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A quick tip to make Power BI more useful. Read below on how to add search to any drop-down slicer! Problem The problem is as follows. A slicer in a Power BI report does not have a search capability, and the drop down is a lengthy list. Manually scrolling through the list is impracticable. For example, take this slicer below. This slicer has thousands of choices. It appears to be sorted alphanumerically (A to Z) yet, if looking for a specific item, it may be time consuming to select the correct value if searching for Item 500. Ideally, the report design would have included a search enabled by default, such as the example below. That being said...updates take time, require approval, so on and so forth. Keep reading to see how you can add the search without waiting for a report update. Solution The search bar on slicer can be activated and deactivated very easily using the key combination Ctrl + F. Simply click on the title/header of the slicer and CTRL+F will enable or disable search bar. Important to note, this only works when clicking the slicer header in a collapsed state, without the drop-down expanded. See the GIF below. Alternatively, if preferring to not remember shortcut key combinations, clicking on the ellipses on the slicer can also enable or disable search.

Imagine this scenario. The business needs simple cycle counts to be automatically generated daily or weekly. Sure, advanced warehousing has this capability, but do you really want to implement the complexity of advanced warehousing only for cycle count automation? Luckily, Corterra Solutions was able to solve this problem for a medium-sized manufacturer with SimpleCount for Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain and is ready to implement this solution for your business. Read the case study here for more information about the solution for simple cycle count automation in Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain.

Enumlytics is a tool for Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain to aid reporting, analytics, and integration solutions external to the application. A list of enum data type values and labels are not stored anywhere in the database, nor is there a data entity to use in a data warehousing situation. This is problematic, as only the integer value of an enum field is stored in database transactions. Without Enumlytics, data analytics and integrations must rely on manual translations. While this may work for some time, the moment a new value is added to an enum, the report will have no label to show, requiring additional work to add another translation. Download the case study here to find our more and reach out to Corterra Solutions to get the solution.

Power Automate Flow Missing from Model-Driven Power App / Dynamics 365 Power Automate can quickly solve problems, automate tedious tasks, and ensure compliance in procedures. Corterra utilizes Power Automate for an Expense solution to upload employee expenses. This is a simple flow that takes a file and stores it in SharePoint. While a simple solution, it is relied upon by our entire staff for recording expense receipts. Recently, we encountered a problem where our flow was no longer available for some of our team. Read below how we solve this problem! Problem In a Model-driven Power App, we have a grid of Expenses. A team member can enter an Expense record then run a flow to upload supporting documentation (receipts). Normally, the screen looks like below, with the Upload Expense File flow available to click. This worked well for a while until recently some of our team members were no longer seeing the flow. They would see a button to "Login to flow" like the screenshot below. No matter what someone did, they could not get the flow to show up. Tried clearing browser cache, double checked permissions to "Run flow", logging out, rebooting PC, recreating the flow, making the team member an owner of the flow, etc. but nothing would work. Fortunately, there was one more setting in the browser that affected the availability of the flow. Solution The solution to this issue is rather simple. All we had to do was change a browser setting. Power Automate Flows utilize cookies to function. If blocking all cookies/trackers, known as tracking prevention, the browser is preventing storing a cookie that was required to have the Flow button work as expected. Edge Go to Settings Search for "Tracking Prevention" Switch setting for tracking prevention from Strict to Balanced Close all browser windows and any instance of Chrome or Edge Open Edge again Go to flow.microsoft.com. This will store a cookie that was previously not being stored. After that opens, go to your model driven app. The flow will be available! Chrome Chrome will require similar steps to Edge but has slightly different Settings experience. Go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Cookies If "Block all cookies (not recommended)" is enabled, switch to either "Block third-party cookies" or "Allow all cookies" Close all browser windows and any instance of Chrome or Edge Open Chrome again Go to flow.microsoft.com. This will store a cookie that was previously not being stored. After that opens, go to your model driven app. The flow will be available!

