First Steps in SAP Business One

3.1 The menu bar

Not all options in all the menus are available to you at all times. They are dynamic, depending on what you are doing at any point in time. Anything that you cannot use at that moment is shown in faint grey.

From the File menu, you can choose to print, which template to print on, and which sequence to print in.

You can also send and export via the File menu; for example, you can email or fax a document or a master data record, provided you have the mailer installed, or you can export a report to MS Excel.

You can also launch an application straight from SAP Business One, allowing you to quickly pull up a specific program when required. All you need to do is map the exe file to the path and then you can trigger it from there. A practical application of this feature could be when you receive a call from a customer who is in a hurry to place an order. In this case, you can quickly launch WordPad and take notes. Later, you prepare the document and then email it to the customer for confirmation.

It is good practice to protect your customer’s data at all times; this includes preventing other people from seeing what is on your screen or from accessing the application under your login. Such situations could be particularly problematic in a very competitive sales environment. If you don’t have a sweeping policy in place, that every person has to lock their screen when leaving their workstation to prevent unauthorized access to the machine and the wider system, you can use the Lock Screen option from the File menu to lock just SAP Business One.

You might have noticed that in addition to a keyboard shortcut, such as Ctrl + P for the Print command, some letters are underlined. These underlined letters in conjunction with the Function key are also keyboard shortcuts, Fn + K locks the screen.

You can close the application several ways: select Exit from the File menu, press Ctrl + Q, or simply exit using the X button in the top right corner.

With the Edit menu you can perform most of the standard Microsoft windows functions; the items are self-explanatory.

The View menu lets you change the way data is displayed, you can select to display User-Defined Fields, System Information, Pickers Display, Translated values, and other options.

The Data menu is also straightforward and enables you to manipulate data. You can navigate through the existing records, Find or Add a record, Remove, Cancel, Duplicate, Filter, or Sort records, or execute many other functions.

The Go To menu varies according to the window you are in; for example, when you are in a master data record, the selection is different to when you are in a transaction record.

Modules lets you easily navigate through the different modules without having to open up the Main Menu.

Under Tools, you find useful commands such as Form Settings, Print Layout Designer, Customization tools, Live Collaboration, SAP Business One Studio Suite access, etc.

The Window menu enables you to manage windows, such as selecting to display the Main Menu, to show or hide messages, alerts, System Messages or the Calendar, or to Close All windows currently open. This feature is especially useful if you have a cluttered desktop. If you want to close everything but the window that is currently active, choose Close All But This. Note: if you are displaying SAP Business One in UK English, the menu option is Close all but Topmost. This is one of a handful of little differences between the US English and UK English displays. Some of these differences make sense, such as Stock (UK) versus Inventory (US), due to the common vocabulary usage in each country. However, other differences are not so logical, as in the first example.

Under Help you find links to Documentation, Support Desk, and helpful SAP sites, among other things.