Analytics and Reporting

Microsoft Dynamics® Dimensions help you to better understand where your business is going.

Microsoft Dynamics® Financial Management frees you to focus on your business.

Key Benefits:

• Explore how your business operates on various levels
• Grow and change your tools along with your business
• Base important decisions on information you can trust
• You can tailor your software to your specific needs
• You see opportunities you didn't know existed
• You are motivated to do more and to know more

Microsoft Dynamics delivers the flexibility, reliability and usability you need to analyze and evaluate your business. The solution allows you to attribute characteristics to the information you record and use in your daily work, giving you the power to ask searching questions about your business and act upon the answers. You can seek more effective ways of doing business, develop your analytic tools in an easy way, and base important decisions on reliable information.

DIMENSIONS

Better Ways of Doing Business

The intricate set of relationships that make your business a success is often difficult to fathom. What factors make a particular product successful? Where are you failing to deliver? How do actual costs compare with allocated budgets?

The Dimensions feature in Microsoft Business Solutions helps you answer questions about your business. By combining the analysis of different dimensions, you can get a better understanding of how well your business is operating, where it's going and where it needs help.

Dimensions allow you to attribute characteristics to the information you record and use in your daily work, giving you the power to ask searching questions about your business and act upon the answers. You can seek more effective ways of doing business, develop your analytical tools in an easy way and base important decisions on reliable information.

You can also use dimensions to allocate responsibility. By using dimensions on posted entries and budget entries, you have the ability to monitor how individual units (for example, a responsible department or region) are performing and to compare performance with other units (such as previous periods and budgeted amounts).

Room to Grow and Change

Dimensions grow and change with your business needs. When an opportunity presents itself, accountants and IT personnel don't need to spend time changing accounting structures to fit new business processes. They can easily create or change existing dimensions.

The possibilities for creating new dimensions and changing existing ones are endless. It's easy to add new dimensions on the fly, and there's no limit to the number of dimensions, or the number of values, that can belong to each dimension. You can change existing dimensions to reflect your business processes because:

- You can name them in a way that reflects your company's reporting practices and the requirements of your employees.

- When you no longer require a particular dimension, you can simply block it from use.

- You can structure values in a hierarchy that mirrors your existing reporting structures.

- You can change dimensions (or add new ones) as often as you like - without changing your accounting structure.

Information You Can Trust

You increase the consistency of data by setting up rules for dimensions. You determine how dimensions are combined in order to make sure that they reflect company policy. For example, you might want to ensure that the decision-making process reflects company policy by excluding some salespeople from using certain customer-segment dimension values.

You can also support the way your business operates by defining default dimensions. For each default, you can also define posting rules that determine the way dimensions information may be posted. For example, you can define that a dimension value must always be used for a particular account or account type. Defaults also ensure quicker data entry with fewer errors.

Ask Your Partner

To learn more about Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision for financial management, contact your local solution center. They have the expertise necessary to design a solution that fits your specific business needs. Or, visit our Web site at: http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions.

About Microsoft Business Solutions

Microsoft Business Solutions, which includes the businesses of Great Plains®, Microsoft bCentral™ and Navision a/s, offers a wide range of business applications designed to help small and midmarket businesses become more connected with customers, employees, partners and suppliers. Microsoft Business Solutions' applications automate end-to-end business processes across financials, distribution, project accounting, electronic commerce, human resources and payroll, manufacturing, supply chain management, business intelligence, sales and marketing management, and customer service and support. More information about Microsoft Business Solutions can be found at:

http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions.

Data Summary Sheet: Dimensions

Flexible Dimensions Define an unlimited number of dimensions and dimension values at any time.

Name dimensions as you please, so that your dimensions setup reflects the specific needs of your company at all times.

Add new dimensions without disrupting your accounts structure in any way because:

- You set up dimensions and dimension values in their own tables.

- Their underlying values are independent of your chart of accounts.

Dimension Hierarchies Set up dimension value hierarchies to reflect your reporting and accounting needs because:

-The intuitive hierarchy setup closely resembles the setup procedure for your chart of accounts

-You can include totaling values and formulas that allow an unlimited category tree.

-You can filter data to obtain the level of dimensions information you require.

Maintain dimension value hierarchies independently of your chart of accounts. You can maintain a highly detailed reporting and accounting hierarchy without having to create and manage a cumbersome range of accounts and sub accounts.

