Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail Headquarters

Release Notes

Microsoft Dynamics® AX for Retail Headquarters

March 2012

Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence. Microsoft Dynamics works like and with familiar Microsoft software, automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship and supply chain processes in a way that helps you drive business success.

U.S. and Canada Toll Free 1-888-477-7989

Worldwide +1-701-281-6500

This document is provided "as-is". Information and views expressed in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, may change without notice. You bear the risk of using it.

Some examples depicted herein are provided for illustration only and are fictitious. No real association or connection is intended or should be inferred.

This document does not provide you with any legal rights to any intellectual property in any Microsoft product. You may copy and use this document for your internal, reference purposes.

Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics,Excel, SQL Server, andthe Microsoft Dynamics Logoare trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Table of contents

Introduction

Installation notes

Microsoft SQL Server

Licensing

Retail Headquarters

Import demo data

Import data from other sources

Set up payment processing

Known issues

Bar code setups

Company duplication

Currencies

Customers

Customizations

Dimensions

Discounts

Distribution

Documentation

Enterprise Portal reports

Financial dimensions

Gift cards

Income Account and Expense Account operations

Item import

Installation

Jobs

Locale in functionality profile

Loyalty

Network Load Balancing

Number sequences

Payment processing

Performance

Receipt numbers

Receipt printing

Replication and Retail Scheduler

Retail POS

Rounding

Sales orders

Storage dimensions

Statement posting

Taxes

Tender types

Trade agreements

Upgrade

Release Notes for Retail HeadquartersTable of contents 1

Introduction

This document provides late-breaking or other information that supplements the Microsoft Dynamics® AX for Retail documentation. It contains notes and tips about installing Microsoft Dynamics® AX for Retail Headquarters and provides the list of known issues with Retail Headquarters, together with suggestions for working around known issues (where available).

Release Notes for Retail HeadquartersIntroduction 1

Installation notes

This section provides some basic information about installing Retail Headquarters. For complete installation instructions, system requirements and prerequisites, and deployment checklists, see the following documents:

Deployment and Installation Guide. This guide is installed with Retail Headquarters and is typically located in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX\50\Client\Bin folder, in the subfolder for the appropriate locale.
Implementation Guide for PCI Compliance. This guide is installed with Microsoft Dynamics® AX for Retail POS and is typically located in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX\50\Retail POS folder, in the subfolder for the appropriate locale.

Important

Deployment is a complex process with many interdependent steps. Do not proceed with deployment without reading the documentation.
Install all prerequisites before installing one of the Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail programs.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Roll-up 7 is a prerequisite for Retail Headquarters.

Microsoft SQL Server

The version of Microsoft® SQLServer® to deploy depends on the amount of data that your organization anticipates. For example, the database size limit for SQL Server 2008 Express is 4GB and the size limit for SQL Server 2008 Express R2 is 10 GB. Organizations with large amounts of data should choose SQL Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise.

SQLServer must be installed on the following computers in a Retail Headquarters deployment:

The head-office database server. This is typically Microsoft® SQLServer 2005 or Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Standard or Enterprise, deployed as part of the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 deployment. For Retail Headquarters deployment, verify that the settings for this instance to ensure PCI compliance. The settings required for PCI compliance are described in the Deployment and Installation Guide.
Computers where Retail Store Connect is installed and configured. These are typically instances of SQLServer 2008 Express Edition that are installed specifically for use with the Retail Store Connect message database. SQL Server 2008 Standard and Enterprise are also supported. On these computers, the instance of SQLServer must be enabled for remote connections, and special SQL logins must be created.

Note that computers on which Retail Store Connect is installed (but not configured) as a prerequisite for Retail Headquarters do not need an instance of SQLServer Express.

Important

If you intend to upgrade any instance of SQL Server 2005 to SQLServer 2008 for use in the Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail deployment, complete the upgrade prior to installing Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail.

For an existing deployment of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 that uses SQLServer 2005, upgrade is not required. If you choose to upgrade, complete the upgrade prior to installing Retail Headquarters. Completing the upgrade includes not only upgrading the software but also updating the Microsoft Dynamics AX server configuration to point to the new instance of SQLServer 2008 and restarting the AOS service.

Licensing

A license is required to use Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail. For more information, see the Deployment and Installation Guide.

Important

If you have been using a different license file for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, such as a demo license file, do not import the license file for Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail unless it includes all of the modules that have been used under the other license. Microsoft Dynamics AX will not work properly if the database contains tables and fields for modules that are not included in the license.
If you intend to use demo data with Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail, you must have a demo license. For more information about using demo data, see "Import demo data" later in this section.