As a technology service provider, the strength of the Corterra team is paramount to the success of our clients and Corterra itself. We are thrilled to announce the following Corterra team members have been promoted! These promotions are a testament to the hard work and value each team member provides. Checkout our recently promoted team members and their stories below. Lucas Bracher, Senior Developer Mike Matook, Infrastructure Manager Daniel Middendorf, Lead Application Engineer Ryan Reed, Senior Developer Lucas Bracher Lucas Bracher head shot Lucas started with Corterra in 2018 after graduating with a degree in Economics and minor in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Throughout his time as a Developer at Corterra, Lucas has been the consummate team player exuding a positive and determined attitude to take on any challenge he is given. Lucas has learned a multitude of technologies to meet the requirements of Corterra's clients. He has developed key system enhancements for our clients’ quality, production and warehouse operations leveraging application plugins in C# and data conversion processes leveraging SSIS. Lucas has acquired the skills to solve business problems with technology, which is why Corterra is pleased to promote him from Developer to Senior Developer, as a recognition of his contributions to Corterra and our clients. Congratulations Lucas! Mike Matook Mike Matook head shot Mike started with Corterra in the spring of 2016 as Systems Administrator after graduating from Governor's State University. Mike first set of responsibilities was to support all Corterra’s SMB clients. He maintained their network, servers and applications, and provided white-glove service and training for their users. This role gave him the opportunity to research the ever-expanding Microsoft cloud, including Azure and Office 365. Through his learnings, Mike has developed a toolset of strategies to migrate all of our SMB clients to the cloud and utilize the Azure tools and services to maintain or reduce costs while increasing Mike was also charged with deploying Corterra's first on-premise Dynamics F&O server infrastructure. As many might know, F&O is primarily a cloud deployment with a very, very small percentage being on-premise. Not much documentation was available in deploying this solution. Mike spent many hours of trial and error with Microsoft support deploying the solution. It was truly a fantastic day he completed the install and we witnessed the first login screen! Mike's stick to it mindset and drive to completing this project lead to many opportunities for Corterra for learning and growing. Mike’s “take the lead approach” and ability to implement and manage new technologies has earned the him the new title of Infrastructure Manager. Congratulations Mike on your hard work and support of Corterra Solutions and our clients! Daniel Middendorf Daniel Middendorf head shot Daniel started with Corterra as an Application Engineer in 2019 after graduating with a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Having experience in IT Support during his time in college, Daniel was hired on for his technical acumen, communication skills, and problem solving. Not only is Daniel an excellent programmer, he is an even better problem solver. While he can code a solution to a problem, more importantly, he knows when not to code and a no-code solution is possible. For the past few years, Daniel's main project has been extending Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations for a government contracting client. During this project, he played a pivotal role in Corterra's learning of the software. With an aggressive timeline, Daniel was, and still is, a key team member in successfully taking multiple sites at a client from requirements gathering to Go-Live in less than two years…a feat that many other firms require much longer to achieve. With all that said, we are proud to promote Daniel from Application Engineer to Lead Application Engineer. Congratulations Daniel! Ryan Reed Ryan Reed head shot Ryan started with Corterra in 2018 after graduating with a degree in Mathematics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Throughout his time as a Developer at Corterra, Ryan has learned a multitude of technologies to meet the requirements of Corterra's clients. He has gone from interfacing product information to an eCommerce website from ERP, to writing application plugins in C#, to developing analytics solutions in Power BI. Ryan has acquired the skills to solve business problems with technology, which is why Corterra is pleased to promote him from Developer to Senior Developer, as a recognition of his contributions to Corterra and our clients. Congrats Ryan!

