March 2024 Newsletter: State-of-the-art Accounting, Distribution, Service,

Manufacturing, CRM & Business Intelligence software that can help you

gain a competitive advantage. It can also benefit your organization by

reducing duplication and costs, and increasing productivity, accuracy,

efficiency, customer satisfaction, market share and profits.

Another very successful Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Implementation. A. B. Computer Systems provided all project management, training, consulting, setups, software development, testing, data conversion, and customer support services.

Mr. Ed Avizur

President

A. B. Computer Systems, Inc.

Dear Ed,

I would like to take a moment and thank you for the excellent services that your team provided NVA and Benecard during the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central implementation. The project was completed on time and within our budget.

As you know, we implemented Business Central for twenty-two separate companies in multiple states, all with their own software functionality and reporting requirements. While we had a very tight deadline, we wouldn't have been able to meet the implementation schedule without the dedication of your very knowledgeable, experienced, and professional consultants and software developers.

Established in 1979, National Vision Administrators (NVA) administers vision care plans. Order fulfillment for NVA's contact lens business is done by a sister company called Contact Fill (CF) which is a mail order warehouse for contact lenses. Millions of subscribers are covered under the vision programs managed by NVA throughout the United States.

Since 1990, Benecard has provided carve-out prescription benefit programs founded on the philosophy of integrity, innovation and a "clients first" approach. Our company specializes in delivering progressive benefit programs to private and public sector organizations. Each program incorporates benefit cost control, specialized services, and risk protection, affording a comprehensive package for our clients nationwide.

We now plan to add additional companies and implement more Business Central functionality. I feel very confident that these new projects will also be successful and cost efficient with your ongoing services and support.

We are extremely happy with our new function-rich and easy-to-use cloud based system, and we highly recommend A. B. Computer Systems. Please feel free to have future potential clients contact me as a reference.

Sincerely,

Richard B. Terranova,

Chief Financial Officer

Additional Customer Testimonials:  

• The project was completed on time and within our budget.
• Experience, dedication and commitment to customer service.
• We are extremely happy with our new system.
• We look forward to continue working with your team in the future.
• Always provided excellent support.
• We will gladly recommend your company to prospective customers.
• Your company did an excellent job.
• Outstanding technical and customer support.
• Your experienced team exceeded our expectations.
• Partnership has been especially helpful with our growth internationally.
• Outstanding project management and customer service.
• We highly recommend A. B. Computer Systems.
• All technical and non-technical matters are quickly resolved.
• Very high level of expertise and degree of professionalism.

We are a leading provider of turn-key business management software solutions and related services. With very experienced, knowledgeable, dedicated and professional consultants and software developers, and with a proven implementation methodology, we help our customers to increase productivity, efficiency, market share, customer satisfaction, sales and profits. 

Our company specializes in the implementation and ongoing support of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Dynamics NAV (Navision), Power BI, Power Automate, Microsoft 365 (Office), SharePoint, SQL Server, Dynamics CRM, EDI, Azure Cloud, Document Management, Teams, and IT Infrastructure.

With offices in New York, New Jersey and Florida, we provide implementation and customer support services to small and midsize companies in the United States. As a Microsoft Authorized Business Partner we implement state-of-the-art business software, and are committed to Quality, Service and Customer Satisfaction. Information about all our offerings can be found here.

What's new and planned for Dynamics 365 Business Central

Current Version: 23.4

Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 release wave 2

Dynamics NAV latest updates: #60 for 2018; #61 for 2017; #67 for 2016

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central & NAV are global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions that provide small and midsize businesses greater control over their financials, and can simplify their supply chain, manufacturing, distribution and operations. They are quick to implement and easy to use and to learn, with the power to support your growth ambitions. 

Both solutions integrate critical Financial, Operations, Distribution, Manufacturing, Customer Relationship Management, Service and E-commerce data into streamlined and comprehensive solutions. Function-rich, fast, flexible and fully customizable, these state-of-the-art software products enable you to build solutions that can meet your specific needs, giving you the freedom to focus on your business. Built on a very advanced technology foundation, Dynamics 365 Business Central & NAV help you maximize productivity, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction, sales and profits. 



Contact us for information about our latest Promotions on Software and Services. 

