Collection Plans are very useful for automating many different parts of the Collection process, such as reminder emails. When those emails are sent out by the plan during processing, a new Collection Note appears for that Customer ID demonstrating what was sent out:

In certain situations, you may find that you want to add more information to the Collection Note, which does not appear on the email itself. For example, say you want to include a note that a big sale is pending, and you want to make sure that these items are paid up before the sale is finalized. You could go back through all of the notes after processing Collection Plans, but another alternative is to create the note additions on the fly while processing a Customer through Collection Plans.

In the Collection Plan Processing window, once you have selected the Customer you want to process, in the preview window of the text at the bottom of the window, you can actually click the radio button “Note” to add an extra memo line to the note that will be created.

You can enter the text that you want to appear in the memo:

Now when you click Process This Customer, the new Collection Note that is created will show this critical information immediately at the beginning of the note:

It is important to take notice that this feature only works when you “Process This Customer” only, and the changes you enter will be lost if you click on a different customer without first processing.

Oftentimes much focus with Collections is placed directly on Customer/Collector interactions, and ultimately the best way to improve that relationship is empower your Collection team with the tools they need to perform the best job possible.

You can make the best use of your tools by finding where they are needed most. The Collection Summary window is designed precisely for this purpose.

The Summary window is available through Sales pane —> Inquiry —> Collection Summary.

Leaving the Calculate For field empty, clicking the Calculate button will analyze all your open sales documents and notes to populate this window.

This has several especially useful sections. The clickable Overdue Docs Not On A Note will open up all outstanding documents which are overdue, but are not attached to a Collection Note. This would indicate that no action has taken place on these documents, and doing so could help begin the process for Collecting on them.

Also useful is the Aging Buckets. You can quickly see the amount and percent of where your outstanding sales documents sit.

This window becomes really useful when you enter a Credit Manager, to search and see how each Credit Manager is performing and their case handling. For example, we can compare two Collectors, SA and SAKA.

Comparing the two of them, we can see that Collector SAKA has a higher percent of their outstanding Collections amounts in the Current Bucket than SA, which is mostly in the severely overdue values. This sets up the opportunity for a study and Kaizen event to take a look at Credit Manager SAKA and see what they are doing, and comparing that to Credit Manager SA and see if any practices or tips can be shared between the two to help both of them put more of the outstanding value in the Current bucket and lower the DSO (Days Sales Outstanding) of the company overall.

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/safari_vacation/9354798641/”>SalFalko</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/”>cc</a>

“A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not necessarily a square.” My fourth grade math teacher calmly repeated this phrase as we all murmured that the statement didn’t make sense. It took a few days for the idea to sink in to us all, and it left a memorable impression on me.

When people ask what the difference is between a Credit Manager and a Collector, I can’t help but smile and think back to that class period in the fourth grade. So here it comes:

A Credit Manager is a Collector, but a Collector is not necessarily a Credit Manager.

Confused? Let’s explain this one out.

Let’s say we have a team of Collectors. These people all will use the Collections Management module, send out emails, and make phone calls:

Each of these people will be assigned a Collector ID in Collections Management. They can create new notes and queries, and have tasks assigned to them.

That’s all you really need at an absolute minimum. Everyone can create tasks, assign them, and use the product to its fullest. But this can become tricky. With everyone contacting customers independently, what happens when some of your accounts fall severely behind? Who takes charge to correct this? Put another way, at the end of the day, which Collector can say “The buck stops here”?

Enter Credit Managers. Credit Managers are just like any other Collector. They have a Collector ID, can make notes, tasks, etc. The only real difference is that the Credit Manager is the primary Collector assigned to a customer account.

You set the Credit Manager in the Customer Information window (Sales pane —> Cards —> Customer Info).

Once set, you will see them listed on the Collection Main window. Essentially, the Credit Manager is the primary Collector responsible for this customer account.

