Time Management App - Troubleshooting

With the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015 R2 the Time Management is now available in the Microsoft, Android and Apple app stores for your PC and tablet form factor devices. This app allows salaried employees to enter time against pay codes (e.g. PTO and Sick) within a simple calendar interface and then submit their timecards for approval.

As we’ve been testing this application internally here in support and working through errors encountered by customers and partners we’ve been keeping a list of issues and their potential solutions. I wanted to get this information published as a resource for you should you experience any of these errors.

Each of the following errors was encountered while attempting to enter connection information into the Time Management (e.g. the User Name, Password and Service Connection)

Error #1:

Potential Solutions:

• The Service Based Architecture application that is a prerequisite for the Time Management app requires that the Identity Management feature has been configured in order to tie your domain account to a Dynamics GP user. Please refer to the following article for more information on configuring Identity Management:

Identity Management for the Web Client

https://community.dynamics.com/gp/b/dynamicsgp/archive/2014/06/03/identity-management-for-the-web-client

• You can also receive the above error if you either don’t have access to the SBA endpoint or if your user has insufficient rights. To test this you can have the same domain account you’re entering in the Configuration window of the app try to access a URL in the following format, which will pull back XML data for the ACK0001 Employee ID in the Fabrikam, Inc. company:

https://server.domain.com/GPService/Tenants(DefaultTenant)/Companies(Fabrikam,%20Inc.)/Dynamics/Payroll/Employees(ACKE0001).xml

If you’re in a multi-tenant environment just replace DefaultTenant with the name you’ve given the tenant you want to query against

• Finally, the Service Connection URL that you enter into the Time Management app is case-sensitive. Be sure you’re using a URL in the following format:

https://server.domain.com/GPService/Tenants(DefaultTenant)/Companies(Fabrikam,%20Inc.)

Error #2

Potential Solutions:

• Since the idea behind the Time Management app is that employees enter timecards and submit them to a manager for approval you are required to have a Payroll Timecard Approval workflow both configured and marked as Active. This is accomplished in Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > Company > Workflow > Workflow Maintenance.

• On one occasion we’ve also seen that this error was given when one or more deactivated Payroll Timecard Approval workflow existed along with the one that is actively being used. In this instance the solution was to delete all Payroll Timecard Approval workflow definitions and recreate just the one you intend to mark as Active

Error #3

Potential Solutions:

The best advice I can give for addressing this error message is to have the user receiving the error log into Dynamics GP using the GP user account tied to their domain user and test their ability to enter/save/submit a payroll timecard. This may very well give the user a message that leads you to something missing in your configuration. You can review the following article for the steps to setup self-service timecards:

Human Resource & Payroll Timecard Entry NEW to GP 2013 R2!

https://community.dynamics.com/gp/b/dynamicsgp/archive/2014/06/12/human-resource-amp-payroll-timecard-entry-new-to-gp-2013-r2

There will of course be times when the above won’t address the problem. In those instances, there is logging you can enable at the SBA-level to get further information. Enabled this logging is different for multi-tenant and single tenant deployments:

Web Management Console (for multi-tenant deployments)

• Select Tenant Manager snap-in

• Click Applications item

• Highlight GP Services and click Edit

• Click the plus (+) and type in the DevModeEnabled property, then click Save

• Select Tenant item, highlight your tenant and click Edit

• Highlight the GP Service application and set RequestLoggingEnabled and DevModeEnabled to true, then click Save

   

  TenantConfiguration.xml (for single-tenant deployments)

• Navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP Web Components\GPService on the SBA server

• Backup and then open TenantConfiguration.xml in Notepad

• Add the following before </Tenant>

  <RequestLoggingEnabled>true</RequestLoggingEnabled>

  <DevModeEnabled>true</DevModeEnabled>

• Save the file

After making either change restart the GP Dexterity Service, GP Dexterity Service Control and GP Service services on the SBA server and reproduce the issue. This will write several logs to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft Dynamics\GPSvc\Logs. I’ve found that files in the following provide the best information:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft Dynamics\GPSvc\Logs\Inst_DEFAULT_14\DexterityRequests

Start by reviewing logs that end with Error.log. Scroll to the bottom of the log and look for errors/stack traces before it rolls back for more information about your error.

If you look at the top of log file, you will see that it has a header section that gives the Full URI that SBA is using to connect to GP. This can give you an idea of what type of information the Time Management is asking SBA to retrieve from Dynamics GP.

Since so many log files are written when this option is enabled it is highly recommended to only enable logging long enough to troubleshoot the issue.

Enjoy!

Lucas