In the normal rush to get a client up and running on Microsoft Dynamics, it seems a lot of the really cool functionality available within the application gets overlooked in the implementation. While the focus, rightly so, is on accommodating a business’s best practice and implementing the best solution, some very strategic functionality is left on the sideline.
One big sideliner I constantly see is Business Alerts which is a powerful notification and reporting tool designed to provide strategic information as it happens through an email or through a notification in Dynamics.
Many of my clients have never really had this type of functionality in their previous ERP solution and as a result do not know how powerful this little process can be for their business. I normally work with my clients to start brain storming possible conditions where receiving business critical data immediately as it happens is both strategic and necessary. When clients are able to visualize the possibilities, the flood gates open and Business Alerts are used for just about every kind of scenario.
For example, one of my clients wanted to be alerted when specific inventory quantities fell below their safety stock level and another one of my clients wanted an email whenever a credit memo was created. Both conditions are perfect candidates for using GP Business Alerts and provide a ton of benefits.
What are Business Alerts?
Business Alerts leverage SQL Server technology to monitor data based on specified conditions or queries. The alert is scheduled to query this data and then deliver an email or a notification within GP to the designated recipient for notification when the condition is met. The condition is established by using the query features of SQL Server and then leveraging the database mail features of SQL Server to deliver the notification
The Business Alert screen itself is a graphical query tool that allows the average non-technical user to query the data through a wizard screen. Once the alert is setup, you can select the method for the notification, which user or users will receive the notification and then how often users will receive the notification.
How to Set Up and Use Business Alerts.
First of all, in order to leverage the email capabilities of Business Alerts, you will need to set up and configure Database Mail on your SQL 2005 or SQL 2008 Server. Database mail uses SMTP protocol for sending emails. So set up and configure your SMTP settings in SQL Server.
Second in order to create Business Alerts, you need to login as the sa user. Since Business Alerts create jobs in SQL Server, you must login to GP as “sa” in order to create a Business Alerts. The average user will not be able to do this.
Accessing Business Alerts is done through the Administration Tab on the Navigation Pane and then clicking on Business Alerts on the area page, or going through the menu options – Microsoft Dynamics GP>>Tools>>Setup>>System>>Business Alerts. Since this is a System function, you will most likely need to have access to the system password as well.
Once you are in the Business Alert Wizard, you will have the option to create a brand new Business Alert, or modify an existing alert. There are 11 pre-defined business alerts already setup in the Wizard. These are:
- Accounts that have exceeded Budget
- Checkbook balances that fall below zero
- Customer Balance has exceeded Credit Limit.
- Customers on Hold
- Inventory falls below reorder point
- Employee paid overtime
- Payables Documents on hold
- Payables Documents past due
- Customer Receivables past due
10. Sales Documents on Hold
11. Vendors placed on Hold.
To modify these existing Alerts, select Modify Existing Alert in the first screen of the Business Alert Wizard.
- Highlight the alert that you want to modify and then click Next.
- Update or change the Business Alert ID and description and then click Next.
- Review the selected tables for the alert. If you are new to Business Alerts, it is really good to review how these alerts are setup. Review these tables only -I highly recommend that you do not change any of the pre-defined alerts. Click Next.
- Review how the tables are joined together. Take note of which tables are linked and what field names are used in the links. Click Next.
- Review the Business Alert Formula. If you are new to SQL queries, you will probably need some help knowing what the formula means. For example, if you look at the Inventory Reorder alert, the formula reads: IV00102_T2.QTYONHND-IV00102.T2.ATYALLOC < IV00102.T2.REORDLVL. What this is doing is looking for any item in the Item Quantity Master that has an Order Point Quantity greater than the difference of the quantity on hand and the allocated quantity. It is straight forward, but you do need to know field names. Click Next.
- This is the screen where you specify who will receive the Alert. You will notice that there are some options.
- The first option is to receive an email alert. From here you can specify whether the user will just receive the message text or receive a report as an attachment.
- The next option is a notification to the UserID. The UserID option creates a task in Dynamics GP that is assigned to their User ID. The notification of the task will appear in their task list or display on their home page.
- Add your email recipients to the alert. This will be the end users that are notified when the conditions exist.
- You will note that you cannot select a user based on elements of a condition. For example, notifying a specific Sales Person that is assigned to a Customer when the credit limit is exceeded. This is a limitation with Business Alerts. However, there are several ways to handle this – but I will not cover them here. You will find training videos at www.DynamicsTrainingSite.com which will walk through how to dynamically create email alerts.
- Next modify the Message Text. Click Next.
- If you selected “Message and Report” you will have the option to select which fields are to be included in the report. If you are sending out an email and chose to send a report along with the email, just be warned that the report is not a pretty graphical report. It is data pulled from a SQL query. However most people just need the data so the text report works just fine. Select Next.
- You have the option to select your sorting options. Select the fields you want to sort on then select Next.
- Now you have the opportunity to schedule your alert. What this means is that you are scheduling when you need to have SQL Server go out and find all of the records in the database that match the criteria specified in the alert. If the process finds records that match the criteria specified, an email will be sent out with an attached text document listing those records. Depending on how strategic this data is and whether the data is mission critical, you will want to setup your schedule accordingly.
- Test the alert and then you are finished.
I have had several clients go beyond the high-level project plan and engage a strategic plan to leverage the functionality and intelligence that Microsoft Dynamics GP can deliver – especially with Business Alerts. Those clients with the vision have reaped the benefits.
As always, if you have any questions, shoot me an email at joe@jmc-solutions.net. I am always around to help out.
Joe Morris
JMC Solutions