You don't need a sophisticated computer application to tell you that economic conditions are deteriorating: customers not paying on time, vendors demanding payments sooner than usual, sales targets not being met, higher freight charges due to gas prices, inventory piling up, and so on.

On top of all those issues, you purchased your Microsoft Dynamics system and paid top consulting dollars, with the hope of better management and insight into your company's business activities, as well as to alleviate some transaction processing