Whenever Collection Plans are run, unless otherwise specified, the Collection Actions will always be assigned to the Credit Manager. So if a Collection Plan step says to make a phone call, that phone call tasks will show up in the Collection tasks of the Credit Manager assigned to the customer account..

Of course, any Collector can take action on the account if they don’t have any type restricted security. So even if a Credit Manager was out for the day, another Collector could step in and do the tasks for them instead.

So that’s basically all there is to it! A Credit Manager is just another name for “Primary Collector responsible for this Customer”.

My fourth grade teacher would be proud.

A Credit Manager is a Collector, but a Collector is not necessarily a Credit Manager.

Have you ever been writing a letter in the Collections Management E-mail window and received this message?

Please use the substitute button before sending e-mail to remove all functions

The next logical step is to click the substitute button. But where is it?

The Substitute button looks a bit like a “Refresh” button in an internet browser:

It is in the upper corner of the space to edit the window text:

Once you click that, you should be able to email the letter!

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/safari_vacation/6384704645/”>SalFalko</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/”>cc</a>

One of the most iconic moments of television history is from the “I Love Lucy” show, where Lucy and Ethel take a job at the candy factory wrapping chocolates. As the conveyor moves along, they can’t keep up and eventually start stuffing chocolates in their mouths, blouses, and hats!

We’ve all been in situations like that where someone else is processing their step much too fast to keep up with. This can also happen with Sales. Every once in a while there is a Salesperson who is gung ho about new orders, but the simple fact of the matter is that some of the customers they are selling to are severely hurting cash flow and days sales outstanding (DSO) with their late payments and high overdue balances.

Just like in “I Love Lucy”, a little communication with the people upstream on the line would make a huge difference in keeping things manageable and protecting against losses to the company. That’s why the March 2014 release of Collections Management now contains the ability to copy in Salespeople on Collections emails.

To turn on this feature, go to Sales pane —> Cards —> Collection Letters. You’ll find the new option right above the Collection functions.

Leaving this radio button on No will not email the Salesperson, and alternatively you can CC (visible to end customer) or BCC (invisible to end customer) whenever you use this Letter template for an email. Because you can do this on a per Letter basis, you can leave the Salesperson off less important emails and make sure they are visible on critical emails.

Collections determines which Salesperson to copy in based on the Salesperson assigned to the customer on the Customer Card (Sales pane —> Cards —> Customer).

The Salesperson will need to have their email address setup in the Internet Information window.

With the knowledge of what’s going on in Collections with their customers, the Salespeople can be more proactive in managing new sales to chronically delinquent new customers, and use the rapport they have with the customer to gently remind them about outstanding overdue balances when discussing future sales. That’s the kind of teamwork that will make Collecting as easy as wrapping candy on a Six Sigma high efficiency line!

The newest version of Collections Management now includes CDA Express as a thank you for using Collections Management. CDA Express lets you archive your GL and PM company data into an archive company database. This has several advantages, such as speeding up your system, freeing up resources on your SQL and GP servers, and dramatically reduce the amount of time it takes to run complex reports in GP.

You can read more about CDA Express at the following article:

http://www.profad.com/media/236873/collections_gets_you_more.pdf

With both CDA Express and the full featured CDA, you can actually place your archive database on a completely separate data server. There are a few steps to do this, as you’ll need the SQL server to “see” the network location as an attached hard drive.

First, find the location where you will be saving your archive database on the shared network. Map this location to a drive letter on your computer.

Next, open up Computer Management (Control Panel —> Administrative Tools —> Computer Management). Go to Storage —> Disk management.

Click on Action —> Create VHD

Select the newly mapped drive, and name the file something easy to remember, such as Archive.vhd. Choose if you want it to be Dynamically expanding or Fixed (Dynamic saves space by using only what it needs, but Fixed tends to have slightly performance) and entering how big you would like the drive to be.

Using the Dynamically expanding size means that it will only take up to the amount specified as it needs it. The Fixed size option will required the whole 500 GB right away.

