Let me start out by saying congratulations on your decision to work with Dynamics NAV. When I started working with Dynamics NAV (formerly known as Navision) back in 1999, Dynamics NAV was nothing more than an accounting system out of Denmark. After a couple of releases, acquisition by Microsoft, and a couple more releases, Dynamics NAV has become a full ERP (enterprise resource planning) software with rich functionalities. With every release, we see improvements in the technical aspect as well as the functionality aspect. And they're not done yet.
At the time of writing, Dynamics NAV's installation base is 110,000 companies. No other ERP software for the small and medium-sized market comes close to that number.
In addition, Dynamics NAV has a wide range of add-on solutions available. Most of these add-ons are built directly within the Dynamics NAV environment with the same user interface. So, using these add-ons, your company will not need to learn any other new software.
One of the main selling points of Dynamic NAV from the very beginning is the ability to customize it exactly the way you run your business. Because of its flexibility, you can find a lot of tutorials and explanations on how to develop specific tasks, but not a lot of tutorials on how to create a project from scratch.
To take advantage of the flexibility that's built into Dynamics NAV, a deep understanding of the standard application is required. Just because you're able to completely rewrite Dynamics NAV does not mean you should. Without knowing what you have out of the box, you may end up creating a function that's already part of the standard system, wasting your valuable time and resources.
Chapter 1, Exploring Microsoft Dynamics NAV – An Introduction, introduces you to what an ERP is and what you can expect from Dynamics NAV. It introduces all the functional areas found in Dynamics NAV 2016 and the different environments available, such as the Windows client, the web client, the SharePoint framework, or web services. For the nostalgic, we have also included details on the history of Dynamics NAV.
Chapter 2, What's New in NAV 2016?, gives an overview of the changes made within the application. Dynamics NAV 2016 introduces quite a few new features, that is, new functionalities and tools available for the end user, such as the improvements that can be made to the Windows client or the assembly management feature. The chapter also covers development and IT changes.
Chapter 3, Dynamics NAV – General Considerations, is all about the Dynamics NAV structure, its data model, how information flows, how posting routines works, how users can navigate through their data, why everything leads to accounting, and how data integrity is approached.
Knowing the Dynamics NAV philosophy on how things are done is important for everyone. It is important for users because they need to know how to work with Dynamics NAV and also need to be aware of the consequences of what they do; it is also important for consultants, analysts, and developers because they need to use the same structures and the same way to make information flow when developing new functionalities.
Chapter 4, The Implementation Process (from the Reseller), explains the meaning of implementation and covers different methodologies that can be applied while implementing Dynamics NAV. Several people may get involved in an implementation process, each one playing their own role and performing different jobs. This chapter also covers the phases and tasks needed to complete a Dynamics NAV implementation, from presales to deployment.
Chapter 5, The Implementation Process on the Customer Side, explains what is expected from the company's team (users, key users, and project leader), and how to deal with the change that the new ERP will make for everyone in the company. For a really successful implementation of Dynamics NAV, the company that NAV has been implemented for has to actively participate in the project.
Chapter 6, Migrating Data, covers the tools that can be used to import data into Dynamics NAV, such as RapidStart services or XMLports. Companies may be new to Dynamics NAV, but they are usually not new companies. They have been working for a while and they have all kinds of data, such as their customers, vendors, items, and accounting information.
This chapter also explains which kind of data is commonly migrated to Dynamics NAV and the strategies used to migrate it. With a step-by-step example, the chapter enables you to migrate master data, open entries, historical data, and open documents.
Chapter 7, Upgrading Microsoft Dynamics NAV, explains the migration process from Versions 3.xx, 4.xx, 5.xx, 2009, and 2013. Upgrading to a different version of Dynamics NAV is not a "Next-Next-Finish" process. It is a complete project that has to be planned and executed carefully.
We will explain the steps that have to be followed for all the versions and the tools that are out there to help us get through the whole process.
Chapter 8, Development Considerations, covers the main development considerations that should be taken into account when developing for Dynamics NAV. This includes a deep explanation of the data model principles in Dynamics NAV and how the posting processes are designed. It also includes explanations about where and how to write customized code.
Almost every Dynamics NAV implementation implies development. The customized code must fit inside the application's standard code and it should look as if it were part of the standard. This makes it easier for the user to understand how customized modules work and for partners to support them.
Chapter 9, Functional Changes in Existing Implementations, explains how to handle functional changes in existing implementations with a set of four examples. After working with Dynamics NAV for a while, companies may ask for functional changes on their implementations, such as adding some extra developments or starting to use an existing functionality. Some extra things have to be taken into account when dealing with such projects.
Chapter 10, Data Analysis and Reporting, provides an overview of the tools available to analyze Dynamics NAV data, both inside and outside the application, such as the use of filters and FlowFilters, statistics, charts, existing reports, analysis views, account schedules, or how to extract data from Dynamics NAV. Data analysis and reporting is an important part of the management of a company.
This chapter also includes a report development section that is meant to explain the anatomy of reports, to show how to define your dataset, and to show how the visual layout is designed.
Chapter 11, Debugging, covers debugging in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Conditional breakpoints, debug other user sessions, and debug C/AL code in the RTC client instead of incomprehensible C# code. All these features will convert the debugging experience into a happy experience.
Chapter 12, Popular Reporting Options with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, explains what other popular options you can utilize with Dynamics NAV. There is a standard NAV reporting tool, but with the advances in reporting technology, such as BI, Excel, and so on, there are a lot of other options you can utilize to have your Dynamics NAV data come alive.
To successfully follow the examples in this book, you will need to install Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016.
This book is meant for Dynamics NAV implementation consultants, project managers, and developers who want to get a deeper view of what Dynamics NAV can offer.
It is also meant for Dynamics NAV developers who want to learn more about the whole application.
And finally, this book may be useful to IT managers of all kinds of companies that are considering the implementation of Dynamics NAV in their organizations, to fully understand what to expect and how to accomplish it.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "The Customer table is the master data table for the Sales and Marketing area."
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Not all items in the Navigate tab are secondary master data".
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