Microsoft Dynamic GP 2010 : Payables Management (part 3) - Purchasing E-mail setup, Vendors

4. 1099 setup

If you have used prior versions of Dynamics GP, you will find that the 1099 functionality has been enhanced significantly starting with Dynamics GP 10.0. As part of the Payables module setup, you can now define the minimum for each 1099 box type and you can even edit the descriptions of the 1099 boxes.

To open the 1099 Setup window, navigate to Microsoft Dynamics GP | Tools | Setup | Purchasing | Payables | 1099 Setup. Select the Tax Type and change the Descriptions and Minimum Amounts as needed.

5. Purchasing E-mail setup

If you would like Dynamics GP to send e-mail to your vendors, you will need to set up Purchasing E-mail options.

Navigate to Microsoft Dynamics GP | Tools | Setup | Purchasing | E-mail Settings. On the Purchasing E-mail Setup window you can determine whether to enable e-mailing of Purchase Orders and Vendor Remittances, what Message ID to use for each, the default address for Have Replies Sent to, and whether to Allow Changing the 'Reply to' address and Update of E-mail at the time of entering purchase orders. Clicking Select Names will bring up your Outlook Address Book. The following is an example of the Purchasing E-mail Setup window:

Message ID refers to predefined messages with the subject and text of the e-mail Dynamics GP will generate. You can set up a new message by entering a new Message ID and answering Yes to the pop-up window asking whether you would like to add this Message ID. You can also set up a new message by navigating to Microsoft Dynamics GP | Tools | Setup | Company | E-mail Message Setup.

On the Message Setup window:

A sample Message Setup window is shown here:

7. Vendors

The final step before you can enter payables transactions in Dynamics GP is creating vendors. If you have many vendors to create, you may opt to import them; however, it is still helpful to understand how to set up new vendors manually when planning your import.

To create or change a vendor, navigate to Cards | Purchasing | Vendor. The following are descriptions of the fields on the Vendor Maintenance window:

• Vendor ID: This is the ID that will be used to identify the vendor throughout Dynamics GP—up to 15 characters are allowed.

• Hold: A vendor can be put on hold at any time. You cannot enter payments or apply existing payments to a vendor that is on hold. However, any transactions other than payments can still be entered when a vendor is on hold. Holds are useful to automatically exclude a vendor from check runs.

• Name: The name that will appear for the vendor throughout Dynamics GP windows and reports. This typically helps users find the vendor if the ID is not enough or if numerical vendor IDs are used.

• Short Name: This field is not really used by the application and will default to the first 15 characters of the vendor Name.

• Check Name: This is the name that will be printed on any payables checks created for this vendor. By default, this will be the same as the Name field, but there is no requirement for them to be the same.

• Primary Address section: One address for the vendor can be entered directly on the Vendor Maintenance window. Additional addresses can be entered by clicking the Address button and there is no limit on the number of addresses that can be entered for a vendor. Even if you are not entering an address for a vendor, it is recommended to create an Address ID so that it can be used for the default Address IDs below.

  Please note that even though there are three lines available for the Address, only the first two address lines will appear on any out-of-the-box report in Dynamics GP. Reports would need to be customized to show the third address line.

  
  

• Address IDs: Choose the default Address IDs to be used on transactions for this vendor. These can be changed at the time of transaction entry.

  • Purchase: The address that will be printed on purchase orders to this vendor.

  • Remit To: The default address used for checks to this vendor.

  • Ship From: Used to store the location where the vendor ships goods from, which may be needed for tax or reporting purposes.

• Status: There are three possible statuses for a vendor:

  • Active: When you create a vendor, the status is defaulted to Active and transactions can be entered for this vendor.

  • Inactive: Vendors that have historical transactions, but you do not work with anymore, can be set to Inactive. Transactions cannot be entered for an inactive vendor, but you can still search and report on past transactions for the vendor. An inactive vendor can be re-activated at any time.

  • Temporary: Vendors that you might only do business with once, but still want to track some information for, can be created as temporary vendors. While this is not typically recommended, temporary vendors can be deleted even if they have transaction history. This may be useful for companies that have a large number of temporary vendors.

