Tag: SmartFill

This post is part of a series of posts on Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill.

Over the course of this series, I’ve stepped through the steps to, on a simple level, implement the SmartFill product from Rockton Software.

I’ve been quite impressed with what I have seen of SmartFill. It is easy to install and configure and the search seems quite effective.

Using the Fabrikam sample database, I inserted 1,500,000 (yes, 1.5 million) vendor records and did searches against them from Payables Transaction Entry. The search took 5 seconds to locate and return relevant data when there was only a few matching returns on the search criteria; the more records returned to the search window, the longer it took to populate.

I’ve got a couple of clients with large datasets who I think would benefit a lot from this product; one especially has tens of thousands of inventory items with a segmented Item Number; SmartFill would make it easy for them to do lookups on part of the item number; and the subset filter will allow them to search within the initially returned dataset.

SmartFill is licensed at $220 (USD) per system user (as of July 2018). In simplest terms, this means that for each Microsoft Dynamics GP full user licences you own, you need to purchase one SmartFill user license; this is regardless of whether they will be using SmartFill or not. This licence model is not unusual for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISV solutions, but it can mean that for larger clients the cost can become prohibitive.

SmartFill is worth taking a look at if you, or your users, have trouble finding data with the regular lookups. The real benefit of SmartFill is how customisable and easy the search is to use.

This post is part of a series of posts on Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill.

While SmartFill can be used out of the box with the search being configured to lookup on several fields, it is possible to customise the search options so that more fields can be searched against.

If we take the Vendor search as an example, it uses the following fields for the sdearch:

• Vendor ID
• Vendor Name
• Vendor Class

To change the search configuration, select SmartFill Objects (Administration area page » Setup » SmartFill » SmartFill Objects). Scroll down and locate the Vendors in the list; select it and click OK:

Continue reading “Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill: Customising Search Options”

This post is part of a series of posts on Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill.

As it installs, SmartFill is accessible and the search windows can be used by all users.

It can also be administered by anyone with the POWERUSER* role. However, security can be maintained in two ways.

The first type of security allowsd the lookup windows to be restricted so certain lookup windows can be accessed only by certain users.

To change the security on, for example, the vendor lookup, select SmartFill Objects (Administration area page » Setup » SmartFill » SmartFill Objects). Scroll down and locate the Vendors in the list; select it and click OK:

Continue reading “Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill: Configuring Security”

This post is part of a series of posts on Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill.

With SmartFill now installed, the search windows are available to use. There are many SmartFill search windows available, which all work in the same way, but, for this example, I am using Vendor search.

Open the Vendor Maintenance window (Purchasing area page » Cards » Vendor). Type OFFICE in the Vendor ID field and hit tab:

Continue reading “Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill: Search Using SmartFill”

This post is part of a series of posts on Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill.

While SmartFill will work without a licence in the Fabrikam sample company, to use it in any other company, you need to register the module. Your partner can purchase the keys for you; once the order is compelte, the registration can be updated in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

To do this, open the Rockton Software Registration Issues (Microsoft Dynamics GP menu » Tools » Setup » SmartFill » Registration) window. Ensure SmartFill is marked in the Product Name column and click the Get Keys button:

Once the keys have been retrived, the Message column will show Registered. Click to see details. SmartFill is now available to use in all companies.

This post is part of a series of posts on Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill.

The second step in implementing SmartFill is to install the remaining clients.

Using the previously downloaded installer, extract the downloaded file and run the SmartFillSetup.exe as Administrator by right-clicking:

Continue reading “Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill: Client Installation”

This post is part of a series of posts on Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill.

The first step in implementing SmartFill is to install the first client; it’s in this installation where we will deploy the database objects.

To install the first client, the first step is to download SmartFill; navigate to the Rockton Software downloads page. In the Product field, select SmartFill and in the Versions field select Microsoft Dynamics GP Version 2018.

Mark the checkbox next to the Product and hit the Download Selected button:

Continue reading “Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill: First Client Installation”

This post is part of a series of posts on Implementing Rockton’s SmartFill.

Before starting the installation, I thought it might be useful to do a post, covering what functionality SmartFill contains.

Simply put, SmartFill allows you to perform a more flexible lookup than the standard ones in Microsoft Dynamics GP. For example, you can type only a few characters of an Item Number or Item Description and a list of data matching will be returned; the search performed is a begins with or contains (depending on configuration) which makes it easy to find the required data.

By default SmartFill ships with a large number of default searches, but can be customised to add more or change the default ones; and can also be configured to to be available to 3rd party modules.

I periodically take a look at different offering from ISVs, of which there are many. One that I’ve looked at recently is SmartFill from Rockton Software.

I figured a small series on implementing it might be useful as I step through the process myself. Over the new few posts, I’ll be installing and configuring SmartFill.