You know how in life you run into those small things where you wished you had slowed down to make a better decision… Like where to place the butter tub in the refrigerator, so it doesn’t fall out and bust all over the kitchen floor.  I can only hope this is resonating with some of you and you aren’t all the type who very strategically place your grocery items in their assigned quadrants in the fridge.  I work with some of you quadrant folks, but many of you will understand my perspective.

I know from experience there are plenty of you who have painstakingly planned, with your user departments, the best “pick lists” possible for all areas of SalesLogix.  Now, you wonder “how did that data get in there?” You forgot one very important step; way back in the beginning.  You forgot to lock down the pick list so the users could not add their own values. Maybe you didn’t know it was possible, maybe you thought by giving them so many choices they wouldn’t add their own, or maybe you thought it would be nice to provide your users that flexibility.  Whatever the reason … I bet most of you are second guessing your decision now.  I was working with a client in the Cincinnati, OH area last week, training them on building query groups in SalesLogix, and they were shocked at some of the values in their data.

We are talking about two tiny little checkboxes.  These two checkboxes will save you hours of frustration.  See below!   You need both ‘Text must match a list item” and “Users can not edit items” to fully lock down pick lists. The Picklist Manager can be found in the Administrative Client under Manage>Pick Lists:

Note:  The default setting for pick lists does allow users to Add items of their own (unchecked).

OK, so now you know to go back and lock down the pick lists,  but what about all that data you don’t want in your pick lists?  I have a good answer for you and another area of SalesLogix to explore in this article.  There is a SalesLogix maintenance tool called “Replace Data” that can help get your data back under control.  This menu is available through the Sales Client, as an administrative user, from the Tools>Manage>Replace Data menu option.

Use the Replace Data Wizard to replace one or more values with another value in the ACCOUNT, CONTACT, or OPPORTUNITY tables. You can only replace data in accounts, contacts, and opportunities to which you have access rights. The Replace Data Wizard works with the current account, contact, or opportunity group.

The first screen of the replace data wizard prompts you to choose which type of records to update (Account, Contact or Opportunity).

The next decision is the type of data replacement to perform on the current group

The last screen prompts for a target field and value. If you have chosen a replacement type that requires more input values (search and replace, for example) this is where you will be prompted for those as well.

*Simplesoft Solutions recommends that all of the actions described in this post be performed by and limited to Administrative SLX Users.

If your SalesLogix data cleansing  job is bigger than you can handle, contact us a sales@simplesoft.net to discuss the data cleansing services we provide at Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.

Dayton, Ohio Office:
Simplesoft Solutions, Inc.
550 N. Main St. Suite A
Springboro, OH 45066
Phone: (937) 885-1204 x 3204
Fax: (937) 885-3580
sales@simplesoft.net