Some of the many beneficial Microsoft Dynamics Features are:       

• Sales order entry that provides detailed customer and item information at your fingertips. 
• Different views of item availability and on-hand quantities.
• Item substitutions, reservations and multiple units of measure.
• Windows, Tablet, Smart Phone, Web and SharePoint Clients.
• Drop shipments, blanket orders and tight back-order control.
• Flexible commission system.
• Document approval process. 
• Seamless Integration with Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, SharePoint and Power BI.  
• Accounts Receivable with a collection system. 
• Accounts Payable with flexible payment selection. 
• Positive pay, bank statement downloads and electronic payments.
• General Ledger with budgets, cash flow forecasting and cost accounting.
• Multiple companies and locations. 
• Warehouse management, bar coding, lot and serial number control and EDI. 
• Manufacturing, including MPS, MRP, Routing, BOM and Capacity Planning.
• Ability to attach documents, images and unlimited notes to master files and transactions. 
• Customizable dashboards, screens and reports. 
• Electronic document management including OCR.
• Foreign currency processing and multiple languages. 
• Advanced pricing and costing, including landed cost calculations. 
• Function-rich CRM system, including sales, marketing and customer service. 
• Inventory planning including forecasting.
• Human Resources and Fixed Assets.    
• Some features are available via add-ons.
• Run On-premises or in the Cloud.
• A detailed list is available here.

New features in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central:

• One place for all the system settings.
• User Task Setup has been added: you can assign tasks to specific users with due dates, including recurring tasks such as month end, printing checks, etc.
• The synching to Kofax Invoice Capture Services (ICS) OCR has been improved.
• Employees Ledger Entries have been added - no need to create employees as vendors or resources any more.
• You can now update master customer and vendor data addresses directly from sales and purchase documents.
• Intercompany transactions can now be automated.
• You can now print the G/L Register report with "Show Details" options which will print descriptions from related posted documents.
• Improvements to the integration with Microsoft Power BI & Flow.
• Preconfigured Excel reports: Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement, Retained Earnings Statement, Trial Balance, Aged AR & Aged AP.
• Excel Add-in: Take some list pages into Excel - modify in Excel and push back to NAV - such as Journals.

For an on-site or remote demo please call our Sales Department at 800-440-4082,

Ext. 5028, or submit a request for a demo on our website.  

Extended support for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 ended on January 14, 2020. Extended support ended on July 9, 2019 for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2. Contact us for more information. 

Artificial Intelligence - Microsoft 365 Copilot is a next generation AI power assistant across all lines of your business that keeps you, the end-user, in control – you are the pilot. Copilot provides guidance, descriptions, and suggestions for specific activities within Business Central that you can then edit as needed. Copilot suggestions can be saved for future instances. 

Copilot provides the following services:

•   Conversational 

•   Guidance 

•   Action 

•   Insights 

•   Immersive 

•   Sales 

•   Marketing 

•   Finance 

•   Jobs 

•   Supply Chain: optimum layout 

•   Customer Service:  

•   When issues arise, copilot can help instruct your customer service reps with the correct solution for your clients. 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is the next generation of intelligent cloud based business applications that enable organizations to grow, evolve and transform. These applications unify ERP and CRM capabilities by delivering new purpose-built applications that work seamlessly together with Office 365 and Power BI to help businesses manage specific functions across sales, service, marketing, and financials. Function-rich, fast & flexible, this state-of-the-art software product enables you to implement a solution that can meet your specific needs, giving you the freedom to focus on your business.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Add-ons 

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 - What's New? 

What's New: Application Changes for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016

What's New: Application Changes for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 

Hosting Dynamics NAV on a Private Cloud or on Microsoft Azure. We offer our customers the ability to run Microsoft Dynamics NAV on the Cloud. Microsoft Azure provides high availability for small to large Dynamics NAV environments. Please contact us for details. 

Job Manager is a powerful and easy-to-use Activity Based Costing tool for your Project / Job Costing applications. As a complete Project Management and Costing solution, Job Manager provides a very easy way to manage resources, track the status of production or service jobs, record consumption and output, schedule job tasks, monitor dates, activity cost and material requirements, and manage subcontractor activities within a single integrated system. 

