Drill-Ability

Another strength of Navision is its outstanding drill-ability. Two separate articles which were published in the Journal of Accountancy studied the audit trail of various top accounting packages. The general premise of the article was to test the ability to trace source documents thru the accounting systems to the final financial statement, and back to the original source document. In the first article, all products received dismal marks as numerous gaps were found to exist in all products. However, Navision was included in the second round of tests conducted years later and the conclusion was that Navision offered the best audit trail in the industry, from source documents to final reports, and from final reports back to the original source documents. Presented below is a series of screens designed to walk the user thru an example of Navision’s drill-down, and Drill-around capabilities.

 

As shown by the series of screens above, we were able to drill from the customer set up screen, to all customer transactions, thru the posted sales journal, to a posted sales invoice, to an item on that invoice, to the inventory listing, to pictures and statistics for that item. While this drill-ability scenario could easily be continued, these three screens should sufficiently convey a good idea as to how drillable Navision is. To users who want to be able to track down transactions and dig for underlying data, Navision offers an impressive solution. In addition, Navision includes the following drilling tools which are part of the standard product:

• The PowerDrill Tools - allows you to navigate detailed transactions to the various modules and down to the originating documents. PowerDrill can also be used to build lookups.
• The PowerSeek Tools – allows you to sort the data in any order you prefer.
• The PowerFilter Tools – allows you to build specific queries combining multiple fields of data. For example, you could build a query that summarizes customers in specific states, cities, and ZIP codes, assigned territories, salespeople, and other important data for use in producing a direct mail campaign.
• The NavisionFilter Tools – allows you to slice your numbers across departments, projects, dates, and other parameters important to your business.
• The TrendScape Tools – allows you to display trends in your numbers on an annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, or even on a daily basis. You can also define your own set of periods to analyze the results of promotions, special offerings, or the impact of major economic events. The TrendScape Tools handle many years of data.

The functions “View”, “Field Filter” and “View, Table Filter” provide a window that can display only the accounts, customers, entries or other records that fulfill a particular condition. For example, you can have the system display only the customer cards on which the Salesperson Code field contains the code PS (for Peter Saddow). When you browse forward or back in the collection of customer cards, no other cards are displayed. You can also set and remove this type of restriction on any field on a record as filters remain in effect until you remove them or replace them with new ones. Please note that field and table filters are window-dependent, so if you see the same table in another window, the filter is not automatically in effect there. On the other hand, the filter will remain in effect in the window where you entered it until you remove it. To remove a filter, select the function View, Show All.

A restriction on one field is called a field filter. To filter more than one field at a time, you can use the table filter function. The field filter and table filter performs exactly the same function. However, the field filter places a filter only on the field that contains the cursor when you choose the function. If you are in the habit of using only field filters, it can be good to use the table filter feature occasionally to get an overview of all the filters that have been placed on a window. When you enter a filter, you can use all the numbers and letters that you can ordinarily use in the field. In addition, you can use some special symbols or mathematical expressions. Here are the different formats that you can usually use:

Meaning	Sample Expression	Records Displayed
Equal to	377	Number 377.
Interval	1100 .. 2100 ..2500 P8..	1100 through 2100. Up to and including 2500. Information for accounting period 8 and thereafter.
Either/or	1200|1300	Those with number 1200 or 1300.
		If there is a record with each number, both will be shown.
And	<2000&>1000	Numbers that are less than 2000 and greater than 1000. (The & sign cannot be used by itself with numbers because no record has two numbers.)
Different from	<>0	All numbers except 0.
Greater than	> 1200	Numbers greater than 1200.
Greater than or equal to	>=1200	Numbers greater than or equal to 1200.
Less than	<1200	Numbers less than 1200.
Less than or equal to	<=1200	Numbers less than or equal to 1200.
An indefinite number of unknown characters (may be none)	*Co**CoCo*	Texts that contain "Co". Texts that end with "Co". Texts that begin with "Co".
One unknown character	Hans?n	Texts such as Hansen or Hanson.
Calculate before rest	30|(>=10&<=20)	Those with number 30 or with a number from 10 through 20 (the result of the calculation within the parentheses).

You can also combine the various format expressions:

5999|8100 .. 8490	Include any records with the number 5999 or a number from the interval 8100 through 8490.
..1299|1400..	Include records with a number less than or equal to 1299 or a number equal to 1400 or greater - that is, all numbers except 1300 through 1399.
>50&<100	Include records with numbers that are greater than 50 and less than 100 - that is, numbers 51 through 99.
*C*&*D*	Texts containing both C and D.
@*co?*	Texts containing co., CO., Co., cot, cope, incorporated.... (CO, cO, co or Co must be present, followed by at least one character, but there can be an indefinite number of characters before and after these, and case is unimportant).

It is important to enter only meaningful filters. For example, it is possible to specify an interval that does not exist, and the program does not check this for you. In order to enter meaningful filters, you must know the sorting rules that the program follows. To use the Field Filter, choose Main Menu, Sales & Receivables, Customers, etc. Next click the Salesperson Code field. Then from the menu bar, choose View, Field Filter. In the window that appears, enter the conditions that the field contents must satisfy. To begin with, the filter field has the same contents as the field on the card, but just type over the contents. Enter PS, and click the Apply button. If you browse through the customer cards now, you will see only cards that have PS as the salesperson code. The other customers are still in the database, but you won't see their cards until you remove the filter by selecting from the menu bar, choose View, Show All.

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