1. Topics Today Capability Efficiency Troubleshooting
Professional Services Tools Library (PSTL)
GP Power Tools
Efficiency
(Re)create a test company with PowerShell
Macros and Excel
Troubleshooting
Dynamics.SET & Dex.INI
Reset a batch
Missing product
Corrupt forms / reports dictionary

2. Capability

3. Professional Services Tools Library
Included with Dynamics GP, but might not be installed
Many required to be run as “sa”
Many useful administrator tools including
Copy shortcuts from one user to another
Combine or change GL account numbers
Automatically copy accounts / vendors / customers across companies
Re-open historical AR documents
Warn when entering a duplicate customer PO number in SOP
Update 1099 amounts when vendors weren’t set up correctly

4. GP Power Tools
Written & sold by Microsoft MVP David Musgrave, formerly of the GP support team
Cost is $500 - $1,300 / year, depending on modules
Admin
Resource Information
Dictionary Control
Per-company color scheme
Automatic logout
Login Limits
Company Login Filter
Developer
Automatic log capture
Database
Fixup SQL / GP logins
Reset / user passwords and change password policy settings
Export / import data from multiple tables at once
Any
Manual logging
View / system info
Change dex.ini / registry settings in GP

5. Efficiency

6. (Re)create test company with PowerShell
Manual process
Have some time
In SSMS, create copy-only backup of production database
If the company doesn’t exist, use GP Utilities to create a new company
Overwrite the new database with the backup
Update database name references with “restore interid” script
PowerShell process
Right-click .ps1 file and choose “Run with PowerShell”

7. Macros and Excel
Extremely useful to automate repetitive actions, especially in 3rd parties
Steps
Record a macro from Tools > Macro > Record
Make sure the starting and ending screen are exactly the same!
Paste the created macro into Excel.
Use the Substitute function to dynamically change the text.
Copy the result back into the macro file
Use replace all to remove unnecessary quotes (“)
Run the macro from Tools > Macro > Play

8. Trouble-shooting

9. Dynamics.SET Located in %Dynamics Install Directory%\Data
Controls installed products & paths to modified forms & reports
Top number is a count of total products installed
Next section is product ID followed by product name
Final section is paths to main, alternate form and alternate report dictionaries

10. Dex.INI Located in %Dynamics Install Directory%\Data
Flags to control behavior of GP (complete list in resources)
Useful flags
ScriptDebugger – turn on the Debug menu, which can be used to log the scripts GP is actually running when hitting an error
AutoInstallChunks – install .cnk files without prompting
SQLLogSQLStmt – log all of the SQL scripts GP is sending to the database (to the Data folder)
SQLLogODBCMessages – log the ODBC messages when GP is communicating with the database

11. Reset a batch Probably the most common issue on our support line
Usually occurs due to a network interruption during posting
See full KB article, but boils down to UPDATE SY00500 SET MKDTOPST=0, BCHSTTUS=0 where BACHNUMB='XXX'

12. Missing product
“Cannot access this form because the dictionary containing it is not loaded”
3rd party not installed
Different forms/reports in Dynamics.set
Find all 3rd party products with alternate access configured select distinct SECMODALTID, ALTDICID from SY10800 with (nolock) where ALTDICID<>0
Find all modified windows with alternate access configured select * from SY10800 with (nolock) where Modified=1
Get some help with Version Pro from Rockton software (free)

13. Corrupt forms / reports dictionary
Corrupt forms / reports dictionaries can cause all kinds of very strange error messages in GP
To rebuild them
Go to Tools > Customize >Customization Maintenance
Select everything and click Export to save the modifications to a .package file
Make sure everyone is out of GP if using a shared forms / reports location
Go to the Data folder inside the GP install folder and rename all .dic files
Reopen GP and back to the Customization Maintenance window
Use the Import function to reload the saved .package file

14. Resources
GP Power Tools
Use PowerShell to recreate a test company Company#post37
Using Excel to Automate Dynamics GP Data Entry
Reset a batch receiving-busy-marked-locked-or-edited
Version Pro
Dex.ini switches