As a technology service provider, the strength of the Corterra team is paramount to the success of our clients and Corterra itself. We are thrilled to announce the following Corterra team members have been promoted! These promotions are a testament to the hard work and value each team member provides. Checkout our recently promoted team members and their stories below... Megan Elliot Educated in Systems Engineering and Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Megan started with Corterra as a Special Projects Consultant in 2021. Megan has executed numerous successful projects during her tenure at Corterra, including an HR Information Systems software assessment and HITRUST compliance deployment. Most recently, Megan led the successful deployment of Dynamics 365 Asset Management maintenance system across three manufacturing facilities in the US. The project included implementation, data migration and training for 75+ maintenance technicians supporting 5,000+ assets and preventive maintenance schedules. Megan has been a remarkable addition to the team, and we are proud to promote her to Senior Business Systems Analyst in recognition of her hard work and dedication. Jamie Kenna Jamie has had a long history with Corterra. Initially joining the team as an intern, Jamie was hired on full-time in 2020 after graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in Statistics. With a positive attitude and thirst for learning, Jamie has become a critical team member supporting a global distributor and manufacturing client in the electronics industry. Her projects range from operational reporting to client support, as well as C# plugin development. These projects have automated client business processes resulting in significant increases in productivity. As her knowledge of the systems, business, and technology has increased, she has taken on a more active role in leading and mentoring junior team members. We are happy to promote Jamie to Senior Developer! Jonathan Marrs Jonathan joined Corterra in 2019 after graduating from the University of Illinois Chicago with a degree in Information and Decision Sciences. Hired to support Corterra’s growing demand for Power BI services, he quickly expanded into leading several data migration and interface projects for Corterra’s manufacturing clients. Jonathan has shown his impact as a great team player working across a variety of clients supporting multiple implementations, including going above and beyond expectations to meet an aggressive client go-live date. He has been, and continues to be, a critical contributor of Power BI and data solutions. Congratulations to Jonathan on his promotion to Senior Developer! Marcello Porter-Dunning Marcello joined Corterra in 2020 with a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His early contributions focused on documenting key internal and client business processes. After impressive results on his initial projects, he quickly became an essential team member for a Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations implementation project supporting supply chain and logistics. Marcello has taken a lead role in developing key Functional Design Documentation and becoming the "go-to" person for Quality Assurance and User Acceptance Testing. He works with clients and developers to extend the application to meet complex business requirements and drive digital transformation. Congratulations to Marcello on his promotion to Senior Business Systems Analyst Justin Savona Justin is a great addition to the Corterra team. Joining the team in July 2021 with a degree in Finance from Butler University, he quickly applied his core knowledge in accounting and finance to support several large implementations of Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations and Dynamics 365 Business Central. Specializing in AP, AR, GL, and Fixed Assets, Justin has been instrumental in maximizing client investments through creative problem solving resulting in business process efficiencies and improvements. His continuous top-tier support and solutions have created deep client trust and strong relationships with users. Corterra is proud to promote Justin to Senior Business Systems Analyst. Sunny Vasty After graduating from Lewis University with a degree in Computer Science, Sunny Vasty joined Corterra as Application Engineer in January 2021. In his two years at Corterra, Sunny has developed numerous business solutions that have provided exceptional value to our clients' Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations systems. From user efficiency enhancements to major overhauls, Sunny has worked in concert with Corterra’s business systems analysts to meet the unique needs of our manufacturing clients. Sunny's most recent project integrates warehouse inventory transactions with handheld scanners driving significant improvements in transactional efficiency and accuracy. Corterra is proud to promote Sunny to Senior Application Engineer.

Power BI supports the use of custom visuals to extend its capabilities. Developed by Microsoft, partners, and others, custom visuals provide enhanced functionality to solve both common and novel analytic challenges. After a custom visual is developed, it is consumed internally or uploaded to AppSource to allow the world to use. Many developers offer their custom visuals for free on AppSource. The gallery of visuals in AppSource are useful to solve an organization's needs without any development time. Free visuals already developed and tested to solve Power BI requirements? This all sounds great! Generally, this is a great feature, but there is one concern. Concern: Data Security How can one trust the code underlying the custom visual in AppSource? Looking at one of the visuals in AppSource, it states it could be accessing external services. Is this going to steal my data? Is this a cybersecurity risk? Solution: Certified Visuals What are "Certified" visuals? Certified visuals are vetted at the source code level by Microsoft engineers. See the excerpt below from Microsoft Docs: Certified Power BI visuals are Power BI visuals in AppSource that meet the Microsoft Power BI team code requirements. These visuals are tested to verify that they don't access external services or resources, and that they follow secure coding patterns and guidelines. How do you know a visual is certified? Look for the "PBI Certified" badge for visuals in AppSource. Visual Governance Logically, the next question that comes up is "can we turn off the capability to use uncertified visuals?". The short answer is "Yes". There is a setting in the Admin Portal to only allow using certified visuals. Unfortunately, nothing can prevent using a non-certified visual in Power BI Desktop. If a user or team member uses a visual that is not certified, that report will not render once deployed to the Power BI Service. Example: Proceed with caution Below, there is an example of a slicer that is not certified. At initial glance, this visual is a custom slicer and looks harmless. This could be useful to address requirements the standard slicer cannot. Furthermore, the description reads as useful for providing additional functionality not provided by the standard slicer. Continuing down the page, the warning, mentioned earlier, exists stating this visual may be sending data to external services! Now, is this what someone desires when they use this visual? Likely not! Unfortunately, because this visual is not certified, there is no way to know if best practices for security and accessing external services have been followed. In all likelihood, many of the un-certified visuals are safe with no harmful intentions. That being said, best be cautious and not take the risk unless there is absolute confidence the visual is safe.

