Using Reminders to remember important events

It's always nice to be reminded when you're about to forget something important and it's even better to get an automatic reminder triggered by certain events. Well, Microsoft Dynamics GP has prebuilt functionality to remind users when certain thresholds are approaching or met. For example, GP can provide a reminder when invoices are overdue or payables are due.

In this recipe we'll look at how to set up the built-in Reminders.

How to do it...

To set up a reminder follow these steps:

1. Click Home on the Navigation pane on the left to open the home page. In the To Do section, click New Reminder.
2. The Predefined Reminders section is at the top and contains a set of commonly used reminders and the ability to set the number of days around which a reminder is given.
3. For our example, check the Remind Me box next to Overdue Invoices and Payables Due. In the Remind Me days box, enter 5 next to days after the due date on the Overdue Invoices line.
4. Check the Display as a Cue box for each of the options selected:
   
5. On the Payables Due line, key in 3 next to days before due date and click OK.
6. Reminders are refreshed when the home page is refreshed. Click the two swirling arrows on the top right next to the breadcrumbs to refresh the page.

How it works...

After the prebuilt reminders are set up, a reminder will appear in the Reminders section of the home page when an invoice is five days past the due date; this is great for following up after a five day payment grace period.

Similarly, the Payables Due option from our example would provide a reminder three days before payment is due.

Prebuilt reminders are available for Overdue Invoices, Payables Due, Recurring General Ledger Batches, Recurring Receivables Batches, Recurring Payables Batches, Items Due for Stock Count, Collection Tasks Due, and Lots due to Expire.

There's more...

Just getting a reminder is nice, being able to drill down into the reminder is even better.

Drilling down into reminders

Clicking on a reminder opens a window that lists each individual reminder. For the prebuilt reminders, each item gets a line of its own. Therefore, each overdue invoice and each upcoming payable in our example gets its own line and clicking on a line drills back into the actual transaction. The reminder details can be sorted and the Open button on the right provides additional drill back options beyond the default drill back from clicking on a line.

For example, for an overdue payable transaction, such as the one for Business Equipment Center, the Open button includes a link to select checks where this voucher can be added to a check batch for payment:

See also

• The Getting warnings with SmartList alerts recipe in Chapter 8, Harnessing the Power of SmartLists
• Getting early warnings with Business Alerts