Slow Opening Windows In Microsoft Dynamics GP

I recently implemented Microsoft Dynamics GP for a client who is a UK subsidiary of an American company. This client is a heavy user of the Inventory Control module with over 30,000 items (you’ll see the relevance of this soon).

Shortly after the go-live, users started reporting that windows were opening very slowly; for example, it was taking almost 2 minutes to open the Sales Transaction Entry window. I sat with one of the users and looked at the problem with them; it took a few minutes, due to the slowness, of checking various windows before realising that it was the windows with an Item Number field on them which were slow opening.

I did a quick search online and found a post on Dynamics Code Blocks by Tim Wappat where he had encountered a similar issue which was being caused by the AutoComplete function; this would make sense as by default the AutoComplete will remember 10,000 entries per field.

Which with over 30,000 items and a couple hundred sales orders being processed everyday meant the AutoComplete was quickly building up for each user.

Tim’s solution seemed to be a little more convoluted than I woulr have expected and involved deleting files in the Windows profile. I did a test with one of the users, by deleting the AutoComplete entries via User Preferences (Microsoft Dynamics GP menu » User Preferences) and clicking the AutoComplete button (ringed in red):

Click the AutoComplete button and then the Remove Entries button:

We also changed the Max. Number of Entries to Store per Field down to 100. Click OK to close AutoComplete Setup. You’ll be presented a reminder that changes won’t take effect until you log out and back in:

Microsoft Dynamics GP
Your changes in the AutoComplete Setup window won't take effect until the next time you log into the company.

I got the user to log out and back into Microsoft Dynamics GP; when we tested the opening windows they opened at the normal expected speed. Then it was a simple case of passing instructions round the other users to make the same changes.