30 January, 2011

Dynamics GP Custom Links - Shipment Tracking

I was recently reminded how useful Custom Links are in Dynamics GP.  This feature is very powerful for streamlining your processes but often goes underutilized.

You can access the Custom Link Setup window in the Company section of the Administration page in Dynamics GP 2010 or at Tools>>Setup>>Company>>Custom Link.  Here is a quick example of how you might leverage Custom Links to streamline your processes in Dynamics GP to drill back directly to shipment tracking information from Sales User-Defined Field Entry:

To setup this up for Federal Express, add a new Custom Link for your FedEx Shipping Method as follows:


You could setup a Tracking Number Custom Link for all Shipping Methods but each carrier has a unique page for tracking shipments.  After setting up the Custom Link, in Sales User-Defined Field Entry, for documents with the Shipping Method for which you setup the Custom Link assigned; when clicking on the Tracking Numbers hyperlink you will be presented with the prompt entered in the Create/Modify Custom Link window.


When selected, the shipment tracking information for the tracking number you chose will be displayed in the web browser:


In this example, I don't have an actual shipment to track but notice how it did pull my tracking number on to the shipment tracking web page from Dynamics GP.

Some shipment tracking urls for common carriers are listed below:

FedEx: http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?action=track&language=english&cntry_code=us&initial=x&mps=y&tracknumbers=%1
UPS: http://wwwapps.ups.com/etracking/tracking.cgi?submit=Track&InquiryNumber1=%1&TypeOfInquiryNumber=T
U.S. Postal Service: http://trkcnfrm1.smi.usps.com/PTSInternetWeb/InterLabelInquiry.do?origTrackNum=%1

There are many other great uses for Custom Links.  I plan to explore some of those in future posts.

3 comments:

Kane said...

Thanks for the tip and great article.

Do you have any idea why the "%1" wouldn't populate the actual tracking number? The event is firing the webpage, but the tracking number isn't being passed correctly.


Any help would greatly be appreciated!

Dan Catchpole said...

Thanks for the post on custom tracking links!

I've managed to put together a number of freight carrier links as well, mostly for southeast freight lines, figured they might be of use to your other visitors!

Estes:
unsecured (no login required, less information) http://www.estes-express.com/cgi-dta/edn419.mbr/output?search_criteria=%1
secured (required login and password, full tracking) http://www.estes-express.com/cgi-dta/edn419.mbr/output?search_criteria=%1&user_name=##& pass-
word=$$

Old Dominion: http://www.odfl.com/trace/Trace.jsp?pronum=%1

R&L: http://www.rlcarriers.com/b2bshiptrace.asp?pronum=%1

SAIA: http://www.saiasecure.com/tracing/b_manifest.asp?link=y&pro=%1

CEVA Logistics: http://www.cevalogistics.com/en-US/toolsresources/Pages/CEVATrak.aspx?sv=%1

John Arnold said...

I couldn't get DHL to work with the link specified. But this seems to work: http://www.dhl-usa.com/content/us/en/express/tracking.shtml?brand=DHL&AWB=%1

It works from the US - I'm not sure if it will works from other countries.