Dimension Rules Define dimension rules in the level of detail you want and alter the setup at any time. The following dimension rules can be applied:

" Defaults: apply default dimensions to specific accounts, groups of accounts, or entire account types (for example, all customer accounts). You can set up defaults as either suggested or mandatory.

" Combinations: define how dimensions and dimension values may or may not be combined in journals and documents. You can define combinations at the dimension or dimension value level. For example, some salespeople may be excluded from using certain customer-segment dimension values. This helps ensure that policy decisions made in your company are also reflected in your accounts.

" Prioritization: define prioritization of account types when an account and a balancing account suggest conflicting default dimension values for the same dimension.

Blocking: block and unblock dimensions and dimension values from use depending on whether the dimension or value is still required (with regard to seasonal variations, campaigns and so on).

Dimension Input Define up to eight shortcut dimensions for use throughout the application:

- Shortcut dimensions are dimension fields that can be shown or hidden on journal and document lines to make the input of dimensions data as straightforward as possible.

- Shortcut dimensions can easily be switched or replaced to include new dimensions and accommodate new needs.

Enter all other dimensions data in a separate Dimensions window using a conveniently located button on all journals and documents.

Use defaults to reduce manual data entry and ensure that the desired dimensions data is always posted.

Dimensions on all G/L Entries Define two global dimensions for use throughout the program. Use these global dimensions to view and filter all G/L entries in the General Ledger Entries window. For non-global dimensions, you can filter G/L entries using the analysis view.

Analysis Views Use Analysis Views to investigate relationships and monitor performance. You can define and name as many analysis views as you wish.

Gather and view posted G/L entries for immediate analysis by attributing characteristics to the information you record in your daily work. You can, for example, attribute:

- Attached dimensions.

- A start date.

- An account number.

Make general analysis much easier to understand by compressing analysis view entries so you see only totals (based on a vast number of G/L entries).

Sort and gather all G/L entries with at least one of up to four dimensions specified for each analysis view. For example, you might create an analysis view that gathers all G/L entries for departments operating in specific geographic areas, excluding those entries relating to a particular sales campaign.

Update the g/l entries included in an analysis view manually to gather new G/L entries posted since the last update, retain saved versions of an analysis view without new updates, or have the program update an analysis view each time a G/L entry with the specified attributes is posted.

Present the contents of an analysis view in a matrix form in the Analysis by Dimensions window:

- Filter financial data by dimension, date and G/L account.

- Modify the matrix axes.

- Compare dimensions data from G/L entries with data from Budget entries to show variance, variance %, and index %.

Uncover the factors involved in creating particular results or relationships. You can drill down from analysis view entry totals to each individual analysis view entry, and then further still to the specific G/L entries that comprise a particular analysis view entry.

Optimize your analyses by exporting the information in your Analysis Views to Microsoft Excel. Here you can make the most of Excel's facilities for data presentation and manipulation.

Budget by Dimensions Attach an infinite number of dimensions to each budget entry.

Filter your budget by up to four dimensions in order to:

- Create very specific 'sub-budgets' (within an overall budget), such as a sales budget for a particular customer target group per department over a specified period.

- Compare G/L entries and budget entries by dimensions using the Analysis by Dimensions window.

Copy a budget including dimensions from a previous period for use in a new period while using an adjustment factor.

Easily export and import Dimensions on budgets to and from Excel.

Create various Excel budgets at a number of sub-units (for example, departments) and then import them back into Navision to create a single aggregate budget with all dimensions information attached.

Reporting by Dimension Include global dimensions on all reports where dimensions information may be relevant and available.

Use Dimensions to create specific reports:

" The Dimensions - Totals report. This report shows G/L entry totals organized by G/L account, dimension values and selected dimensions. For example, you can view department totals per product, per sales region.

" The Dimensions - Details report. This report shows each individual posting segmented by G/L account, dimension value and dimension for specific accounting or auditing purposes. You can also compare actual amounts with budgeted amounts in a single report.

Your own company-specific dimension reports. You use analysis view entries (instead of G/L entries) in account schedules to create these reports, and you can easily export Microsoft® Excel® to create visual presentations.

Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision 3.00 or later.

