The Check Links Process - Super-Helpful, Potentially Dangerous, or Somewhere In-Between?

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I have read mixed reviews about Check Links. Some people swear by it. Others aren't its biggest fans. We have used it twice over the past 6 months to move things to HIST that were stuck in OPEN due to issues we had with a few checkruns. We are considering making broader use of it (proactively running on a much more frequent basis). I am hoping to get a wide range of opinions, issues, and/or concerns. Also - I know how it is used today from the literature out there. But historically, what was it designed to fix? Thanks in advance for your feedback!

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Galina 1,077 on at

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From my point of view, this tool is designed to address the fact that there is no enforced referential integrity between tables in GP database. So there may be records in details table but missing related header.

But I may be wrong, this is just my impression.

I found that some issues are effectively resolved by this tool, but not all. HIST/OPEN discrepancies would be ones that I use it for, also sometimes missing batches (haven't seen those in our environment recently though).

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Mahmoud Saadi 32,738 on at

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I believe that both check links and reconciliation are maintenance tools which were born due to the design of the system, understanding the design aspects of Dynamics GP since it was first acquired by Microsoft is crucial in understanding these processes. In summary, check links primary purpose is to check data integrity among Dynamics GP tables as designed. Reconciliation on the other hand concern about recalculating summary tables which provide desired performance through inquiry windows.

In this essence, it is important to understand how data integrity is defined in terms of Dynamics GP common transaction. Posting a simple transaction in the system will throw several records in several tables that can be categories mainly as (header and details). As a matter of fact, they are linked with the original definition tables (such as customer master, vendor master, address master ...etc). All in all, these records are interrelated according to a predefined logic. Now the check links process is designed to compare the data based on the data in the primary tables, in order to ensure that there are no missing or orphan records that break data integrity. A practical example for the result of this process, suppose you have an inventory transaction for an item that doesn't exist in the "Item Master" for some reason, check links create a "dummy" item in the definition table (item master) to be linked with this specific transactions. In other cases, check links might omit specific records which logically should not exist.

Although you have not mentioned reconciliation, but it is important to understand this concept in the light of check links. Reconciliation primarily re-calculate summary values stored in summary tables such as (Item quantity master, account summary master, customer summary master ...etc) based on the actual transaction existing in transaction tables. In specific cases, reconciliation could play the same role of "Data Integrity" by creating records in specific tables for integrity purposes (A practical example is creating a RECOND document in IV10201 to match the quantity sold in IV10200)

Explaining the concept could still go on and on with several details and example. Although, I would like to shed a light on legendary article regarding check links, written long time ago by Mr. Mariano Gomez about check links. It is a must read in order to understand this process in the light of Dynamics GP design

How does Check Links work?

You are always welcome to provide such interesting inquiries

Your feedback is highly appreciated,

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soma 24,410 on at

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Addition to the above Mr.Mahmoud Saadi suggestion, have a look on the below links.

support.microsoft.com/.../850391

community.dynamics.com/.../106077.aspx

Hope this helps!!!

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