Jo's "Did You Know" - GP Sales Process Holds are Awesome!

You wanna see something awesome?  Let's look at "automatic hold" functionality AKA GP Sales Process Holds in the GP Sales Module!

*Caveat-I’m using GP2018 for this, so there are some visual alerts available in 2018 not available in older versions*

What are Sales Process Holds? 

They can be just about anything, but the most common automatic hold is due to credit limits which will stop orders from being moved to invoices, etc.

Other common examples of Process Holds are:

• Require a manager‘s approval before a return can be posted.

• Prevent posting of documents until a manager approves the transactions.

• Restrict the printing of invoices until addresses have been verified.

• Stop the order fulfillment process because a part has been recalled by the manufacturer.

First, let’s create the Sales Order Process Hold:

Again, for this example, I am using a Credit Hold

Go to Sales>Setup>Process Holds 

As you can see, this is where you select the document types or posting status you want the hold to apply to.

*Notice here is where you set the "Hold Password".  Therefore, if a user has security access to this window, they can find that password*

Options on where to hold documents include:

Transferring Documents   Mark to stop the transfer of documents from one document type to another until the hold is removed. (This option has no effect on return documents since they cannot be transferred to other document types.)

Posting   Mark to stop the posting of invoices or returns until the hold is removed. If you have orders that contain a deposit amount, the deposit amount will be posted when the document is saved, regardless of whether a posting hold has been assigned.

Fulfillment Advancement   Mark to stop the advancement of fulfillment order document statuses until the hold is removed.

Fulfilling Documents   Mark to stop the fulfillment of orders or invoices until the hold is removed.

Printing Documents   Mark to stop the printing of documents until the hold is removed. If you restrict the printing of an order, invoice, or fulfillment order, the picking ticket and packing slip won‘t be printed either. This will eliminate the possibility of shipping items for documents that are on hold.

Next let’s set up how our holds interact with our sales documents

In Sales Order Processing setup select the Document Type that you’d like to use the holds on and then select that hold type in “Credit Limit Hold ID”

Go to Sales>Setup>Sales Order Processing>Click on Sales Document Setup

Here is where we can tell GP how to auto-hold Orders, Invoices or any other document in the Sales Module.  For each document type if you have more than one Document ID, you can set them all up differently.  However, only "Order" and "Fulfillment Order/Invoice" have the special "Credit Hold" field required for this GP Credit Hold.

You can also see that each document type has a "Hold" button in the lower right corner - here is where you can set up other types of hold - for instance a hold on printing documents until addresses can be verified, etc.

Let’s setup our Sales Process Hold for Credit Limit!

 *You must ensure that there is no Password to exceed credit limit setup in Receivables Setup for this process to work*

I have pulled up my document type Order and my saved Order ID STDORD. Your order ID’s may be completely different.

I simply add my CREDIT process hold ID to the Credit Limit Hold ID field.

*Note: I could set up more holds using the Holds button*

Let’s see our hold in action!

For our example I am using a client I have a credit limit on of $35,000

(Setup credit limits in the Customer Card)

I enter an order (Note that the Order TYPE ID is the one I set up the Holds Process on in Sales Order Processing Setup).

The order is for an item that is over their credit limit and as you tab off the line item that takes the order over the credit limit you receive a message saying it’s over their limit and you can go ahead and say okay to this.

 You may save this order to a batch – but when you pull it up you’ll note the warning that it is on hold.

*Note my visual cue in GP2018*

 At this point – and due to the settings selected in the Process Holds setup, if you attempt to transfer this to an invoice or to fulfill it you’ll receive an error on the transfer.  

A report will print on the order that has the process hold which looks like this:

Releasing a Hold 

 It is at this juncture that the document can be routed to an approver to remove the hold - they can pull up the document and use the “Go To” dropdown and click on “Holds”

The approver would select the hold and click “Remove” and then be prompted for the password that is set up within Process Holds setup window.

Once this hold has been removed the credit hold on the order is moved to the “Removed Holds” section of the window.

Click OK and go back to the Order and transfer it again.

*Note, the visual cue is now gone*

Our Order is now an invoice!!

In a test company, I urge you to set up various process holds and make GP work for You!!

 By Jo deRuiter, MCP, Advanced Credentialed Professional-Dynamics GP with Heartland Business Systems, LLC: A full service IT and business consulting firm proudly serving all of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois.  For more information about our Microsoft Dynamics GP support and consulting services, please visit us at www.hbs.net/GP