MICROSOFT DYNAMICS GP FOR DISTRIBUTORS

Meet the challenges of a changing industry with integrated, adaptive, customizable software
 

Today's consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) distribution companies face real challenges in a rapidly changing industry. Intense price pressure at the retail level is eroding margins. Add global competition and shorter product life cycles, and you’ll see the challenge across the entire CPG industry. The right technology can give your company the agility you need to stay competitive.

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Financial management with easy-to-use automation

Microsoft Dynamics GP delivers the comprehensive financial management features and tools that companies need to run their businesses with the greatest possible efficiency and insight. It sharply reduces time and effort for key accounting tasks, provides easy access and rich analysis of integrated, updated information, and connects smoothly with operations across your entire organization.

General ledger
 

• Improve efficiencies with automated transaction processing and payment adjustments. Users can quickly verify, annotate, and record transactions, as well as copy, void, delete, or correct general ledger entries with full audit control.

• Enhance financial controls with complete audit control, definition of up to 367 fiscal periods, and immediate access to high-level and deeply granular financial information.

• Organize financial information the way you want with flexible accounting structures and the ability to create Microsoft Office Excel–based budget templates and build customized financial reports.

• Perform multi-dimensional analysis of financial, sales, and purchase transactions using fully definable groups and codes, as well as track and categorize highly specific transaction activity.

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Financial reporting and business intelligence
 

• Easily create, update, and modify all the reports and forms your CPG business uses with Microsoft Dynamics GP Report Writer, and use flexible scheduling and delivery options to publish reports.

• Extend the power of Business Insight throughout your organization using Microsoft Dynamics GP Analysis Cubes for Excel. Using prebuilt OLAP cubes, you can link information across your company and produce fixed-format reports as well as ad-hoc queries in a familiar Excel environment.

• Empower decision-makers to quickly assess performance by delivering online, personalized views of critical business metrics with Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for Microsoft Business Portal.

• Build customizable financial reports with Microsoft Dynamics for Analytics–FRx, including personalized packages that consolidate Microsoft Office documents, Microsoft FRx Reports, Crystal Reports, and other formats into a single file for delivery to decision-makers.

Budgeting and forecasting
 

• Meet demanding group reporting needs by tailoring data collection and reporting processes with Microsoft Enterprise Reporting, and deploy flexible budgeting processes business-wide with Microsoft Demand Planner.

• Use Microsoft Analytical Accounting to create budget trees that create a hierarchy of dimension codes. Budgets can be created at a dimension code level or a dimension/account combination—providing greater flexibility by allowing budgeting at a summary or detail level.

Accounts payable
 

• Minimize expenses and increase staff productivity with intuitive transaction entry, customizable automation of processes, and complete payment tracking.

• Manage vendors effectively and negotiate better prices with access to complete histories and instant recall of billing, payment, discounts, and other information.

• Simplify deferring payments or costs over multiple periods, and automate vendor installment payments.

• Manage payables control accounts by reporting segments, with automated reconciliation and a true picture of amounts owing by segment value.

Fixed assets

• Save time and expense with easy setup and the ability to create and manage an unlimited number of books of assets, including corporate, federal tax, alternative minimum tax, and more.

• Share information with standard reports such as depreciation ledgers, property transfer, inventory list, and asset retirements.

• Simplify depreciation with any of 16 depreciation methods.

• Control physical inventory and asset movement with location IDs for comprehensive tracking.

Advanced distribution capabilities

Streamline your pick/pack/ship cycle, tailor workflow processes to meet your specific needs, and keep pace with competitive markets with Microsoft Dynamics GP. Advanced distribution helps you provide your customers with fast, accurate answers, firm delivery promises, flexible pricing, and efficient order fulfillment, so you get more repeat business.

Sales order processing
 

• Control your sales with discount management, drop-ship, kit items, sales quantity status, and online sales tracking.

• Speed time to delivery with multiple ship-to addressing and allocation of inventory from multiple sites for a single order.

• Tailor all stages of the sales cycle to meet your CPG organization's needs.

Purchase order processing
 

• Control purchasing processes with cost variance tracking, receiving/invoicing against multiple purchase orders, comprehensive receipt information, and posting.

• Get instant answers with complete tracking of open or historical purchase orders and receiving documents by order number, item number, or date.

• Increase purchasing efficiency with automated roll-up of similar items, multi-site and drop-ship delivery, and individual line item–level management of purchase orders.

• Maintain audit control with cancelled item tracking, line item ordering and status information, document revision tracking, and customized landed cost definition.

Inventory management
 

• Make informed decisions about your CPG business with easy-to-use stock analysis tools and flexible reporting capabilities that give you unparalleled access to the mission-critical inventory information you need.

• Access inventory information easily, in clear views, and drill down for detail as needed. In one easy step, access supply and demand information to view item allocations.

• Create and track item information in the way that best fits your business needs, with default entries for each item class to speed data entry.

• Maintain control over your inventory with quantity tracking at the bin level, cycle counting, stock count calendars, and inventory snapshots. Increase visibility into serial/lot number life cycles with full-cycle serial/lot tracking.

Advanced distribution
 

• Harness the pick/pack/ship process with user-defined procedures for more consistent, accurate workflow and improved control.

• Manage inventory more effectively with customized rules for shelf life and minimum stock levels.

• Provide better customer service with easy access to current distribution information, using lookup windows, document search, and update.

• Improve customer communication by linking your inventory and individual customer item codes to speed inquiries from service representatives and customers.

• Automate sales order transfer, invoice printing, and posting.

• Manage freight charges using catalog-style matrices.

• Manage imported goods through FOB receiving, container tracking, and in-transit inventory recognition.

Advanced picking
 

• Improve productivity and profitability for multi-site operations by determining preferred bulk and individual picking methods.

