Data” function. For example, maybe your company has a software that manages your employee expenses but doesn’t import into Dynamics GP, however, it will export to Excel. You could easily import the employee expenses from Excel into Dynamics GP as payable transactions with the push of a button.

The great thing about the Excel Add-in is it allows the average user to import data into GP. As long as the user can get the data in the defined format then they can import the data. Imagine being able to increase user productivity and keying errors because users would no longer have to manually key data into Dynamics GP. Another great thing about the SmartConnect Excel Add-in is that as long as a user has an internet connection and access to the SmartConnect REST service then the Excel Add-in can be used to import data into Excel or Export data.

Not only is the SmartConnect Excel Add-in FREE with each purchase of SmartConnect but there are also FREE templates that you can download from the SmartConnnect download page. There are no additional purchases required and the Excel Add-in is not based on a per-user charge. To get the SmartConnect Add-in you’ll need to download it from eOne’s Downloads Page. You’ll also need to have your SmartConnect login and the connection/credentials for your company’s SmartConnect REST Service. You’ll need to have Excel 2010 or newer.

For more information about the SmartConnect Excel Add-in or for a free demo contact us today!