Next, right click on the newly created Disk and initialize it.

Choose the partition style. Most often it will be MBR:

Right click in the new opened area and choose “New Simple Volume…”

Go through the Wizard and choose the drive letter you will be using and complete the wizard:

Now I have a new drive to save the database files to:

Go back into SQL Server Management Studio. Make a backup of your Archive database. Then make as you are going to restore the database, but change the Files to the new location:

You will now see the archive database sitting on the virtual hard disk:

The archive database took up only as much space as it needed since in this example we set it to expand Dynamically:

In a previous post, we discussed the difference between Collectors and Credit Managers.

In case you missed it, essentially a Credit Manager is the primary Collector responsible for a single customer account. Understanding this relationship, often times people wonder how they can assign Credit Manager’s to an account. There is of course the single method of going to Sales pane —> Cards —> Collection Info, entering the customer account, and then assigning the Credit Manager. But there are ways to do this for many customers all at once, by using Collection Queries.

For example, let’s say we want to find all customers that currently do not yet have a Credit Manager, and assign them one.

Go to Sales pane —> Transactions —> Build Query.

Name the Query, such as “CREDMANG”, click on the Cust. Info tab, choose Credit Manager from the top drop down, and click insert. You should see the Restriction populate “Credit Manager from No Credit Manager to No Credit Manager”. Click Query, save, and run.

The Query results should now include all customers which do not have a Credit Manager.

Next, go to Sales pane —> Cards —> Transfer Credit Manager.

Choose From as “Current Query”, which will populate the Query results in the table in the second half of the window. Set the Collector name you would like to be made as the Credit Manager, and click OK.

That’s all there is to it! Now when you open the Collection Main for those customers, you should see the specified Collector as the new Credit Manager.

Pay your Annual Enhancement Plan (AEP) before the due date and your registration keys are automatically reloaded

For customers using Collections Management and/or Company Data Archive (CDA), obtaining product registration keys is now easier than ever. There is a new automated registration service, and a button on the registration window called “Get Registration Info”. These options have been included in the February and March releases of Collections Management and CDA (Click here to see how to check your version).

Process
Provided the AEP fees have been paid to Professional Advantage prior to the due date, Collections Management and CDA installs will automatically update the registration key. There is nothing more to do. AEP is sometimes referred to as for ‘Update and Support’ or Maintenance plan.

The way it works
7-10 days before the AEP expiration date, provided the client machine has a working internet connection, the system will poll Professional Advantage records to check if fees have been paid. If yes, then new registration keys are automatically sent and updated. This does not require any action from the end-user. Alternatively, the registration service can be manually overridden at any time by clicking the “Get Registration Info” button.

The registration service will continue to search for an updated key (within the 7-10 day period) until the AEP expiration date.

Once a customer has surpassed the AEP expiration date, they will receive a notification similar to this:

If this message is received please contact your Microsoft Dynamics partner for options going forward as you may need to renew your Professional Advantage AEP plan. Additionally, if a user clicks the “Get Registration Info” button, they may receive this message:

Again, if this message is received please contact your Microsoft Dynamics partner.

Where do I find the registration window?
As pictured below, users can easily navigate to the registration window for Collections Management (screenshot 1) Tools > Utilities > Sales > Collection Installation and Registration. For CDA, Tools > Utilities > System >Company Data Archive Registration.

Screenshot 1. Dynamics GP Navigation to the Installation and Registration Window (Collections Management):

Screenshot 2. Installation and Registration Window (Collections Management):

Which versions include the automatic registration key service?
Please refer to the table below for the versions of Collections Management and Company Data Archive that include this new feature. All newer builds going forward will also include the registration service.

How do I know what version I am running?
As pictured below, navigate to the ‘About’ window (screenshot 3) Tools > Setup > Sales > Collection About. For CDA, Tools > Utilities > System >Company Data Archive About. You can locate the version of your product in the lower right of the window (Screenshot 4).