Microsoft SharePoint makes it easier for people to work together. Using SharePoint your employees can set up web sites to share information with others, manage documents from start to finish, and publish reports to help everyone make better decisions. SharePoint is available as an 'On-premises' system that can be installed on your server, and also as an 'Online' system as part of the Office365 Cloud option. Many applications that are integrated with Microsoft Dynamics have been built using SharePoint, such as SharePoint Purchase Requisition System & SharePoint Expense Management System. SharePoint includes many different modules that can be customized to your specific requirements such as: document management, approval process, website creation and maintenance, task management and business intelligence. 

Press Release - Our customer, Manhattan based Gemfields USA, successfully went live on time with Microsoft Dynamics NAV. A. B. Computer Systems provided the Dynamics NAV ERP software and implementation services, such as consulting, installation, training, software development, project management and on-going customer support. Dynamics NAV, with applications such as Sales, Purchasing, Workflow, Inventory Management, Web Client, Warehouse Management, Accounts Receivables, Accounts Payable and General Ledger, will help Gemfields reduce costs and duplication, and increase productivity, efficiency, customer satisfaction, accuracy, market share and profits.

Gemfields, the world's leading supplier of responsibly sourced colored gemstones has locations in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. The company's mission statement is: "Gemfields' unprecedented mine to market strategy allows us to guarantee the provenance of every gem: Our promise to both the trade and the consumer. Supported by a world-class management team of seasoned industry experts, Gemfields prides itself on transparency. Business aside, our dedication to preserving the environment, nurturing relationships with local communities and upholding human rights remains paramount to our success." The company works in partnership with their dealers and manufacturers to ensure a consistent supply of rough colored gemstones and offers full disclosure of rough sales directly to these discerning clients. Gemfields has a proven track record of delivering a consistent supply of professionally graded, uncut colored gemstones to world markets through a program of private auctions.  

Accounts Receivable: Important functions to consider when selecting a new system are invoice and credit memo entry, easy to use deposit entry and cash application, flexible postings to the General Ledger, credit and collection system, ability to attach documents to master files and transactions. Other important functions include full integration with other modules such as sales order entry, flexible payment terms, finance charges, customer specific pricing and discounts, inquiries with the ability to drill down, and good searches and filters.

Document Management System: Software application that helps businesses 'Go Green' by reducing the mountains of paper they use. It delivers greater business efficiency, increased productivity, improved customer service and lower carbon footprints. 

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): Application software that handles the transmission of data between organizations by electronic means. It is used to transfer electronic documents or business data from a computer system of one company (called a trading partner) to another. Adhering to standards called transaction sets, EDI replaces paper documents such as purchase orders, invoices and warehouse shipping advices. 

Business Intelligence: Incorporating Business Intelligence into your ERP system will help you improve decision-making by providing your team with tools such as online analytical processing, graphical displays, data mining and business performance management. Forrester Research defines it the following way: "Business Intelligence is a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective, strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making." Microsoft Power BI, now integrated with Dynamics NAV 2017, is a suite of business analytics tools to analyze data and share insights. Power BI dashboards provide a 360-degree view for business users with their most important metrics in one place, updated in real time, and available on all of their devices. With one click, users can explore the data behind their dashboard using intuitive tools that make finding answers easy.

Microsoft Office 365: Subscription plans that include access to Office applications plus other productivity services that are enabled over the Internet (cloud services). Office 365 includes plans for use at home and for business. Office 365 plans for business include services such as Skype for Business web conferencing and Exchange Online hosted email for business, and additional online storage with OneDrive for Business. Many Office 365 plans also include the desktop version of the latest Office applications, which users can install across multiple computers and devices. The fully installed applications include: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. (Publisher and Access are available on PC only.) And you can install them across multiple devices, including PCs, Macs, Android tablets, Android phones, iPad, and iPhone. When you have an active Office 365 subscription that includes the desktop version of Office, you always have the most up-to-date version of the applications. 

Dynamics NAV & 365 Tips

Payment Services for Microsoft Dynamics: To enable online credit card payments and to use payment services, you must sign up with Payment Services for Microsoft Dynamics ERP and sign up with a payment provider that offers online payments. Receiving and processing online credit card payments for online and retail business provides flexibility and faster payments. The online credit card payment feature automates authorizing credit card amounts at the time of the order and processing the actual charge when the order is shipped and invoiced.  

