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 quickly, Dynamics GP provides a mechanism to look up a more limited set of accounts and save them 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, Leveraging New and Updated Features in Dynamics GP.

This recipe showcases the power of integrating SmartLists into the application interface. It provides an unlimited number of ways to target account selection, including selections based on the 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 Account SmartList in order to set up the account limits:

1. Select the Microsoft Dynamics GP menu and click on SmartList in order to open SmartLists.
2. Click on the plus sign (+) next to Financial and select Accounts:
   
3. Now, select the Search button. Click on the lookup icon (it looks like a magnifying glass) and select Account Number. Click on OK.
4. Set the Filter set to begins with and enter 000. Click on OK to confirm:
   
5. Select the Favorites button. In the Name box, enter Segment 000, click on Add, and add favorite:
   

This process creates a specialized list based on a segment in the chart of accounts and then saves it in order 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:

1. First, select Financial from the Navigation pane on the left-hand side and select General from the Financial Area page.
2. Click on the Account field in the middle and select the lookup button. Click on the arrow next to view and hover over Favorites.
3. Select Segment 000, in the Account Favorites created earlier:
   

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 in order to limit the selections from the chart of accounts.

Set as default view

Improved in Dynamics GP is the ability for a user 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 the master record lookup and not transactions.

Restricted list

If users only need to restrict the available accounts occasionally, there is a temporary option. After selecting the lookup button and clicking on the arrow next to View, users can select Restricted List instead of Favorites. The Restricted List option provides a functionality similar 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, but it requires an administrator and a lot 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 8, Harnessing the Power of SmartLists