What does the Order By option in SmartList do?

The Order By button that you find on the Search window allows you to select multiple fields and sort by then ascending or descending.

Most would think this would then sort the data you see in the SmartList by these columns.  This isn't the case though.  The Order By options you select will change the data that is viewable in SmartList but will not sort the data as you view it by these columns.  The Order By functionality is really designed to sort the data that is available for SmartList to pull back so that it gets the first X number of records based on that sort.  For example, let's say we have the following 10 accounts in our Account Master table entered in the following order.

2600
1300
3600
2700
5900
4200
1100
8400
2200
6100

If we set the Account SmartList to return 5 records and run the default, it will return the following accounts as it gets the data in the default order SQL returns it.
2600
1300
3600
2700
5900

If we use the Order By option and set it to Order By the Account Number field with the ascending option, we would get the following 5 accounts.
1100
1300
2200
2600
2700

This is because when it goes to get the data the SmartList is requesting, it first orders the data by the account number as follows.
1100
1300
2200
2600
2700
3600
4200
5900
6100
8400

Then it returns the first 5 records.

If you want it to also sort by this Account Number column, you would have to change the Account Number to be the first field in the SmartList as well.  If you are running the default SmartList views, you can change this in the SmartList Options window by going to Microsoft Dynamics GP - Tools - Setup - System - SmartList Options.  If you are running a Favorite you have saved, then you can change the order in the columns window in SmartList.