Microsoft has long been a leader in business solutions. Their Dynamics solutions; such as, Dynamics GP, Dynamics SL, and Dynamics CRM, have gone through many changes over the years to continue to bring you improved technology. Many customers have been wondering if their current Dynamics solution will be supported in the future as Microsoft has … Read more
Posts by Kayla
Acumatica Saw a Lot of Love in 2019: A Recap of Analyst Reports and a Look Ahead
It’s awards season—a time when everyone turns on the television to see if their favorite movie, television show, album, or musical took home the big prize for successes in the past year. While we can’t say whether Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or Joker will take home the prize for best picture, we can … Read more
Acumatica 2020 R1: First Take from the Day 1 Keynote
I’m writing this with the Day 1 Keynote music still ringing in my ears. Wow – what a presentation. Acumatica 2020 R1 is going to have a lot of exciting new features (as always) but this felt special in some way. Maybe it’s because this is the first Summit since EQT Partners acquired Acumatica in … Read more
Office 365: No Better Way to Collaborate Other Than Chat
Have you ever used Track Changes in Microsoft Word, or received comments on your spreadsheets in Excel, or even PowerPoint, then questioned why a certain change was made? You try to contact the person who made the edit, but can’t locate them, they’re either in a meeting, or on vacation. So, now you’re stuck until … Read more
Three Favorite New Features in the Latest Release of Dynamics GP 2019
I was asked to write a blog on new features of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2019 release. Since I’m not an expert, I turned to someone who is: Crestwood’s Mary Lenehan. Mary has been working with Dynamics GP for over 20 years, conducts all our year-end training seminars, and presents at GPUG conferences every year. … Read more
2020 – The New Year Brings Lots of Training Options for Dynamics 365 Business Central
I have noticed a ton of new videos, tutorials, documentation, and overall training materials coming out lately for Dynamics 365. Seems that the New Year is going to be booming for Dynamics 365! Here are a couple of recommended and free training places. Crestwood First, don’t forget, Crestwood has a YouTube channel with a playlist … Read more
Give Your Employees the Gift of Anytime, Anywhere Access with Cloud Based ERP
2019 is coming to an end. However, leading up to the end of the year, there’s a holiday coming up, one that your employees may be heading home for. “Home” means different things to different people. For some, this may mean a few miles down the road, for others, it’s a cross-country flight away. Unfortunately … Read more
Seeing the Big Picture: Analytics, Dashboards, and Business Intelligence Give Sales Managers a Cornucopia of Information
Sales keeps the business running, but who keeps the sales team running? The role of a sales manager is by no means an easy one. Whether you moved from rep to management or saw this as the ideal opportunity to move up the ladder, you know that managing a sales team is stressful. Just because … Read more
Video How-To’s: Three Acumatica Features To Get Familiar With
Hopefully by now, you’ve upgraded to Acumatica 2019 R2! Acumatica is routinely adding new features and improving on current functions. Below are three quick how-to videos for previously added functions; one is exporting Generic Inquiry Parameters to Excel and Pivot Tables, another is Landed Costs and finally GDPR Compliance for Acumatica. Stay tuned for more short … Read more
Microsoft Outlook Online Changes the Way You Do Tasks
Microsoft is set to update Tasks in Outlook on the web at the end of October, with the full rollout be completed by December 2019. What does this mean to you? Nothing really, just a new name, from “Tasks” to “To Do.” Personally, I’ve never used the Tasks feature to its fullest potential. I’ve added … Read more
The October 2019 Release of Dynamics GP: The Era of the Modern Lifecycle Policy
Microsoft just made an exciting announcement: the next release for Dynamics GP is dropping on October first of 2019, and will be called simply “Microsoft Dynamics GP.” You read that right! No year or version marker at the end. Dynamics GP has made the move to a “Modern Lifecycle Policy.” What is a Modern Lifecycle … Read more
From Collection to Application: Finalizing Your AR Payments
So many things go into the process of getting paid. Even if the quoting, the negotiations, and invoicing went smoothly, the process of getting paid, allocating a payment to an invoice, and accounting for a transaction presents its own challenge. Following last month’s blog discussing the challenges that go into getting the collections process, we … Read more
Can the Risk of Ransomware be Eliminated with Cloud ERP?
