Murray Fife's Blog, page 8

Beyond Healing Potions: Tracking Employee Benefits Across Faerûn

The Waterdeep Trading Company employs a wide range of talent—from guild-trained accountants in Baldur’s Gate to teleportation-circle custodians in Elturel. With such a diverse and magically-inclined workforce, offering the right benefits isn’t just important—it’s essential for survival, morale, and long-term productivity (especially in a realm where “occupational hazard” may include basilisk encounters).

But how do we track benefits, manage eligibility periods, and enable self-enrollment in a...

Skill Trees and Trade Routes: Tracking Corker Classes and Certifications in Faerûn

In Faerûn, the line between a laborer and a legend is paper-thin. One day, you’re lifting crates of trollbone whiskey in Baldur’s Gate, and the next, you’re rerouting magical freight through a planar junction beneath Waterdeep. The Waterdeep Trading Company has learned the hard way that tracking skills, certs, and classes are not optional; it is vital.

Using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, the company now maintains a guild-standard record of worker classes, certifications, and ...

How the Waterdeep Trading Company Manages Magical and Mundane Inventory Valuation

The Waterdeep Trading Company (WDTC) doesn’t just traffic in grain sacks and crossbow bolts. From spell-scrolls to silks, it handles a sprawling catalog of goods that straddle two very different economic planes: the mundane and the magical. And if there’s one thing Greta Ironfist has learned over the years, it’s this: you cannot value a crate of pickles the same way you value a Potion of Invisibility.

In this post, we explore how WDTC uses multi-ledger inventory valuation in Microsoft Dynamic...

Harnessing Commodity Codes for Magical and Mundane Inventory Control in Waterdeep

At first glance, commodity codes in Dynamics 365 might seem like a bureaucratic remnant of real-world customs offices. But within the fantastical framework of the Waterdeep Trading Company, they offer something far more powerful: order in a world of organized chaos.

Whether you’re dealing in fine dwarven ale, potion reagents, backpack bundles, or the occasional siege weapon, Waterdeep’s broad inventory poses a challenge that most companies never face. That’s where commodity codes come in.

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Tracking Mentorships in Faerûn: How the Waterdeep Trading Company Uses Dynamics 365 Human Resources

Mentorship in Faerûn is not a luxury. It is a necessity. From guild apprenticeships to arcane tutelage, structured knowledge sharing ensures the continuity of craft, character, and commerce. At the Waterdeep Trading Company, mentoring is formalized and tracked using Dynamics 365 Human Resources, transforming tradition into a measurable, strategic advantage.

Why Mentorship is Critical to the Company

In an operation as complex as the Waterdeep Trading Company, mentoring helps:

Reduce onb...

How the Waterdeep Trading Company Streamlines New Employee Onboarding with Dynamics 365

In a realm teeming with dragonfire hazards, magical regulations, and the occasional spontaneous planar rift, the idea of structured onboarding might seem like a low priority. But not for the Waterdeep Trading Company.

Whether you’re a seasoned mage joining the Arcane Logistics Division or a young dockworker hired by the Faerûn Dockworkers Federation to unload casks from Chult, starting a new job should never feel like being thrown into a gelatinous cube. That’s why Greta Ironfist, owner and v...

Navigating Taxes and Tariffs in Waterdeep: A Guide for the Waterdeep Trading Company

Waterdeep, the City of Splendors, is the crown jewel of trade along the Sword Coast. Its robust infrastructure, bustling markets, and magical commerce attract merchants from every corner of Faerûn. However, these opportunities come with significant responsibilities. Trade within the city is tightly regulated, and businesses must comply with a comprehensive and often complex system of taxes, tariffs, and guild fees.

For the Waterdeep Trading Company (WDTC), compliance with these financial obli...

Using Hierarchical Search Names to Dominate Product Lookup in Dynamics 365

At the Waterdeep Trading Company, efficiency is the difference between a satisfied customer and a fireball in the storeroom. One of the simplest but most powerful tools we’ve implemented in Dynamics 365 to streamline inventory lookup is the Search name field — and we’re not just typing in product names. We’ve turned it into a structured hierarchy system that lets us search smarter, not harder.

What Is the “Search Name”?

In Dynamics 365, the Search name is a simplified identifier that helps...

How the Waterdeep Trading Company Organizes Their Product Catalog with Category Hierarchies in Dynamics 365

The Waterdeep Trading Company, headquartered in the bustling Sword Coast metropolis of Waterdeep, offers everything an adventurer might need—from enchanted aprons to armor blessed by clerics of Lathander. But as their product lines expanded across Faerûn, their quill-and-scroll inventory system simply couldn’t keep up. That’s when they turned to Microsoft Dynamics 365—and specifically, product category hierarchies—to bring order to their magical chaos.

Why Category Hierarchies Matter

In Dy...

Forging, Brewing, and Assembling: Mixed Mode Manufacturing at the Waterdeep Trading Company

In the heart of the Sword Coast, nestled within the bustling streets of Waterdeep, the Waterdeep Trading Company operates more than just a retail storefront. Beneath its merchant façade lies a complex web of manufacturing operations—each tailored to suit the diversity of products demanded by adventurers, nobles, and guilds alike. To meet this demand, the company has embraced Mixed Mode Manufacturing within Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, blending Discrete, Process, and Lean production mode...