Accounting Services Role Center for Dynamics NAV: With the Accounting Services Role Center, Microsoft is adding a couple of key tasks to a simplified Role Center that specifically supports using Microsoft Dynamics NAV with a smartphone. The Accounting Services Role Center targets users who have subscribed to an outsourced accounting service to allow the two parties to work more closely together.  

The Accounting Services Role Center supports the following activities on a phone: 

* Sales Invoicing - Create and process sales invoices. 

* Approvals - Approve requests from the accounting service provider. 

* Document Capture - Take a photo of a receipt to automatically create an incoming document. 

The Accounting Services Role Center has a very simple User Interface for phone users who need less functionality than offered with the Small Business Role Center. Both Accounting Services and the Small Business Role Center work on the same version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and can be used side-by-side without conflict.

Dimensions: In financial analysis, a dimension is data that you can add to an entry as a kind of marker. This data is used to group entries with similar characteristics, such as customers, regions, products, and salesperson, and easily retrieve these groups for analysis. Dimensions can be used on entries in journals, documents, and budgets. The term dimension describes how analysis occurs. A two-dimensional analysis, for example, would be sales per area. However, by using more than two dimensions when creating an entry, you can carry out a more complex analysis, such as sales per sales campaign per customer group per area. Analyzing data by dimensions gives you greater insight into your business, so you can evaluate information, such as how well your business is operating, where it is thriving and where it is not, and where more resources should be allocated. Dynamics NAV enables you to organize and analyze your data by dimensions.

Production Master Planning: Before a detailed executable plan (MRP) is in place, high-level information must be established through master planning. Master planning considers all independent demand, including forecasts. Master planning also considers resource availability and the final-assembly production schedule, that is expected production orders for demanded end items. In Dynamics NAV, the Calculate MPS option (Master Production Schedule) is the system expression of the above master planning activities.

Warehouse Management - Item Putaway: The warehouse activity of putting items away after they are received or output is performed in different ways depending on how warehouse management features are configured. The setup complexity can rank from no warehouse features, through basic warehousing for order-by order handling in one or more activities only, to advanced configurations where all warehouse activities must be performed in a directed workflow. 

Synchronizing Microsoft Dynamics NAV with Outlook: You can synchronize Microsoft Outlook entities, such as appointments, and contacts, with comparable Microsoft Dynamics NAV items to keep both applications up-to-date. This enables employees like salespeople, who do not have continuous access to their company's Microsoft Dynamics NAV database, to share contact, to-do, and meeting information from off-site locations. With this functionality, you can easily update either Microsoft Dynamics NAV objects with Outlook entities or Outlook entities with Microsoft Dynamics NAV objects. Synchronization can be set up to take place automatically, or you can manually synchronize from within Outlook. 

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 introduces new approval types: These approval types provide flexibility for different scenarios and enable you to choose different types of approvals for different workflows. Out of the box, the following approval types are supported:

• Approver Chain
• Direct Approver
• First Qualified Approver

The Intercompany functionality allows you to easily and efficiently process sales and purchasing documents, as well as GL General Journals, among all your companies. It can help you to increase productivity, reduce data entry errors, and provide complete audit trail for each and every transaction. Outgoing transactions are moved to your outbox, and upon approval they will appear in the inbox of the company receiving the transaction.

From the Sales History inquiry in a sales order, you can use the 'Copy Document' button to copy the sales lines and header into the current sales order. This functionality works with Sales Quotes, Blanket Sales Orders, Sales Orders, Sales Invoices and Credit Memos.

Function keys that can increase your productivity: F9 to post entries such as in cash application, Shift+F7 = Open the related card, Ctrl+F2 or Ctrl+N = Create a new document, Shift+F8 = Drop-down or look up to view, and Ctrl+Shift+A to clear all filters.  

Please click here to view the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Keyboard Shortcuts document.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Works Natively with Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Introducing a new, direct Microsoft Dynamics CRM connection that enables an optimal, seamless experience for our customers in the lead-to-cash process when they utilize Microsoft Dynamics CRM for customer engagement and Microsoft Dynamics NAV for order processing and financials. 

Summary of key benefits: Working in the two systems generates lots of data that is very useful in the specific process, but it also creates data that can be used to make other users more efficient. The focus of this integration has been to utilize the strengths of the two systems and then sharing it when needed. 

