Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Fiscal Settings and Goal Management

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Источник: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/...anagement.aspx
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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 had the capability of defining the fiscal setting for an organization but there was a limitation that this could only be defined once and cannot be modified thereafter. Primarily the fiscal settings were used in CRM 4.0 to set salesperson quotas. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 the fiscal settings feature is revamped and it now provides user the capability of modifying fiscal settings multiple times. With deprecation of the Quotas in CRM 2011 Goal Management is one of the primary consumers for fiscal settings. This blog post explains how the fiscal periods for the organization can be set and how it interacts with the goal management.

How to configure the fiscal settings for organization

Fiscal settings can be configured by navigating to Settings-> Business Management -> Fiscal Year Settings. The following dialogue provides the options for setting values for fiscal start date, fiscal period type and various display formats. Note that as opposed to CRM 4.0 where the fiscal settings were absent in an organization until set, CRM 2011 defaults fiscal period to quarterly starting January 1. Also the various input options for the fiscal settings are now context dependent which prevents user from entering conflicting values.



Fig: CRM 2011 Fiscal setting dialogue with defaulted values

Following are the various fields required for organization fiscal settings:

• Start Date: When the fiscal year is going to start from. This date typically would mark the start of the financial year in sales organization.
• Fiscal Period Template: What is the fiscal period type? Possible options are Annually, Semiannually, Quarterly, Monthly, 4- Week period. Once the start date and period type is defined the system can calculate the start and end dates of fiscal periods for various fiscal years.

Fiscal Display options help user to define the display format for various fiscal settings. For example consider the following monthly fiscal settings with Start Date as April 10. Note that we have selected the “Name Based on” value to “End Date” and “Fiscal Period” drop down has the options specific to Monthly fiscal period template.



Fig: Fiscal dialogue having Monthly fiscal period starting 10th April.

Goals and Fiscal settings

Fiscal periods are tied closely to goal management. Sales people usually have the quarterly sales targets, Customer service representatives need to achieve their goals for the case resolutions and so on. When the new Goal form is launched, Goal is defaulted to the current fiscal period automatically. Because for current fiscal period there are fixed start and end dates, the goal start and end dates are also displayed in read only mode.

For example if we have the monthly fiscal settings are per the fig above and user clicks new goal form, following fiscal values are defaulted on goal form (on 31 Dec 2010)



Fig: New goal form defaulting dates to current fiscal period.

FiscalPeriod: December (Based on fiscal period display value “Month Name”)

FiscalYear: FY2011(Based on Prefix:FY, YearFormat:YYYY, NameBasedOn:EndDate(on 31 Dec 2010))

From (Goal Start Date): 12/10/2010 (Based on 4/10/2010 fiscal start date)

To (Goal End Date): 1/9/2010 (Based on Goal Start Date above and monthly fiscal period type)

Updating Fiscal settings for organization

Fiscal settings in MSCRM 2011 can be updated multiple times by using the same fiscal dialogue shown above and hence provides the supports for scenarios arising from mergers/acquisitions , partnership changes, financial restructuring etc. There can be goals existing in the CRM system which are already using the old fiscal settings. To better handle situations arising from fiscal changes which can lead to data inconsistency, MSCRM goal management offers the notification and realignment mechanism. For following examples consider the goal created with fiscal settings for the current (default) fiscal period. FiscalPeriod: December, FiscalYear: FY2011, From (Goal Start Date): 12/10/2010, To (Goal End Date): 1/9/2010.

Case 1: Fiscal period template remains same but the start dates changes:

CRM system administrator moves the fiscal start date ahead by 5 days i.e. from 4/10/2010 to 4/15/2010. In this case the fiscal period template remains the same but the start date has changed. Data in the goal record still retains the old values for all fiscal and date fields. When this goal record is opened the following warning message is displayed on the goal form to notify the fiscal settings change and provides user the option to realign.



Message: “The fiscal settings of your organization have changed since the time this goal was changed. You might want to realign to the new fiscal settings. ”



Fig: Fiscal change warning when the fiscal start date is changed.

Note that the “Align with Fiscal Period” ribbon button is now enabled for this goal record. Clicking this updates the new start and end dates for the goal which is now according to the current (new) fiscal settings. Realignment is optional for the goal manager based on the business need. Note that even after realignment goal fiscal period and year still remain same as there is only the change in the date. Also the warning message is now gone.



Fig: Goal form after the realigning the fiscal period.

Case 2: Fiscal period template changes:

CRM system administrator changes the fiscal period type from monthly to quarterly (3 months). In this case also the existing data is retained as is and there is a warning message on the goal.

Message: “The fiscal settings of your organization have changed since the time this goal was changed. You might want to realign to the new fiscal settings. ”



The goal manager on seeing this warning can either choose to switch to the new quarterly fiscal settings by changing the fiscal period to quarterly as shown in the above figure. Else he can convert this goal into the custom period goal by clicking on the “Goal Period Type” radio button and can retain the goal start and end date and also get rid of the fiscal change warning.

Fiscal settings upgrade

If the fiscal settings are configured for an organization in CRM 4.0 these are retained in CRM 2011 as is, otherwise the fiscal settings are defaulted to quarterly with January 1 as the start date. Additionally the existing CRM 4.0 quotas are also upgraded to CRM 2011 but the new quotas cannot be created as these are deprecated in favor of goal management.

Thanks,

Hemant Gaur







Источник: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/crm/archive/...anagement.aspx