Screenshot 3. Dynamics GP Navigation to the Collections ‘About’ Window (Collections Management):

Screenshot 4. Collections About Window (Collections Management):

Where can I download the latest version?
In order to enable this function, please download and install the latest version from the Professional Advantage website:

Collections Management Download        Company Data Archive Download

One common question users have when creating Collection Letters which utilize the Aging Periods, is how to handle the following warning when generating their letters:

 The aging period requested must be between 1 and 7.

The reason this most often occurs is that we do not yet have all the parameters entered in the Collection Letter Template:

If we go to the Collection Letters window (Cards >> Sales >> Collection Letters) and Press F1 on the keyboard, that opens up Collections Help for the window. Click on the Aging Functions value:

This gives us the parameters we need to specify which aging period we want to enter.

The number of the desired aging period should match that on the RM Receivables Setup window:

So at a very minimum we would want to include an aging bucket that we want to display in the function:

@%AgingPeriodName,7%@

If we wanted to include each aging bucket and the amount it holds, us could use a series of functions such as the following:

@%AgingPeriodName,1%@      @%AgingPeriodAmount,1%@
@%AgingPeriodName,2%@      @%AgingPeriodAmount,2%@
@%AgingPeriodName,3%@      @%AgingPeriodAmount,3%@
@%AgingPeriodName,4%@      @%AgingPeriodAmount,4%@
@%AgingPeriodName,5%@      @%AgingPeriodAmount,5%@
@%AgingPeriodName,6%@      @%AgingPeriodAmount,6%@
@%AgingPeriodName,7%@      @%AgingPeriodAmount,7%@

That would end up looking like the below:

Current              $40,074.02
31 - 60 Days         $21.40
61 - 90 Days         $0.00
91 - 120 Days        $0.00
121 - 150 Days       $0.00
151 - 180 Days       $0.00
181 and Over         $19,899.04

Using these function options, we can easily include a short aging report for a customer on all Collection communications!

We are proud to announce that Collection Management R2.3 is now live and available for download at the following link:

http://www.profad.com/forms/collections-management-download/

This is the most stable, polished release of Collections yet. Among the fixes and new improvements:

• Fixed issues with emailing
• All Word letters and Word Template based invoices can now be sent as a PDF, generated on the fly, without needing Adobe PDF writer
• Corrected some issues with National Accounts
• Improved Smartlist for Collections install
• Added a new Collector Performance window to compare Collectors side by side
• Days Sales Outstanding now recorded automatically once a day

Over the next few weeks we will be discussing how to make the best use of these new fixes and features. But before you do anything else, run, don’t walk, to our newest release page and get this newly honed version today!

http://www.profad.com/forms/collections-management-download/

Collections management allows users to efficiently email invoices generated through report writer, the default Microsoft Dynamics® GP engine. However, with the use of third party products to generate these invoices, more flexibility is needed to accommodate the emailing process.

Therefore, Collections Management enables users to do so by following a two-step process consisting of 1) selecting a shared directory folder in the Collections Management setup window and 2) using a naming convention for all third party generated invoices.

Step 1: Selecting a Directory Folder

Please go to Microsoft dynamics GP > Tools > Setup >Sales > Collections Setup > Add a shared Directory folder location in the Collections Management Setup Window

If there is more than one company ID, each company will need to have its own folder listed in the Collections Management Setup window, meaning:

• Company A should have: \\netshare\companyA\
• Company B should have: \\netshare\companyB\

In this perspective, logged in Company A, the Collections Management Setup window invoice folder field will have \\netshare\companyA\ listed whereas Company B, will have the following directory folder listed instead: \\netshare\companyB\.

If there is a need to create a subfolder per customer number in the invoice folder (for example, if more than one customer are likely to have the same invoice number, or if a third party application such as 1Staff back office generates and saves the invoices in a customer number folder), the Collections Management setup window should have the following field selected: “Append Per Customer ID”.

