The basic SmartLists included with Dynamics GP are
great, but they really shine once companies figure out how to fine tune
and filter the records that are returned. The Search feature in
SmartLists does just that, making it easy to see which invoices were
generated on a particular date or which transactions affected a certain
general ledger account during the month.
In this recipe we'll look at
how to better control the results that are returned using the Search
feature in SmartLists. For our example, assume that auditors want to see
any checkbook transactions over ten thousand dollars ($10,000) during
the month of February. We'll use the Dynamics GP sample company for this
recipe.
How to do it...
To limit the results of a SmartList with the Search feature:
1. Click on the SmartList button on the menu bar at the top or select Microsoft Dynamics GP from the top and click on SmartList.
2. Select Financial, then Bank Transactions.
4. In Search Definition 1 set Column Name to Checkbook ID, Filter to is equal to, and Value equal to First Bank:
5. In Search Definition 2 set Column Name to GL Posting Date and Filter to is between.
6. This opens up two date boxes. Set the dates to 2/1/2008 and 2/28/2008:
7. In Search Definition 3 set Column Name to Checkbook Amount, Filter to is greater than, and Value equal to 10000:
9. The resulting SmartList is limited to only FIRST BANK transactions in February 2008 with amounts over $10,000:
How it works...
By default there are four
available search boxes used to narrow results. However, with the 'is
between' option shown in the demonstration, it's possible to effectively
have more criteria than just the four boxes. 'is between' adds two
options in a single search box, meaning that users don't have to use up 2
boxes with the 'greater than' and 'less than' criteria.
There's more...
The Field Comparison
and Match Case settings provide additional search features and the
Search Type option changes the way in which results are returned.
Field Comparison
The Field Comparison checkbox changes the Value
field to a lookup field allowing the comparison of two values. This is
useful for comparing fields in the system. For example, if a user wanted
to find cases where the subledger posting date is not equal to the GL
posting date, Field Comparisons would be a perfect tool.
Match Case
The Match Case
checkbox makes a search case-sensitive. Sometimes, it is important to
find situations where data has been entered in all caps. This is a great
way to use the Match Case option.
The Match Case option can be removed, or set as the default, via the SmartList Options window. This window is available by selecting Administration from the Navigation Pane and selecting SmartList Options under Setup.
Search Type
SmartLists default to a Search Type of Match All.
This returns results that meet all of the criteria. From a technical
standpoint this is an 'and' search. In our example we found transactions
for a specific checkbook AND between two dates AND over a certain
amount.
Switching Search Type to Match 1 or More
changes the search to an 'or' type search. Our example would return
transactions for a specific checkbook regardless of date or amount. In
short, it would return a mess. However, if I wanted transactions that
were orders or invoices, Match 1 or More would be perfect as a document can't be both an order and an invoice.
