The CAL Zone
Your Guide to the Best in Great Plains
CAL Business Solutions, Inc.
Moving You Forward
- April 2006
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The CAL Zone e-newsletter is focused on our family of Great Plains users. Stay up to date with current promotions to save you money plus tips & tricks and new tools to save you time.

Hello everyone:

 
April has been exciting (and BUSY) here at CAL! I have been working with Craig and Brenda training one of our new Great Plains clients. It was great to see Great Plains 9.0 in action. It really does make day-to- day tasks easier.

 
 

 
PIZZA UPDATE

 
Last month, we had 5 companies qualify for FREE pizza for their accounting departments by having everyone sign up for the newsletter. (If you are one of those companies, I will be contacting you soon to find out the toppings you want and if there is a preferred pizzeria in your area.)

 
WE LOVE REFERRALS: REFER A COMPANY, GET A $25 GIFT CERTIFICATE

 
We are excited to announce our latest promotion. If you refer a new company to CAL and they have us demonstrate Great Plains for them, you will receive a $25.00 gift certificate from www.giftcertificates.com. Please forward the referrals to George Mackiewicz (georgem@calszone.com) or fill out the referral form from our website with the new company information in the form and your information in the comments section.

 
Tip #1: Using Microsoft's ClearType Technology

 
This is great for those of you that are reading this newsletter on a Laptop or a Flat Panel Monitor. Microsoft has developed a tool called "ClearType". ClearType works best for those of you that are using LCD monitors. It will smooth out the letters on your screen to help with readability. Click here for step by step directions and to download this tool here.

 
Tip #2: Using User Defined Fields in Great Plains

 
Did you know you can setup user defined fields in just about every module in Great Plains?

 
You can define what each of the User Defined fields are used for in each of the modules setup screen (usually under the main Setup Screen or under Options off the setup screen for each module). You can then add these fields to SmartList queries. This is a great way to keep track of additional info. I will be demonstrating a product this month (SEE ARTICLE BELOW) that allows you to use the user defined field to look- up the Vendor, Customer, GL Account, or Inventory Item by that User Defined Field. Plan on attending my event, or click here for more information. If you need help setting up your user defined fields, please let us know.

 
If you have any tips or tricks that make working with GP or the MS Office suite a little easier. Drop them to me in an email: amberb@calszone.com
 
Date: May 16th
Time: 2:00 PM Eastern
Length: 30 Minutes Location: Your Desk (This is an Online Demo)
To Register: Click Here (Select: "SmartFill: The Best GP Add-On")

 
SmartFill just could be the best GP add-on you'll ever buy. I have found that one of the most time consuming and frustrating parts of day-to-day data entry is finding the customer, GL Account, or vendor you need.

 
Many customers using Great Plains use non- intuitive numbering schemes for Customer IDs. SmartFill allows you to type part of the Customer's NAME into any ID field, and then intuitively discovers the correct ID and types it in for you. No lookup required!

 
Have a lengthy account structure? Imagine typing the word "PETTY" into an account number field and having your GL account number (example: 000-1130- 000) fill in for you automatically.

 
  • Works with all Customer, Vendor, Item, Account, and Employee fields in Great Plains and any 3rd party product.
  • Want to search by other fields? No problem. Search by city, state, phone or whatever you want!
  • Provides a short list of all matches if there is more than one match, so you can choose from a filtered list.
Before you implement this solution, we will work with you to make sure it is compatable with any customizations and 3rd Party products that are part of your Great Plains system.

 
Rockton will only sell through Great Plains partners like CAL. If you are interested, contact me, Amber Bell at CAL: amberb@calszone.com
money
I am such a big fan of this product that I convinced Rockton Software to help me plan the event. They also offered to give our customers a discount on the product. After you attend the May 16th web demonstration of SmartFill by Rockton Software, you will be eligible to receive 15% off the price of the software. You will love this product. It is literally my favorite GP add-on and something that can dramatically change how you work.

 
Note: Discount applies to software only. The Annual Maintenance Agreement price will be based on the list price of the software. Offer valid May 16th through June 16th.

 


Still Available through June 16th: Save on Additional Great Plains Users
 
  • Buy 2 users at regular price, get the 3rd at half price
  • Buy 4 users at regular price, get the 5th for free
"Link To" in GP Tasks

 
This is a great new feature for GP 9.0. In GP 8.0, they introduced Tasks and Reminders. You were limited to just typing a brief description of what needed to be done on the screen and it was left up to the person assigned to figure out where and how you wanted the task accomplished. Now, with GP 9.0, you can add links to the GP window to be used (Example: "Close Fiscal Periods" as a task, with a link to the Fiscal Period window). You can also link to Websites, External Programs, and External Documents.

 
Contact me, Amber Bell (amberb@calszone.com), to schedule the upgrade of your system!
Click here for more benefits of Version 9.0!
This month, we asked Sue to be a Special Guest Contributor. George was unable to go to Convergence this year and asked Sue if she would go in his place. She rearranged her schedule (thank you to the customers this affected), packed a bag and headed out west.

 
Hello Everyone:
I am happy to say, “I loved Convergence 2006”! This year Microsoft's premier event for Great Plains customers was in Dallas, Texas. You need to go next year, just follow my advice and wear comfortable shoes!! Start planning now for Convergence 2007. It will be March 11th through 16th in San Diego, California.

 
This year, there were more than 7,000 attendees, 10 General Sessions, 170+ Concurrent & Industry Sessions, 50 Hands On Labs, 170 Exhibitors and Sponsors and keynote addresses by Bill Gates, Doug Burgum and Jeff Raikes, Convergence 2006 is truly where it all came together.

 
I even had the chance to meet with some of the Great Plains developers to discuss suggestions and alert them of some of the issues I have found. They took notes and contacted me to let me know they are working on what we discussed.

 
I was most excited about the improvements in how Great Plains can be upgraded and updated. The changes in this area will definitely save you time and money!!

 
There was a lot of focus on the integration between Great Plains and other Microsoft products. They have made a lot of improvements on manipulating the data in Excel, Word and now...SharePoint. For those of you who are not familiar with SharePoint, I suggest you contact Anya (anyac@calzone.com) at our office or click here . They also highlighted many of the new features in the latest version of Business Portal. I am going to encourage Amber to have a demo of Business Portal soon.

 
I encourage all of you to plan to attend next year. Between the training opportunities, networking opportunities, and the chance to see what is coming next, Convergence is the place to be!!
Thank you,
Sue

We hope you enjoyed our newsletter. If you have any suggestions for our next edition, let us know. We are already working on May's newsletter. It should be arriving around the 10th.

Coming Next Month...

 

  • Our Next Web Event: A Demo of the Role Base Homepages in GP 9.0
  • Why Should You Renew Your GP Maintenance Plan?
  • More Tips and Tricks...

 

 

Sincerely,

 


Amber J. Bell
CAL Business Solutions, Inc.