Released on = May 3, 2007, 7:32 pm

Press Release Author = Alba Spectrum Group

Industry = Computers

Press Release Summary = You are not alone when you are switching or migrating from
Accpac, MYOB, MAS 90, QuickBooks, or even legacy in-house made accounting ERP
application to Microsoft Great Plains. This is typical situation and from time to
time majority of midsize or small businesses should come through this. Do not be
overwhelmed with potential problems expectation, relax, think about your options and
ways to go

Press Release Body = Alba Spectrum, http://www.albaspectrum.com
help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918

You are not alone when you are switching or migrating from Accpac, MYOB, MAS 90,
QuickBooks, or even legacy in-house made accounting ERP application to Microsoft
Great Plains. This is typical situation and from time to time majority of midsize
or small businesses should come through this. Do not be overwhelmed with potential
problems expectation, relax, think about your options and ways to go. In this small
article we would like to give you some orientation on the possible steps to
undertake and pitfalls. First you should think and explore data conversion
possibilities and their classification:
. Setup. Consider transferring existing setup features from your legacy application
to GP. In GP we have clear concept of setup files (compared to master records,
work, open and historical records). The scope if setup is usually limited to
company name, users and their access rights to your GP companies, Modules settings:
GL, AR, AR, SOP, POP, IV, UPR. Please try to be patient, before you burst with
emotions let's us give you the argument - setup is typically built into the heart of
the MRP architecture, this is why you should not expect it to be transferred by the
wizard
. Master Files. Customers, Vendors, Employees, GL Accounts should be migrated - no
doubt about it. You are the judge - if the number of your customers is 50 or so -
you may simply to have somebody of your employees to manually key them in. If this
is not the case (you have 50 thousand customers), then GP integration manager module
is needed or if this is too expensive you may have your GP consulting partner to use
SQL scripts to bring master records over to GP
. Work Transactions. GP has concept of work, open and historical transactions, when
operator enters invoice it is in so-called work status, when you post it - it is in
open status and then you move it to history when your review open files longevity.
When you are migrating from legacy ERP - it is good approach to "post" or transform
to equivalent of open or historical status all your legacy transactions prior to
migration to GP
. Beginning Balances. This is very reliable and old accounting wisdom - start your
new ERP with new accounting period and all you need to do is enter General Ledger
beginning balances for the period
. Keep old system for historical inquiry. This will allow you to avoid painstaking
historical data migration. In GP historical data is often considered as
participating is such decision making scenarios as perpetual inventory cost
revaluation, multicurrency transactions: Canadian Dollar/Euro
. Historical Transactions Migration. First idea is to avoid this - until it is
absolutely required. If you can not avoid it - think this way - I can allow GL
historical data migration - it typically doesn't participate in future business
logic (revaluations, multicurrency, etc), If you absolutely need GP history in
modules, such as SOP - consider this approach first. You enable historical
financial periods, move transactions through IM and post them to history. If you
think this is impractical - if you have 100 millions records to be re-posted in
history - then you rescue to SQL scripting. In SQL scripting you should expect new
discovery (meaning problems, reported to you from you GP partner, typically meaning
going over budget and things line that)
Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum, http://www.albaspectrum.com help@albaspectrum.com
1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving USA, Canada nationwide: Quebec, Ontario,
Calgary, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, IL, CA, GA, MN, MI, WI, IN, NY, WA, DC, TX,
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Web Site = http://www.albaspectrum.com

Contact Details = Alba Spectrum, http://www.albaspectrum.com help@albaspectrum.com
1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918