Blogiversary Top 20 (#5) PowerPivot to the People
Posted: April 23, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: BI, Excel, Microsoft, NAV, Office2013, PowerPivot Leave a commentWe’re celebrating our one year blogiversary by reposting the Top 20 Most Viewed in the last year, as determined by you, our readers! Follow this link to see the entire list. Enjoy!
As a Controller at a small to medium-sized business, I struggle with the big BI question: do I invest in a business intelligence package or do I do it myself?
When I first became aware of PowerPivot, a free Excel add-on that became available with Microsoft Office 2010, I was excited and also a little relieved. While the emergence of PowerPivot didn’t completely solve my dilemma, it sure gave me some significant options for more data accessibility. I didn’t have to depend on my partner or an IT employee with special skills to build me a dataport from NAV, or to piece together an SQL query, or to build a cube I could apply queries to. Because I have PowerPivot, suddenly I can be Super-Controller; accessing tables directly in my NAV database, pulling ginormous amounts of data into a single spreadsheet, and manipulating the data with lightning speed into familiar Excel pivot tables, all without asking for help. 
So, when I read in a recent article from MSDynamicsWorld.com that New Office 2013 Licensing May Put PowerPivot, Power View Out of Reach for Some Microsoft Dynamics Users, I was actually pretty alarmed and then pretty upset. How dare Microsoft give us this shiny new Christmas dream and then snatch it away like some kind of horrible data-reneging Grinch!
I went looking for a few more answers about exactly what was going on, and what I found out was that Microsoft has actually taken PowerPivot out of most versions of Office 2013. This is a big deal because it was previously available in all versions of Office 2010, so Microsoft is actually removing functionality. PowerPivot is only available in Office 2013 if you get Office Pro Plus through volume licensing or through Office 365 subscriptions. Basically, this means PowerPivot is not available in any retail Office 2013 packages, so therefore, is only reachable by companies who have enough purchasing power to utilize volume licensing packages. So, a tool that was designed, in my opinion, to give BI power directly to the people by making it simple enough for financial folks to pull their own data, has now been restricted to only business class licensing. If you’re looking for some interesting theories as to why this might be, read Hey, Who Moved My (PowerPivot 2013) Cheese?
Mr. Excel himself (Bill Jelen), the uberist Excel geek of them all, has some great stuff to say about PowerPivot, including “PowerPivot is the best new feature to hit Excel in 20 years” and a few other things here including a great short video explaining why we should care. I just said in a recent NAVUG Ask the Experts Finance webinar only two weeks ago that as a financial professional who uses NAV, learning to use PowerPivot should be the most important skill finance people should learn in the next year.
Microsoft has missed a huge opportunity to finally settle a score in the BI arena for small to medium businesses by making this move. There has always been the argument that using Excel spreadsheets is a risky proposition for financial professionals. You can really create some big problems for yourself if you are not careful in how you manage your spreadsheets. Some companies even go so far as to outlaw them and attempt to go spreadsheet free. Companies who sell BI packages lean on this pretty hard, trying to remove spreadsheets from the list of available choices.
I say this risk is greatly offset by the benefit of being able to use a tool that can pull, in a safe way, massive amounts of data that can be manipulated by the typical Excel end-user quickly and efficiently. For me, the benefit PowerPivot brings to my company tips the scale on sinking money into a BI solution, and keeps me firmly in the DIY BI camp, with Excel as my primary tool. Making PowerPivot available in all new versions of Excel seals the deal and makes BI in Excel a revolution of equality, ensuring equilateral Excel adoption in the business world.
I’m glad to see so many people bringing forward a call to action to bring PowerPivot back to all versions of Office, not just Pro Plus and Office365 subscriptions. I’m adding my voice, and will continue to ask Microsoft to bring PowerPivot to the people!
DynamicsNAVFinancials blog celebrates one year with top 20 postings
Posted: April 1, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Account Schedules, budgets, Classic Client, Convergence, dimensions, Dynamics, Excel, export to excel, financial reporting, financial statement, general ledger, NAV, NAV 2013, NAVUG, payment terms, PowerPivot, tips and tricks, user group 2 Comments
It’s our blogiversary! I started this blog in April 0f 2012, inspired by the number of NAV end users I had met over the last year who had the same questions that just weren’t getting answered. What better way to get that information out to folks than a blog where I could write up the topic in an easy to understand way?
