Our Favourite Add-ons from the recent ISC Software Webinar

In our most recent webinar, on Our Favourite Add-ons, we took a look at six of the add-ons which are preferred solutions from our senior consultants. They all meet a requirement which numerous clients have given to us at different times. Usually, there are several plugins which offer similar functionality which would meet these requirements, but these six add-ons are the ones which we recommend time after time. If you want to catch up on, or any other, webinar, you can do so here.

Before I give a brief overview of each of the add-ons, a quick introduction. Microsoft Dynamics GP is a full-featured ERP system with many modules, but one of the original founding design decisions was to support the enhancement by way of third party add-on modules, which closely integrate into the software and in many cases are indistinguishable from the core module. These add-ons are available from many, many vendors around the world (although many of them are located near the birth-place of the software in Fargo, North Dakota).

Each consultant will usually have a list of go-to add-ons which they’ve recommended to a number of clients, and this list is derived from these lists from each of the consultants (there was a lot of overlap between us). This is not to say that there are not other great, competing, add-ons; there are but we had to limit the list to six in order to cover them in a thirty minute webinar.

SmartList Builder

Smartist Builder is the add-on with which I have the most and longest experience. Created by eOne Solutions, it allows for the creation of new SmartList objects to meet needs not covered by the out-of-the-box SmartList objects; this often covers reports such as vendors with email and EFT details or Payables Distributions. It also supports the creation of SmartList objects using SQL views such as Budgets By Month or Sales By Customer By Fiscal Year.

While you can also do this using the SmartList Designer, which comes as a standard part of Microsoft Dynamics GP, SmartList Builder is much more flexible and easy to use and has a lot more functionality; I have a blog from May 2019 covering the differnces between SmartList Builder and SmartList Designer.

I have previously blogged about implementing SmartList Builder.

Audit Trails

Audit Trails is part of the Assure Suite from Fastpath which tracks changes to Microsoft Dynamics GP data made through the application, through integrations or directly in the database. Users can access, and create custom reports on the audited changes via a portal hosted on Azure. Modules like Audit Trails have seen an increase in popularity in recent years due to auditors flagging up areas which require extra security or auditing such as data changes and this module from Fastpath has been my recommended solution for a few years now.

I have previously blogged about implementing Audit Trails as part of a larger series on implementing the Assure Suite.

Advanced Bank Reconciliation

Advanced Bank Reconciliation from Nolan Business Solutiuons is another long term recommendation I make to clients who are looking for a more flexible, feature rich cashbook for Microsoft Dynamics GP than the out-of-the-box Bank reconciliation or Cashbook Bank Management modules.

ABR works by extracting all transactions posted to the GL account linked to the Chequebook regardless of the type of transaction (the standard options only pick up dedicated bank transactions) and also allows you to import your bank statements and create automatic matching rules which can be applied.

Enhanced Notes

Enhanced Notes is one of the GP Elementz from ISC Software, the company for which I work. This modules extends the standard Dynamics GP record notes functionality allowing you to record individual discrete notes, date and timestamps with the user name of the user; additionally, notes can be categorised, sub-categories and be emailed or have a Dynamics GP task raised to a user.

I have previously blogged about implementing Enhanced Notes.

PostMaster Enterprise

PostMaster enterprise from Envisage Software is one of my favourite add-ons for Dynamics GP. It allows for auto-posting of batches based on rules without requiring a running client and can be schedule to only post during certain hours; most batch types in Dynamics GP can be included in auto-posting.

It is easily extensible via SQL stored procedure allowing batches approved via workflow to be automatically posted, which is actually one of the most common use-cases; a user enters a batch and submits for approval, users approve so the batch is final approved and PostMaster Enterprise automatically posts this batch without requiring any further action from users.

I will be blogging about implementing PostMaster Enterprise in the near future.

SmartFill

SmartFill from Rockton Software provides 4,000+ pre-defined lookups which work as you type into a field. if you only know part of a supplier name or part of an item number, simply type it in the field and hit tab; SmartFill will search for and show all matching data. The pre-defined lookups can be amended to search in more fields (such as for a contact at a customer instead of just having to search the customer name itself, or you can create lookups for 3rd party products enabling easy and quick searching throughout Dynamics GP.

I have previously blogged about implementing SmartFill.