How to Use the Sage 100 ERP ALE To Create an Ad Hoc Report

I recently got the following request from a customer:

I need a list of Inventory Items with their Volumes in Excel What’s the best way to do that?

The easiest way to do that is probably to create a custom lookup with the Advanced Lookup Engine (ALE).

How Do We Do That?

Go to Inventory > Main > Item MaintenanceClick the lookup (the magnifying glass button ) or press the F2 key on the keyboard.This opens the lookup screen for the Item List.Click the Custom button .Select Create new view from the View drop down if it’s not already selected and give your new view a name in the Description field. I’m naming mine Volume Lookup. Click Next.On the left hand side, double click any fields you want to add to the lookup or want to use to filter and on the right double click any you don’t want.You can create calculated fields using the New Field button, but we’ll save that for another day.Click Next.The next screen is the filter screen. We don’t need to do anything with that in my example today.Click Next.This screen allows you to change with field we can change the Title of the lookup, the Default Search Column, and Default Search Option. I’m naming mine Volume Listing.I’m not doing it here, but frequently, I’ll change the Default Search Column and change the Default Search Option to Contains. It’s a personal preference, so do what works for you.Click Finish.When you get back to the Item List, you can change to the new view by going to View and selecting the view you just created. In my case, I’m selecting Volume Lookup.To export my listing to Excel, I have to click the Export to Excel button .Any time you open the Item lookup (ALE) from almost any screen, you will have the View selector available and be able to get to your custom view.