You’ve shown your support! Over that last year, we’ve had over 15,000 views, almost 100 followers via email, have people following us on our new Facebook page, and know that many of you follow postings through the RSS feed. People from more than 120 countries are reading DynamicsNAVFinancials! The blog has gotten enough attention to be picked up for syndication through Microsoft Dynamics Community and I was even asked to participate as one of the eleven official bloggers at Microsoft Dynamics Convergence 2013 last month.
Special thanks has got to go to the NAVUG. The user group has been especially supportive of me and of the blog, finding opportunities for me to speak to NAV users in person, in webinars, online classes, and through this blog. Without the support of the user group this would have been a much longer road and I am so grateful for the constant work they have done to get me in front of as many readers as possible.
Publishing over an entry a week in the last year, there’s a lot to choose from, but in the month of April, I’ll be re-running the top 20 postings determined by the most viewed entries. Enjoy, and thank you so much for reading! There would be no reason to do this without you!
19 The NAV accountant’s little helper: the reconciliation account check box
18 Learning about Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013: on demand learning from NAVUG is a fantastic resource!
17 Tis the (Budget) Season! Three handy NAV account schedule tips to get you through
16 Tips and tricks for a flawless budget load in NAV
15 Why NAV users should be using dual monitors
14 Video Demo: How to export NAV account schedules to Microsoft Excel
13 Basic row setup options for NAV Account Schedules
12 Aging methods in NAV – which buckets are you looking for?
11 Complete row setup options for NAV account schedules
10 Learning about Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013
9 Where can I learn more about NAV analysis reports and analysis by dimensions?
8 10 easy tips for payment terms success in Microsoft Dynamics NAV
6 Getting started with a new account schedule
4 Maximize your Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Classic screen space with user level configuration options
3 Basic column layout options for NAV Account Schedules
2 NAV keyboard shortcuts – Classic to RTC
1 The Account Schedules Formulas Page
PowerPivot to the People
Posted: March 5, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: BI, Excel, Microsoft, NAV, Office2013, PowerPivot Leave a commentAs a Controller at a small to medium-sized business, I struggle with the big BI question: do I invest in a business intelligence package or do I do it myself?
When I first became aware of PowerPivot, a free Excel add-on that became available with Microsoft Office 2010, I was excited and also a little relieved. While the emergence of PowerPivot didn’t completely solve my dilemma, it sure gave me some significant options for more data accessibility. I didn’t have to depend on my partner or an IT employee with special skills to build me a dataport from NAV, or to piece together an SQL query, or to build a cube I could apply queries to. Because I have PowerPivot, suddenly I can be Super-Controller; accessing tables directly in my NAV database, pulling ginormous amounts of data into a single spreadsheet, and manipulating the data with lightning speed into familiar Excel pivot tables, all without asking for help. 
So, when I read in a recent article from MSDynamicsWorld.com that New Office 2013 Licensing May Put PowerPivot, Power View Out of Reach for Some Microsoft Dynamics Users, I was actually pretty alarmed and then pretty upset. How dare Microsoft give us this shiny new Christmas dream and then snatch it away like some kind of horrible data-reneging Grinch!
I went looking for a few more answers about exactly what was going on, and what I found out was that Microsoft has actually taken PowerPivot out of most versions of Office 2013. This is a big deal because it was previously available in all versions of Office 2010, so Microsoft is actually removing functionality. PowerPivot is only available in Office 2013 if you get Office Pro Plus through volume licensing or through Office 365 subscriptions. Basically, this means PowerPivot is not available in any retail Office 2013 packages, so therefore, is only reachable by companies who have enough purchasing power to utilize volume licensing packages. So, a tool that was designed, in my opinion, to give BI power directly to the people by making it simple enough for financial folks to pull their own data, has now been restricted to only business class licensing. If you’re looking for some interesting theories as to why this might be, read Hey, Who Moved My (PowerPivot 2013) Cheese?