• Get maximum throughput and customer service by tailoring site-level operations with configurable picking rules.

• Increase picking productivity with shorter pick journeys and goods sent straight to the loading bay.

• Save time and effort with consolidated (bulk) picking lists across numerous orders for common items.

Extended pricing
 

• Modify customer-specific pricing and rules quickly and easily.

• Enable your sales team to personalize pricing to meet customer demand and beat the competition with extended pricing.

• Maintain your prices with easy-to-use tools and wizards that give you the flexibility to offer promotional prices, change pricing lists on the fly, or set date-sensitive restrictions when needed.

• Personalize prices for individual items, customers, or groups of customers, while maintaining standard pricing elsewhere.

Materials management
 

• Reduce costs by efficiently managing the entire chain of supply with distributed requisitions management and approval, firm control over purchasing and vendor management, and comprehensive inventory tracking and control.

• Expiration dates, serial and lot management, and multibin and multi-location management help CPG companies ensure that inventory is on-hand where needed.

 
Integration provides a perfect fit

Whether you're looking for employees to exchange information and collaborate effectively, improved demand forecasting, or other CPG business process automation, Microsoft Dynamics GP gives you the flexibility and functionality you need. Additional Microsoft Dynamics GP modules are available to strengthen your CPG solution, and each is seamlessly integrated—so all your data flows freely, and deployment won’t strain your budget or your IT staff.

Business portal
 

• Enhance employee productivity by providing RoleTailored access to information and processes from a single browser-based portal.

• Requisition management—improve purchasing management and reduce overhead by enabling users to enter their own requisitions online for manager approval and automatic transfer to purchase order processing.

• Electronic document delivery—enhance customer satisfaction by allowing customers and suppliers to view invoices, orders, returns, purchase orders, and other documents through the portal.

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Field-service management
 

• Improve service levels with new Revenue recognition posting reports, return to stock from RMA entry, improved contract administration, and integration with sales order processing.

• Manage complex field operations with higher levels of profitability and customer satisfaction. Streamline returns processing and deliver the most efficient customer service with a centralized and fully customizable location to manage returns.

• With eReturns you can delight your customers by providing online access to your returns management system, which will help them to initiate returns at the time that's convenient for them.

• Streamline your repair process and minimize costs with a more effective and efficient way to manage multiple repair facilities and share information.

Demand planning
 

• Generate reliable future demand forecasts based on your company's historical data with a library of selected forecasting algorithms that are applicable for the CPG business.

• Gain deep, multi-dimensional visibility into customer buying patterns by mapping your business data to the most relevant elements that drive forecasting—product, time, and markets.

Integration with other Microsoft products
 

• Microsoft Dynamics GP provides deep and automatic integration with Microsoft products—including Microsoft Office, InfoPath, SharePoint, and SQL Server.

• A familiar, Microsoft Office–like interface boosts usability, which helps everyone in your organization conduct business smoothly and efficiently.

• New Microsoft Office Solution Accelerators help take the pain out of managing.

Customization: Extending the power of Microsoft Dynamics GP

When it comes to deploying Microsoft Dynamics GP, you are not alone. Our network of Microsoft Certified Partners has proven expertise, and will install and customize your Microsoft Dynamics GP solution. Their experience streamlines deployment, minimizing downtime. Plus, they provide all the training and support you need to get and stay up and running.

Advanced-compliance solution

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Some of our partners have created integrated Advanced Compliance, a suite of specialized solutions for Microsoft Dynamics GP that help you:
 

• Meet all standard retail compliance requirements to win new business.

• Leverage technology to support identified best practices of winning retail suppliers.

• Implement faster and more efficient ways of sharing fulfillment information.

• Consistently execute compliant orders and manage inventory and shipping requirements better with the latest technology.

• Integrate EDI and shipping compliance.

• Provide fully integrated order-to-cash and procurement-to-payment supply chain connectivity.

• Utilize RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) to improve supply chain visibility.

• Manage and track customer charge-backs.

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This specialized distribution solution, available through Microsoft partners and resellers, complements your investment in Microsoft Dynamics GP, extending capabilities to provide automated EDI and shipping compliance, and charge-back reconciliation processing. With builtin integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP, it provides a complete solution for the distribution needs of companies that supply consumer goods to retailers.

With a modular, scalable supply chain solution, you can better achieve your compliance strategy and best suit your needs for today and tomorrow.

Warehouse management

Integrated with the Advanced Compliance solution, a Warehouse Management solution is also available to streamline warehouse processes while improving operational efficiency, productivity, and accuracy. This also extends Microsoft Dynamics GP advanced distribution functionality with bar code data collection and advanced warehouse management tools for customers with more complex warehousing and product distribution requirements.

Working with industry-leading hardware providers, this warehouse management solution integrates seamlessly with bar code, RFID, and material-handling technology. Using radio-frequency (RF) technology to streamline receiving, picking, packing, and shipping, it brings Microsoft Dynamics GP functionality onto the warehouse floor. With real-time validation at every step, companies can lower costs, improve inventory accuracy, and provide better service to customers. Also, it allows customers to manage orders and the physical handling of goods accurately and efficiently, automate, and verify all in-warehouse processes, providing real-time visibility into the supply chain.

Improve inventory and order status availability

Microsoft Dynamics GP is updated with real-time inventory and order status information.
 

• Maintain an accurate perpetual inventory without interrupting operations with real-time cycle counting.

• Validate items as they are received, picked, or moved using wireless devices.

• Real-time visibility by bin inventory.

• Real-time status updates to Microsoft Dynamics GP on SOs and POs.

• Obtain and review track and trace information for all shipped items.

• Meet complex retail compliance requirements like RFID and carton content management.