20 Eylül 2012 Perşembe

How to Upgrade Reports to NAV 2013

I am sorry to inform you, but your NAV 2009 Reports will not just “Run” in NAV 2013. You must first Upgrade your Report and make any necessary adjustments in the NAV 2013 Report Designer. The good news: “It’s Easy”.
Here are the steps:
1. Copy or Backup your Report
2. Export from 2009 and Import into 2013
3. Run the Upgrade Report Tool
4. Test
5. Adjust if needed.
This Video will show the entire process:

Share and Enjoy:

By Rick Baxter on July 11, 2012

Ad Hoc Reporting with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013: Microsoft Office Excel Add-in, Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel, and Jet Reports Express

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30 Aug 2012 2:54 PM

To make a difference in this competitive world, users of today’s ERP solutions want to easily perform analysis and produce reports based on their ERP data to make informed business decisions. They need an easy to use, intuitive environment to help them perform the necessary analysis on their ERP data. In some cases, they also need the ability to enhance the analysis with data from multiple sources or the ability to share the insight of the analysis.
The most popular tool for performing data analysis is Microsoft Excel. Excel is rich with built-in analysis capabilities, such as pivot tables, array formulas, charting, and filtering, all familiar mechanisms to the Excel user.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 offers simple and advanced ad hoc reporting options.
Simple Ad Hoc Reporting
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Excel Add-in
The Microsoft Dynamics NAV Excel Add-in is the solution for those users who want a simple user-friendly ad hoc reporting experience. You simply choose the information you want to analyze and report from predefined lists in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The add-in ties into and expands the existing integrated Send to Excel functionality. It enables you to work with data and format a report and then to keep the data updated. You can share the report, but it is important to note that a user can refresh the report only if the user has access rights to the given area of the application.
The following is a short introduction to the new Microsoft Dynamics NAV Excel Add-in.
1. You can begin analysis from a list in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, for example, Customer Ledger Entries. When you choose Send to Microsoft Excel, the export to Excel will reflect your filtering and choice of columns. In this case, all customer ledger entries are exported, but only the columns chosen by the user.

2. The exported data is formatted in a data region that you can easily use for pivot analysis. For example, you can use pivot formatting capabilities to see an aggregated view of the ledger entries by month. You can use filtering to view analysis only on open customer ledger entries. So, in this example, you can display expected receivables over time formatted nicely, as well as show the details per transaction.

It is very easy to create this kind of report – it only requires that you know where to find the data in Microsoft Dynamics NAV and have skills in formatting data in Microsoft Excel. To ensure better access to data, all relevant ledger entry pages have been added to navigation in the role centers.
Jet Reports Express for Microsoft Dynamics NAV
In some cases, you may need more than working from list pages provides. You may need to perform many business calculations to get to the correct data – this is typically true when you work on “By Period” data that needs to calculate balances.
Through the powerful Jet Reports Express for Microsoft Dynamics NAV reporting solution, you have a simple way to create these types of self-service reports. You can use the intuitive interface of Jet Reports Express and simple formulas in Excel to create high-impact reports.
Jet Reports Express comes with multiple report templates out-of-the-box and presents findings in a single, well-formatted report.

Advanced Ad Hoc Reporting
For more advanced analysis scenarios, you may need to access more data than what is shown on pages in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. In some cases, this is easily solved by simply adding fields to the list pages. In fact, this has been done by many of our partners.
But in some scenarios, this is not sufficient. Your report may require calculations and dimensions for your analysis, which are typically not relevant for the users of the ERP system. In other cases, adding a field can impact application performance, which you probably do not want to do if it’s only for reporting purposes. So consider using the new query object combined with PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel, which can solve this quite efficiently.
One of the strengths of the new query object is its capabilities in retrieving and aggregating data. In scenarios where data is stored in a variety of tables and databases, it is very important to be able to store, manage, and retrieve this data easily and quickly.
Building on the example from above, suppose that you wanted to add information about the customer name, dimensions, or territory. This is possible through query integration to PowerPivot:
1. Creation of a query requires access to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV development environment, but once the query has been defined and exposed through web services, it is very easy for an end user to manipulate the data in Excel. For those interested in the query definition and design, see other posts on using the Query object for reporting and BI on the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Team blog.
2. PowerPivot connects to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV database through OData web services. The link to the correct web service needs to be provided to the user, but after that, the user has access to the data quite easily. When you connect, it is possible to see all queries that are available, from which you can pick and choose.

Conclusion
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 provides you with two approaches to data analysis, a simple and an advanced reporting scenario:

The Microsoft Dynamics NAV Microsoft Excel Add-in and Jet Reports Express are designed to be used in end-user scenarios. There are no development requirements involved. Data available from any table and on list pages can easily be accessed and used for analysis.
The definition and creation of the query does require knowledge of how to combine tables and how to get the right data. But when the query has been created and made available through a web service, the data is easy to access and use through PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 provides a great set of opportunities for doing ad hoc reporting in Microsoft Excel.