• Class ID: Select the Class ID for this vendor. While classes are optional, they are recommended to simplify setup and reporting. When a Class ID is selected, all settings from that class will populate for this vendor. If any of these settings have already been selected manually for the vendor, they will be overwritten by the settings from the vendor class for any new vendor. For previously saved vendors, you will be asked whether you want to update the vendor information from the class settings.

• Phone and Fax numbers: Enter any phone or fax numbers you want to track for the vendor. Note that these fields are hard coded for the North American phone format with a four-digit extension. For international phone numbers or longer extensions, many companies use the Comment 1 and Comment 2 fields or the vendor note.

• Tax Schedule: If you are using purchasing taxes, this is the Tax Schedule ID to be used with this vendor and Address ID.

• Shipping Method: This is the default Shipping Method ID for this vendor and Address ID.

• UPS Zone: Most companies do not use the UPS zone, but if needed, this can store the UPS Zone for this vendor and Address ID.

• Vendor Account: You can track your account number with the vendor here. Many companies choose to add this field to their payables checks.

  Note that this field holds 20 characters, while the comment fields hold 30 characters. If you have vendors with long account numbers, consider using one of the comment fields for this instead.

  
  

• Comment 1 and Comment 2: These are additional fields to track information about a vendor. Each allows up to 30 characters.

The following is an example of a typical Vendor Maintenance window:

The Accounts button on the Vendor Maintenance window will open the Vendor Account Maintenance window, where vendor-specific GL accounts can be set up. All the settings on the Vendor Account Maintenance window are the same as the settings on the Vendor Class Accounts Setup window described earlier. If a vendor class was entered for the vendor, all the accounts from the class will default in for the vendor.

The Options button on the Vendor Maintenance window will open the Vendor Maintenance Options window, where you can set up additional information and defaults for the vendor. Almost all of the fields on this window are also on the Vendor Class Setup window described previously. The fields that are new to this window are:

• Tax ID: This field holds the tax ID printed on 1099 forms for this vendor.

• Tax Registration: An additional field to hold tax registration information. This field is typically used for GST and VAT taxes and is not used for US implementations.

• 1099 Box: Depending on the 1099 tax type chosen, you can select the appropriate 1099 box number for this vendor.

• Language: This is an informational field that becomes available if you have set up languages for your Dynamics GP system (Microsoft Dynamics GP | Tools | Setup | System | Language).

The following screenshot shows the Vendor Maintenance Options window for a 1099 vendor:

Setting up vendor e-mail options

To set up e-mail addresses for each vendor, click on the Internet Information icon to the right of the Address ID:

Clicking the To, Cc, or Bcc buttons will open your Outlook Address Book and let you choose addresses from there. Alternatively, you can simply enter e-mail addresses separated by semicolons:

The final step in setting up e-mailing options for vendors is to complete the Vendor E-mail Options setup. This can be done individually for each vendor or for a group of vendors at once.

The e-mail setup for an individual vendor is opened by clicking the E-mail button at the bottom of the Vendor Maintenance window (Cards | Purchasing | Vendor). As these settings will most likely be the same for all vendors, it may be easier to perform the setup for multiple vendors by navigating to Microsoft Dynamics GP | Tools | Setup | Purchasing | E-mail Settings and clicking the Vendor Setup button. This will take you to a navigation list with all your vendors. Search and filter the vendor list, then click the overflow button (>>) in the Modify section of the toolbar, and choose E-mail Settings:

Depending on the options you previously chose on the Purchasing E-mail Setup window, some of the fields on the Mass Vendor E-mail Settings window will be disabled. Select the desired choices for Attachment Options; if Send Documents as Attachments is selected, Multiple Attachments per E-mail can be chosen and you can Set Maximum File Size.

On the Send Forms as E-mail section, you can select Purchase Order, Vendor Remittance, or both, depending on what was enabled on the Purchasing E-mail Setup window. If there was already a Message ID selected on the Purchasing E-mail Setup window, it will default here, but it can be changed as needed. Note that only the HTLM Format will work for sending Dynamics GP standard Report Writer reports. To use any of the other formats requires Word templates to be set up for Dynamics GP.