Basic Dimensions includes:

- Two global dimensions

- Default dimensions and rules per account, account group and account type

Advanced Dimensions includes:

- Unlimited dimensions

- Shortcut dimensions

- Prioritization

- Dimension combinations

- Analysis views

- Analysis view entries in Account Schedules

- Export of Analysis Views to Microsoft Excel

Financial Management

Frees You to Focus on Your Business

In 1494, the Italian monk Luca Pacioli wrote the world's first book on accounting in order to "give the trader, without delay, information as to his assets and liabilities." Five hundred years later, fast and easy access to bottom-line information is still what you need to run your business.

Today, however, the increased pace of business has intensified the need for efficient financial management even more. Therefore, the last thing you need is a business solution that slows down operations by placing new demands on your organization.

Far from inhibiting work, Navision adapts and evolves to match the way in which your business operates. It helps you discover opportunities and motivates users to do more and to learn more.

Free to Grow

When change is required in your organization, Navision makes the transition smoother. It adapts and evolves to match the way your business operates.

You can customize the design within minutes by changing the appearance of forms, adding additional fields and tables and creating user-specific menus.

You can automate many of your financial practices and procedures according to your needs. You define the level of control that you want by setting up business rules. For example, you can specify payment terms and discounts for individual customers and vendors.

Furthermore, you can handle the full range of legal requirements and currency issues inherent in international trade, including euro business. You can operate and report to authorities in the currencies of your choice.

Free to Discover

Navision makes it easy to access the financial information you need to spot trends and gain insight into your business activities. You capitalize on your knowledge of how your business works by discovering opportunities, which otherwise might have been difficult to spot.

You can examine individual transactions and information about particular events quickly and easily. You can drill down on the fly to investigate a specific amount, or you can use highly specific filtering criteria to find exactly the information you need.

See All the Angles

The Dimensions feature enables you to view information in a more sophisticated way. You tag general ledger and budget entries with company-specific dimensions, which help you get more out of your data. You can use dimensions to:

- Monitor performance

- Investigate relationships

- Take advantage of trends

Dimensions help you get the most out of your information. The possibilities are endless because it's easy to add new dimensions, and there's no limit to how many you can add.

Navision also takes the complications out of foreign trade and opens your eyes to the opportunities available in new markets. Each customer or vendor gets the level of service you want to offer. You can receive and make payments in any currency (regardless of the currency normally used for a particular customer or vendor).

Free to Do More

Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision offers you much more than just accounting tools. It helps you understand what figures represent, and it makes it easy for you to see the activities from which the numbers originated. Navision stimulates your curiosity and makes your work more inspiring.

You delve deeper into your work because the information you want is at your disposal and access to it is straightforward. You can drill down to information quickly and set filters easily. It encourages you to look further than account balances.

Account schedules allow you to use the data in your general ledger to help drive your business. You can use a range of pre-defined reports or your own customized company-specific reports. The financial information generated in this way can then be presented on a Web browser or distributed by e-mail, so that managers and employees, network partners and investors can stay informed about your company's activities.

Ask Your Partner

To learn more about Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision for financial management, contact your local solution center. They have the expertise necessary to design a solution that fits your specific business needs. Or, visit our Web site at:

http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions.

About Microsoft Business Solutions

Microsoft Business Solutions, which includes the businesses of Great Plains®, Microsoft bCentral™ and Navision a/s, offers a wide range of business applications designed to help small and midmarket businesses become more connected with customers, employees, partners and suppliers. Microsoft Business Solutions' applications automate end-to-end business processes across financials, distribution, project accounting, electronic commerce, human resources and payroll, manufacturing, supply chain management, business intelligence, sales and marketing management, and customer service and support. More information about Microsoft Business Solutions can be found at:

http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions.

Data Summary Sheet: General Ledger

FlowFields and Lookup Buttons Use flowfields to receive the most up-to-date financial data:

- The system continually updates and recalculates contents of a flowfield online.

- You can drill down from all flowfield amounts to view which entries were included in the calculation of the amount.

- Use the Navigate feature to see a summary of the number and type of entries with the same document number as a particular entry.

Specify which information should be displayed in a window by using filters on flowfields and tables:

- You can set a table filter on one or more fields in a table. For example, you can specify that only German customers should be shown in the Customer List window.

- You can use filters on flowfields to limit which entries are used in calculating the amounts or quantities presented in a flowfield. For example, you might exclude entries from certain departments from being part of a flowfield calculation.

