Clients First knows their software, but they are also astute business people, and they really understand manufacturing and distribution in particular.
Jimmy Witcher, COO, Merrick
Improve your cash flow with Microsoft Dynamics NAV Reminders
With today’s downturn in the economy, corporate controllers and CFOs are focused on cash flow management to enable their companies to survive the uncertainty of market conditions. Cash flow is defined as the difference between cash coming into the business and cash leaving the business within a specific time period. Cash that flows into a business does not always correspond to the same rate of cash going out of the company. When a cash shortfall occurs, companies may need to borrow funds to pay their bills, or delay needed expenditures that may improve their business.
Every company experiences customers who do not pay on-time. To improve cash flow, Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision) offers users the ability to setup Reminders (some may call them dunning notices or statements) for customers who have overdue invoices. A Reminder system prompts customers to pay overdue amounts and informs them of possible interest charges. If customers refuse to pay overdue invoices after they received reminders, a finance charge memo can be issued for the interest charges. And of course we all know that customers respond to reminders and happily pay finance charges but that’s for another blog post
Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics NAV Reminders
The first step in issuing Reminders is to setup Reminder Terms:
For each Reminder Term, Reminder levels can be setup to define when Reminders can be created, and the charges and texts that should be included.
The Reminder Terms are then attached to the appropriate customers that will be sent reminders. The Create Reminders function under periodic activities is then triggered to create the suggested reminders, and then after user review, the reminders are issued and sent to the customers who have overdue invoices. Customers are then notified that monies are due, and prompt payment necessary. Using Reminders will shorten collection periods for overdue invoices, and improve cash flow. With improved cash flow, borrowing costs are reduced and inventory levels can be increased, making for a healthier and more profitable company.
Generating reports in Dynamics NAV and printing them into a PDF was always possible by installing a local printer driver that is capable of generating a PDF file instead of printing directly to a printer. With Dynamics NAV 2009 you can now save any report you view from the Role Tailored Client (RTC) as a PDF file. This functionality was added in a new build (build 32843) described in knowledge base article KB 2628466. This new functionality allows you to save any report into a PDF instead of printing it. In the request page of the report, you find a new “Print” command button that also allows you to select “PDF” instead of “Print”.
When we think about “Going Green” we tend to visualize conservation, protecting nature and our fragile environment. Businesses and technology play a very important role in the Green initiative where the definition can be extended to include:
Reduction of operating costs resulting in increased profits
There are three kinds of people: those who watch things happen, those who make things happen, and those who wonder what happened.
The world is in crisis. Some countries are hit harder than the others, some markets have sunk deeper than the others, but the effects of global economic recession are obvious, and if the crisis didn’t hit you yet, fasten your seatbelt—it surely will.
With the whole world wondering what’s going on, the winners will be those who learn to navigate the troubled waters and make things happen. This is much easier with a piece of good business management software, such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
Recession is more than skin deep, and no small or medium-sized business can possibly mitigate the macroeconomic cause-and-effect avalanche that led to current situation. Instead of prescribing a cure that’ll save the world (maybe another time), I’ll focus on three elephant-obvious symptoms that affect everybody:
Declining sales: lack of money clogs the wheels of perceived obsolescence, and people stop buying unless it’s necessary. From consumers, this symptom quickly cascades all the way up the supply chain, and suddenly everyone is affected.
Decreasing profitability: less sales means less revenue, which means lower margins. Unless you find a way to decrease operating costs, you face a serious profitability issue. Corporations can lay off thousands to save billions; small to mid-sized businesses cannot.
Illiquidity: less profit means less cash to operate. As if this is not bad enough, less sales can easily mean more cash trapped inside excess inventory of both raw materials and finished products. Unless you harness your demand/supply balance forces.
These three are are linked together tightly, and tend to spiral around in endless cycles. But there is good news for you: Microsoft Dynamics NAV can actually help you tame the recession beast.
I give Microsoft credit. They are pulling out all stops in their new campaign to generate buzz around the forthcoming Office 2010 suite. There is a full site called www.office2010themovie.com and we’ve got one of the ‘trailers’ here!
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There are three kinds of people: those who watch things happen, those who make things happen, and those who wonder what happened.