One of the biggest dangers is failing to keep up with the expectations of current and prospective customers. In 2000, the Fortune 500 top 30 featured major players of the day such as Sears, Enron, Compaq, Lucent, MCI WorldCom, and Kmart Holdings. Being great at a point in time doesn’t mean perpetual greatness. Steve Jobs … Read more
Get your on-premise Dynamics GP or SL system safe and secure on the Crestwood Cloud. It’s secure, accessible, easier than you think, and can save you money. Before Covid-19, flexible work arrangements were a luxury. Today, they are essential in order to keep employees and families healthy and safe. Many businesses are realizing however, that … Read more
Crestwood Associates has been using Microsoft Teams for a while now, but I still get calls and questions every day about where something is located. Teams is great for collaborating, meetings, etc., but even I forget where something is at times. This article is going to show you tips and tricks for searching in Teams. … Read more
When your business relies on technology, it is good to know what you’re doing or at least have someone handy in IT that can help. I recently conducted an online Teams training, to which the client requested that the meeting be recorded so that it can be shared with other team members who were unable … Read more
Did you know that every time you add an image to your Word document, it automatically generates “Alt Text?” Do you know what Alt Text refers to? Alternative Text or Alternative Descriptions are written copy that describes the image. This text also helps screen-reading tools describe images to visually impaired readers. It will appear in … Read more
With so many of us working from home, what would have been a conversation over a cubicle, now requires a scheduled meeting. Here are some tips for getting more out of your Microsoft Outlook Calendar and how to get a meeting on the right calendars, fast! 1. Quickly View Calendar without Switching Screens Tired of … Read more
Crestwood employees have been working from home for quite some time now, but it’s an adjustment for us too. For me, I’m not used to having kids around 24 x 7. Therefore, that adds an interesting challenge to the day. No matter your situation, we want to help make things easier for you. We have … Read more
Update from January 2020 Post: No Better Way to Collaborate Other than Chat Microsoft is eliminating the ability to initiate a chat directly with a co-author of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint document. This change will take affect mid-April (across the web, Windows, and Mac versions of Microsoft Office). Moving forward, users can communicate with others … Read more
If you’ve built your business from the ground up, it’s likely you started with accounting software—odds are, you started with QuickBooks. Most businesses do. However, there comes a point when QuickBooks no longer keeps up with your growing business, and you may hear that your next step is enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. There is … Read more
Now that “shelter in place” has swept the nation to curve the spread of the Covid-19 virus, most companies are adapting the Work from Home (WFH) model, allowing their employees to continue to work during the shutdown. Working from home is nothing new for Crestwood employees. This model was adapted almost a decade ago. I … Read more
When you purchase from a supplier, they expect to be paid accurately, reliably, and in a timely manner. Driven in part by supplier demands and expectations, many organizations are looking for opportunities to automate their processes. While automation delivers a wide range of benefits, enhancing speed of payment and reducing the likelihood that exceptions and … Read more
Change is hard. Shocking, right? Say you’re trying to get healthy. You go out and buy workout gear, get excited about your future self, and you make it to the gym for a day. You wake up the next morning sore—barely able to make it up the stairs—but are still willing to push through. A … Read more
It’s hard enough to manage a sales staff. It’s on the sales manager to set quotas, deal with egos, track results, enforce policies, coach reps, and lay the groundwork for success. But even when things are working out well, you still have more work on your plate. Something we discussed in a recent blog, it … Read more
In today’s business world, it pays to be in the know—and it pays to be in the know now. Any delay in reporting is money going down the drain, any time spent compiling these reports is time that your staff could be spending helping the rest of your business, and any time these reports have … Read more
In the words of twentieth-century journalist, satirist, and writer of aphorisms H.L. Mencken: “strike an average between what a woman thinks of her husband a month before she marries him and what she thinks of him a year afterward, and you will have the truth about him.” One could say something similar about their business … Read more
Microsoft has long been a leader in business solutions. Their Dynamics solutions; such as, Dynamics GP, Dynamics SL, and Dynamics CRM, have gone through many changes over the years to continue to bring you improved technology. Many customers have been wondering if their current Dynamics solution will be supported in the future as Microsoft has … Read more
It’s awards season—a time when everyone turns on the television to see if their favorite movie, television show, album, or musical took home the big prize for successes in the past year. While we can’t say whether Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or Joker will take home the prize for best picture, we can … Read more
I’m writing this with the Day 1 Keynote music still ringing in my ears. Wow – what a presentation. Acumatica 2020 R1 is going to have a lot of exciting new features (as always) but this felt special in some way. Maybe it’s because this is the first Summit since EQT Partners acquired Acumatica in … Read more
Have you ever used Track Changes in Microsoft Word, or received comments on your spreadsheets in Excel, or even PowerPoint, then questioned why a certain change was made? You try to contact the person who made the edit, but can’t locate them, they’re either in a meeting, or on vacation. So, now you’re stuck until … Read more
I was asked to write a blog on new features of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2019 release. Since I’m not an expert, I turned to someone who is: Crestwood’s Mary Lenehan. Mary has been working with Dynamics GP for over 20 years, conducts all our year-end training seminars, and presents at GPUG conferences every year. … Read more
I have noticed a ton of new videos, tutorials, documentation, and overall training materials coming out lately for Dynamics 365. Seems that the New Year is going to be booming for Dynamics 365! Here are a couple of recommended and free training places. Crestwood First, don’t forget, Crestwood has a YouTube channel with a playlist … Read more
2019 is coming to an end. However, leading up to the end of the year, there’s a holiday coming up, one that your employees may be heading home for. “Home” means different things to different people. For some, this may mean a few miles down the road, for others, it’s a cross-country flight away. Unfortunately … Read more
Sales keeps the business running, but who keeps the sales team running? The role of a sales manager is by no means an easy one. Whether you moved from rep to management or saw this as the ideal opportunity to move up the ladder, you know that managing a sales team is stressful. Just because … Read more
Hopefully by now, you’ve upgraded to Acumatica 2019 R2! Acumatica is routinely adding new features and improving on current functions. Below are three quick how-to videos for previously added functions; one is exporting Generic Inquiry Parameters to Excel and Pivot Tables, another is Landed Costs and finally GDPR Compliance for Acumatica. Stay tuned for more short … Read more