Lookup buttons in many fields give you direct access to information in a table (for example, from a journal line):

- You only have to enter information correctly once, and it can be reused consistently on all later occasions.

- Data input is quicker because you don't have to reenter information.

Chart of Accounts Gain a clear and comprehensive overview of your company's current and historical situation:

- View balances and net changes for all G/L accounts online and filter by date, department dimension, project dimension, account and numerous other criteria.

- Drill down to the detail level (for example, to see which entries have created a particular account balance).

Define an unlimited number of G/L accounts and arrange them into a hierarchical structure with posting and total accounts.

Make filtering and reporting easier by defining totaling formulas to gather totals from more than one account.

View only the information that you need:

- Use the Show/Hide function to select which fields are shown in the Chart of Accounts window.

- Combine the Show/Hide function with filters to create exactly the chart of accounts you want.

Quickly adapt your chart of accounts to fit new needs:

- New G/L accounts can be added at any time and changes can be made to existing accounts simply by altering the account card.

- If you alter an account number, all entries using that account number will automatically be updated.

- It is possible to delete the accounts or simply block them from use.

Attribute a range of characteristics, posting criteria and business rules to each individual account. For example, assign a default department and project code to an individual account and define rules for how these codes are to be used in conjunction with that account number.

Use a range of balances to view debit and credit information for accounts, periods, department or project, and compare this with budgeted balances. You can use the Detail Trial Balance report to print this information.

Dimensions Define an unlimited number of dimensions and dimension values at any time.

Name dimensions as you please, so that your dimensions setup reflects the specific needs of your company at all times.

Set up dimension value hierarchies to reflect your reporting and accounting needs.

Use default dimensions effectively to avoid a lot of manual data entry and ensure that the desired dimensions data is always posted.

Use Analysis Views to investigate relationships between dimensions and monitor performance.

Attach an infinite number of dimensions to each budget entry.

Export your Analysis Views to Microsoft Excel to make full use of Excel's visual and presentation capabilities.

Flexible Accounting Periods Define any starting date for the fiscal year and specify your own accounting periods with an unlimited number of periods of any duration:

" For example, you can divide your fiscal year into quarterly periods, monthly periods or daily periods. This can be effectively used to have your accounting periods match seasonal variations or local accounting requirements.

Use filters to view and print financial data across periods, regardless of starting and closing dates.

Transfer income statement balances to your balance sheet with ease using the Close Income Statement batch job:

- Closing entries can be created per business unit, department code and/or project code or per G/L account, and are retained by the program in a specified journal for scrutiny before posting.

- Closing entries are sorted and marked, making them easy to view and filter on.

- The batch job can be carried out as many times as necessary so you can make corrections to your income statement even after transferring balances to your balance sheet.

Securely close your fiscal year while retaining the flexibility to ensure correct accounting data:

- Post prior-year entries and adjusting entries even though a fiscal year is closed. Both entry types are marked, making them easy to view and filter on.

Foreign Trade and Currency Management Maintain general ledger in two different currencies so you can view balances online and print financial reports for two currencies simultaneously.

Invoice a customer or a vendor in an unlimited number of currencies.

Manage entire customer and vendor accounts in a foreign currency.

Define an unlimited number of currencies and determine the way in which foreign currency amounts are rounded and posted.

Set up relational exchange rates in the format applicable in your country.

Traceability Transactions leave a complete audit trail, so even complex business transactions become transparent.

G/L registers record every entry made and where and when it originated.

View all G/L entries for all accounts or specific accounts from your Chart of Accounts, account cards and so on:

- Use the Navigate feature to locate all entries posted with the same document number and posting date. In the Navigate window you can see the type and number of entries made and can view them directly from the window. This is possible for both internal and external document numbers.

The Find function on any field and in any window lets you locate information, for example, specific document numbers.

The Change Log records all direct user changes to master data. Get a chronological list of all changes to any field in any table and see who made the changes.

Security and Business Rules Specify which personnel and roles may see which information using record-level security:

- Use mandatory filters on table data to ensure that certain roles only have permission to access the data you have specified. For example, a sales person may only see sales figures for their region or managers may only see budgetary amounts for their departments. This is only applicable for the SQL server option.

