Hey Sherlock Holmes: a few tips that help you resolve error messages

Every day, more than 100 logistics service providers and over 3000 people use our software. Almost impossible to imagine that just about everything we own has been stored and/or transported by one of our customers. By you or your “neighbor” 1,000 kilometers away. And not to sound arrogant, but … partly thanks to our software. Is everything running smoothly? You’re good to go. But what to do when the software (temporarily) does not work? Keep calm, because you can read all about it in this blog.

Without a doubt, improving efficiency is high on our priority list when it comes to the processes in your warehouse and on the road. Waiting unnecessarily – whether it be in traffic, in your warehouse or on your software – it literally costs money. So if the software does not work, you want to get it working again as quickly as possible. In order to provide you with the best possible service, we have made a distinction between Support questions – which still worked yesterday and no longer today – and adjustment requirements. Are you sure it worked yesterday and not anymore? Then we are available as support to help you.

But what do to next?

You want to continue your work as soon as possible and resolve the problem as quickly as possible. But where to start? We are happy to help you further. But it is important that a complete scenario is available that outlines the problem. Because the more specifically we receive your incident, the faster and more specifically we can investigate and resolve it. It’s a bit like baseball: the better you throw the ball, the faster we hit that home run.

With your input, the search starts in the countless functionalities/check marks that are available in Microsoft Dynamics.

Going through the haystack with a metal detector

To give a bit more context to the above I would like to take you along in the search for the needle in the Boltrics haystack. Perhaps the principles below will even give you enough input to become the Sherlock Holmes within Dynamics and help you resolve the problem without the help of our Support team. After all, better safe than sorry and, moreover, it will give you more control over your own processes. Win-win.
Upfront there are a number of things that should be clear:

• What happened, what should have happened and how did I end up in this situation?
  Occasionally it looks simple which action needs to be performed, but the cause of the problem can sometimes be found in the instruction about how to perform an action.
• Can the problem be reproduced while working within the reporting environment?
  Do we have sufficient information to be able to further analyze the problem in a safe environment without affecting the daily operation?
• Have there been made any changes to your environment recently?
  This includes updates to the software, implementation of new functionalities, adjustments to existing functionalities, etc.
• Do you receive an error message?
  Has the report been programmed by Microsoft or by one of our Implementation or Logistics Consultants? In most cases, these notifications lead you directly to the cause. The notification will immediately give you input for relevant search terms on which you can search within Dynamics. Below are two error message that you may have seen once, the cause of which is mentioned in the error message.

Error message: Posting sales invoices in Dynamics

When you receive the error message “You cannot assign new numbers from the number series V-FAC+ on a date before …”, the issue is caused by the settings that are set with your no. series. Possible options to resolve the problem:

• The posting date of the sales invoice. This can still be set on a date in the past while the last booked sales invoice has a booking date of, for example, March 27, 2018.
• Review of the number series that are set for the relevant document (V-Fac +, posted sales invoices (in Dutch: “geboekte verkoopfactuur”).

Steps in Business Central

Error message: Booking a carrier on a shipment:

When you receive the rrror message “Batch no. comes to a negative level after booking. This is not allowed”, it is caused by trying to write off the stock of a carrier while the stock on the lot (of which this carrier is part) is already at “0”. One of the possible causes is that a stock mutation has taken place on the carrier while it has already been assigned to the result.
Example: The detail lines on the shipment were created yesterday. However, today the carrier is assigned to another party through a travel diary.

What to do next? We have worked out 2 options for you below.

Option 1: Find out the cause with the help of the analysis lists.  
Search for the relevant party via the batch via the analysis lists and check the corresponding item items. Given the short time frame in the above-outlined problem, you are looking for the latest mutations that were made. This may also help you determine how to proceed. If you see that the party has been set to “0” through a negative correction, you can search for the solution of the problem through the related document/user id. You could consider restoring the carrier with a travel diary to the old lot number.

Steps in Business Central

Option 2: Reassign the carrier to the shipment.
Another possible solution is to reassign the carrier to the shipment. Delete the current detail line on the shipment and assign it again to the same carrier. You may first have to set the result back a few statuses, this depends on your layout.
Note : the information on the detail line might have changed after reassigning the carrier!

Are the above questions all clear and was it not one of the above error messages?

Then the search in the Boltrics haystack starts with a number of actions. Where to start? Below 3 practical steps:

1. Have the actions been carried out functionally correctly?
   You know better than anyone else, how the system works and what it is designed for. In the event that you find out that one of the actions you perform is something the system is not capable of and shows incorrect values, it won’t hurt to ask for a second pair of eyes. A team of Logistics Consultants is ready to think along with you and to help you find a solution.
2. Trial & error: get started in your reporting environment.
   Avoid polluting your production environment and carry out a so-called “trial & error” in your reporting environment to frame the problem. Ask yourself questions, such: “Do I end up in a different position when I enter a different value on the header of the document or when I turn on/off a function in the status transition?”
   The moment that a problem also occurs in yesterday’s (copy) data and it is not a print/mail/data integration problem, then you are free to adjust the circumstances. In this way, you also know immediately whether you are making a mistake or whether the software is making a mistake.
3. Do you work with an external application?
   Occasionally it may happen that the problems are caused by a system outside Dynamics. For example, do you use Document Capture to import a document and do you receive an error message? Or do you use our DataHub platform for EDI messages? Then it can be useful to view the content of the message together with the sender and check whether the message can be relisted manually.

Help, I haven’t been able to resolve the issue

Didn’t the tips above help you find a solution? Do you have a complete scenario and are you sure that the functionality worked yesterday but no longer today? Do not hesitate to send an email to support@boltrics.nl and we will help you get back on track.