Accounting applications have to be flexible in order to compete on the software market and Business One is not an exception. Modern concept is to cover generic business requirements in standard logic and whatever is not covered is subject for custom programming and integration.
Applications that were architected in decade of 1990th tried to open limited modification via so-called User Defined fields. Good example is Great Plains Dynamics. However if you would like to add new tables or fields then you would have to appeal to customization tools and programming. SAP B1 is breaking through these limitations as it stores the metadata directly in SQL Server. This method allows you add new fields to existing tables for example OINV staying for Invoice Header or INV1 Invoice Lines. Plus you can introduce new tables directly in customization settings. Simple user interface is created automatically for user defined table. Fields added to the header tables could be edited if you mark View -> User Defined Fields in menu. Coding is not required if all you need to achieve is new fields and their editing plus using in Crystal Reporting or SSRS. This type of modification is version upgrade neutral and you should not hesitate to take this route. Large percentage of customizations is done directly in Settings. However we often see the requirements to bring some automation logic via programming. Let’s review the options on the introduction level:
1. User defined fields and tables. Login user interface and follow the path: Tools -> Customization Tools -> User Defined Tables Setup. From this point apply your intuition and create new table at your wish. Follow the same menu path but on the last step choose User Defined Fields Management. Here you can add fields to existing tables or in other words native tables of SB1. Now let’s take a look at the automatic user interface to these new objects. Let’s assume that you added new fields to Marketing Documents Title tables set. If you now open AR Invoice and mark View -> User Defined Fields in menu then simple form should be opened next to AR Invoice form where user defined field is ready for being edited. If you add fields to Marketing Documents Rows tables set then you can add these fields to the scrolling window on the AR Invoice or Sales Order forms by clicking on the icon name Form Settings. User interface to new table could be opened via Tools -> User Defined Windows. Maybe you are lucky and your modification needs are covered in this paragraph. For the rest of us who needs custom coding let’s move on to the next paragraph
2. Software Development Kit and programming in Microsoft Visual Studio. Business One is open to integration coding and it has SDK with code samples in C# and VB. Technically you can use another programming language Delphi for example but you should be comfortable in parsing code samples from C# to your favorite language. It is also possible to wrap your custom module into SOAP Web Service interface in order to make it computer platform neutral. Web service could be called from Linux, Mac or in other words the computer with operating system other than Microsoft Windows. Software Development Kit might look like simple way to tailor your accounting application however it requires working knowledge of the business processes and tables structure. Be sure that you are trying your programming experiments in test environment in order to avoid data corruption or all kinds of possible damages
3. Crystal Reports. If you have B1 installed and implemented and you would like to create managerial reports then CR is one of the recommended tools. SAP acquired Business Objects and at this time it is investing in seamless integration between CR and its ERP products including SAP BO. Crystal is friendly to novices as well as it is open to complex reports built upon SQL Stored Procedure or View
4. Second Opinion. We do our programmers community contribution and we often hear from unhappy customers who want their ERP implementation project to be recovered. We are happy to provide second opinion and ready to pick your account even considering that fact that software licenses are already sold. We work with secondary Corporate ERP market
5. Please call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904 (for international customers, where our representative pick up the phone in St. Joseph, MI call center). help@efaru.com. We have local presence in Chicagoland, Southern California, South West Michigan and Houston and Dallas areas of Texas. We serve customers USA, Canada, Mexico and Brazil nationwide and internationally via web sessions and phone conferences (Skype is welcomed). Our consultants speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese. We feature our expertise is in International Business. We provide second opinion in SB1 data migration, customization and reporting
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