Retail Headquarters

Use the following tips to help avoid some common installation issues and to help make deployment of Retail Headquarters more efficient.

Changes have been made to the seed data since the June 2010 release. To view details about these changes, follow these steps to display the upgrade script:

In AOT, expand Classes, expand ReleaseUpdateDB41_Retail, and then double-click upgradeSeedData().

TransAutomclient.dll is a prerequisite for Retail Scheduler and must be installed on the AOS computer and on each client computer where Retail Scheduler will be used to send jobs. To install this file, install Retail Store Connect. If you do not intend to use a particular instance of Retail Store Connect, you can install it without configuring it.
Stop the AOS service before installing Retail Headquarters, and then restart the service.
Compiling Microsoft Dynamics AX after installing Retail Headquarters takes considerable time and might appear to stop responding. Be patient. The same is true for importing the demo data.
Confirm that the application has compiled successfully by verifying that the Retail modules show up in the navigation pane. If not, try the following:

Reimport the Microsoft Dynamics AX license file.
Resynchronize the database.
Restart the AOS.
Restart Microsoft Dynamics AX.

After importing demo data, you must enable store-specific replication by inserting the default table distribution. Click Retail SchedulerSetup Distribution Table distribution Functions Insert default setup. For information about other required steps, see "Complete the Retail Headquarters installation" in the Deployment and Installation Guide.

Import demo data

Sample data is included with this release so that you can explore the software. Instructions for importing this data are provided in the Deployment and Implementation Guide.

Note that importing the demo data takes considerable time and might appear to stop responding.

If you are importing the demo data (in a test environment only), confirm that the demo data has imported successfully by verifying that five stores exist in the database. Go to Retail Headquarters Setup Store Stores. If five stores are not present, reimport the demo data.

Only import demo data into a newly created company.

Important

If you use demo data, you must have a demo license.

Import data from other sources

If you are importing or otherwise using data from LS Retail or another payment application, you must ensure that no sensitive payment data is brought into Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail databases. Failure to do this could result in noncompliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard.

Upgrade from LS Retail is not supported.

Set up payment processing

The EMV-Canada configuration option on the EFT Service tab of the POS Hardware profile form is not supported in this release, and selecting this option could lead to processing failures.

Never use real credit card numbers in a test or preview environment.

Be sure the service object matches the PIN pad that you are using on each register; version mismatches might cause performance issues.

To obtain a Microsoft Dynamics Online account, visit

To manage your existing Dynamics Online account, visit

For more information about setting up payment processing, see "At the head office: Set up payment processing and hardware devices" in the Implementation Guide for PCI Compliance. Also see "Tender types" in the Retail Headquarters User's Guide.

Release Notes for Retail HeadquartersInstallation notes 1

Known issues

In every product cycle, the product team, Beta testers, and early adopters discover issues with the product that, for a variety of reasons, must be postponed to future releases. In addition, because this product is a recent acquisition for Microsoft, the product includes settings for features that are under consideration for future releases but not implemented in this release.

The known issues for this release of Retail Headquarters are described in this section, together with any available suggestions for working around these issues. Some "not implemented" features are also described. (For more of these, refer to the Retail Headquarters User's Guide.) The categories of issues are presented in alphabetical order.

Bar code setups

For bar code setups of types other than UPC and EAN, bar code masks cannot be assigned. Bar codes of other types can still be created manually, but you will need to verify that they are in the proper format.

Company duplication

If you duplicate a company in Microsoft Dynamics AX, you must update the following profiles before you can use the new company:

Update the company name in the Retail Transaction Service profile. See "Configure the Retail Transaction Service profile" in the Deployment and Installation Guide.
Open each AOS profile and then save it again. This will renew the connection string with the new company name for all instances of Retail Store Connect.See "Set up an AOS profile" in the Deployment and Installation Guide.

Currencies

If you are using Retail POS, see "Tender types" later in this section andthe Release Notes for Retail POS.

Customers

The customer number sequence in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 must not be set to manual. If it is, a customer with a blank customer number can be created in Retail POS, leading to an Unable to save customer error message.
The default customer setting is used only for statement posting.

Customizations

Partner or third-party customized .dll files must be signed.

Dimensions

Transactions recognize store dimensions, but not POS terminal dimensions.