Automate procedures and policies in an organization by using business rules. Influence how your accounting is conducted and increase the consistency of data entry, and thereby data output.

" Business rules can be applied to individual accounts, account types, dimensions, VAT accounting and many other areas of Navision.

General Journals Use your general journals to post to g/l accounts, bank accounts, customer accounts and so on:

- Set up and unlimited number of journal batches, for example, per user or for specific purposes like corrections.

- Define rules for each individual batch, for example, you can assign a default balancing account and define rules for VAT calculation per journal batch.

Force documents to balance for each document type and document number before a journal can be posted.

Print a test report that highlights any corrections that need to be made before posting the journal.

Present your journals as you please. Using the Show/Hide function, you can select which fields are shown in the journal window.

Use recurring journals for frequent transactions, whether they are of fixed or variable amounts. You can also set an expiry date for when a series of recurring posts should end.

Use allocation keys to allocate an entry in a recurring journal to more than one account. Allocate by:

- Quantity

- Percentage

- Amount

Budgets Create and maintain budgets in an easily comprehendible matrix form.

Investigate budgetary performance using account schedules and specific budget reports.

Have as many budgets as you want and of any period length, with the level of detail necessary to direct and control your business. Attach an infinite number of dimensions to each budget entry.

Allocate budgets on total accounts, for example, on accounts where a monetary ceiling has been set but no specific expenditures have been identified as yet.

Create very specific 'sub-budgets' within an overall budget, such as a sales budget for a particular customer target group per department over a specified period.

Monitor how individual units are performing and compare performance with other units, previous periods and budgeted amounts using dimensions on budget entries.

Create budgets quickly and efficiently by copying budgets from previous periods to a new period using an adjustment factor:

The adjustment factor can be applied to both G/L entries and G/L budget entries.

Exporting budgets to Excel and importing adjusted budgets back into Navision gives you the flexibility to distribute your budgets easily in the form best suited to your organization.

Account Schedules

Create an unlimited number of unique, company-specific reports based on g/l data, budget data and dimensions data:

- Save reports and scrutinize them online using the drill-down feature.

- Specify rows using any accounts or account totals from your chart of accounts.

- Create formulas on rows and columns for on-the-spot calculations, so you don't need to import or recalculate total rows each time new entries have been created.

- Specify an unlimited number of columns. For example, you can easily compare G/L figures with budget figures using the Net Change, Formula, and Balance at Date column types.

- Use the Comparison Period Formula to compare figures for current periods and previous periods.

- Select budget and date filters, and choose whether to show amounts in your company's additional reporting currency.

Export your account schedules to Excel to make full use of Excel's visual and presentation capabilities.

Consolidation Consolidate financial statements for a series of business units from:

- Single database

- Other Navision databases

- Other programs.

Transfer from different accounting structures to your own by dimension or business units.

Ensure that financial statements in different currencies are consolidated trouble-free using Navision's well-developed exchanged rate functionality.

View the effects eliminations will have on the consolidated company using the Eliminations report prior to posting eliminations.

Ensure that you have set up consolidation procedures correctly using the Consolidation - Check Database report.

XBRL " Import unlimited numbers of taxonomies from public authorities, credit institutions, banks, and so on.

- Import both XBRL Specification 1 and Specification 2 taxonomies.

- View and export taxonomies in more than one language when supported by a multi-language taxonomy.

- View information attached to a taxonomy.

- Map taxonomy lines to any combination of general ledger accounts, using standard filters.

- View and print out an XBRL document file for appraisal before sending.

- Export XBRL-document that can then be sent as an e-mail.

Microsoft Exchange Server (min. version 5.5 with service pack 4) for E-Mail Logging for Microsoft Exchange.

Navision supports graphical 32-bit technology and genuine client server, multitasking environment. The following operating systems are supported:

Client 32-bit: Windows XP, Windows 2000, WIndows NT, and Windows 98

Server: Navision Database Server: Windows 2000, Windows NT, IBM AIX, IBM OS/400

Microsoft SQL Server Option for Navision: Any operating system supported by MS SQL Server 2000.

To obtain all of the above-mentioned features, the following granules are required:

• Basic General Ledger
• Budgets
• Basic Dimensions
• Advanced Dimensions
• Account Schedules
• Consolidation
• Multiple Currencies
• Allocations
• Change Log
• Basic XBRL