Writing Macro - Routine - Master Posting

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Posted on by Jesse B.

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I have two years of experience with Dynamic Great Plains but no experience with Dynamics GP macros though. Every day twice a day I have to open each company about 25 or more, go to routine - master posting - select only the batch id's that begin with

ICTRX

ICL SUMMARY

, or someones individual batch id in this format "ZZmmddyyXXX" ZZ = State Initials, mm = two digit month, dd = two digit day, yy = two digit year, XXX = two to three digit initials. And only these three that i know of so far. There are several items available to post but i am only to post items that fall into these categories.

I desire a macro that can help do this process for me so i can do another task at hand while this is running. Is this possible? I will be out for the rest of the day and tomorrow. Happy New Year and I will check back Wednesday sometimes. Thank you in advance.

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Ian Grieve 22,784 on at

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A macro wouldn't help in this scenario. Macros are good for repeating the same action each time; but in your case you might have a variable number of batches which need to be posted so couldn't use the macro to select them.

Could you use a saved List with the criteria you need? Then you could check select all and then post.

Alternatively, a little VBA customisation on the form which triggers when your user opens the window might do the job. We have a client who has some VBA on Batches, Series Post and Master Post which unchecks a particular batch to prevent it being posted. Your requirement is the opposite of this but shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. This last assumed you have Modifier with VBA.

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Andrew John Dean 1,337 on at

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Envisage Software Solutions offers a product that could be used to do your posting. The product can be configured to post specific batches at designated times of the day and easily switches between companies. The enterprise version of the product runs as a Windows Services which means that GP does not need running.

Check out the video on the web site for further detail. www.envisagesoftware.com

Regards

Andrew Dean

Envisage Software Solutions

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Victoria Yudin 22,769 on at

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I'd like to second Andrew's suggestion - we have a customer using Envisage's software and it works great for unattended posting.

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Jesse B. 100 on at

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Andrew,

Thanks but I don't think the company would be willing to invest in the software.

Ian,

If the format of "ZZmmddyyXXX" is to hard to macro then how about just writing a macro for the batches that begin with ICTRX and ICL SUMMARY to mark them and post them if they are available to mark because sometimes they might have been posted already since i have to run this twice a day. Keeping in mind I run this for every company as well, if we can incorporate this into the macro so it simply logs into each one and only posts these items that would save a ton of time. I can worry about the "ZZmmddyyXXX" batches on my own.

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L Vail 65,271 on at

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Jesse,

Since macros cannot contain built-in logic, I suggest considering using a SQL query to build the dataset which includes the list of batches you want to post. Record a macro to post one batch. Open the macro in Word and use it as the base document for a mail-merge. Use the dataset created by your SQL query, and replace the hard-coded IDs in your macro (now Word document) with relevant fields from the dataset. Execute the mail merge and create 'form letters' for each batch id in your dataset. Save the resulting letters as a text file. Open the text file in Notepad and be sure there are no extra lines at the end. Save this as a file.mac document and you have just created a macro to post the desired batches.

You can also use this method to include the company change logic at the end of each group.

Kind regards,

Leslie

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Jesse B. 100 on at

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Leslie,

I recorded the maco it looks like this

# DEXVERSION=DEX 6.00m045 2 2

NewActiveWin dictionary 'Company Login by Group' form 'Switch Company' window 'Switch Company'

ClickHit field '(L) Company Names' item 2 # 'COMPANY NAME'

MoveTo field 'OK Button'

ClickHit field 'OK Button'

NewActiveWin dictionary 'default' form 'SY_Master_Post' window 'Master_Post'

MoveTo field 'Mark None'

ClickHit field 'Mark None'

# Key 1: 'GL_Normal', 'ICL SUMMARY'

ClickHit line 6 scrollwin 'Mast_Batch_Scroll' field 'Marked To Post' # 'TRUE'

MoveTo field 'Post Button'

ClickHit field 'Post Button'

# Print To File: 'General Posting Journal'

ActivateWindow dictionary 'default' form 'SY_Master_Post' window 'Master_Post'

A few questions. Recording the macro is easy but one question i have is what happens if i run this macro runs and 'ICL SUMMARY' batch doesn't exist to be marked? Does it stop the query? If yes how can i get the macro to skip onto the next batch name if it errors? If it doesn't error or stop the query i presume it will continue onto the next batch name I have correct?

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Jesse B. 100 on at

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Leslie,

Also what do you mean when you say macros can not have built in logic? Do you mean GP macros or all macros in general?

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L Vail 65,271 on at

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Hi Jesse,

First, are you seriously on version 6??

By no built-in logic I mean it cannot make decisions. Macros are pure mimics of keyboard actions in Dynamics. If a named batch doesn't exist, the macro will fail. You cannot tell it to skip the batch and go on to the next one. You will have to use SQL to rebuild the dataset and macro each time.

As you have been advised by others, there are third-party solutions available, but they do require an investment. I think the investment would cost less than rebuilding the solution each time, but that may be my lazyness talking. Your time is much more valuable, if the solution works, I would encourage your company to purchase it. Chances are, you will find many more things you can use it for.

Kind regards,

Leslie

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Jesse B. 100 on at

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Leslie, We upgraded to Oracle but i still have to use this older system as well. I agree but for some reason this company 90% of the time does not calculate the opportunity cost of comparing the cost to pay me and the cost for buying the product and the time it would save me over a period of time.

Thank you all for the answers. It was all very helpful.

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