Best practice for user name change in Epicor

Epicor ERP 10
1

Hello,

What is the best practice for renaming a user in epicor if they have a name change? Do we disable the old user id and create a new one with the new name?

We are on Epicor 10.1.500.11

2

I assume you mean a Users ID? Not their full name?

The display name is just a text field in User Maintenance so easy enough.
The User ID field is a primary key in the database with all records linked against that key field so a little dicier.

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3

Yes,

Would you recommend we just leave the userid alone and only change the display name?

4

Hi Jeff,
Yes, recommend leaving the User ID as is and just change the name in the text field that Bart mentioned.

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5

Changing primary keys is dicey no matter the product. Mentioning that makes most DBAs start to cringe.
Full name is a much better idea (And chose your User IDs well!)

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6

Story time about good naming conventions for user ids: With old old old Epicor when I first started, my domain/internal system user name was set to naanderson, for nathan anderson, (because there was already an nanderson) and when we went to old old Epicor’s naming convention the system mapped my middle name to Nathan A. Anderson (when it is really Nathan J. Anderson). In old old Epicor our systems in places had my name as Anderson, Ashley (because it is obviously picking up on my Epicor middle initial A, and finding that aanderson which must have been an Ashley Anderson because that standard was used in other places). This will all change once and for all when we go to a firstname.[optional middle name if there is a conflict].surname standard worldwide soon enough, but, my point is that when you choose your User IDs (regardless of the product), PLEASE choose them well from the onset like @Bart_Elia said or else you’ll get a number of support tickets from people like me who run into issues when the standard changes because you realize the previous convention didn’t cover XYZ condition :slight_smile:

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7

Ah, the good old days. :wink: I remember the days in Vantage 8.0 where the user UserID field was secretly 8 characters, but the UI would let you type up to 16 iirc. We had two users with the same First Initial & Last name (oddly enough, they were not related).

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8

For what it’s worth, I have opted for creating a new account in Epicor for the name change and then to retain personalizations, favorites and such I would run 1 or 2 update queries to move those over.
I usually did this with the Epicor Admin Console add user from AD, once the user’s AD account was updated and I would copy the user’s older account to the new.
Haven’t had any issues with that approach.
In dealing with Buyers, Salespersons and the like, the related accounts would need their authorized users updated.
No fall out or confusion or issues so far with that approach.

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9

We do pretty much the same as Rick but I guess we’re mean as we don’t copy the personalizations. :smiling_imp:

10

Rick, I know this conversation was from over a year ago but hoping you still use the same process.

  1. We copied and pasted the user account from EAC.
  2. Opened User Account Security and Enabled the newly created account.
  3. Work Force - I assume we delete and re-create the authorized user? The Work Force ID is still restricted to 8 characters? This is the main reason we are creating new user accounts.
  4. Still not able to delete the OLD user account, referenced by one Workforce. Do we delete and recreate the workforce account also?
  5. Customization Maintenance - Export all personalizations (if required)
  6. Any other history or transactions that would be tied to this old account?

Thank you!

11

Ken,
#3: Yes if your WorkForce ID is a problem for you, then yes you would create a new one. However, the WorkForce ID is usually data that is not seen by the end user, in that case I do NOT create a new WorkForce ID, I just update the WorkForce Name & email address. Also, the WorkForce ID is associated with many things, such as Customers, ShipTo’s, Territories, Workflow Groups, etc and creating new, and updating all of those items is difficult.
#4: You will not be able to delete any old User Account and probably not any old WorkForce ID as it was used on related records. You would just remove the Authorized user from the old WorkForce ID. But again, I do not delete WorkForces, I just change the name. Considering that, it is often a better idea to use non specific ID’s for WorkForces.
#5: I do not export/import personalizations, instead I just run a SQL Update against the personalization tables to update the User ID field from the old to the new. There are several tables to update and you need to be VERY familiar with the data you are updating. Epicor does not recommend nor support data manipulation via SQL queries as you can mess things up pretty badly. I just wish they would provide a built in process to copy or update a user’s personalizations in mass from one ID to another.
#6: I do not address any historical data since at the time of the transaction the User ID was correct and that’s all that matters. Since I do not attempt to delete the old User ID (only disable) this is not an issue. I have not encountered a situation where historical data would need to be updated. Sales may opt to update existing orders from one Sales Rep to another, but that can be manually or with a DMT update.

Hope that helps.

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12

Rick, this is perfect. Thank you for the feedback.

13

Rick, can’t seem to figure out how to send a private message. Have a quick question for you regarding this topic.
Thanks in advance,
Eric

14

Just went through my first username change in 10.2 and learned a few things:

  1. Epicor needs to provide a slick solution for username changes, name changes are a fact of life and should be expected and there should be an in software solution. When a new UserID is issued that user will lose access to the previous user data across multiple modules, not excluding Epicor Collaborate messages, etc.
  2. One workaround I use is (not supported) manually updating key user records UserID field so they will still have access to those items. If I had some time I could probably build some automation to take care of this much safer than SQL Updates. Some key tables:
  • ice.FavFolder
  • ice.FavItem
  • ice.ShellLayoutPersonal
  • ice.XXXDef
  • ice.XXXChunk

Mess with these at your own risk!

Don’t forget to update any Authorized User access for Buyers & Work Forces.
Feel free to open up a support call to request a user name & ID change process built into Epicor.

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15

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