Microsoft Dynamics GP with SalesPad works especially well for distribution companies that have inventory with serial or lot numbers. There are many standard reports for tracking these items, but what if you want to go deeper? For example, what if you want one report that shows you the full lifetime of a serial number? You want to look at an item and the serial number and see who you bought it from, when and for how much. And you also want to know who you sold it to, when and for how much.
All this information is in Microsoft Dynamics GP but it is in different places in the SQL database; so you won’t find all that information on just one screen, unless you build a custom report. A very easy way to do that, if you are using Microsoft Dynamics GP with SalesPad, is to build a SalesPad Quick Report. SalesPad queries the Microsoft Dynamics GP SQL database and with the push of one button you can see all the information you want on one screen.
What type of SalesPad Quick Report can you build to track lot and serial numbers?
Many of the SalesPad Quick Reports that we build are focused on inventory and serial/lot tracking. Here are a few examples of data you can pull from Microsoft Dynamics GP with SalesPad using Quick Reports:
- Find a Customer by Serial Number Purchase
For example, one of our distribution clients using Dynamics GP with SalesPad wants to know which serial numbers were sold to any particular customer. As the client, you could run the report to show all of your customers or you could use a search field for customer name or number and quickly find one particular customer.
- Find Every Serial Number a Customer Purchased
We can also put in a search field for “Item”. If this is an item that the customer buys all the time and you want to know every serial number that this customer bought, then you would do a search for that customer with that item number. By keying in two fields and pressing one button, you have a report listing every serial number that your client ever bought of that item.
- Track Serial Numbers Purchased From a Vendor
Along with who the product went to, you can track where the product came from. So you can search for the vendor and all of the serial numbers that you purchased from them.
- Locate Customers for a Serial Number Recall
If there was ever a need to recall, being able to quickly assess (and contact) customers who purchased that item can save hours of time searching through warehouse packing slips.
- Track the Lifespan of a Serial Number
To take it one step further, we are working on combining the two to get a 360 degree picture of the lifespan for the item. With this SalesPad Quick Report, if you enter in the item number and the serial number, you can see who you bought it from, when, for how much and who you sold it to, when and for how much. That is a pretty powerful report!
Is it worth taking the time to build a SalesPad Quick Report?
All the information we mentioned above is in Microsoft Dynamics GP, but it “lives” in different locations. It is certainly possible to compile it manually, once you know where to look, and then combine the data. But this takes time every single time the report needs to be updated. It is a much better use of time building a Quick Report once, especially for questions that you find yourself asking again and again. A quick report is going to get you the answer you want quickly, with minimal effort.
For example, perhaps you want the report twice a week. Maybe it only takes you a half hour to compile the report – but that is a half hour twice a week, every week, forever. On the other hand, if you spend an hour, once, building a SalesPad Quick Report, then it takes just five minutes twice a week. Think what you could do with that extra 50 minutes a week.
Can you set up your own SalesPad Quick Report?
It depends on your experience and your comfort. If you’re incredibly comfortable with SQL and writing queries, you could absolutely set up a SalesPad Quick Report on your own. In fact SalesPad just put in a new feature to make it even easier, called Quick Report Designer. However, even with this tool knowledge of SQL will still be important. For those who are less familiar with SQL there are plenty of people here at CAL Business Solutions who are very good at it and will gladly build it for you.
What does a SalesPad Quick Report look like?
The results typically look like a regular grid but there are some extra tricks to build in summary type collapsible rows. Once you have the data, you can always format it and make it fancy when you export it to Excel.
CAL Business Solutions is a Microsoft Dynamics GP partner focused on the distribution industry. If you are a distribution company evaluating new software, contact us.
Or if you use Dynamics GP with SalesPad and you are interested in building SalesPad Quick reports, contact us.
CAL Business Solutions. sales@calszone.com or 860-485-0910 x4.
Read more at: https://www.calszone.com/marketplace/product/salespad/
By CAL Business Solutions, Microsoft Dynamics GP with SalesPad Partner
