Hi Infor customers and team, we just put in an Enhancement Request - 127892 for the following issue we have run into often, as in 4x in the past 2 weeks. Has anyone else run into this when doing LN development? Has anyone found a workaround? If not, looking for endorsements for the enhancement so that we can see some traction on this issue and hopefully get more reasonable and practical extension functionality.
Summary
When creating a calculated field in Session extensions, there are multiple ways to create a calculated field. There is Function, Nested Select, and Query Extension. The fastest calculation method is via the Function option, which allows for the most robust and quick calculations (switching companies for tables, many different tables in the calculation etc.). It is way faster than a Nested Select or Query extension. The downfall of the Function calculated field option is that it does not allow for FILTERABLE calculated fields. When a user asks for a calculated field on a session extension, 99 times out of 100 they want it to be filterable. However, when switching companies, those calculated fields can run indefinitely when they are Nested Selects or Query extensions, making creating filterable calculated fields impractical for the end user.
SBO: We wanted to add the Project Manager field from the Sales Order (logistic company) to the Invoices sessions (Financial company, Invoicing 360, Billable Lines, Open Entries, etc.) so that PMs could filter by their name to manage Invoices. We tried a Nested select or Query Extension to the sessions to calculate the name of the PM and add it to each session. Each session ran from 5 to 15 minutes, or indefinitely trying to calculate the field to make it filterable. I was able to create the EXACT same field as a Function calculated field, and it loads in seconds, but is unfilterable, which does not meet the requirements for the users.
The only alternative we have found is to create a CDF on each table and keep the data in sync, which from a data perspective, is not only bad practice, but wasteful in both time, effort, and storage. All session calculated fields should be filterable, allowing users to work in LN fully without having to export all the data to excel and filter from there or creating duplicate data across tables where it should not be necessary, as the tables already contain the data needed.
Business Impact
Currently, our users use Power BI reports and Excel spreadsheets to filter down their data. This basically involves the users going to a Power BI, opening up the correct section, and checking out the data, while comparing it with LN data to make sure that the data is correct. If the data is not available in a Power BI report, the users must export the related session data (in the SBO provided in the description, we would have to export the Sales Orders, the Users, and either the Open Entries, Invoices, or Billable Lines sessions), do VLOOKUPS to get all the data in the right place, and then filter from there. This significantly reduces the utility of LN, as users cannot filter by the data they need, which leads us all to create band-aids in the form of Power BI reports, which slows business process and efficiency.
This is a huge issue that we run into weekly when getting new enhancement requests from users for new fields in session extensions, especially those that are cross-company or cross-table, which leads to VERY slowly-loading sessions and ultimately leads us to not end up creating those fields for users, as they end up being just as time consuming as workarounds. Feels very clunky.
Workaround
In the SBO provided in the description, current workaround requires reviewing multiple platforms and multiple Power BI’s for best information and are not timely or providing information from the source of truth. The clunkiness leads to a lack of timely review and an inability to proactively review invoices that are not yet past due. Ease of use and centrality of information becomes critical when we think about managing the current outstanding 137M aging AR and 44M past 90 days. Bringing down these huge numbers requires PM active participation and maintenance of open invoices and the suggested change would offer a clear, concise way for PM’s to view, resolve, and own their individual piece of the open invoice issues, without leaving LN to go do their digging to keep Invoices moving along.
