Notes on Changes. in the Microsoft Dynamics AX Feature Pack and R2

Transcription

1 Notes on Changes in the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack and R2 August 2013

2 II Notes on Changes Registered and/or industrial names, trade names, trade descriptions etc. cited in this publication are part of the law for trademark protection and may not be used free in any form or by any means even if this is not specifically marked. Sample companies, persons, products and names mentioned in this document are purely fictitious if not stated differently. No association of sample data with any real company, person, product or other name is intended or should be inferred. This document, which is free of charge, is a support for readers of the related book. The author of the book is the author of this exercise guide, which has been compiled with utmost care. Nevertheless, it is not possible to guarantee that it is free of every possible mistake. Therefore, the author cannot accept any liability. Suggestions of additions and indications of errors as wells as other comments are most welcome, however. Contact: Website Copyright 2013 Andreas Luszczak. All rights reserved.

3 Dynamics AX 2012 has been published in August 2011 in the original version. Updated versions of Dynamics AX 2012 have been released later the Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack in February 2012 and Dynamics AX 2012 R2 in December Whereas the book Using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 in the 3 rd edition (ISBN ) already includes descriptions of changes in the Feature Pack and R2, the 2 nd edition (ISBN ) is based on the original version of Dynamics AX This document aims to show the changes in Dynamics AX 2012 for readers of the 2 nd edition of the book. If you want to know in which version you are working, click the button Help / About Microsoft Dynamics AX in the command bar of the Dynamics AX client if you are using the Feature Pack or R2, it is displayed. 1 Changes in the Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack The AX 2012 Feature Pack adds industry functionality for retail and process manufacturing to the core installation. Referring to the functionality described in the book, the Feature Pack has got an impact in following areas: Support for formulas Production type, formula management, batch production orders Approved vendors Optionally enforcing approved vendors per item Catch weight products Items with a secondary unit of measure Moving average Additional option for inventory valuation Product dimensions Additional product dimension Style Retail category Additional product category hierarchy Except for the Production type, you can simply skip the additional fields and options if you do not want to use the new features. The Production type is a lookup field on the tab Engineer of the released product form, in which you have to select the option BOM if you want to assign a bill of materials to a released product. In Dynamics AX 2012 R2, the option BOM is the default when creating a released product. You can select the option None for purchased products without a bill of materials. 1.1 Support for Formulas If the Production type of a finished item is not BOM, but Formula or Coproduct, the item refers to process manufacturing. In this case, you can assign a formula to the item instead of a BOM. Formulas, which you may access by clicking

4 2 Notes on Changes the button Formula/Lines on the action pane tab Engineer in the released product form or through the menu item Inventory and warehouse management> Common> Formula, work similar to BOMs, but offer additional options required for process industries. The production order list page contains orders for formula items (with the Production type Formula or Co-product ) referring to process manufacturing in parallel to orders for producing BOM items. The button New/Batch order in the production order form creates a new order for a formula item. For accessing the formula lines of a batch order (working similar to a production order), click the button Production details/formula. 1.2 Approved Vendors The lookup field Approved vendor check method on the tab Purchase of the released product detail form, receiving its default from the corresponding field in the item model group, controls if the item may only be purchased from approved vendors. Alternative options in this field enforce approved vendors with a warning or an error message. For entering allowed vendors, click the button Approved vendor/setup in the action pane tab Purchase of the released product form. 1.3 Catch Weight Products A catch weight product (CW product) is an item with weight as primary unit of measure, and a secondary unit (catch weight unit) showing the number of pieces in parallel. The weight per unit varies, and as a result there is no fixed unit conversion between the weight unit and the catch weight unit. In the order lines of purchase or sales orders, only the catch weight quantity (the number of pieces) is entered. When registering inventory transactions, both weight and catch weight quantity have to be entered in parallel. In Dynamics AX, the catch weight functionality is generally available in inventory, purchasing and sales, where all applicable forms contain additional fields for the catch weight. Usage in production is limited to batch production orders, since only formulas not regular bills of materials may include catch weight items. Because of its complexity, you should only use catch weight if you actually need to track weight and catch weight quantity independently from each other. 1.4 Moving Average Inventory Valuation For items assigned to an Item model group with the Inventory model Moving average, receipt transactions are posted with the price provided by the transaction (e.g. through a vendor invoice). When posting an issue transaction, the average cost price at the time of posting applies. This cost price does not change through inventory closing. As a result, inventory closing is not required for these items.

