Are you thinking about integrating an external project system to your ERP?

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There are several things that you need to take into consideration:

  1. What are the accounting needs?
  2. When do the commitments need to be booked in the GL?
  3. Budgets:
    • Do you want a budget to be tracked in your external Project tracking system?
    • Do you want a total not to exceed budget in your ERP to make sure someone is notified when the budget is exceeded?
    • Do you want a detailed budget in both places?
  4. If there is retention from supplier invoices to be paid at the end of the project, when does the retention need to be booked?
  5. Where is the project initially setup? In the external project tracking system or the ERP?
  6. What are the touch points that need to be considered when determining what the interface points are?
  7. How will your ERP know when the project is complete so it can be marked as closed?

Lawson Portal – Getting Started as a New User

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When first using Lawson portal, it can be a bit overwhelming with all the buttons and unfamiliar UI. The first change I always make is changing the buttons to display text instead of icons.

 

First go to Preferences >> User Options

 

Under “Toolbar Button Display” select Text >> Apply and OK

Once you’ve applied the changes, your icons will change from this:

To this:

This is especially helpful for users with higher tier access as you don’t want to accidentally click delete or change a form when you didn’t mean to!

 

Hope this simple tip was helpful!

Lawson Portal Helpful User Guide

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Over the years I’ve assisted users debug issues in Lawson portal.  Through this time, I’ve noticed a pattern of users not utilizing fundamental functions of portal.  I’ll share to you a few of them today.

 

New Tab Button:

Instead of using up more of your PC’s memory, Lawson has its own tab system that users often miss. This will let you switch between multiple forms faster and easier as shown below:

 

Search box keywords:

 You might be used to typing in form numbers as shown below, but did you know you can type in keywords as well?

Don’t know a form name to General Ledger? Type in the word General Ledger and click search:

This is great for newer and veteran users taking on newer tasks.

 

Form Help:

Finally, if you want to get more information about the form you’re currently using. Go to the form and click Help >> Form Help.

 

Hope these tips helped you in your journey in mastering Lawson Portal.

How to set ESS access from an external domain and for custom forms

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Step 1: Login to Infor Security Services (ISS)

Step 2: Goto SSO >> Manage Domains and click edit button as shown:

We are simply verifying the names of the displayed XML files:

Step 3: On the LSF server, go to the %LAWDIR%\security\domainauth\EXTERNAL directory to edit that XML

 

Step 4: Add an entry to an existing tree or create a new one:

 

 

That’s all that’s to it.

How to check historical instances of outgoing LBI smart notifications

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Step 1: Login to your LBI server and go to the Tools dashboard

 

Step 2: Select the Smart Notification link

Step 3: In Smart Notification interface, click the Admin button at the top right:

Step 4: Under Content section, select the Delivered Alert History link:

Final Step:

Select the between dates and click the “Get Delivered Alert History” button to see sent notifications. Below you’ll see all sent notifications on June 26th 2019. You can also filter down on the notifications by Alert ID and or Recipient. You can also redeliver these messages if needed.

BS531 – Web Pending Benefit Extract Process

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Running BS531 creates two separate CSV files, one for employee benefits (BNBATCH) and one for dependent benefits (BNDEPBATCH).

Copy these files over to the D:\lsfprod\law\prod10\work\BNBATCH directory on your LSF application server (your directory names may differ slightly).

After creating your BN531 job, go in LID and use the jobdef command to locate it under the user you created it under.

Once located, press F6 and select “C. CSV File Attributes and verify”

Verify the File Name is BNBATCH and type is CSV:

Now run the BN531 job in report mode to verify there are no errors.

Run BN531 in update mode.

 

Once done, go back to the D:\lsfprod\law\prod10\work\BNBATCH directory and rename the BNBATCH to bnbatch_emp. Now rename bndepbatch file to BNBATCH.  Run the BN531 again in report. Once verified there are no errors, run the BN531 again and confirm the data carried over.

Hope this was helpful.

 

Changing Prices on Reqs and POs

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Can’t Change Pricing on a Requisition or a PO?

There are settings in the Buyer (PO04) or Requestor (RQ04) setup.  It allows control over defaulting in pricing from any contracts or vendor agreements that you might have in place.  If you want a buyer or a requestor to be able to change the price on a PO or a Requisition, then consider the following changes:

 

PO04:

At the bottom of the Main tab in PO04 – you can setup a buyer to allow unit cost overrides from different costs.  In this case, the user can’t override a cost that defaults in from a vendor agreement or Strategic Sourcing (Contracts).  However they can override the cost on a PO line item if it defaults in from the last PO or Last Cost (Invoice cost or adjusted cost).

 

RQ04:

At the bottom of the Main tab in RQ04 – you have similar options.  This user does not have the ability to override any cost that might default onto a requisition.

Importance of Creating a BRD

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Creating a new interface? Doing an Upgrade? Don’t forget the Business Requirements Document (BRD)

Often we go through the process of meeting and discussing different aspects of a project.  Those meetings are essential to understanding what is needed to be done.  A good BRD is basically a bible for all to refer back to during and even after the process to make sure that everything has been done at the level that was decided upon.

It is also a good way to make sure that everyone goes into the project with the same understanding. It is important to keep the BRD up to date with any changes that are decided upon.  This limits overlooking small aspects of a project that might have been referred to in – when did that email get sent again?

Based on client needs, we put together a BRD that reiterates what we think the client said.  When you review and approve it, it means we are both are working under the same premise.

It helps to eliminate those famous cartoon moments:

Considering a Divestiture? Here are a few things to consider

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Considering a Divestiture?  Here are things to consider:

History: How much data do you need to extract to send with the divested division/company?

Consider each module that currently has data and determine if there is a similar module in the new system. If there isn’t a similar module in the new system, then how will the data be accessed? Possibly a separate database that stores the information for lookups as needed.

Fixed Assets: Do you have assets that need to be moved with the divested division/company?

What are the criteria for which assets need to be moved with the divested division/company?

What date will these assets be last depreciated in your current system and how will the depreciation continue in the new system?

Will you keep the original in-service date and depreciation history and continue depreciating the same in your new system?

AP Payments:  How will you handle bank reconciliations and payment voids that occur after the division/company is divested?

Will there be on-going communication for this information to be sent?

Will there be a complete pay-off in the current system so that AP starts clean in the new system with no open invoices?

Do you have a consolidated AP process now that needs to be split into multiple AP processes? If so, when should you start this process of separation?  Especially important if you have any EDI or other interfaces to AP that will need separation as well.

Vendors: How will you notify Vendors that invoices after a certain date should be handled differently? Are your vendors even aware that there are two different divisions or companies that they are currently billing? It is very important to start working with your vendors and any 3rd party AP interfaces sooner than later.

Purchases: How will any open POs and/or requisitions be handled?

Make sure that you have enough inventory on hand for the divested division/company prior to cutting off standard replenishment.