Book Image

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Cookbook

By : Mark Polino
Book Image

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Cookbook

By: Mark Polino

Overview of this book

Microsoft Dynamics GP is an Enterprise Resource Planning system, essentially an accounting system on steroids, designed for mid-sized organizations. The implementation of Dynamics GP is usually considered to be complex, and people often realize there must be more efficient ways of working with the system. This book will show readers how to improve their use of Dynamics GP and get the most out of this tool quickly and effectively.This book picks up where implementation training leaves off. Whether you are new or experienced you will find useful recipes for improving the way you use and work with Dynamics GP. The clear recipe steps and screenshots make implementing these solutions easy for users of any level and will be sure to improve your efficiency with the Dynamics GP system.The book starts with recipes designed to enhance the usefulness of Microsoft Dynamics GP by personalizing the look and feel of the application. Most of the recipes are designed to give tips for a typical installation of Dynamics GP, including core financials and distribution modules. The book then moves through recipes that include automating Dynamics GP to allow users or administrators to focus on value adding tasks, harnessing the power of SmartLists to leverage both simplicity and power, connecting Dynamics GP to Microsoft Office 2007, exposing hidden features in Dynamics GP, and much more!By following the clear recipe steps and screenshots in this book, you will learn what is required to improve your efficiency with the Dynamics GP system
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
Preface
Index

Accessing accounts faster with Favorites in Lookups


In larger organizations it is common for users to only work with a subset of the chart of accounts. Often these accounts are limited to a certain division or department. To find a set of accounts fast, Dynamics GP provides a mechanism to look up a more limited set of accounts and save these as Favorites. This provides faster access when selecting accounts in transactions. In this recipe, we'll look at using Favorites in Lookups. Favorites are actually part of SmartLists, which are covered in detail in Chapter 4, Harnessing the Power of SmartLists.

This recipe showcases the power of integrating SmartLists into the application interface. It provides an unlimited number of ways to target account selection including selection based on department, company, account type, financial statement type, and more, all with just a few clicks.

Getting ready

To begin this recipe we are required to set up a simple SmartList to set up the account limits. To do so, complete the following steps:

  1. Select the Microsoft Dynamics GP menu and click on SmartList to open the SmartList window.

  2. Click on the plus sign (+) next to Financial and select Accounts:

  3. Now, click on the Search button. In the Column Name field, click on the lookup button (it looks like a magnifying glass) and select Account Number.

  4. Set Filter to begins with and enter the Value as 000. Click on OK to close the window:

  5. Click on the Favorites button. In the Name field, enter Segment 000 and click on Add. Then select Add Favorite:

This process creates a specialized list based on a segment in the chart of accounts, and then saves it to make it available for account selection.

How to do it...

The Favorites list only needs to be built once. After that, the real fun starts. Complete the following steps:

  1. First, select Financial from the Navigation Pane on the left and select General from the Transactions section of the Financial Area Page.

  2. Click on the Accounts field and then click on the lookup button.

  3. Click on the arrow next to View and hover over Favorites.

  4. Select Segment 000, the Favorite created previously:

This presents a specialized list to users giving them a more targeted list of accounts to select from when creating a transaction.

There's more...

There are more options than just this recipe for limiting the selections from the chart of accounts.

Set as Default View

The new feature in Dynamics GP 2010 is the ability to save a Favorite as the default view. Once a Favorite has been selected in the view, simply click on Set as Default View from the View menu. Default views are per user and only available for master record lookup, not transactions.

Restricted List

If users only need to restrict the available accounts occasionally, there is a temporary option. After clicking on the lookup button and then on the arrow next to View, users should select Restricted List instead of Favorites. The Restricted List option provides similar functionality to Favorites, but the search is not saved and Restricted lists cannot be set as the default view.

Resetting

Selecting All Accounts resets the list, removing all restrictions.

Account Security

Account Security is a feature in Dynamics GP that limits a user's access to certain accounts in the chart. A user cannot even see an account that they don't have access to. This is another option to limit the selection of accounts available to a user. However, it requires an administrator and quite a bit of thought to set up correctly. Setting up Account Security is less like a recipe and more like a seven-course meal, so it's not covered here.

Activating Account Security without proper setup makes it appear as if the chart of accounts has been deleted. Deactivating Account Security returns users' access to the chart but not before triggering a gut-wrenching fear that it's time to find a new job.

See also

  • Chapter 4, Harnessing the Power of SmartLists