Drop Shipment orders can be created at the item line level by checking off the 'Drop Shipment' column. The next step is to 'Get Sales Orders' in the Purchasing Requisition 'Drop Shipment' option. That will allow for the creation of the purchase order that is now linked to the drop-ship sales order.

To link files such as Images, PDFs and Spreadsheets to master files such as customers and vendors or to transactions such as orders or invoices, click on 'Links' at the top right-hand corner of your screen.  

Dynamics NAV Training Videos. 

Click here to watch videos that demonstrate how a good ERP system can help your organization increase productivity and efficiency, reduce duplication and costs and increase customer satisfaction and profits.  

Additional Testimonials: 

"The implementation team from ABCSI provided us with the experience, dedication, and commitment to customer service necessary to effectively meet and manage our considerable software needs" - Para Laboratories, Inc.

"A. B. Computer Systems' expertise, professionalism and high work ethics have provided DCAP Group with the utmost customer satisfaction" - DCAP Group.   

"During the software selection process we contacted Microsoft who referred us to your company, A. B. Computer Systems. I would like to thank you for the excellent services that your team provided, including training, project management, consulting, customer support, software development, testing, reviewing and analyzing our business processes and suggesting industry standard best practices' - SBG Distribution.

"We are very pleased with the services provided by A. B. Computer Systems. They provide us with their strong experience and knowledge, they are very dedicated, are always available to answer our questions, and are committed to meeting our tight deadlines" - Preferred Freezer Services.

"A. B. Computer Systems provided us with excellent implementation services such as consulting, training and software development, with a competitive price, and they held our hands at each step of the project, through 'going live' and thereafter. Key applications of the new system are Inventory & Warehouse Management, Sales, Purchasing and Accounting. The project was completed on time and within our budget" - Tane Alarm.

"The team of consultants were timely and highly knowledgeable, always eager to help and go the extra mile in pointing the IBM team in the right direction. We highly recommend A. B. Computer Systems for any related engagements" - IBM.     

"The transition went very smoothly and successfully. They turned a situation that could be very burdensome into a positive experience with one-on-one training and support for months after the installation. Now looking forward, I know we have a reliable contact in A. B. Computer Systems to grow with the ever changing industry and technological world" - Triboro Hardware.

"A. B. Computer Systems brought our accounting department into the 21st century, while keeping our project on time and under budget. Your staff was professional, courteous, timely and always available to answer questions" - Schonfeld Group.

"After an extensive search which included three or four of your competitors, we settled upon A. B. Computer Systems based upon your personal commitment to detail, breadth of technical team’s capabilities, along with your regionally proximity to our larger sites. The support your team has provided to TransAxle has been great" - TransAxle.

"ABCSI was successful in helping us creatively rethink our workflow and customize our new NAV platform to our specific requirements. Our end result is a more robust system which has greatly simplified our processes at all levels. From purchase orders to sales invoicing, inventory control and financial management, we now operate much more efficiently and have many additional tools at our fingertips" - Vidpro.

"We wouldn't have been able to meet the implementation schedule without the dedication of the project manager, the implementation team, and your support" - Benecard, Inc.

More Customer Testimonials

For more information: Sales Department - 800-440-4082, Ext. 5028, or via our web site.

The One Business Software Webinar You Do Not Want To Miss!  

   At Your Company:



• Would you like to increase productivity, efficiency and accuracy?
• Are employees drowning in paperwork?
• Do high costs and low profits keep you up at night?
• Are your service levels too low?
• Are customers, vendors and employees complaining?
• Would you like to improve security and audit trail capabilities?
• Will it be beneficial to have one fully integrated system?
• Are your forecasting and budgeting capabilities antiquated?
• Would you like to have better inquiries and reports?

We Can Help! 

A. B. Computer Systems invites you to join us for a Webinar on Thursday, 4/11/24, to learn how the latest release of Microsoft Dynamics Business Central can help your company to reduce costs and increase profits.

All you need is a computer with speakers and an Internet connection. 

A cup of coffee or tea is optional!

Also, please save the dates for joint A. B. Computer Systems & Microsoft Seminars: 'ERP and CRM Software in 2024 and beyond'. The seminars will be held at the Microsoft offices in Manhattan on 4/16/24, and at the Microsoft offices in Iselin (Metropark), NJ on 4/18/24. More Dynamics 365 Business Central & NetSuite Seminars across the East Coast will be announced over the next few months.