Dynamics AX Inventory cube now present in AX 2012 R2

It was recently brought to my attention that Microsoft Dynamics AX finally ships with an inventory value cube out of the box in version 2012 R2. You can find details on the measures available in the cube here, which even includes some KPI's for inventory turns and other indicators. I'm looking forward to cracking this open and comparing it to the home grown inventory cube I built on AX 2009. The primary issue is that you can't simply look at inventtrans records because those statuses are updated over time as postings occur.

Other cubes added in AX 2012 R2 include Budget control, Budget plan (my team worked on this), Profit tax, and Retail. 

AX 2012 Cubes	AX 2012 R2 Cubes
Accounts payable cube (VendCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	Accounts payable cube (VendCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
Accounts receivable cube (CustCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	Accounts receivable cube (CustCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
	Budget control cube (BudgetControlCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
	Budget plan cube (BudgetPlanCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
Environmental sustainability cube (EMSCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	Environmental sustainability cube (EMSCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
Expense management cube (TrvCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	Expense management cube (TrvCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
General ledger cube (LedgerCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	General ledger cube (LedgerCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
	Invent value cube (InventValueCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
Production cube (ProdCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	Production cube (ProdCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
	Profit tax totals cube (RTax25OLAP) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
Project accounting cube (ProjCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	Project accounting cube (ProjCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
Purchase cube (PurchCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	Purchase cube (PurchCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
	Retail cube (RetailCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
Customer relationship management cube (smmCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	Sales and marketing cube (smmSalesMarketingCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
Sales cube (SalesCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	Sales cube (SalesCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
Workflow cube (WorkflowCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack	Workflow cube (WorkflowCube) for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2

Using Record Info and the importance of field groups on a form

I've often wondered about the Best Practice check in AX that requires all fields to be in a field group and why that is there. I assumed it was some sort of encouragement to use field groups on forms and reports, but today it occurred to me that there is another very valuable tool that uses this information (there are probably many others as well).

If you have the appropriate permissions in Dynamics AX you can right click on any field on a form, select record info, and then select "Show all fields" to open a new form which displays all of the fields in the table and their values regardless of if the field is on the form or not. This is useful for some power users if they are interested in knowing when a record was created or when it was last modified for instance.



Show all Fields

 

I shared this functionality with a user this week, but it wasn't until today that I realized how this form organizes fields into groups based on field groups to help the user find them. So in the future take some time and consideration when creating field groups or adding fields to groups so that users can find these more easily on the Record info screen.