The post Tableau 9 og Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 R3 Retail data appeared first on Tableau and AX.

Furthermore I passed the Certification exam, Tableau Desktop 8 Qualified Associate and I have now started my own company AXTab. Nice that I can help customers with both Microsoft Dynamics AX and Tableau.

So far I have only shown how to get data out from Microsoft Dynamics AX to Excel. Now I will show how you can connect directly to the Microsoft SQL Server and use the predefined views to get insight from your data.

If your Microsoft SQL Server database is running on a port that is different from the default port (1433), you can connect to Tableau Desktop by using the <server-name>, <port-number> format when typing the server name.

For example, if your  Microsoft SQL Server  name is “SQLAX2012″, and the port you are using is “8055”. After you select the data source type, in the text box where you enter the  Microsoft SQL Server name, type “SQLAX2012, 8055.” In this example it is the default port:

Select the database with your data:

Now you are ready to select a table or a view. In this case I take advantage of one of the many predefined views in Microsoft Dynamics AX2012.  The CustSalesOpenLines view contains information about open sales order lines:

I only want to see the data for the USMF company, so I add a filter:

And now I am ready to analyze all my open sales order lines in Tableau:

The post Be aware of the views appeared first on Tableau and AX.

If you are pretty sure that it is only this one time, you can actually just delete the columns you don’t need in the Excel file and then connect to the file in Tableau. Fortunately, the data from Microsoft Dynamics AX is by default perfect and can be used directly.

If your data is from another source for example Microsoft Dynamics NAV please read this nice intro from Tableau Software:

http://kb.tableausoftware.com/articles/knowledgebase/preparing-excel-files-analysis

However, if you expect that you are going to repeat the analysis, it may be a good idea to perform the adjustment in Tableau. Then Tableau will remember them when you refresh the file next time.

In this case I want to create an analysis on the Retail sales transactions for all my stores. First I find the name of the table by right-clicking on the Sales transactions form and select Personalize:

Then I select Edit on the Information tab:

I expand Data Sources and can tell that the table name is RetailTransactionsSalesTrans:

I export the data to Excel and connect to Tableau:

Now I choose the fields I don’t want to confuse me next time, right-click and select Hide:

The post Prepare Excel data from Microsoft Dynamics AX appeared first on Tableau and AX.

Now I simply dragged the sheets I wanted into to the white space labeled, Drag sheets here, and all the data showed up. When I dragged the Customer Sales sheet, an inner join was automatically created with the Customer Address sheet. This is a new nice feature in Tableau 8.2. If you are not familiar with how joins work, Tableau has a helpful tooltip to help clarify what each join does. Hover over the square of whatever join you want to know more about and a text box will appear with a brief description. You can of course change the inner join to another field or to another type of join.

The last thing to do is to click the Go to Worksheet button in the middle of the window. Now you are ready to build stunning visualizations. Well, I know this may not be the most amazing viz, but I have to catch a plane. I will return another time..

The post Join me working with Dynamics AX and Tableau appeared first on Tableau and AX.

Please note that all numbers in this example are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

1. I found the General Ledger account where the travel expenses are posted in Dynamics AX.
2. I selected all the rows and copied them with <CTRL><C>
3. I saved the rows as an Excel file.
4. I connected live to that Excel file in Tableau.
5. Now I was ready to analyze.

First I selected Purpose and Amount:

Then I added Name and Date and dropped Purpose on the color button on the Marks card:

Now I have an overview:

Color mark

If I want, I can analyze on my data only:

Keep Only

I can see the underlying data:

View data

And I can sleep peacefully because my travel costs have already dropped dramatically by 2014.

Dashboard

The post My boss told me.. appeared first on Tableau and AX.

Attribute corresponds to Dimension in Tableau.

The properties you set for an extended data types are used by all instances of that type. For example, if you change the AnalysisUsage property for the extended data type account numbers (VendAccount data type in this case) it will have the same properties throughout the system, if the type is sat to Auto on the field level.

However, the setting can be overridden on the table field.

• Attribute – The field is a dimension attribute.
• Measure – The field is a measure.
• Both – The field is both a dimension attribute and a measure.
• None – The field is not a dimension attribute and not a measure.
• Auto – The value of the AnalysisUsage property for the extended data type is to be used.

The post AccountNum is not a measure (part two) appeared first on Tableau and AX.

A measure is quantifiable, like sales, or item quantities. Dimensions are used to slice measures. For example, sales by quarter,  or sales by region.

Usually, I think Tableau is pretty good at guessing correctly if an AX field contains a dimension or a measure, but for some reason AccountNum ends up as a measure if I for example import VendTrans:

Fortunately, it is not the big problem, you can simply drag AccountNum from the measures area and drop it in the dimensions area. Or you can right-click on AccountNum and convert to dimension:

The post AccountNum is not a measure.. appeared first on Tableau and AX.

The following cubes are provided:

• Ledger cube
• Human Resources Management cube
• Sales cube
• Purchasing cube
• Accounts Receivable cube
• Project Accounting cube
• Production cube
• Customer Relationship Management cube
• Expense Management cube
• Accounts Payable cube

In the Application Object Tree (AOT) expand the node for the perspective:

To see the tables that are used to define the cube, expand the cube (in this case the Ledger cube)

The post Perspective is a collection of tables appeared first on Tableau and AX.