Kinetic Tools Management
The Kinetic Tools Management domain tests your ability to build and administer Epicor Kinetic's no-code toolset: Business Activity Query (BAQ), Business Process Management (BPM), Business Activity Manager (BAM), Dashboards, Menu Maintenance, and Security. Questions focus on how these artifacts reference each other, how they are secured, and how they are deployed to users.
Core rules and concepts
- BAQ is a read-only query definition. BAQ Designer exposes Query, Display, Criteria, Sort, Joins, Subquery, and Calculated Field tabs. Use Analyze to validate results before saving. BAQs are reused by dashboards, BPM conditions, reports, and BAM.
- BPM provides Method Directives (on business object methods such as SalesOrder.Update) and Data Directives (on table changes). Each directive has conditions and actions; pre-processing runs before the base method, post-processing after it.
- BAM defines alerts triggered by data changes; configure the event, recipients, and message. BAM is for notification, not for enforcing business rules.
- Dashboard is a collection of BAQ-backed grids and charts published as a Kinetic application. Deployment alone does not expose it; add it through Menu Maintenance.
- Menu Maintenance controls navigation and menu-level security. Security Maintenance controls user/group access to BAQs, dashboards, and programs.
- Application Studio is Kinetic's customization layer; layers are company-specific and deployed separately from BAQs and BPMs.
Worked example
Scenario: a sales manager needs a dashboard of open orders over $10,000. Step 1: build BAQ ZOpenHighValue on OrderHed; display Company, OrderNum, CustNum, OrderDate, TotalGross; criteria OpenOrder = true and TotalGross > 10000; click Analyze. Step 2: create a Dashboard, add a grid bound to ZOpenHighValue, set the title, and publish. Step 3: in Menu Maintenance add the dashboard under Sales; in Security Maintenance grant the BAQ and the dashboard to the Sales Manager group. Reasoning: the BAQ carries the data logic, the dashboard is only presentation, the menu exposes it, and security must be granted on both artifacts.
Traps that cost marks
- Granting dashboard access but forgetting BAQ security; the dashboard loads blank.
- Assuming a deployed dashboard appears automatically; it must be added to a menu.
- Placing validation logic in post-processing when it must block the save.
- Omitting a Company filter in a multi-company BAQ.
- Testing BPM changes in production instead of Pilot.
- Treating BAM as a rule engine; it only sends alerts.