We often hear from someone who needs to log changes to data in his business system. Perhaps a production supervisor wants to know when the description of a part was changed or a human resources manager wants a record of everyone's pay rate changes. Maybe the human resources manager also wants to be notified by e-mail every time the pay rate gets updated. Using Epicor, logging table changes is as easy as pie. This week, we show you how to use the Business Activity Manager (BAM) to meet this requirement.
First, the BAM is found on the menu under Executive Analysis >> Business Activity Management >> Setup.
In the BAM tool, on the first tab, we simply choose the table and the columns in that table that we want to be logged.
On the second tab, we choose the action or actions we want to take to accomplish the logging. We can have a log created. Simply check the "Create Log" box.
![Select [Create Log].](http://deftflux.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/BAM-3.png)
![Select [Send Alert].](http://deftflux.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/BAM-4.png)
The log simply tells you the date and time of the change, the old value, and the update value, which can be quite valuable.
Now, the BAM can also automatically kick of a report whenever some key thing is updated. That, however, is another story for another day.
If you need help setting up your logging, or any other business process, give us a call. We are here to help.
On occasion, an Epicor ERP user will want to write a report that requires a hierarchical view of a part's multi-level bill of material. In Epicor, we would prefer to do this using a Business Activity Query (BAQ). The Epicor 10 BAQ tool is much more powerful than the tool from version 9, so it comes close to being able to do this, but just misses the mark. In order to query a hierarchical BOM, we must write the SQL and create a view in the database. Once we create the view, we can use a BAQ to access it (in version 9 or version 10 as long as we're using SQL Server), or we can query it directly using an SSRS report. Herewith, we provide the SQL:
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As we have stated previously, Epicor has provided customers with a simple method for building business rules into the ERP workflow without the usual upgrade headaches that go along with customizations. They call it Business Process Management (BPM). BPM comes in two flavors, Method Directives and Data Directives. Data Directives are fired by updates to a table. Method Directives are called before, during, or after a Business Object Method executes. Today we want to demonstrate how to perform a common validation using a BPM Method Directive.
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