Are You Still Here? – How to Know Who’s Still in Dynamics GP

One of the problems plaguing system administrators on a daily basis is users remaining in the system when tasks need to be performed. For example, you may need to back up the system, or you may have tasks, like an upgrade, to perform at night, and you have probably run into a situation where a user is logged into Dynamics GP in the middle of an unsaved transaction. To make matters worse, the same user has left, and the machine is locked.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to monitor the system? Wouldn’t it be nicer if Dynamics GP kept you aware of who’s in the system? With Business Alerts, you can configure Dynamics GP to send a periodic message letting you know who’s in the system.

Business Alerts have been available in Dynamics GP for years, and they’re useful for letting people know what’s happening. For example, besides knowing who’s in Dynamics GP, you can use alerts to let you know when inventory levels are low or customers are past due.

In this case, navigate to the system setup menu and select Business Alerts as shown in the image below.

The first window you see asks you if you want to create a new alert or modify an existing one. Dynamics GP ships with many alerts.

On the next window, select the database to monitor and enter some information about the alert.

The next step lets you define the query.

In this window, you can build a query on the columns you want to use.

You can then define the message.

Notice you can send an email or a message to a User ID. If you send a message to a User ID, the message appears in Dynamics GP. For emails, you need to set up database mail on the SQL Server.

The next step is to define what appears on the report. In this step, select the columns to include in the report.

Last but not least, you can define the message’s frequency.

Once you finish the Business Alert, you can test it by clicking the Test Alert button. Assuming the test is successful, click the Finish button. You can now sit by the pool, get a message on your phone and monitor your system.

If you’re sending the message to a User ID instead of email, here’s an example of what the user will see on the home page.

Unfortunately, we can’t automatically kick users out of the system. However, by letting the system provide information, you can be proactive and know who’s in the system before you attempt that late-night upgrade.