Mr. Excel himself (Bill Jelen), the uberist Excel geek of them all, has some great stuff to say about PowerPivot, including “PowerPivot is the best new feature to hit Excel in 20 years” and a few other things here including a great short video explaining why we should care. I just said in a recent NAVUG Ask the Experts Finance webinar only two weeks ago that as a financial professional who uses NAV, learning to use PowerPivot should be the most important skill finance people should learn in the next year.
Microsoft has missed a huge opportunity to finally settle a score in the BI arena for small to medium businesses by making this move. There has always been the argument that using Excel spreadsheets is a risky proposition for financial professionals. You can really create some big problems for yourself if you are not careful in how you manage your spreadsheets. Some companies even go so far as to outlaw them and attempt to go spreadsheet free. Companies who sell BI packages lean on this pretty hard, trying to remove spreadsheets from the list of available choices.
I say this risk is greatly offset by the benefit of being able to use a tool that can pull, in a safe way, massive amounts of data that can be manipulated by the typical Excel end-user quickly and efficiently. For me, the benefit PowerPivot brings to my company tips the scale on sinking money into a BI solution, and keeps me firmly in the DIY BI camp, with Excel as my primary tool. Making PowerPivot available in all new versions of Excel seals the deal and makes BI in Excel a revolution of equality, ensuring equilateral Excel adoption in the business world.
I’m glad to see so many people bringing forward a call to action to bring PowerPivot back to all versions of Office, not just Pro Plus and Office365 subscriptions. I’m adding my voice, and will continue to ask Microsoft to bring PowerPivot to the people!
This posting is one of the Top 20 Most Viewed in the last year! Follow this link to see the entire list.
What is there to talk about regarding NAV financial reporting?
Posted: April 21, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Account Schedules, add-on, Analysis Reports, BREP, C/SIDE, Dynamics, ERP, Excel, general ledger, ISV, JET, Management Reporter, Microsoft, NAV, NAVUG, NAVUG Academy, Object Designer, PowerPivot, SQL, SSRS Leave a commentIf you’re a Microsoft Dynamics NAV user, like I am, there are a whole ton of choices to make regarding financial reporting.
- Account Schedules, the native financial reporting package that reports on general ledger transactions.
- Analysis Reports, also a native NAV reporting option, that extends reporting to item ledger entries from the sales and purchasing tables.
- Object Designer, the native C/SIDE development tool used for the NAV application, which includes a report writer.
- SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services), a Microsoft reporting tool package that uses the SQL programming language.
- PowerPivot, the free Microsoft Excel add-on that became available with Microsoft Office 2010, allowing data to load from NAV (and other data sources) through a direct connection to Excel.
- JET Express, a former ISV (Independent Software Vendor) reporting solution, released for NAV 2009 in September 2011 as available for NAV users, and included with the Microsoft BREP (Business Ready Enhancement Plan), instead of as a separately purchased add-on solution.
- Management Reporter, recently released by Microsoft on March 31, 2012 as a free add-on for all Microsoft Dynamics ERPs with the caveat that, for NAV users, it is only available if you already had the licensing for FRx.
- Any large number of additional ISV solutions, sold as separately purchased add-ons to NAV.
As the Controller for my company, it’s my job to stay informed on what’s available and determine which choices are the best possible given the available skills sets of the employees who use them and the overall cost. It’s also my job to make sure I know what the future direction of the ERP software is, so I can advise on decisions we make as a company with that knowledge in hand.
Take note, that from the list above, two major options have been launched in the last seven months. My feeling, as a NAV end-user, is that Microsoft has not delivered a clear direction for their financial reporting strategy for the NAV product, and has left the onus of choice on the user.
I have to admit, I’m the kind of person who likes choices, and I’ve sampled every single option on the list above in one way or another. The reporting strategy for my company is based on three principles: 1) the report must balance to the general ledger, 2) it must be consistently replicated in future periods, 3) it must be able to be maintained by someone in the company with the right skill set.
So yeah, we’ve got a lot to talk about.
I’ve used account schedules as my primary financial reporting solution, at two different companies, since 2004. I have the opportunity to teach about this reporting tool through NAVUG, doing webinars throughout the year, speaking at the annual conference, and even teaching classes for NAVUG Academy. For a while, I’m going to talk about account schedules here, but you’ll occasionally come across other topics as we learn more about the NAV financial reporting landscape, and where it will take us next.
Dynamics NAV Financials 