Dynamics GP Smartlist – A Quick Way to Run Ad-hoc Reports

Today I want to highlight a tool in Microsoft Dynamics GP that is critical to the day to day functions of most Dynamics GP people – Smartlist!

Dynamics GP Smartlist is a tool in Microsoft Dynamics GP that allows you to run reports that you can either save for regular use or create on the fly as the need arises. A few highlights:

• It comes with canned reports to meet basic user needs for quick reporting.
• These reports can then be modified to narrow down results and pinpoint specific transactions in your Dynamics GP
• Your preferences can be saved in order to speed up the workflow and make it easy for you to access the reports you would like to use more than once.
• An additional tool that can be purchased separately called Smartlist Builder which goes beyond the basics and allows users to link various tables and do calculations inside the reports.

Compiling a list

Where Smartlist comes in very handy is if you are looking to make a specific list. This could be a customer list, a vendor list, or a list of transactions.

Smartlist offers many sorting options so you can narrow down your results to the data you need. You can narrow it down by transaction date, by customer name, or you can also do a search for any aspect of the transaction.

A way of finding transactions

Smartlist is particularly nice to use is if you are looking for a transaction or you forgot the customer name or are having a hard time locating the document.

The search allows you to type in very broad lookups. For instance, you can enter a few letters of a customer name, or lookup transactions that contain a particular inventory item. You can limit by more than one search field as well.

How does it come into play?

An instance where I created a Smartlist for a client was when they needed to find employees that had been deactivated in Payroll. We were able to sort by their inactivation date and use this as a way to track employees that were no longer employed at the company.

We made this Smartlist a favourite which can now be used on a regular basis and it is now saved in their system. They able to easily export the report to Microsoft Excel as needed and customize the layout of the data if need be. Simple reporting.