With this option “Append Customer ID” selected, the invoice folder \\netshare\companyA\ will need to have separate customer number subfolders.

As an illustration, if both customers Aaron Fitz ( Customer Number: AARONFIT001) and Vision ( Customer Number: VISIONIN0001) each have an invoice named 2345.PDF saved respectively in folder AARONFIT001 and VISIONIN0001, Collections will ensure to retrieve the correct invoice # 2345.PDF pertaining to the correct customer.

This is also true if a third party product such as 1Staff Back Office is used to generate and save the invoice in a customer number folder. Collections Management will ensure to retrieve these invoices in the respective customer number subfolder saved in the Collections Management Setup Window Invoice folder.

Step 2: Invoice number naming convention

All Third Party invoices should be named in the following format: <InvoiceNumber>.<ext> (example: 12345.PDF )
ext = Extension

Voila, this is all it takes to setup Collections Management in order to email third party generated invoices.

Happy E Mailing!!!

The third-party products used to generate invoices are independent of Professional Advantage. Professional Advantage makes no warranty, implied or otherwise regarding the performance or reliability of these third-party products.

Professional Advantage has focused on automating your collections process through Collection Plans. Spend less time clicking and get on with the task of collecting your money to improve your company’s cash-flow. Example: You arrive to work and have the following To-Do list:

• Email 50 reminders with attached invoices
• Email 30 second collection notices
• Make 10 collection calls
• Email 15 Final collection notices

During the time it takes you to get your morning coffee, you can kick off your collection processes with the new Collection Plans. This will automatically process your email to-do tasks and attached the relevant invoices, allowing you to focus on the 10 collections calls. By eliminating many of the manual steps once required, you now have more time available to work directly with customers. Watch the video above and see how this can help you.

Join us for an upcoming Collections Management webinar >>

If you are interested in learning more about our Collections Management solution,
please contact Matt Green!

Email Matt >>  /  Direct: +1 (701) 551-2924  /  Main: +1 (877) 897-1209

In an eco-conscious society, “going green” is the motto nowadays. Did you know that your Microsoft Dynamics GP – Collections Management system can help you go green?

If you have one of the following three Collections Management versions, you can go green by emailing your customers PDF documents more efficiently:

• GP 2010 (Collections Management Version 11 Build 99)
• GP 2013 (Collections Management Version 12 Build 61)
• GP 2015 (Collections Management Version 14 Build 1)

Here are three ways you can use your Collections Management to email your customers PDFs:

1. Owning a PDF Writer license (such as Adobe PDF Writer ®)

With a license of Adobe PDF Writer ®, one can simply ensure that the File Format selected in the Collections Setup Window is “Adobe PDF”. Doing so, will ensure that when using Collections Management to email, all related attachments are PDF documents.

2. Using the Collections Management Invoice Folder

If any third party application such as 1Staff Back Office is used to generate PDF documents, all invoices can be saved in the Invoice Folder specified in the Collections Setup Window. Subsequently, during the emailing process, Collections Management will retrieve the customer invoices and include them as PDF when emailed. To learn more about this process, read the following blog post: How to set up Collections Management to email third party invoices in just two steps >>

3. Using Your GP Word Templates

Last but not least, an innovative feature available in the latest build of Collections Management is the ability to use GP Word Templates and convert them to a PDF file during the e mailing process.

This can be achieved by following the three steps below:

I. Word Templates enabled in Template Maintenance

On the Template Maintenance Window, your desired templates will need to be enabled and selected as “default” as shown below.

To access the Template Maintenance window, please go to Reports > Template Maintenance

II. Template enabled in Template Configuration Window.

The template will also need to be enabled in the Template Configuration window and the “Enable Report Templates” option will need to be checked as shown below for the Sales Module.

To access the Template Configuration window, please go to Reports > Template Configuration

III. Collections Management Setup

In the Collections Management setup window, the file format selected should be “text”.

