Automated Tasks (Job Queues) in Dynamics NAV

If you are working with an ERP system, there are circumstances when certain activities are recurrent and usually do not need user feedback. For such circumstances in Dynamics NAV is available a functionality called ”Job Queue”, whose purpose is to trigger a task at a certain moment in time, according to conditions specified by the user.

This functionality allows to establish a policy for periodicity of the task and, as it saves user’s time also solve system’s overloading, due to the fact that there are tasks who are very consuming for the server and slow down the entire system. This tasks can be scheduled to run outside working hours, usually overnight.The functionality may be used for:

• Import of currency exchange rates
• Running of periodic reports
• Background posting of sales and purchase documents (to reduce operating time)
• Email sending or logging
• Data synchronization with Office 365
• Integrations with other systems, requiring data import/export

The setup of automated task is made by creating for each type of task a job queue entry. The path for accessing it  in Dynamics NAV (Navision)  is the following:

Departments ->Administration ->Application Setup ->Job Queue ->Job Queue Entries

In the picture bellow, one can see a job queue entry  card whose setup is made for the import of foreign currency exchange rates. Information is taken from NBR’ s website.

When the setup of the job queue entry is made, you can specifiy:

• The codeunit or the report to be executed
• Task description
• Date/time for starting and finishing the task
• Recurrency: days of the week and hourly interval
• Number or retries, if an error occurs
• An email address to notify the user, in case of an error (this is a KMS customization)

Once the setup is made, a job queue entry must be started and the will run in the background, according to the setup. Job queue entries monitoring care be made in the page “Job Queue Log Entries”, where a detailed history is shown.

If you want to know more about this functionality, you can also view this video:

For more knowledge about Dynamics NAV, check here: Dynamics NAV (Navision) Resources