Discounts

Only retail items can be added to discounts – standard items cannot. (See the Item type field on the Retail tab of the Items form.)

Distribution

Do not create assortments and store groups with the same name. Distribution errors will result.
Items in a special group are only sent to stores if the special group is part of an assortment. For example, if you create a special group just as part of a discount, the items in the special group are not sent when you send the discount to the stores.

Documentation

Help files are not available in this release. Clicking theHelp button in any Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail form or dialog box has no effect.For documentation, see the PDF documents included with this release.

In the Headquarters User's Guide, in the "Functionality profiles" section, the description of the Staff card logon check box should be: "This feature is not implemented in this release and may not appear in future releases."

In the Headquarters User's Guide, in the "Inquiries" section, note the following:

The list of inquiries should not include "POS batches and Z reports" and "X reports."
The section "View an X report" should be removed. This feature is not implemented in this release and may not appear in future releases.

Enterprise Portal reports

Permissions for individual user accounts must be set up in SQL Server Reporting Services. Otherwise, Enterprise Portal will not display reports.

Financial dimensions

Only store-level financial dimensions are honored in retail transactions.

Gift cards

Gift cards are turned on by default.However, since local laws vary, partners should make sure that gift cards work in accordance with local regulations.For example, some locales have additional sales tax requirements. Customization may be required, or you can use a configuration key to turn gift cards off.

For information about configuration keys, see "Set configuration keys" inthe Deployment and Installation Guide.

Income Account and Expense Account operations

Tax is applied to the Income Account and Expense Account operations in Retail POS only when the Apply U.S. sales tax and use tax rules check box is not selected on the Sales tax tab of the General ledger parameters form (General Ledger Setup Parameters). When tax is applied (outside the United States), the tax setting for the ledger account that is associated with the operation is used. These behaviors are by design and are included in this document only because they are not documented elsewhere.
The message lines in the Income/Expense account form (Retail Headquarters Setup Store Stores Setup Income/Expense account) do not appear in the line items in Retail POS.

Item import

Before you import item combinations from a Microsoft® Office Excel® spreadsheet, you must link the dimension groups for the items to the item import hierarchies for the vendor. To do this, complete the following steps for each dimension group used by the vendor:

Click Retail Headquarters Item/Order creation Item import hierarchy setup.

Click New, and then select the vendor.
Type a name in one or more of the Hierarchy levelcolumns. If you use more than one column, you must start with Hierarchy level 1, and then fill inHierarchy level 2, and so on. Note that each dimension group must have a unique hierarchy scheme.
Right-click in the Retail group column, click Go to the Main Table Form, and then select the retail group that you want to associate with the dimension group for this entry.
On the Standard item tab, in the Dimension group box, select the dimension group for this hierarchy.
Return to the Item import hierarchy setup form, and then, in the Retail group column, select the appropriate retail group.
In the item import spreadsheet, in the Hierarchy level columns, type the name or names for the hierarchy levels that you used.

Installation

In a multi-store environment, if any of the Retail Store Connect computers are running Windows XP, POSReady, or Windows Server 2003, you must disable IPsec on all Retail Store Connect computers. For more information, see "Set up Retail Store Connect profiles" in the Deployment and Installation Guide.

Jobs

Old preactions must be deleted manually:

Click Retail scheduler Scheduler job.
Press CTRL+N to create a new job.
In the name column,type C-1030.
On the Object setup tab, under Application object, in the Type box, make sure Class is selected.
In the Name box, select DRMDeleteLogs.
Click Functions, and then click Run Retail Scheduler job directly.

For more information about jobs, preactions, and actions, see "Jobs" in the Retail Headquarters User's Guide.

Locale in functionality profile

If you change the country/region locale in a functionality profile (the ISO field on the General tabof the functionality profile) and send the change to the store, Retail Transaction Service might not work properly.

Loyalty

See the Release Notes for Retail POS.

Network Load Balancing

Network Load Balancing will stop if Retail Store Connect or Retail Transaction Service is stopped or not working properly on any of the NLB nodes. For additional information about NLB, see "Network Load Balancing" in the Deployment and Installation Guide.

Number sequences

The Terminal number and Staff number fields on the Number sequences tab of the Stores form are not implemented in this release and may be removed from future releases.

Payment processing

Default templates for credit card receipts have some formatting issues. To correct these, use the Form Layout Designer (Retail Headquarters Setup POS Retail POS Form layout Designer).

Performance

Update method

If you are using the Cost accounting module, changing the update method can increase performance: