Weekly Feature: Macro Basics

In honor of Halloween, our featured item this week is something scary to many people, MACROS. (insert scary Halloween laugh here.)

A macro is a function that allows the automation of certain events in a program. In Great Plains, macros can be used to take out some of the annoying parts. For example, when we transfer money, we always transfer it one way, from Money Market to operating. Everything is the same but the dollar amount. So, I build a macro to fill in everything but the amount. Now I just run the macro, add an amount and I'm done.

Building a macro in GP is easy but somewhat tedious. Remember though, you only have to build it once, you get to run it over and over again. A GP macro works the same way as if you were sitting there keying in the info. That's important thing to remember as you build macros.

To start, select Tools->Macro->Record. Name the macro TESTand remember where you saved it. Pick Transactions->Financial>Bank Transfers for our example.

Key in everything but the amount to transfer. Click Tools->Macro->Stop Recording. You've now recorded all that work.

Push clear and close the window.

Pick Tools->Macro->Play. Find your macro file and click open. Close the box telling you how long the macro ran. You now have bank transfer waiting for your amount. To finish the transfer, enter the amount and click post.

Adding the macro to the shortcut bar is the easiest way to run a macro and it gets rid of the run time message.

There's more you can do with macros and we'll cover the advanced stuff another time. You can also learn more in the Great Plains help files.