Customization Tools:

Alerts
SAP Business One
Version 10.0

PUBLIC
Topic Objective

Objectives:
 Describe the business situations covered by predefined alerts
 Set up and run the two types of alerts in SAP Business One:
 Pre-defined alerts
 User-defined alerts

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Alerts: Business Scenario

 The purchasing manager wants to be notified automatically as soon as an inventory item

falls below the minimum stock quantity. On receiving the notification, the manager can
decide whether to reorder stock.
Solution: Use the predefined alert Minimum Stock Deviation.
Optional solution: Create a user alert to send the manager a report of low inventory
items and schedule the report to run daily or weekly.

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Alerts

Administration > Alerts Management

 Alerts notify users instantly when a specific

business event or condition occurs
 Alerts do not prevent the event from occurring. The
alert notifies you that the event has happened.
 Internal, email, text and fax mechanisms are
supported
 To receive an alert, user must have a user account;
however the user can receive notifications even if
not logged in

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Setting Up Alerts
Administration > Alerts Management

To set up alerts, a user needs the general Predefined Alerts

authorization Alerts Management
 Predefined with SAP Business One
 Only need to activate and configure
the alert
 Instant notification to recipient

User-defined Alerts

 Write your own using a query

 The alert will trigger when the query
runs and if there are any results from
the query
 Query can be scheduled

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Alert Service

 Alert service is managed in Job Service area of

the System Landscape Directory (SLD)
https://<server>:<port>/ControlCenter/
 Alert Settings are accessed from link in the Job
Service. In the Alert Settings, the alert service is
selectable by database
 Alert service must be RUNNING at all times for
alerts to work
 The AlertSvc user is a predefined technical user
and is used to connect to the company database
to execute alerts

Note: In a SAP HANA environment the alert

service is dependent on the Service Layer.
Service Layer must be installed in same
landscape and bound with the database server

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Predefined Alerts
Predefined Alerts
Administration > Alerts Management

 A fixed number of
predefined alerts cover
common business
situations

 To see the list of

predefined alerts, choose
Administration > Alerts
Management, then type *
in the Name field, and
choose Find

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Predefined Alerts

 Predefined alerts for sales documents:

 Deviation from % of Gross Profit

 Deviation from Commitment Limit
 Deviation from Credit Limit
 Deviation from Discount (in %)
 Deviation from Budget
 Minimum Stock Deviation
 MRP Recommendation Due

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Predefined Alerts

 Predefined alerts for purchasing documents,

payments and journal entries:
 Deviation from % of Gross Profit
 Deviation from Commitment Limit
 Deviation from Credit Limit
 Deviation from Discount (in %)
 Deviation from Budget
 Minimum Stock Deviation
 MRP Recommendation Due

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Predefined Alerts

 Predefined alerts for inventory:

 Deviation from % of Gross Profit

 Deviation from Commitment Limit
 Deviation from Credit Limit
 Deviation from Discount (in %)
 Deviation from Budget
 Minimum Stock Deviation
 MRP Recommendation Due

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 Configuring a Predefined Alert

 Choose alert from list

 Set priority (default is normal)

 Select each recipient and one Instead of

or more notification methods selecting
internal, email, text and fax) individual users
you have the
 Activate the alert option to select
a predefined
user group

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Predefined Alert Conditions

 You can set conditions for the

alert (exception is the minimum
stock deviation alert)
 The condition varies according to
the alert
 You can also select which
documents are covered by the
alert

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Alert Notifications
 Internal alerts appear in the
Messages/Alerts Overview popup
window
 This window can also be opened
from the cockpit widget
 Select the alert to access the
document details
 Options to Forward, Reply or Delete
the alert
 Option to set out-of-office and
forward alert to email, SMS or fax

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User Settings for Alerts

In General Settings and User – Setup:

 Send Alert for Activities Scheduled for Today
 Display Inbox When New Message Arrives
 Update Messages (interval)

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User-Defined Alerts
Use Cases for User-Defined Alerts

User alerts are based on a saved user query and the query can check for multiple
or unique business conditions
The alert can provide worklists to a user on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, for
example:
 Purchase orders over a specific limit issued for the day or week
 Overdue sales quotations
Another use is to check the consistency and quality of master data or documents,
for example:
 Missing fields in new business partner master data, such as tax id, credit limit,
contact person, or sales employee
 Sales orders with missing or incorrect tax codes

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 User-defined Alerts

To add a user alert:

 Use the provided query tools to
create and save the query
 In Alerts Management window,
switch to Add mode
 Provide a name for the alert
 Open the saved user query
 Select recipients, notification
mechanisms and priority, in the
same way as for a predefined
alert
 Set the frequency for running the
query: minutes, hours, days,
weeks or months

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Accessing the Query Results

 User alerts pop up in the

Messages/Alerts Overview window
 To see the query results, double-click
the alert row
 You can also copy the results to
Microsoft Excel by choosing Copy
Table from the context menu

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User-defined Alerts – Save History Checkbox

The Save History checkbox

controls the display of alerts in the
Messages/Alerts Overview
window
 If checked, a new alert is added
on a separate row each time
query triggers alert

 If not checked, new alert

overwrites previous alert on
same row and shows in bold

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Writing Queries for User-defined Alerts

 When you develop queries for alerts, you may need to match the query to the frequency you
select
 Example: For a report of new orders that runs daily, the query should only select documents
added on that day

Query Frequency Results

SELECT T0."DocNum", T0."CardCode", Once a day at 23:30 List of Purchase Orders >
T0."CardName" hours 5000 posted on the
current day
FROM OPOR T0

WHERE T0."DocTotal" > 5000 and  (T0."DocDate" =

CURRENT_DATE)

Query shows HANA SQL syntax

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Troubleshooting User Alerts

 Check the query to make

sure it produces results
 Make sure the alert
service is running in the
System Landscape
Directory. Or, enable the
service in the General
Settings window in SAP
Business One – under
the Service tab
 Make sure the Service
Layer is active for SAP
HANA
 Run a query on table
OALT to see the overall
configuration of active
alerts
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Key Points

Key points from this topic:

 There are two ways to use alerts: configure one of the predefined alerts or define a user alert based
on a query
 All predefined alerts (with the exception of Minimum Stock Deviation) are triggered after an applicable
document is added, so do not prevent documents being added to the system. In contrast, an approval
process will prevent a document being added until it is approved.
 Alerts can be sent internally, by e-mail, text and fax.
 The alert job service must run all the time so that alerts can be triggered. For SAP HANA, there is a
dependency on the Service Layer being installed and bound to the database server.
 User-defined alerts are based on saved user queries. User alerts provide a way to create routine task
lists for users, or to check the consistency of data.
 User-defined alerts are triggered when the base query is run. You must set the frequency for running
the query. An alert triggers only if the query produces results. The query results appear in the alert
window.

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