EFaru Dynamics GP Chart of Accounts Copy From One Company to Another

When you are implementing new Corporate ERP system it is good idea to review or even maybe redesign your legacy Chart of Accounts
By: Andrew Karasev
 
April 6, 2011 - PRLog -- When you are implementing new Corporate ERP system it is good idea to review or even maybe redesign your legacy Chart of Accounts.  There are sample COA available for the company that you could load during the installation in Utilities (such as generic Corporation, Partnership), however they might look too generic.  In normal initial implementation you may decide to have details in such categories, as Sales, Purchases, Inventory, Cost of Goods Sold (if you are in Manufacturing business then probably also Work in Process).  Reasonable details in General Ledger Accounts allow you to create detailed Financial Reports in Microsoft Management Reporter or FRx, especially Income Statement with Advanced Reporting Tree (including consolidated version with multicurrency).  Now let’s assume that initial chart was created in the past and you are happy about it and would like to transfer it with minor modifications to the newly created company.  Let’s review the details and recommendations:

1.   Smart List with export to Excel and then Integration Manager to import into the new company.  This method is recommended when you are not really technical and do not have SQL savvy people in IT.  You also should own IM module.  To open Smart List in menu Dynamics GP -> Smart List.  Here expand Financial Accounts and you should see unnamed default list.  It has all the fields you need to import accounts into the new company: number, description, posting type, category.  Click on Excel icon on the top of the result set and you will have Excel document created and opened automatically.  Feel free to update one of the account segment (it is often a good idea to dedicate one of the short segments to company number).  When you are done with modifications in Excel save the file as CSV (Coma Separated Values text file).  Open Integration Manager, review sample COA integration and create the one for your new company in similar fashion.  Please, note that Posting type could be defaulted from the category – this is what you see in the sample integration named Chart of Accounts

2.   Under the hood in SQL Server Management Studio.  Here you are copying GL00100 Account Master table into the text file or script it with data included.  Be sure that your new company has exactly the same account format (defined in Setup -> Company -> Account Format).  You can use SQL data export wizard to move the table from one SQL database to another directly without text file export.  When migration is done, consider deleting GL00105 Account Index Master table and recreating Index table via Maintenance -> Check Links pick just Account Master tables cluster

3.   Loading new company from the production company backup.  We have used this method for numerous customers.  Here you need to clean all the historical, open, work and master tables (except Account Master tables cluster).  This method gives you the advantage to preserve settings in your modules.  Plus you have discretion to retain customers, vendors, employees, GL Accounts.  We have full featured publications on how to do this in details, here we are sticking to laconic computer publication genre, search details in Google

4.   Considerations to the older versions on Pervasive SQL 2000/Btrieve or Ctree: 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0.  Btrieve database (or its successor Pervasive SQL Server) has tables mapped to physical files in Windows operating system.  If you would just need to copy GL account master tables, please review table structure to identify which files to copy from production to new company financial folder: Resource Description -> Tables, here select financial series and locate account master tables.  If you would like to update records in account master related tables on Pervasive or Ctree, we usually recommend you to deploy Microsoft Access ODBC connection to the linked tables (for Pervasive DDF files are required, you can created them by dragging and dropping DDF.set file on Dynamics.exe).  If your version doesn’t have Smart List you can still deploy Custom Report Writer report, where you are exporting all your accounts into the text file and then Import Utility (this is how that job was done in the past in late 1990th)

5.   Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Mac 9.5, 9.2, 9.1 and earlier versions.  Here you usually follow this method.  First identify the template company, it should sit under GPS folder on your Novell or Windows NT Server (some GPA customers went through redeployment on Windows 2003 or 2008 Server with Pervasive SQL 2000 DB engine, the restriction here to stick to 32 bit OS version)

6.   Crossing US Borders and becoming multinational company.  Popular idea is to deploy your Corporate ERP platform for all your subsidiaries Worldwide.  However international business has its specifics, such as ERP localization.  If you use Great Plains in the USA or Canada – why do you think it is automatically available in Chine in Chinese hieroglyphs?  The answer is trivial – it is not available.  There are additional technical hurdles and details – GP Dexterity doesn’t support Unicode characters (such as hieroglyphs).  There are tools and instruments, such as NJ Star which allow you to have Chinese scripts to be saved when transaction is entered by your Chinese GP user.  But, China being Regional power has its own GAAP and business related legislation. This is just one country example.  GP is not localized in such regional powers as Brazil, Russian Federation, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland

7.   If you feel that your concerns are not addressed or your question is not answered, please feel free to contact our office.  Support domestically in the USA, Canada, Mexico and internationally.  This option is possible via Web Sessions, Skype or Phone conferences and direct visits onsite (in the case of the large scale project).  Our consulting team speaks English, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Filipino.  Feel free to call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904, or email help@efaru.com


Andrew Karasev is Great Plains Certified Master, MVP, help@efaru.com 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904. He is also the initiator of eFaru project http://www.efaru.com and founder of Alba Spectrum information space
End
Source:Andrew Karasev
Email:***@efaru.com
Tags:Dynamics Gp, Great Plains Dexterity
Industry:Computers
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