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ERP Search and Menu Badges

Anyone holding an ERP role can find a document, customer, supplier, item, project, account or asset from any admin screen with one search box, and the menu shows a number beside the screens where work is waiting. Both follow the person's roles and companies, so they never show more than that person may read.

Where to find it

The search box sits in the admin menu, labelled Search the ERP (Ctrl+K), for anyone holding an ERP role. The same search is on the ERP workspace on the Admin Home page. Badges appear on these entries:

Admin Panel → Finance:

  • Bank Feeds & Reconciliation — bank lines not yet reconciled

Admin Panel → Payables:

  • Invoice Match Queue — supplier invoices held by matching

Admin Panel → Purchasing:

  • Purchasing — requisitions submitted and orders waiting for approval

Admin Panel → Projects & Time:

  • Projects & Time — timesheets waiting for someone else's approval
  • My Time & Expenses — your own timesheets that were sent back

Admin Panel → Processes:

  • Approvals Inbox — approval requests waiting for you

Searching

  1. Press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac) from any admin screen, or click the box.
  2. Type at least two characters: a document number or part of one, a name, a code or an account number.
  3. Move through the results with the arrow keys and press Enter to open one.
  4. Choose See all results to open the full ERP search page. There you can set Company and Look in (Everything, Documents, Customers, Suppliers, Items, Works orders, Projects, Accounts or Assets).

What you can find

Each kind is searched only for roles that read it, and only in the companies you can read (shared records that belong to no company are included).

  • Documents by number or reference, for every document type your roles read. Finance holders also find journals.
  • Customers, Suppliers and Items by code or name.
  • Works orders, Projects, ledger Accounts and fixed Assets.

A result whose screen your roles do not open is marked (no screen you can open) rather than offered as a link.

How badges count

  • The Purchasing, Invoice Match Queue, Bank Feeds & Reconciliation and Projects & Time badges count work in the companies you can open. Architects count every company. The Approvals Inbox badge counts requests that name you.
  • The Projects & Time badge leaves out your own submitted timesheets, because you cannot approve them.
  • The ERP workspace counts the same work company by company, so a badge and a queue can be compared.
  • Architect Panel tiles keep their own badges, for example Feed Queue (feed lines not yet posted, ignored or reconciled) and Accounting Outbox (failed outbound documents).

The User Guide inside the product

The User Guide button in the admin menu now has an ERP section for back-office users, with three topics: The role centre and ERP search, ERP roles, company access and your menu, and ERP Analytics: measures, reports and consolidation. Point new ERP users there on their first day.

What goes wrong

  • No search box in the menu: the person holds no ERP role, or the ERP module is switched off.
  • "Nothing in your companies matches.": the record may belong to a company you cannot read, or to a kind your roles do not search.
  • A badge higher than the workspace: a person signed in with a Windows or Active Directory identity counts every company, because their groups cannot be resolved for the count.

Worked example

A supplier rings about invoice 4471. The payables clerk presses Ctrl+K, types 4471, and sees the supplier invoice under Documents. They open it, see it is on match hold, and notice the Invoice Match Queue badge reads 3, so they clear the other two while they are there.

Recommendations

  • Teach Ctrl+K on day one. It replaces most menu navigation for finding a record.
  • Use the full search page when a short query matches too much; narrow it by company and kind.
  • Treat a badge as a prompt, and the ERP workspace as the detail behind it.
  • Keep company access accurate: search and badges are only as focused as the grants behind them.