Duplicate company in AX 2012

The Duplicate Company function in AX 2009 is deprecated in AX 2012, and the reason is "The organization model represents a paradigm shift in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012", said by Microsoft. To copy a company in AX 2012 for demo or test, now you'll have to

1. create a definition group
2. export the def group from old company
3. import the def group to the new company

When you create def group, go to Include table group tab and make sure you've selected the tables you want to bring into your new company. When you import, go to the Advanced tab and select/deselect the Include shared tables checkbox as it's needed. Microsoft has a very detailed tutorial on this process:

Use Microsoft Dynamics AX to transfer (export and import) data [AX 2012]

Error when launch AX 2012 in VM using non-admin user

If you've tried to launch AX 2012 RTM in the VM using one of the enabled regular users (instead of admin, you probably have seen the error message: Logon Failure: the user has not granted the requested logon type at this computer. Remember the OS in the provided image is Windows Server 2008. Of course it doesn't allow local access by a non-admin user! The workaround is to go to Active Directory Users and Computers, select the user, double click to bring up Properties, click Member Of tab, and assign Domain Admin to the user. You don't want to do this in a real world but good enough to get AX in the VM going.

Transfer order with misc charges

On a previous project, we discovered a way in AX 2009 to process transfer order between sites WITH MISC CHARGES such as freight. The standard transfer order function in AX doesn't provide the ability to record misc charges on transfer. But for some businesses, intracompany transfer freight could be very expensive and it must be captured for inventory cost. So, we tweaked the intercompany order function in AX a bit to serve for this intracompany transfer purpose, and it worked for us! Here is what we did.

There are frequent transfers of some heavy items between Site A and B, and freight cost must be entered into the inventory. Assume all regular parameters (e.g. site, warehouse, dimensions, etc.) are properly configured.

1. Create two special customers A and B

• Assign a special customer group where you'll set up postings for intracompany transfers.
• Check checkboxes for intercompany customer (Setup tab - Autocreate intercompany order, Direct delivery), if you want a sales order auto created when a PO is created or direct delivery to a real customer. 
• Make sure you enter a default site and warehouse under the Sales Order tab. 
• Click Setup button - External code and create an external code. Because customers and vendors are in two different tables, you have to link them through an external code. 

Customer External Code

2. Create two special vendors A and B, as the previous step. 

3. Go to Basic > Setup > AIF > End points, create and configure an intracompany transfer end point. Make sure Company under General tab is set to the current company. Put your special customers and vendors as the Constraints. 

 
4. Still on the end point form, Click Action Policies. Out of the box, you should have two policies, PurchaseRequisition and SalesOrder. 

 

Action Policies

5. Click Setup tab for each policy and configure the parameters as you wanted. Note, if you want the price editable from the derived order, you want to make sure the "Allow price edit" checkbox is checked. 

6. On each policy, click Configure button. Since this is for transfers within a company, I recommend to select Our for all mappings except Vendor, Customer and Misc Charges which should be External. Same as vendors and customers, an external code should be entered for misc charges (AR/AP - Setup - Misc charges code).

Configure value mapping

That's it for intracompany transfer order settings. Now, you can create your transfer order with misc charges from either sales or purchase order, and verify if misc charges are allocated to your inventory.

Only able to select companies in the domain

Here is a security tip I learned from a previous project. After company domains are all properly configured, it's natural you want users only to be able to select companies that they belong to. If you grant access to Admin - Open domain access, it'll open up all companies in AX for the user to select, although he can't do or see anything in the companies that he doesn't belong to. What's even annoying is he can't click company link and go to the other companies and gets stuck in the wrong company unless restarts AX.

A very simple workaround. Create a separate user group for each domain for company selection. In this group, DON'T give access to "Open domain access", but give access to Admin - Tables - Company data. Remove company access from all the other user groups and add this special group to the group collection. Here you go. Only able to see companies in the domain.

Out-of-the-box connector between Dynamics CRM and AX

Today, Microsoft announced it's building an out-of-the-box connector between CRM and AX and data migration assistant for moving from Oracle db to SQL. New Microsoft Dynamics ERP Resources Save Customers Time and Money

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced new resources to help improve productivity and save Microsoft Dynamics enterprise resource planning (ERP) customers time and money through new interoperable Microsoft technologies. The new resources include an out-of-the-box connector between Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics AX and a Data Migration Assistant for Microsoft Dynamics AX customers moving from an Oracle database to Microsoft SQL Server.

The connector is available between either Dynamics CRM online or on-premise and Dynamics AX. Having been able to work with both Dynamics CRM and AX, I think this is a great move by Microsoft. From time to time, customers ask me what's the difference between Dynamics CRM and CRM in AX, or why Dynamics CRM can't talk to AX easily - they're both Microsoft product right? My response normally would be "uhh..." I don't want to tell customer that the foundation of current AX isn't truly Microsoft-based which makes integration harder. With no doubt, there are tremendous demands on combining the full ERP spectrum of AX with the great mobility/flexibility of CRM and working seamlessly together. It looks like the time has come now. Let's see when the tool will be ready for the community to play.