We are pleased to spotlight Corterra team member, Will Parker. Will is a Lead Developer for Corterra working with clients, functional consultants, and the development teams to deliver value and solve business problems with technology. After graduating from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in Information and Decision Sciences, Will started his career with Corterra Solutions in 2016 as a Developer. His initial projects involved optical character recognition for forms processing using the Monarch software, report writing, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM configuration and extension. Will's main project for the last few years has been leading the development and configuration efforts for a client with international operations in over twenty-six different countries. Through diligence, determination, and excellent communication, Will earned his current position, Lead Developer, managing a team of developers and working directly with clients to gather requirements and solve business problems. He is endorsed by his colleagues for his skills in SQL Server, SSIS, and Microsoft Dynamics 365. Outside of technical skills, Will has an ability to think freely and find creative solutions to difficult problems to deliver value for Corterra’s clients. In addition to his existing skills, Will is actively learning new cloud technologies in Microsoft Azure, the Power Platform, and Dynamics 365 Business Central to continue to drive value for Corterra's clients and address their challenges. When not supporting clients and his team, Will enjoys playing bass guitar in a band and playing disc golf. Q&A Q: What is your favorite part about working at Corterra Solutions? Everyday can have a new problem or challenge. This leads to the work always being interesting and never boring. We also have a culture that isn’t hierarchical, so employees ranging from executives to new hires all feel they are part of the same team. Q: What are three words to describe Corterra Solutions? Dedicated, Reliable, Fair Q: How do you like to spend your time when you are not working? I currently play bass guitar in a cover band and spend time writing original music with my friends. When it’s not cold out, I travel to different disc golf courses on the weekend to play. Q: What are some interesting things about you that people might not know about you? I have played clarinet since I was 10 years old.

Corterra is excited to spotlight team member Stephanie Brockway. As Corterra has continued to grow, we had a strong need for an experienced team member who was open to wearing various hats from user support to IT infrastructure, to testing new features with our configuration and development team. Stephanie's past experiences fit Corterra's needs, and she joined the team in 2021. As a Lead Business Systems Analyst, she fuels and supports Corterra's value of passionate service. Before joining Corterra, Stephanie had a breadth of experience. After obtaining her degree in Business Management from Eastern Illinois, gaining a strong foundational skillset, Stephanie began her career at Infogix, working her way up, first as a support specialist then moving into a product consultant role. Her success as Infogix lead to her transition from consultant to on-staff IT Systems Analyst at Webster Bank. Stephanie continued to grow with Webster, eventually becoming the Supervisor of Application Development for Automated Controls and Reporting (ACR) Group. In her role at Webster Bank, she gathered business requirements, technical specifications, designed and executed controls, provided server and application infrastructure support for the ACR product suite, and interfaced with data and processes from applications across the bank’s operations and beyond. Stephanie thrived in the role of helping to mitigate risks while automating processes to increase accuracy and efficiency. In her current role at Corterra as a Lead Business Systems Analyst, Stephanie is instrumental in supporting our clients’ needs in numerous domains. As a quick learner and driven individual, she has quickly gotten up to speed in her just under a year of working at Corterra leveraging her banking IT systems knowledge into the broader set of Corterra client needs. Whether working through challenging requests, brainstorming with our development team, or coordinating maintenance outages, Stephanie has quickly provided value to Corterra's clients and our organization. In her spare time, Stephanie is heavily involved in volunteering, currently serving as the Pack Committee Chair and Webelos Den Leader for Cub Scout Pack 3086, the Pathway to Adventure Council’s Day Camp Chairperson, and an active member of the Lester Elementary PTA (Past President). Q&A Q: What is your favorite part about working at Corterra Solutions? I love the fact that very few days look the same at Corterra. There is always something new to learn and to troubleshoot. Even the fact that some days are filled with getting documentation and various busy work all caught up make it a wide variety that you really can never be bored with. I also really enjoy getting to interface with our customers and make a real difference with the service we provide. Q: What are three words to describe Corterra Solutions? Innovation, Grit, and Teamwork Q: How do you like to spend your time when you are not working? I am the mother of three amazing boys (15, 14, and 9). Whether we are Scouting or off having adventures as a family, we are constantly on the move. I love to camp, hike, and watch movies with my husband and kids. Q: What are some interesting things about you that people might not know about you? I am an only child. I grew up playing softball, basketball and volleyball and love being a part of a sport when I can (not too much time for it myself due to my kids). I love everything about being outdoors and will be spending my vacation time this summer at Medicine Mountain Scout Ranch in South Dakota with my older boys and Webelos Camp at Camp Owasipee in Northern Michigan with my youngest.

