By Tim Lindsey
I recently had the pleasure of presenting a PeopleSense webinar on the topic of Grid Reporting in Intuitive® ERP. In that session we looked at a number of capabilities for presenting report output data when reports are run to a grid rather than a preview of the printed report. That session got me thinking that reports are not the only place grids are used in Intuitive® ERP. Many data entry forms contain grids, where some of the same data arrangement capabilities exist, as do the subject of this article – Find grids. While the full set of arrangement capabilities are not available in Find grids, there are still a number of personalization options available that can make searching for records faster and easier, and allow end users to tailor the appearance and contents of the Find grid to their own requirements.
Let’s start with some Find grid basics. The icon for calling up the Find grid is the magnifying glass, which you will see at the top of screens or embedded within certain screens:
When the icon is clicked, the system will display the Find grid. While the lay out of the Find grid is consistent, the actual contents of the grid will vary based on the screen it is called from:
When you first open a Find grid, it displays all selected records (more on this later). You choose the record you want by scrolling through the rows until you locate it, click on that row to highlight it and then click on the Select button to choose that record (or you can double click on the row).
This works fine for a small number of records, but scrolling thought a large number of records can be cumbersome, so you may want to reduce the entire list to a smaller number of rows. This is done by typing values into the blank fields at the top of the grid. As you type, the system reduces the list to only those records where your typed values appear:
A few additional things you should know:
- First, the system is finding records that have the value you type anywhere in the field, what’s known as an embedded string In the example above, I typed 131 above the Vendor ID column, and got VEN131, because the string “131” was found in the Vendor ID.
- Second, unlike the earlier Access lookups, the Find grids do not support In fact, the embedded search is intended to replace the wildcards.
- Third, you can type values into more than one field at the top of the grid, and the system will use the combination of values to pare down the list.
That covers the basic use of Finds – now the good stuff. The appearance and contents of grids as they initially come up are based on default settings, and users can alter these to make Finds more useful. Find settings include selecting which columns to display, column size and position, record sorting and overall grid size.
To add or remove columns, right-click on any column heading, and a pop-up menu will display. Hover your cursor over “Display Fields” and a list of additional available columns will show. Just click on the column you want and it will be added to the Find grid:
Any columns you select with be added at the far right of the grid. You can change the position of a column by clicking on a column heading and dragging it to its new position.
You can also adjust the width of the columns by clicking and dragging the line that separates column headings (like you would in Excel). As you add columns, you will find the size of the Find grid window requires you to scroll to see everything. To expand the find window, click and drag the bottom right corner of the window (you’ll see some faint dots there).
Once you get the Find window looking just right, you can save your changes by clicking on the “Set as default” link at the right. As you might think, the “Restore default” will toss out all your changes and go back to the Intuitive default settings.
I mentioned earlier that when a Find window is first opened it displays all selected records. In some cases, the Find grid does not display all records because it is doing some filtering behind the scenes. You can see the filters that are in place by clicking on the Show Criteria button. This will open an additional panel at the bottom of the Find window.
The Criteria tab on this panel shows any filters that are part of the standard Find grid. In the sample above, this is the Item Card find and we can see that it shows only active items and default revisions.
These filters can be changed or deleted, and new filters can be added. Any changes made here will be saved when the Set As Default button is clicked.
Let’s say you want to see all revisions of items and not just the default. You can change this by right clicking on the Default Rev line, where you see a pop-up menu displayed, and then selecting Edit.
This filter shows the Default Rev being set to equal True. Click the drop-down where the equal sign shows to display all available operators. The list of available operators will be different for different types of fields.
To show all item revisions, select the (All) value from the list and click the find button in the criteria window. All revisions will now display. The right-click also lets you add new fields to the filter as well as deleting existing ones. Be sure to click on Set As Default to save your changes. These changes are saved to your workstation under your user ID. The changes will not affect any other users of the same Find grid.
You probably noticed that when the Criteria panel opens up, there are also two other tabs: Options and Stats. Most users will never have to bother with these, but if you are curious to learn more, feel free to contact Gary Cierny, the Intuitive® Consulting Manager at PeopleSense to arrange some additional training.
Since 2003, PeopleSense has established itself as the definitive ERP and single source workforce management solution provider for businesses of all sizes throughout the U.S. and Canada, offering consulting for M2M® and Intuitive®, Sage HRMS, time and attendance solutions, Acumatica, and related services and products. PeopleSense provides clients with the peace of mind that comes from working with experienced consultants dedicated to customer service, who are affordably priced with no annual contracts. Reach out to get your business software questions answered.