Great Plains DOS Support ? Notes for Consultant

Great Plains Accounting, accounting package for mid-size and small companies was in its peak of popularity back in earlier 1990th. It first had DOS interface, later on migrated to classic Windows version (remember earlier event driven Windows and its strange and at the same time revolutionary programming model ? guys who remember Borland C++ and Microsoft C++). As each product has its life time ? it is almost over for Great Plains Accounting ? Great Plains Software was purchased by Microsoft and incorporated into its business systems subdivision: Microsoft Business Solutions.

Support for Great Plains Accounting was discontinued several years ago. Great Plains Accounting is btrieve based application and typical installation has GPDATA (with all the database files in) and GPCODE (with executable code ? this code is copied over the network and is executed on each workstation). Typical problems we see with GPA:

1. No Techknowledge database for customers. In the case of Great Plains or Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise ? customer can do self-support. You need to login to Customer Source and open techknowledge database and try to get your problem found there with the solution. Great Plains Accounting techknowledge database is not available for former GPA customer ? you should call to your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner to have them access to proprietary information.

2. Old Hardware. Great Plains Accounting typical system sits on Windows NT 4.0 (sometimes on Windows NT 3.5 or Novell). It was probably installed 5 or more years ago and sits in the very old computer hardware. You may expect (and we see it with our old-timers GPA customers) hard disk failures and RAM failures. We have to do regular fixes ? simply reinstalling either code base or database portions or both.

3. Workstation Locks and crashes ? btrieve origin of the system architecture uses brtieve files to store current processes status (batch posting, for example) in the file, controlled by posting workstation. In the case of the crash you often see the error message, like: "Unable to access btrieve file for transaction recovery. Must run Btrieve first." Multiple scenarios might be applied for recovery. In this exact case you have to delete of rename BTR.TRN file to BTR.OLD - this file controls posting process and will be recreated next time you post

We (and Microsoft Business Solutions itself) strongly recommend you to migrate from Great Plains Accounting to Microsoft Great Plains standard 8.0 (budget version) or Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 Happy supporting! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ? USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving Chicago, California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Australia, UK, Canada, Continental Europe, Russia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK

---

Microsoft CRM in Latin America: Implementation, Customization, Support ? Overview for Consultant

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is present several years on the... Read More

How to Make Own CMS

Every day millions of new web documents emerge on the... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Accounting/ERP Implementation ? Finance Industry Customization Example

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very generic accounting application... Read More

Corporate ERP: Standard vs. Rich functionality ? Microsoft Great Plains

Traditionally we were considering functionally rich systems, such as SAP,... Read More

Software Tools To Help Your Business Sell More

Sales are all about leverage, because there is only so... Read More

Free Software for Newbies and Web Developers

Here is some free software tools to help you build... Read More

Microsoft Navision Database Selection: C/SIDE or MS SQL Server - Overview For IT Specialist

There are certain pluses and minuses in both cases and... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains implementation: Restaurants Supply Chain Management Example

Microsoft Great Plains serves majority of US based horizontal and... Read More

An Easy Way to Deal with Email Viruses and Worms

If you feel intimidated when someone tries to teach you... Read More

Preventive Maintenance Software Companies

Several software companies design programs for preventive maintenance. Most of... Read More

Microsoft Business Solutions Partner ? How to Launch New IT Consulting Practice

In the new era of internet marketing the problem of... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains: Dexterity vs. eConnect ? FAQ

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics/eEnterprise... Read More

What To Do When Windows Wont Boot

When Windows fails to boot it is normally caused by... Read More

Is Your Computer Sick?

Viruses and spyware usually show up on your computer one... Read More

Microsoft CRM Lotus Notes Domino Connector FAQ

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino, being... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains eCommerce: overview for developer

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains was designed back in the... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains in Metal Distribution: Implementation & Customization ? Consultant Overview

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains serves to the wide spectrum... Read More

SSH (SCP) Send Files from Windows to Your Linux Box

Not all of us have the luxury of working both... Read More

Implementing ERP for Large Publicly Traded Corporation ? Microsoft Great Plains

We would like first emphasize the change in the paradigm.... Read More

Windows Screensavers Explained

In this article you will find some background information about... Read More

Rapid Application Development - Is it Really a Need of Today?

Rapid Application Development (RAD) is a software development methodology. In... Read More

25 Things Mapping Software Can Do For You

1. With mapping software you can create a report that... Read More

Introduction To ISDN, Part II

In the previous ISDN article, we looked at how and... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Furniture & Fixtures ? Implementation & Customization Highlights

Microsoft Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics / eEnterprise... Read More

Spyware: What It Is and How to Combat It

Spyware is software or hardware installed on a computer without... Read More

The XP Firewall Isnt Enough

You might think you don't need a firewall... Read More

Microsoft CRM Customization Secrets ? Second Edition

This article is for advanced Microsoft CRM SDK C# developers.... Read More

eStore Advantage ? Extending Microsoft eConnect for MBS Great Plains

eStore Advantage allows front-office applications to communicate with back-office business... Read More

PHP On-The-Fly!

IntroductionPHP can be used for a lot of different things,... Read More

Software Piracy - Global Increase

Pirated software is on the increase and now accounts for... Read More

Is Your Family Protected?

When you think... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as CRM

If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it for... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Customization Tools Evolution ? Overview for Consultant

When Great Plains Software introduced the first graphical accounting application... Read More