Uploading your Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains (GP) data

Launching Validis Connect

Before attempting to upload your accounts using Validis Connect, please ensure the following:

• You have read THIS article
• The Validis Connect Pre-requisites for user permissions are in place on your machine
• You are online and connected to the internet.
• You have a working Accounting Package and you are able to access the data you wish to upload within the Accounting Package.
• You know which version of Microsoft Dynamics GP you wish to upload data from.
• Validis Connect (vClient) is being run on the same machine where the company's SQL Server instance is located.
• You know the SQL Server Instance Name.
• You know the SQL Server User ID and Password that can access the Microsoft Dynamics data.
• You know which Company you want to upload data for.

Validis Connect will attempt to discover your SQL Server instance and populate the instance name for you.

• If the SQL Server Instance name cannot be determined you will need to know the ODBC DSN for the SQL Instance where your Microsoft Dynamics GP database is located.
• If you receive a "Could not connect to the database" error please ensure you are running Validis Connect in the same location SQL Server is installed.

You may need to ask your IT department for some of the above information. ODBC DSN names can be found in the ODBC Administrator tool under the "System DSN" tab.

To begin the upload process using Validis Connect you need to be logged in to the Validis Portal.

From within the Validis portal choose the Engagement for which you wish to upload data.

Once the appropriate engagement is selected, select Upload.

Choose the Accounting Package from the drop-down menu. You can type in the search bar to locate the Accounting Package quicker.

When the correct Accounting Package is selected click the Continue button.

Click Download on the Download Validis Connect window.

Click here if you are using Google Chrome

Click here if you are using Firefox

Click here if you are using Microsoft Edge/Explorer

This will start the download of the Validis Connect setup application. Your browser will show the download progress. Depending on your desktop setup you may encounter some security warnings that you need to acknowledge during the installation.

Once the Validis Connect application installs it will begin connecting to your Accounting Package. The Validis Connect package is quite small and will be automatically removed from your desktop once the upload process has been completed.

Validis Connect for Microsoft Dynamics GP

Once installed the Validis Connect application will automatically launch and attempt to connect to the Microsoft Dynamics Accounting Package.

It is possible to run multiple versions of the Microsoft Dynamics Accounting Package concurrently so Validis Connect asks which version of the Microsoft Dynamics Accounting Package you wish to connect to, select the correct Version then click Next.

Validis Connect will attempt to find the Microsoft Dynamics GP SQL Server Instance and pre-populate the SQL Server name for you.

If the SQL server name is pre-populated, as in this example, supply the User ID and Password for the SQL Server instance.

This is usually an account called "sa" or another User ID your Accounting Package administrator has provided to you for third-party tool access.

If the SQL Server instance name is not pre-populated you can either type it in or alternatively, you can choose the ODBC DSN name of your database from the drop-down list. You will also need to enter the database User ID and Password.

If the name of your Microsoft Dynamics database is not shown in the ODBC DSN list you may not be running the Validis Connect application on a desktop that has sufficient access to your Microsoft Dynamics installation.

If the access details supplied are correct Validis Connect will connect to the database and present a list of all companies available for upload.

Choose the Company that you want to upload and click Next.

The Validis Connect data extraction process will begin and the progress will be displayed.

Depending on the size of your database and the number of entries it contains this process may take a few minutes. Once all data has been extracted the data is compressed, encrypted, and transmitted securely to the Validis central server.

You can continue with other tasks whilst the extraction takes place. Do not close the Validis Connect window or interrupt the extraction process.

When the upload completes the success message is presented.

Click Close to exit Validis Connect. At this point, there is nothing more to do. Your Engagement Manager or Client Manager will be notified by email that you have submitted a new upload.

Your uploaded data is now being queued for processing in the Validis central system. You can switch off your desktop and disconnect from the network at this point if you wish.

You can view the progress of your upload in the Validis Portal. The status will change from Processing to Completed.