There are many good reasons to switch your ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions to the cloud: cost, convenience, versatility, security, etc. But one especially good reason is the amount and types of risk that can be mitigated with Cloud ERP. What Risks are On-Premise Systems Vulnerable to? One of the major risks that organizations face … Read more
Get Paid Faster by Creating the Best Invoice Possible in Dynamics 365 Business Central
You probably already know that you can email invoices directly from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with its seamless integration with Outlook. But the integrations don’t stop there. Did you know that you can take it a step further by accepting electronic payments using Microsoft Pay or PayPal? Do you know how easy it is … Read more
What do the Experts Think about Acumatica 2019 R1?
Recently, while attending our Acumatica team meeting, the conversation evolved into unfiltered comments from our consultants who are working with the new version, Acumatica 2019 R1. Here’s an overview – highlights, pros & cons, and some questions: Highlights First of all, everyone is excited about how many added features and changes were packed into Acumatica … Read more
Cool Animations in PowerPoint Using Motion Paths to Move Objects
It’s been a long time since I’ve found something this cool in Microsoft PowerPoint, so I had to share! Motion paths for animating objects in PowerPoint. Using power point animations to move objects is a great way to stand out in your presentations. PowerPoint Motion Path : My manager came to me one morning with … Read more
Learn Power BI the Easy Way
Are you interested in Power BI? Maybe you’re wondering what it can do for your business and Dynamics GP data? We recommend starting with this Microsoft self-paced, hands-on learning tutorial, “Explore what Power BI can do for you.” You will learn: Understand Power BI service basic concepts and terminology. Find your content in dashboards, reports, … Read more
Restore Deleted or Missing Files with OneDrive Version Control
Microsoft Office 365 provides so much more than just the ability to access Microsoft Office suite (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) from any device. One important feature (that I learned about the hard way) is the ability to restore deleted files with OneDrive version control. What is OneDrive? When I first started with Crestwood, I didn’t understand OneDrive, the cloud storage service … Read more
Acumatica Joins IFS Under EQT Ownership
Big News…this morning, Acumatica announced they have been acquired by EQT, a global private equity firm that also manages IFS, an enterprise ERP product well-known in Europe. This will give Acumatica a very significant step towards globalization of their systems, specifically to address regulatory and lingual support. At Crestwood, we see this as a positive … Read more
Dynamics SL to Acumatica xRP Cloud Platform
Our very own MVP Acumatica Developer, Joe Jacob, recently published a guide to help all you developers convert Dynamics SL over to the Acumatica xRP Cloud Platform. “Joe’s Guide offers a quick reference for those already familiar with the Dynamics SL SDK and are new to the Acumatica development platform. This guide will help direct … Read more
Who’s Delivering Value in CRM Technology?
Customer Relationship Management software is one of those necessary products for businesses, but finding the right one for yours is rarely an easy task. Whether you’re in the market for new CRM, are considering a change alongside another business management solution like ERP, or just looking to understand what options are available, it’s important to … Read more
Can You Really Integrate Salesforce CRM and Acumatica ERP? Yes!
Salesforce and Acumatica have spent the better part of their history in opposition to each other. Salesforce, touted by many as the first SaaS cloud product on the market, has delivered customer relationship management solutions via the internet for the last two decades. Acumatica, on the other hand, launched in 2008 to deliver a suite … Read more
Is the Fabrication Industry Ready for Cloud ERP?
Fabrication is a tough business. Commodities prices fluctuate rapidly, offshoring creates new competition, and new technologies present additional risk. It’s a perfect storm, and to weather it, you need to balance customer-centric business practices with demand for cost optimization, speed, and flexibility. Following our last blog discussing some of the things that fabrication companies including … Read more
Three Accounts Payable Challenges Holding Your Company Back
For too many businesses, the payment process is flawed—64 percent of B2B payments are still made with checks according to industry magazine PYMNTS.com. In the B2B world, paper is still present in the beginning, middle, and end of the payment process. From increased time it takes to process and pay a paper invoice using a … Read more