At the 2021 Microsoft Ignite virtual event, Microsoft announced a new language for the Power Platform called Power Fx. What is Power Fx? Microsoft Power Fx is the low code language for expressing logic across the Microsoft Power Platform. It is the same language that is at the heart of Microsoft Power Apps canvas apps today and is inspired by Microsoft Excel. It enables the full spectrum of development from “no code” to “pro code” with no cliffs in between, enabling diverse teams to collaborate and save time and expense. Source: What is Microsoft Power Fx? | Microsoft Power Apps This is a huge announcement from Microsoft regarding the Power Platform. Not only is the language that "powers" Power Apps finally getting a name, but the Excel like language will be breaking out of Power Apps and going across the Power Platform. But...why does this matter? With this announcement, there are sure to be many opinions and reasons why this is impactful. We have chosen two that come to mind. Excel Formula Power FX Formula Collaboration Take the images above from the previously linked Microsoft blog post. These show how a text manipulation formula in Excel is almost identical to the same formula in Power Apps. The only difference between the two? Excel references a cell in Excel and PowerApps references a control property. The possibilities for easier collaboration between development and business teams are amazing! This has been the case for PowerApps, but with this announcement, this will also be the case in the rest of the Power Platform ("Dynamics CRM" aka Model-Driven Apps, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents, etc.). Additionally, imagine less communication issues when translating requirements/specifications into working solutions. A business user/functional consultant can write some simple excel formulas on sample data that the developer can translate into the Power Fx formula with ease. A bug or error arises? The business user and developer will be able to work together and understand the logic of the solution to be able to resolve the bug. This should limit communication issues that result from translating what the code of the app does, how the developer explains the code, and the business/functional requirements. Consistency With this language spanning the Power Platform, consistent formula logic for low-code development will be enabled. In many cases, a Power BI report, Power Automate Flow, and Power App require identical business logic. Going back to the text manipulation example above, if the business requirement is to store both the original text and manipulated text, this would have to be repeated within each individual service within the Power Platform. Ideally, the business logic could come from one place, such as an Azure Function, yet utilizing Azure resources is not an option in all cases. Before the Power Fx announcement, business logic would be expressed using multiple languages with their own syntax. This means the string would have to be manipulated using multiple techniques in different languages. Having multiple languages involved increases the likelihood for mistakes in translating the requirement into the separate languages. Copying formulas between different components will solve these issues for both citizen and pro developers. Ultimately, the benefits of time saved in development and accuracy in the overall business application solution will be substantial. Summary Improvements to the Power Platform continue to impress and improve on an already leading low-code/no-code platform. Power Fx only continues that story fostering better collaboration, consistency, and ultimately empowering more people to develop, troubleshoot, and debug business applications.