Sales Statistics Report 112

redking · 2012-09-12

Hi Guys,

I have asked our partner to add the sales person code to Report 112. They are asking for a days work for this which seems too much money.
Can someone confirm that this small change will take so long?

Can someone show me how to add this info or is it that difficult?

Thanks
Red

mohana_cse06 · 2012-09-12

Where do you want to add the sales person code?
do you have design permissions?

redking · 2012-09-12

Hi,
just next to customer number. We do have design permissions.

Thanks for your help!

mohana_cse06 · 2012-09-12

Click design on Report 112

Click View-->Sections

Select Customer,Body (4)

Click View-->Tool Box

Select Text Box and Place besides Customer Name
Select the above added text box and Click View-->Properties
Search for SourceExpr property and add "Salesperson Code".

Save and close.

Try and let me know the result.

redking · 2012-09-12

Hi Mohana,

I did exactly as you described.
I found the SourceExpr field and replaced the <> with Salesperson Code.

When I tried to compile I got an error:
Your have specified an unknown variable.
Salesperson
Define the variable under Global C/AL symbols

Can you help?

mohana_cse06 · 2012-09-12

Use "Salesperson Code" in Double Quotes

redking · 2012-09-12

=D>
You are a star!

They tried to charge us for whole day to do that?

Many thanks for your help!

mohana_cse06 · 2012-09-12

redking wrote:

=D>
You are a star!

They tried to charge us for whole day to do that?

Many thanks for your help!

Welcome

DenSter · 2012-09-12

redking wrote:

They tried to charge us for whole day to do that?

You have to understand that doing development for a customer involves much more than just adding the field itself. A lot of times what seems to be a very small change turns into a nightmare where you have to adjust the change multiple times. As a professional developer, you also have to test the object, build a release, create documentation, send it to the customer, update shared databases.

Here's the partner's perspective, if I were to do this development:
Connect to the development database, depending on whether we have a copy or if I need to remote into your system, can easily take 10-15 minutes. Verify that all releases are current (look in our internal system for the latest release, look in the development database to see if these objects are present), easily takes another 10-15 minutes. Find the object, add the field, test, run the report, verify, 5 minutes. Go into the internal system, get the next release number, update the shared Excel sheet, 5 minutes. Enter the release number, set object properties, export the objects. Create a Word document describing the change, package the objects and documentation into a release file. Write an email, attach the release file, send to the customer. Connect to any other development and/or test databases to upload the new object. Easily another 10-15 minutes.

This '2 minute change' has now turned into about an hour worth of work for me. Now all that you said was "just next to customer number". Suppose that I added the new field to the right of the customer number, and you really wanted it to the left. Now I have to do the whole thing again. Let's add some time for getting ready, let's add some time for you and I to talk on the phone about this. It's easy to see how it can take 2-3 hours for this development. What I would do in this case is give you an estimate of 4-8 hours, because I've been burned by "super easy changes" so many times, that I want to make sure we are covered. Of course I would never send you a bill for 8 hours if I only spent 1 hour on it, but I need to make sure that we get paid in case this is not so easy as it seemed at first.

What you have done now, is create a situation where you have made an undocumented modification to your object, and your partner does not have this modification. What is going to happen next time you need a change to the same report, and this new change is too difficult for you to do so your partner has to do it? What happens when your partner does not have your change, and that gets overwritten? Object conflicts like that cause enormous amounts of work for the partners. You really need to have a process with your partner to make sure that you share your development with them.

jglathe · 2012-09-12

... I can only agree with Daniel. There is a certain overhead when you work with such a process, but usually the quality is consistently better. And it pays off over time.

with best regards

Jens

redking · 2012-09-12

I agree. You seem to be more honest than most when you mention "Of course I would never send you a bill for 8 hours if I only spent 1 hour on it".

Our partner insists that we send a PO for all work before work commences. In this case they were asking for £600.

Are you based in the UK by any chance?

My boss is not very happy when I told him!

DenSter · 2012-09-12

Well I wouldn't jump right to whether your partner is honest or not. You probably have a relationship with your partner that all jobs are what is called 'fixed fee'. Usually, customers want fixed fees out of fear that work is going to go over budget. From a partner perspective though, now you have to account for the risk of taking more time. In this instance, I could totally see how a partner would estimate this at a full day, but only because they did not spend any real time defining the need. You have to take overage into account in a fixed fee environment, so you will always get a first estimate that is much higher than the actual effort.

At the company I work for now (we are in the USA) we don't believe in fixed fee exactly for that reason, so we estimate the effort, and bill for the time actually spent. Maybe you should talk to your boss and propose to work on time actually spent for little development jobs like these.

Alex_Chow · 2012-09-12

I agree with Daniel.

But on the other hand, charging a day's work for adding a field to a report is a bit excessive...

redking · 2012-09-12

I concede! :!:

While we have such a discussion going about fees and costs -
Our DB is NAV 2009 SP1

What would are you guys charging for conversion to NAV2013?

DenSter · 2012-09-12

redking wrote:

What would are you guys charging for conversion to NAV2013?

That's like saying "I want a new house, how much to build it?"

An upgrade is a major project, it needs careful analysis and estimation, there is no cookie cutter answer. If anyone gives you a number without first analyzing your particular system, you need to run away from them as fast as you can.

Alex_Chow · 2012-09-12

redking wrote:

I concede! :!:

While we have such a discussion going about fees and costs -
Our DB is NAV 2009 SP1

What would are you guys charging for conversion to NAV2013?

Without know who you are, what you do, who you work for, what modifications were made, the size of your DB, your business operation, number of users, what the users are expecting, etc, etc...

I would estimate 5000 man days.

Seriously though, I wrote a blog on this:
http://www.dynamicsnavconsultant.com/20 ... -navision/

DenSter · 2012-09-12

Alex Chow wrote:

But on the other hand, charging a day's work for adding a field to a report is a bit excessive...

Overkill in this particular case for sure :thumbsup: great blog article by the way Alex

On the other hand, we've all done 'tiny modification' jobs that ended up taking weeks.

David_Singleton · 2012-09-12

1 day to add the sales person code on this report is a rip off. End of story.

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