I recently chatted with Tobi Darby of Tribridge. I’ve had the privilege of working with Tobi as a Microsoft Dynamics GP partner for over 10 years and can attest to her tremendous knowledge and skill-set within GP and ERP. Jump into our conversation where we discuss her thoughts on SmartList Builder.

 

A: Well, we’ve worked together for a long time, but how long have you personally worked with our solution, SmartList Builder?

T: I jumped on board when it was first released. It was a lifesaver when it came out as prior to that there were tools like, Anyview, but nothing as robust as SmartList Builder. I started using SmartList Builder and never looked back.

 

A: So since you jumped in right away, did you attend some training?

T: Actually, I just learned it on my own. It’s really intuitive, so if you are already technical in nature – it’s pretty easy.

 

A: How has your experience with SmartList Builder been over all these years?

T: Really, really good. I view it as an extremely helpful tool that I have in my toolbelt. We have a lot of customers that use it and I wouldn’t recommend anything else. We recommend and try to sell it to every customer we have.

 

A: So tell me – any fun or unique lists you’ve created lately?

T: I’ve created quite a few around GL & Payables – designed for customers who want to see an “applied to”, what checks were written, what invoices were paid on checks, etc. Those seem to be big requests.

T: We’ve also done a lot of HR and payroll reports.

A: Tell me about the HR reports you’ve created – what makes them unique?

T: The reason they are unique is that the HR reporting pieces in GP really aren’t very friendly. The typical HR user wants something that’s easy to see at a glance or send to Excel to do some additional manipulation.

 

A: Any recent customer success stories around SmartList Builder you’d like to share with our readers?

T: We have a customer who is a logistics company. They are tracking union employees, vacation, time off, etc. Most of their reports are done in Crystal Reports but we are moving them to SmartList Builder so they can review their reports in GP. Prior to SmartList Builder, they had to log in and out of different installs of GP, go into Report Writer, view various aspects of the report and that was taking hours of time. Now with SmartList Builder, their reporting – for example on 401k’s specifically, will go from a few hours to about 30 minutes.

A: Now that’s a great outcome! It’s great when you can give users time back in their days.

 

A: You mentioned before that you recommend SmartList Builder to all your customers – why is that?

T: Because the data the customers want today is not the same as what they asked for 10 or 15 years ago. They want something easy to use and they want to pull data from multiple areas. Report Writer is not easy to use. Canned reports from GP are messy and not very attractive. Most customers like the visual aspect of what SmartList Builder can give them plus they can send it to Excel.

 

About Tobi

Tobi joined Tribridge in September 2014. Prior to joining as a consultant, Tobi has played an integral role in several mid-size and multi-site implementations of Microsoft Dynamics GP, both as a senior consultant and as a project manager.   An experienced business professional, Tobi has helped implement business solutions across a broad spectrum of industries, including manufacturing, distribution, not-for-profit, and healthcare, for national client operations.   Tobi has worked in accounting since 1990, where she has gained experience working on various database systems, as well as expertise in the areas of general ledger and accounts receivable.

Tobi specializes in the Microsoft Dynamics GP areas of financials, distribution, and payroll. She is responsible for requirements gathering, analysis, development, documentation, and quality assurance for this part of the Microsoft Dynamics GP solution.

Tobi thrives on being part of a team that successfully brings new projects from infancy to maturity.  Her organization skills enable her to closely and accurately monitor her projects and communicate as needed if a project is not meeting the plan or expectations.