Updated February 2026
Your AP clerk runs the same vendor report every Tuesday morning. Same filters. Same columns. Same sort order. And she rebuilds it from scratch every single time because nobody ever showed her about SmartList Favorites.
Here’s what drives me crazy about this: the feature she needs is already sitting inside her Dynamics GP system, fully paid for, waiting to be used. She’s just never heard of it.
SmartList Favorites let you save your custom reports — filters, columns, sorting, all of it and run them again with a single click. No rebuilding. No remembering which fields you needed. Just instant access to the exact data view you set up last time. If you or your team regularly pull the same reports in GP and you’re not using Favorites, you’re burning time you don’t need to.
What Are Dynamics GP SmartList Favorites — and Why Do They Matter?
SmartList is already built into your Microsoft Dynamics GP system. You’re paying for it whether you use it or not. Favorites take those default SmartLists and turn them into customized, saved report views that match exactly how your business operates.
Think of it like bookmarks for your data. You configure the columns you need, apply your filters, arrange everything just right — then save it. The next time you need that exact report, it’s sitting there waiting for you. And here’s the part people miss: Favorites save your settings, not a static snapshot of data. Every time you open one, the results refresh automatically. That vendor aging report you saved last month will show current data when you run it today.
For growing businesses where the same reports get pulled daily, weekly, or at month-end close, this is one of those features that quietly saves hours you didn’t even realize you were losing.
How to Create Your First SmartList Favorite
Open SmartList by clicking Microsoft Dynamics GP in your toolbar, then selecting SmartList from the menu. If you use it frequently, add a toolbar shortcut to save even more clicks.
Start with a default SmartList that’s close to what you need. For example, if you want to track vendors missing 1099 tax information, navigate to Purchasing > by vendors > 1099 Vendors. Any SmartList ending with an asterisk is a Microsoft default, a solid starting point.
From there:
- Click the Columns button to add, remove, or reorder fields. Switch the display to “All Columns” to see everything available. Use Ctrl-Click to select multiple columns at once.
- Use the Search button to set filters — up to four criteria at a time. For the 1099 example, you might filter for vendors where the tax type is populated but the 1099 box is empty.
- Once your SmartList shows exactly what you need, click Favorites in the toolbar, give it a descriptive name (“Missing 1099 Tax Info” beats “Vendor Report 3” six months from now), and save it.
Most people have their first Favorite working in under ten minutes. The hardest part is picking which report to start with and for most accounting teams, that’s usually the vendor aging report or a recurring month-end query.
If you need more information, watch this video showing how to create SmartList Favorites and set up reminders on our YouTube channel.
The Visibility Setting Most People Get Wrong
This matters more than you think. The “Visible To” dropdown determines who sees your SmartList Favorite. If it’s set to system, then everyone in every company sees your Favorite in their list. That’s lots of people scrolling through “Bob’s Q1 Vendor Analysis” when they’re looking for their own reports. Clutter drives people crazy.
Set it to User unless you specifically built this Favorite for your whole team. Your finance manager doesn’t need to wade through the warehouse supervisor’s inventory queries.
Company makes the Favorite visible to everyone in your specific company database only. User Class works if your GP administrator set up logical groupings and assigned people to classes. System should be reserved for truly universal reports that benefit everyone.
Here’s a practical rule. If you created it for yourself, set it to User. If your department needs it, ask your GP admin about User Class settings. If the entire organization should use it, then consider System visibility.
Advanced Features Worth Knowing
Once you’re comfortable with the basics, a few more features are worth exploring:
- SmartList Reminders connect to your Favorites and alert you when specific conditions occur — for example, notifying you when payables transactions over a certain threshold need approval. The reminder shows up directly on your GP homepage.
- The GoTo button jumps you from a SmartList result directly to the related record in GP — click a vendor, press GoTo, and you’re in their vendor card without navigating through menus.
- Excel export works seamlessly. Click the Excel button to push your results into a spreadsheet without the formatting headaches that come from other GP exports.
- Password protection (available in GP 2018 and later) lets you lock down sensitive Favorites — useful if you’re sharing compensation data or confidential vendor terms.
One more thing to watch: if your SmartList shows 1,000 records on both sides of the count at the bottom, you’re hitting the default maximum and missing data. Go to SmartList Options to increase that limit or refine your filters.
Practical Ways to Build Favorites into Your Workflow
The best Favorites aren’t built in isolation — they’re built around the work your team actually does every day.
For month-end close, create a Favorite for each of the reports you consistently pull, label them clearly, and run through them in sequence instead of rebuilding queries from memory. For new employees, point them to the six Favorites they’ll use daily instead of teaching them to construct SmartLists from scratch — they’re productive faster, and you field fewer questions.
For auditors, build Favorites ahead of time using the exact filters and columns they ask for every year. Set the visibility appropriately and you’ll stop spending the first day of audit week just pulling reports.
SmartList has been part of Dynamics GP since the early Great Plains days. The functionality keeps improving with each release. The latest GP updates include enhanced reporting features across multiple modules, and Microsoft has extended GP support through December 2029 with security patches continuing until April 2031.
Stop recreating the same reports. Build your Favorites once. Use them forever. Your future self will thank you.
Need help optimizing your Dynamics GP reporting or setting up SmartList Favorites for your team? Contact CAL Business Solutions at 860-485-0910 x4 or sales@calszone.com.
By CAL Business Solutions, Connecticut Acumatica & Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC/GP Partner, www.calszone.com