To access the Collections Management Setup Window, please go to Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup> Sales > Collections Setup

For more information on Collections Management or to learn more,
see what webinars and events we have coming up! Events & Webinars >>

Valid Registration Keys (RegKeys) are needed to operate Collections Management for Microsoft Dynamics® GP.  However, with the transition of the Collections Management business from Microsoft to Professional Advantage (PA), which you can read about here, I thought this blog might be useful to unravel the RegKey puzzle.

The following table shows is a compatibility matrix with the version of Dynamics® GP and associated version of Collections Management.  The “x” represents which RegKeys are required for which version of software.

*Existing Microsoft media shipped prior to June 1, 2013 will include Microsoft’s version of Collections Management.

Points to consider:

1)      PA RegKeys will only work with PA software.  i.e. the new version of Collections Management, due for release from PA on June 1, 2013.  If you are still running GP 2010 or GP 2013/SP1 and have not installed the PA’s R2 release of Collections Management, the existing RegKeys from Microsoft will continue to work.

2)      Microsoft RegKeys are version dependant; i.e. if you stay on the same version of software the RegKeys will operate in perpetuity.

3)      PA RegKeys are date and version dependant; i.e. if you upgrade to a new version of software you will need new keys; each year you will need to obtain new keys.

PA RegKeys are automatically generated and emailed upon receipt of a paid Annual Enhancement Plan (AEP).  RegKeys are generally sent to the Microsoft Partner who services the end-customer.

New RegKeys can be requested at any time – for example say the original ones have been lost or mislaid – by contacting PA.  Send an email to regkeys@profad.com or visit www.profad.com.  When requesting new RegKeys, be sure to include the following information:

a)      Product : <in this case Collections Management>

b)      Customer name – as it appears in VOICE (this must be identical)

c)       Dynamics GP Version number

d)      AEP expiry date

Blog written by Chris Pennington, Consultant to PA.  The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the writer.  Content published here does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Professional Advantage Pty Ltd.

Installing the new Collections Management is a fairly simple process. Starting in the second half of 2013 an msi installer is available, but the other option is the long standing method of dropping data and chunk files into the Dynamics GP folders.

When you unzip the file containing the install package information, it will have 18 different files in it. The user manual itself gives the best detailed instructions for installing, so it is recommended you take a look at both the user manual and release notes PDF files. The folder structure you need to copy files into is as follows:

Collections Management has had the ability to email customers for a long time, and this feature is more crucial now than ever before. As more businesses choose to “Go Green”, paperless invoices are becoming critical for customers to streamline their payables process and keep better track of documents.

There are several key windows that you will want to make sure you have setup before processing your Collections Letters through email.

1. System Email
   Before you can use any Email options in Collections Management, GP itself will need to be setup to email. The best place to look is at the GP System Setup Manual to get the basics up and running for GP. GP2010 has different setup for email than GP2013 so it is best to refer to the individual manual for your system. For example, GP2013 is supported for both 32 bit and 64 bit Outlook with the Exchange 2007 SP1 and above, but GP2010 only supports 32 bit Outlook with no Exchange option.
2. Receivables Setup Go to Sales pane —> Setup —> Receivables and enter the email address of the user who will be receiving an email report. This report will display if any emails failed, etc.
   
3. Dex.ini You will need to set the location where any statements or invoices are temporarily stored between generating them and attaching them to emails. Open the directory where you installed GP and go into the Data folder. Open Dex.ini in Notepad, and make sure it includes an email statement line with a path: Ex. EmailStmtStatusPath=”C:\Temp”
4. Internet Information In your Customer Cards you can click on the internet icon . Make sure that you enter the E-mail Addresses “To” section as the lower half of the window is not used for actually E-mailing.

GP2013 users will want to make sure that they update one last field to ensure everything works without a hitch.

Often times in Collections Management, users are tracking accounts receivable and late payments from customers. But one exciting new feature of Collection Plans for Collections Management is the ability to enter negative days as a first collection step.

