Helpful Security Features in Dynamics GP Toolbox: Part 1 of 3

Written By Jim Peliksza,
Developer at Rockton Software

As any security administrator who has used Dynamics GP version 10.0 or later knows, working with the security windows (Roles, Tasks, etc.) can be quite cumbersome . . . unless you happen to know the contents of every Task you have defined, and the Roles to which those Tasks are defined. If you do not, then you will find yourself endlessly scrolling through lists of windows, reports, and whatever else to find the one Role that you need to actually change a security setting.  Alternatively, you can run a separate security report and do some text searches on that report, or even run a SQL script that you have created outside of Microsoft Dynamics GP to somehow help determine the Role.  But neither of these options is exactly simple or easy.  And, in the end, you will still need to open the User Security Setup window and select User and Company, and then scroll through the Roles to select the right one in order to the make the change.

Setting Security Access Using Dynamics GP: A Worst-Case Example
Let’s say you need to fulfill a seemingly simple task like granting or revoking security access to a given window.  Since security is assigned at the Role level, you must determine the appropriate Role that will grant access to this window.  To make it a little more interesting, let’s say it’s a window with which you entirely unfamiliar, so you have no idea whatsoever which Role will grant the access you need to grant.

Here are the steps that you must go through, using what is available natively in Dynamics GP, in order to determine which Role will give you access to this window:

1. Open the Security Role Setup window.
2. Let’s say you might be able to make guess at a likely Role ID because of your excellent naming standards.  But you still need to confirm this guess, so select that Role ID.
3. You will now see a list of all of your Task IDs, which are where windows, reports, and everything else you can assign security access to are grouped.  Choose All in the Display drop-down and select the Display Selected Tasks box.  This will show you just the Tasks for this Role.
4. Now we must determine if any Task in this Role contains the window in question.  Make your best guess at which Task it might be.
5. Double-click that task to open the Security Task Setup window.
6. Now, you need to know which product the window is a part of.  What if you don’t know?  You will need to take another guess at the product.
7. For the Type, you can choose Windows.
8. Now choose the Series.  Since you have no idea, start with the first one in the list: Financial.
9. Now you finally get a list of windows in that Task.
10. You want to see which windows are selected for that Task, so mark the Display Selected Items box located just above the Operations list.
11. You may find that nothing shows up in the list anymore because there are no windows in the Financial Series that are a part of this Task.  Or, you may see a list of windows, but the window you are looking for is not listed.  Either way, you must go back to step 9 to try the next Series.
12. If you have found the window you are looking for, then you know that the Role you selected in step 2 will give you what you need.  Skip to step 17.
13. If you don’t find your window in any of the listed tasks, then you may have selected the wrong Series, so go back to step 8 to try another one.
14. If you have tried all Series, you must repeat this exercise for each Product.  Go back to step 6 to try another one.
15. Still haven’t found it?  That could mean that you have chosen the wrong Task ID.  Go back to step 4 to try again with a guess at another Task ID.
16. I think you know where this is going.  If you STILL haven’t found it, you have selected the wrong Role initially.  So… you know the drill.  Try your second best guess at the Role and start over again at step 2.
17. If you have gotten here, then hooray!  You have finally found a Role that will grant you access to the window in question.  But what if this Role grants access to some functions that this user shouldn't have?

Again, you must go back to step 2 to try another Role and hope that you find one that is more appropriate. This is excruciating, right?  Fear not!  With Dynamics GP Toolbox by Rockton Software there is a MUCH better way!

Using Mentor and the Security Settings Window
The original intent of Mentor in Dynamics GP Toolbox http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk2vei8ua4k was to allow you to easily find out where a given window was located in the vast array of menus in Dynamics GP, however, for a Security Administrator, it does double-duty as the starting point for a very simple and powerful way to set security access.

Here’s the better way to assign Security access:

1. Open Mentor by clicking the icon on your Dynamics GP Toolbox toolbar.
2. Type the name, or part of the name, of the window that you are looking for into the Mentor Search for field, then tab.
3. A list of windows that contain one or more of the words you have entered will be displayed.  Select the window to which to you want to grant access.
4. Click the Security button to open the Security Settings window.  You will now see a list of all Tasks in the system that contain this window.
5. You can expand each Task to see the Roles that contain that Task.  Keep in mind that granting access to ANY of these Roles will give you access to the window in question.  So we have already blown through what it took 17 steps to accomplish above!
6. Once you have selected the appropriate Role, simply select the User to which you want to change security access.  You will now see that there are red stop sign icons () and/or green check mark icons () next to each Role.  Red means the user does not have access to the Role, while green means they do.  Simply click the icon to change the access.  That’s it!

I think you can see that we mean it when we say that we make Dynamics GP simpler and easier!

Stay tuned for more helpful Security features in my next blog post!


Check out this blog post about more tools in Dynamics GP Toolbox http://www.erpsoftwareblog.com/2013/04/3-dynamics-gp-toolbox-tools-that-make-microsoft-dynamics-gp-users-lives-simpler-and-easier/!