Microsoft Great Plains Reporting ? Overview for Developer

Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology ? Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations. There are several reporting tools available and you definitely need to know which one to use for different types of reports.

If you are developer who is asked: how do we create report for Microsoft Great Plains ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

  • Great Plains Report Writer (ReportWriter) ? this is built-in reporting tool. All the original report in Great Plains are written in ReportWriter. ReportWriter itself is Dexterity module. You should use this tool if you would like to modify existing Great Plains reports, such as Blank Invoice Form - here you can place your company logo, change the positioning, fonts, colors, etc. ReportWriter will allow you also do new reports - simple option if you want to export all the records from one Great Plains table - use it. New report, however doesn't have interface where you would enter parameters - so it is not useful for real custom reports. Another limitation of ReportWriter - you can not do cross-modules report - when you need sales and purchasing info on the same report for example.
  • FRx. This is excellent tool when deal with financial reporting - it works on the General Ledger level (Balance sheet, P&L, Cash Flow Statement, etc.). It also allows you to do multiple companies consolidation - when you do consolidated Balance Sheet (with inter-companies transactions elimination).
  • Smart List - Export to Excel ? this is nice feature in Great Plains - you could create a list with simple criteria and then export it to Excel.
  • Crystal Reports. It gives you unlimited functionality. Obviously flexibility requires you to know Great Plains table structure: Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables. Find the table in the proper series. If you are looking for the customers ? it should be RM00101 ? customer master file. If you need historical Sales Order Processing documents ? they are in SOP30200 ? Sales History Header file, etc. Create ODBC connection to GP Company database. Use the same technique as when you create standard ODBC connection for GP workstation ? but change default database to targeted company database. Create SQL Query to probe the data ? we always recommend tuning your query and see that you are getting adequate results ? in any case ? Crystal Report is just a nice tool to show the results of your query.
  • Direct Web Publishing off Great Plains databases ? yes - it is easy now with Visual Studio.Net and you can hire good programmers. This is good - Microsoft Business Solutions products: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta will be integrated into so called Microsoft Business Portal - which will have web interface - you can get the idea if you look at Microsoft CRM web client - so direct web publishing is good taste.
  • SQL Queries. If you have SQL background - this is great field for you. You know - with properly formatted SQL query you can realize simple EDI export/import for the integration with legacy systems.

    • Happy designing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

    Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ? USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Texas, New York, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Oregon, Arizona, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

    In The News:

    pen paper and inkwell


    cat break through


    Vlans

    In order to implement VLANs in a network environment, you'll... Read More

    Microsoft Great Plains Implementation in Russia ? Overview for Consultant

    Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very popular ERP platform... Read More

    Downloading Spyware Removers: Think Before, not After

    Just imagine: you are walking, say, towards your car, and... Read More

    Artificial Intelligence And Intuition

    The intuitive algorithm.Roger Penrose considered it impossible. Thinking could never... Read More

    What is Software Piracy?

    There are several kinds of software piracy. The bottom line... Read More

    Software Companies: Generate New Revenue Streams and Decrease Costs with Custom e-Learning Content

    It's no secret that software companies operate in a very... Read More

    What to Do if All Screensavers Fun is Grayed Out?

    Finally, you have some time to personalize your desktop with... Read More

    Spyware Definitions List

    The adware and spyware definitions list is very long. But... Read More

    Microsoft CRM Modification ? Overview for IT Specialist

    Microsoft CRM is now on the scene and it is... Read More

    Microsoft Small Business Manager Customization Options - Overview

    Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Manager is Great Plains Dexterity... Read More

    Microsoft Great Plains Integration Manager ? Advanced Techniques

    Great Plains Integration Manager scripting and translation - overview for... Read More

    Separate Anti-Keylogging Protection: Who Needs it Most?

    If there still are few unprotected computers left, I haven't... Read More

    Microsoft Great Plains Jewelry ? Implementation & Customization Overview

    Each Industry and market niche has business specific and unique... Read More

    IT Department Skills to Support Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM

    Microsoft Great Plains as ERP and Microsoft CRM as... Read More

    Off The Record - Tips For Picking Recording Software

    Need software to record your voice, streaming audio or musical... Read More

    Causes of ERP Failures

    ERP is the acronym of Enterprise Resource Planning. Multi-module ERP... Read More

    Microsoft Great Plains Integrations ? Retail Management Sample

    Microsoft Business Solutions is emerging as very attractive vendor for... Read More

    Microsoft Great Plains FA: Fixed Assets ? Overview For Consultant

    Great Plains Fixed Assets Management module is a robust tool... Read More

    Microsoft CRM Messaging through Lotus Domino eMail Server - Balanced Solution

    Microsoft CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino seem to be... Read More

    The Tools and Features of Adobe Photoshop

    Adobe Photoshop is one of the world's leading graphics editing... Read More

    Benefits of Integrating Online Chat Software with CRM

    Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategy and processes used... Read More

    Crystal Reports for Microsoft Great Plains ? Overview for Developer

    Microsoft Great Plains is main accounting / ERP application... Read More

    Lotus Domino/Notes - Microsoft Great Plains Tandem as ERP with Documents Workflow - Overview for IT

    Lotus Domino/Notes ? Microsoft Great Plains tandem as ERP with... Read More

    The True Meaning of Freeware

    The vast majority of us will have, at some point,... Read More

    Software For Your Hard-Drive

    All your software is stored on a hard-drive. But how... Read More

    Monitoring Software Can be Used for Spying as Well

    We all already got used to computer monitoring both at... Read More

    Microsoft Great Plains 8.0 Brazilian Version ? Overview For International Consultant

    Microsoft Great Plains has substantial mid-market share in the USA... Read More

    Daffodil DB: Web Database

    What is a Web Database?A web database is a database... Read More

    Free PDF Publishing Software

    In a previous article, I wrote about OpenOffice... Read More

    Microsoft Great Plains BR: Bank Reconciliation

    Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is marketed for mid-size companies... Read More

    Keeping Track

    One of the things we can be as certain of... Read More

    Most Dangerous Types of Spyware are on the Rise: How to Choose the Weapon

    Bad News - the Threat is Bigger than it SeemedHow... Read More

    Seven Reasons Why a Hosted Inventory Management Solution Might Be Right For Your Organization

    Upgrading. Downtime. Maintenance. Hardware obsolescence. Implementation issues. The litany of... Read More