5 Notes on Changes 3 If a vendor invoice refers to a purchase receipt, which is not completely on stock any more, a difference between the physical cost amount and the financial cost amount of the purchase transaction is posted as an adjustment to a price difference account for the quantity not on stock. For the quantity still on stock, posting the purchase invoice posts the total amount including possible differences to the financial cost amount. 2 Changes in Dynamics AX 2012 R2 Dynamics AX 2012 R2 includes major changes in the technical setup, including support for Windows 8, and adds data partitions to the application. From a functional perspective, it contains functionality for additional key countries like Brazil, China, India, Japan and Russia included in a single layer for all country localizations and several enhancements, improving the option for multinational organizations to run Dynamics AX in one global instance. Referring to the functionality described in the book, R2 has got an impact in following areas: Data partitions Changes in the finance data structure Multiple enhancements in various areas of the application 2.1 Data Partitions Dynamics AX 2012 contains multiple areas of shared application data e.g. parties, addresses, products, currencies, resource capabilities, or employees. Depending on the specific requirements, enterprises either want to share these data across multiple or all companies, or to keep company data isolated. Data partitions in Dynamics AX 2012 R2 enable independent data for enterprises working in a common Dynamics AX instance (database and application). Companies working in different partitions only share the application code therefore using the same program functionality and customizations and basic shared system data including database settings, AIF ports and batch jobs. Dynamics AX users, permissions, and shared application data like parties or currencies are not shared across partitions. Installing Microsoft Dynamics AX creates the default partition Initial. If you do not need multiple partitions for separating data, you can set up all companies in this partition then. Using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Exercise Guide All rights reserved Andreas Luszczak.

6 4 Notes on Changes In case you want to create an additional partition, access the menu item System administration> Setup> Partitions and create a new partition as required. Once saved, you cannot delete a partition. The system administrator creating a partition must then create the users and permissions in this partition. Next you can create companies, organization units and hierarchies, and other setup data as applicable. When logging on to Dynamics AX, you are accessing a particular data partition and company. This partition usually is the default partition as specified for your user in the user administration (System administration> Common> Users> Users, checkbox Current partition is default partition in the detail form). You cannot switch partition in a client session. If you want to access another partition, create or choose a client configuration with the appropriate partition for starting the client. Depending on your user options, the status bar and the title bar of forms show the current partition. 2.2 Changes in the Finance Data Structure In Dynamics AX 2012 versions before R2, account structures are assigned to the charts of accounts. Companies sharing a chart of account therefore have to use the same account structure. In AX 2012 R2, account structures are assigned in the ledger form (General ledger> Setup> Ledger) and not in the chart of accounts, which means that companies may use a common chart of accounts while applying different financial dimensions. In addition, main account translations are available. Interunit accounting, an optional feature in Dynamics AX 2012 R2, ensures a balanced balance sheet for a selected financial dimension the balancing dimension. If you want to use interunit accounting, provide following settings: Accounts for automatic transactions Enter appropriate main accounts for the Posting type Interunit-debit and Interunit-credit in the accounts for automatic transactions. Balancing financial dimension Select the balancing dimension in the ledger form (General ledger> Setup> Ledger). If the field Balancing financial dimension in the ledger form is not empty, you have to provide a dimension value for this dimension when posting any transaction. If the from-value and the to-value for the balancing dimension are different in a transaction, Dynamics AX posts additional balancing transactions to the main accounts Interunit-debit and Interunit-credit. This applies for example in a transaction from one department to another, if departments are the balancing dimension.

7 Notes on Changes Other Changes Apart from data partitions and enhancements in the finance data structure, R2 includes multiple changes in various areas of the application: Master planning Optionally includes approved purchase requisitions (checkbox in the master plan); readable explanations on master planning results are available on the tab Explanation of the Explosion form (in case of local master scheduling) Auto-charges In sales additionally at the level of modes of delivery Cash discounts The cash discount form includes the option of posting the vendor cash discount to the accounts of the invoice lines (if the Public sector configuration key is activated) Updating trade agreements Compared with the initial version of Dynamics AX 2012, where you can only edit existing trade agreements by choosing the Select option in price/discount agreement journals, the R2 version contains the additional button Edit selected lines in trade agreements for creating appropriate journals Fill utility Not available in R2 any more Tracking dimensions Additional tracking dimensions Inventory profile, Owner and GTD number for Eastern Europe Using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Exercise Guide All rights reserved Andreas Luszczak.

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