This ERP and Accounting platform is popular in the United States and if you plan to deploy it for your foreign subsidiary then this small publication is for you.
It has multicurrency support in transactions as well as in consolidated financial reporting (formerly FRx and now Microsoft Management Reporter). However there are nuances related to ‘ERP Localization’ concept or in other words where GP is localized and where is not. We helped numerous multinational companies to expand it to international branches and would like to share our experience with you. Let’s begin with ERP localization concept:
1. GP is localized in the sense of user interface translation and compliance in English speaking countries, Spanish speaking Americas, French speaking Quebec and in Arab countries. Compliance is probably more complicated component and we recommend verify the status about your country with Microsoft office in the region or in US. It is not localized in Brazil and continental Europe. However you may still find customers on old versions in France, Germany, Poland, Holland and other countries. General advice is to avoid problems with local tax authorities and if you need strong ERP functionality in the international location where GP is not localized then keep doing your homework
2. Investment and Trading groups. This is perfect sector where GP could be in place for the whole group of companies. The reason is simple as you normally are outside of such compliance related transactions as sales and purchasing invoices. Here you can use just General Ledger entries in the foreign currency. In the following paragraph we will give you consolidation scenario assuming that you have offices in London, Tokyo, Beijing and Singapore
3. Trading office in the foreign country needs mostly GL and some office expenses (could be done in Excel as regulation and reporting to the government usually do not care about AP). Consider creation of the company on your SQL Server hosted in US headquarters and open it to international users via Citrix. As trading is happening in local currency then make it ‘functional’ currency in Great Plains
4. Consolidated P&L and Balance Sheet. Both FRx and Microsoft Management Reporter support multicurrency and have consolidation tools such as Reporting Tree. They can pull time related exchange rates directly from GP
Let’s now take and answer popular question related to multinational corporations and Great Plains:
Q. We are in mining business meaning that we need certain ERP functionality. So far we had locations in Canada, Argentina and South Africa where GP is available. But recently we acquired mine in Siberia Russian Federation where GP is not available. We cannot switch on the corporate level to another accounting platform. What would be your recommendations?A. Mining business is exposed to ERP and MRP features and those are regulated in the sense of taxing and government reporting. We had couple of requests about Great Plains in Russia in your industry. Final solution was to deploy local accounting package to shield corporation from local audit and translate GL entries into the GP via Integration Manager
Q. We understand the issues with ERP Localization but it seems that we are not exposed. We need to have client interface to be translated into Russian language. Is it doable?A. Yes. Likely you need just several forms for documents entries. The simplest way is in Modifier module where you read exact English string and find it in Modifier and translate into Russian. You have to have Customization Site Enabler license
Q. We are Chicago based corporation and now we are opening location in Brazil. ERP seems to be needed. What are your recommendations?A. In Brazil there is SPED requirement which means Public Digital Bookkeeping. There are advantages as SPED brings transparency in corporate and tax records as well as eliminates the necessity of frequent audit. But you have to report in XML format to SPED servers (federal, state and municipal). GP is not ready for that sort of things. What we have seen is company implemented SAP Business One and exported GL entries into CSV text files. These files were brought into Great Plains via Integration Manager
For additional information, please feel free to call us 1-866-528-0577 or 1-630-961-5918 (this number works for international customers) or email us help@albaspectrum.com We serve you USA/Canada nationwide via remote support (web sessions and phone/Skype conferences). Local service is available in Western Michigan, Chicagoland, Southern California (LA, Orange County and San Diego) and Houston area of the state of Texas
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