When setting up a Collection Plan, you can actually create a first step with a negative days quantity. In this case, we have decided to setup a new Collections letter that will email our customers when they are approaching the deadline for receiving an early payment discount.

In this case, let’s say our discount is 2% Net 20: if they pay within twenty days of the original invoice we set to be due Net 30 (payment due within 30 days of invoice date), we will grant them a 2% discount We have decided to send them a reminder 3 days before this date as a reminder to complete their payment to be eligible for the discount.

First, let’s setup a new Letter ID for this friendly reminder.

1. Go to the Sales Pane —> Cards —> Collection Letters
2. Enter a Letter ID, subject, and letter to send to your customers and Save. In this case we use Collection Management’s text letter feature:

Since the discount is available for payments made before 10 days before the due date, and we want a reminder 3 days before that, we need a 13 day lead on the due date.

Next, we should set up an Action ID:

1. Go to the Sales Pane —> Cards —> Collection Actions
2. Name the Action ID and Account Description, choose an Action Type of None, and select the Letter ID we just created. We can also choose to Automatically Mark as Completed
   

In the Collection Plan maintenance window (Sales pane —> Cards —> Collection Plans), open your Collection Plan and for step 1, set the days field at -13. Assign the new Action ID we created as the action for that step.

Now you can use the power of Collection Plans to increase customer retention and satisfaction while furthering your goals to improve your rate of return and meet your targets for the Statement of Cash Flows!

The Collection Plan feature added to Collections Management has been a big hit with users and business alike, as it takes the guess work out of the next step in the collections process. Once the system is up and running, in certain situations the plan runs so well that it does not require a human touch.

For example, let’s say we have a Collection Plan setup to remind customers that they have only 3 days left to get in a payment to apply for a discount. This is not a critical reminder, so we decide to automate this by having the GP server process this Collection Plan for us at 2 AM each night, emailing the reminder to all applicable customers.

**Macros can be finicky and so you may have to tweak them a bit. These steps are used as an example of functionality and are not provided as a supported solution**

The first step is to open the Collection Plan maintenance and choose the option to have it present the plan to us at login in:

Sales pane —> Transactions —> Collection Tasks

1. Enter the Collector ID you will be running the plan for
2. Set the Collector Access for Collections Management checkbox and set it as the user id you will be using for the server to login to GP
3. In the Environment Settings, choose the option to Check For Collection Plans That Are Due On Login
4. In the Environment Settings, choose the option to Check For Collection Plans That Are Due On Login
   

Next, create a login macro (Alt+F8 to start and stop recording the macro)of logging into Dynamics GP and clicking ok to process the Collection Plan.

In our example in the Fabrikam company, the macro looks something like this:

# DEXVERSION=11.00.0359.000 2 2
CheckActiveWin dictionary ‘default’  form Login window Login
MoveTo field ‘(L) SQL_DataSource’ item 1  # ‘GP2010′
ClickHit field ‘(L) SQL_DataSource’ item 1  # ‘GP2010′
MoveTo field ‘User ID’
TypeTo field ‘User ID’ , ‘sa’
MoveTo field Password
TypeTo field Password , ‘Access’
MoveTo field ‘OK Button’
ClickHit field ‘OK Button’
NewActiveWin dictionary ‘default’  form sheLL window sheLL
NewActiveWin dictionary ‘default’  form ‘Switch Company’ window ‘Switch Company’
ClickHit field ‘(L) Company Names’ item 1  # ‘Fabrikam, Inc.’
MoveTo field ‘OK Button’
ClickHit field ‘OK Button’
NewActiveWin dictionary ‘default’  form sheLL window sheLL
NewActiveWin dictionary ‘default’  form sheLL window sheLL
# You have chosen to use the sample company, which provides data that you can use to practice procedures or learn more about the product. When you use this sample company, the date is automatically set to April 12, 2017.
NewActiveWin dictionary ‘default’  form DiaLog window DiaLog
ClickHit field OK
NewActiveWin dictionary ‘default’  form sheLL window sheLL
NewActiveWin dictionary ‘Collections Management’  form ‘CN_Plan_Notification’ window Window1
MoveTo field ‘(L) ProcessPlanPB’
ClickHit field ‘(L) ProcessPlanPB’
# Are you sure you want to process all Collection Plans?
NewActiveWin dictionary ‘Collections Management’  form DiaLog window DiaLog
ClickHit field OK
NewActiveWin dictionary ‘Collections Management’  form ‘CN_Plan_Notification’ window Window1
NewActiveWin dictionary ‘default’  form sheLL window shell