-Rikke Lassen

Background Posting and Job Queue in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013

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Do you or your customers have peak hours when all the sales orders and invoices need to be posted at the same time? Or do you have large batches of postings that need to be run without blocking other users? I bet the answer is yes. If so, then you may also have experienced your screen “freezing up” for several seconds –minutes even -- until the order is processed. “Try again later” is also a well-known option.
To provide a better user experience and control of the posting, we have added the ability to post sales and purchase documents in the background. The user experience resembles that of printing of a document; the document to be printed is sent to the printer server and when the printer is ready, the document is processed. Typically, there is very little wait time – and the same goes for background posting.
It is important to note that when the posting is happening in the background, it uses a dedicated user session to ensure that the posted document is posted as being posted by the user. So it is still possible to track who did the posting.
The status of the posting can be identified in a few ways:

Errors with the posting will always notify the user who initiated the posting. This is done through notifications. It is also possible to turn on notifications for successful jobs.
For orders and invoices, we have introduced a job queue status column on the list pages. The same information can be found on the individual order and invoice pages.
A new job queue part can be added to the role centers and it enables an overview of the job queue entries in progress.

Background posting uses the job queue, which has been enhanced in many ways in this version. In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 the job queue can run either directly in the user session or it can be run through a dedicated NAS Service. Additional flexibility in the way the job queue can be set up has also been the focus of the release. Now, the job queue has the following capabilities:

It is possible to run many job queues with selection criteria per company.
You can have more than one job queue running on the same server at the same time.
The user’s jobs will run with the user’s permissions, so no special security setup is required.

We hope that these enhancements to the job queue combined with the background posting will open up more flexible usage of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and will lead to more efficient users and a better experience in peak hours.

Set up and Use Background Posting with Job Queue

In order to set up background posting, there are several areas that are worth highlighting:

Background posting covers both the sales and the purchase side and has been implemented for the following areas: Sales Order, Sales Invoice, Sales Credit Memos, Sales Return Order, Purchase Order, Purchase Invoices, Purchase Credit Memos and Purchase Return Order.
The sales and the purchase sides are set up separately.
Background posting covers the Post as well as the Post and Print scenarios. But remember to set up printers and NAS Service on the server correctly if Post and Print is activated.
We recommend that you set up the job queue to run on a dedicated NAS Service, but for demoing purposes, it is easier to start the job queue on the existing session. This blog post will focus on the job queue run and not the NAS Service setup; see the product Help for considerations around the NAS service setup.

Set Up Background Posting

The first step is to set up the background posting, in this case, the sales side.
On the Sales & Receivables Setup page, a new FastTab has been added: Background Posting.
You activate background posting for sales documents by selecting the Post with Job Queue check box. To ensure that you have a dedicated job queue, you can provide a Job Queue Category Code. This routes the posting to the correct job queue.
The same applies for Post & Print – it is also set up if you select the check box.
The posting will create a job queue entry with the priority 1000. The priority field is used to determine the order of processing the job queue entries. By setting this to 1000, it is easier to allow other jobs to get in front of the queue.
Activate the Notify On Success check box if you want the user that posted the document to notified about the state of posting. There will be a notification attached to the posted document as well as a notification in the My Notifications part on the role center.
You can apply the same steps to the Purchases & Payables Setup page.

Set Up Job Queue

The next step is to set up a job queue to run the background posting.
In the job queue card, you create a new dedicated job queue. The Job Queue Category Filter resembles the filter set on the background posting setup. So this job queue will only run the job queue entries with the category Sales Post. The remaining fields in the General FastTab show the status of the job queue. In this case, the job has been started from the same session by the Start Job Queue action.
In the NAS Settings FastTab, it is possible to choose which NAS service the job queue must run on.
Note: The NAS Service needs to be restarted to pick up a new job queue.

Now, the application has been configured and it is possible to start posting.

Running Background Posting

Posting a sales order will create a job queue entry to be run on the dedicated job queue. This will execute the posting routine and if required, it will be sent to a printer. There is a visible difference in the posting routine, since the background posting will notify the user that the order has been sent for posting instead of showing the actual posting steps.
In the sales order list, it is possible to see the state of the posting. Showing the job queue status column on the list page will show the state of the posting.
If notification is turned on in the set up, it is very useful to add the Notes FactBox to the list page as well. This is really valuable in cases where the posting for some reason doesn’t finish.
In the case below, there is nothing to post which can be seen by the job queue status and the notification. Opening up the note shows the error message “There is nothing to post.”

It is also possible to see that there is something wrong in the posting on the role center. The My Notifications part shows any errors related to the posting. The same error can be found in the My Job Queue part.
The My Job Queue part also shows the progress of the jobs. Any job queue errors will be readable from the entry in the job queue. Failing job queue entries are displayed in red, while the job queue entries in line are displayed in black.