User-defined fields in Microsoft Dynamics GP Payroll: Have you defined yours?

Badge ID...license plate number...favorite ice cream flavor.

What do these three things have in common? These are examples of employee-specific information that can be easily tracked within Microsoft Dynamics GP.

You didn't know GP had a field for tracking employee's favorite ice cream flavors? It does not, technically; but you can set one up. You do so within the Payroll Setup window in GP, select Options in the Payroll Setup Options window, you will see two User-Defined Fields.

These are incredibly helpful but excessively underused fields in GP that allow you to define them however you see fit. "User-Defined 1" and "User-Defined 2" allow GP Payroll and HR users to use their imaginations.

Once these fields have actually been set up, the next question is, "Where can you view this information within GP?"

This information is found within the employee maintenance card in GP. Simply select Additional Information. From there, the User-Defined Field can be found directly to the right of Gender and Ethnic Origin fields (note, in my below example, the user-defined fields are "Ice Cream" and "Badge ID").

What are the unique things your business needs to track, that other GP users may not fully appreciate? This could be related to HR and Payroll, or it could even be more inventory based. For example, at Greenshades, all employees are issued a desktop or laptop computer, which has a unique serial ...