 Now that we have a macro set to login to Dynamics GP and process the Collection Plan, we can setup the server to run the macro. As the Windows Task Scheduler no longer works like it used to, we have to choose a third party product that provides the functionality.

In this example, we went to http://www.kanasolution.com/products/kana-reminder/ and downloaded the Kana Reminder, a free program that allows task scheduling and running of programs.

We opened up Kana Reminder and clicked Add to create a new task.

Name the task and set its frequency and when it will run.

Click on the Options tab, uncheck the Flash Tray Icon box, set the Auto Dismiss box, and check the Run Program box.

Within the Run Program box we need to enter three things:

• The path to Dynamics.exe
• The path to Dynamics.set
• The path to the macro

In our example, the field entry looks like the following:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics\GP2013\Dynamics.exe” “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics\GP2013\Dynamics.set” “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics\GP2013\Login.mac”

Note that if your path has spaces in it (as most do in recent years) to place each path in quotes. Click OK and you should be all set to have the Collection Plan do its work!

**Macros can be finicky and so you may have to tweak them a bit. These steps are used as an example of functionality and are not provided as a supported solution**

One of the easiest ways to start using Collections Management is to use the included Sample Collection Data. These included tools need to be installed in a shared location where all users will be able to access them, so it is best to put them on a network drive.

First, you will want to make sure that you have placed the sample files in the correct directories, as explained in the Quick Install post.

Next, in Dynamics GP go to Sales pane —> Setup —> Collections Sample Data. This window will allow you to load sample Actions, Letter, and Plans. The data size of the samples is minimal, so if you are unsure what to pick, just check them all.

**Note: If you install the sample Collection Plans, you should have everything else selected too, as the plans reference the sample actions and letters**

Click the folder icon to say where to Install the sample data to. Choose a shared network location that all users can access, and then click Process. The Sample Data is now ready to use!

**If you receive an error clicking Process that the letters don’t exist, copy and replace CNActions.csv, CNPlans.csv, CNTextLetters.csv, and CNWordLetters.csv from the Collections Management install zip into the GP/Data folder. Then try clicking Process again**

GP 2013 has taken a very big step towards consolidating and simplifying email setup windows. What information used to be found on several different windows across several modules are increasingly becoming consolidated onto the Internet Information card.

Part of the downside of this is that certain fields were dropped from the Receivables Management setup window, even though they are still used in the system.

GP 2013 users have been reporting that when they go to Query Letters and send them out in an email, they receive the following error:

‘Could not e-mail status report to Sender. Invalid Recipients’ is caused because the Email Statements Status Recipient field has been removed from the Receivables Management Setup window.

This email is used to send a status report after collection letters have been emailed out, so that for example a collections manager can review them and make sure no letters erred out before being sent to customers.

A one time fix to this is to manually populate the field in SQL Server Management Studio, changing the email address appropriately:

update RM40101 set EmailStmtStatusRecipient = ‘collections@mycompany.com’

That will make the error go away and you will start receiving the status report again at that address. If you need to change it in the future, simply run the update statement in SQL again, changing the address as needed.

For more tips on setting up Email in Dynamics GP, check out Making sure your system is setup for Collections Management Email.

**Note: Make sure you make a backup and try steps in a test company first before applying to live**