Software Information

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.


    MORE RESOURCES:

    Software allows social sites to share info
    Bizjournals.com, NC - 13 hours ago
    JACKSONVILLE — A Jacksonville software company is knocking down walls between social networks, such as MySpace and LinkedIn, by giving users more control ...


    SYS-CON Media

    Composite Software to Exhibit at SYS-CON's Virtualization and ...
    SYS-CON Media, NJ - 5 hours ago
    SYS-CON Events announced today that the eading global virtualization technology provider Composite Software to exhibit at SYS-CON's 4th International ...
    Active Endpoints Named "Gold Sponsor" of SYS-CON's SOA World ... SYS-CON Brasil (Assinatura)
    EMC Named "Gold Sponsor" of SYS-CON's SOA World and Virtualization ... SYS-CON Media
    Intel Named "Gold Sponsor" of SYS-CON's SOA World and ... SYS-CON Media
    all 35 news articles


    Software firms defy the gloom
    Times Online, UK - 7 hours ago
    SCOTLAND’S software sector is defying economic gloom to attract millions of pounds in new business, according to a new survey. ...


    Review: Tiny flash drives improve their security
    San Jose Mercury News,  USA - 22 hours ago
    I put a few secure flash drive solutions to the test: Take Anywhere's Pocket Safe ($59.95), the IronKey ($149) and TrueCrypt, a free software program that ...


    Orange suspends Blackberry Bold handsets over software glitches
    Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - Oct 10, 2008
    By Matthew Moore Phone provider Orange has stopped dispatching Blackberry Bold handsets due to software problems with the devices, in a move that threatens ...
    Software problems hit BlackBerry Bold IT PRO
    Third-party BlackBerry Software Development a Learning Process for RIM Brighthand
    Orange UK Suspends Sales of BlackBerry Bold Due to Software Bugs Cellular-News
    CRN - U.S. News & World Report
    all 1,068 news articles


    Sys-Con Italia (Comunicati Stampa)

    AppSense Named "Gold Sponsor" of SYS-CON's Virtualization & Cloud ...
    Sys-Con Italia (Comunicati Stampa) - 8 hours ago
    ... Black Duck Software, Blackbaud, Blade Network Technologies, Blue Coat, Blue Lane, BlueArc, BlueNote Networks, BluePheonix Solutions, BMC Software, ...


    40 laid off at software company as execs arrested
    nwitimes.com, IN - 14 hours ago
    SEATTLE - Two former software executives grossly overstated their company's revenue to attract more than $50 million in private investment, prosecutors said ...
    Prosecutor: Exec used company as 'piggy bank' Seattle Times
    Judge orders Entellium CEO kept in custody Seattle Post Intelligencer
    Feds can’t find $9.6M from Entellium Bizjournals.com
    all 20 news articles


    BBC News

    US judge halts sales of RealNetworks DVD software
    Reuters - Oct 9, 2008
    RealDVD, a software product from RealNetworks subsidiary RealNetworks Home Entertainment Inc, allows users to create a copy of a DVD for their computer's ...
    For PC: RealDVD works so well that it's on legal hold Dallas Morning News
    Judge Temporarily Halts Sales of RealNetworks Copying Software Wall Street Journal
    Drop that DVD copying software and put your hands in the air InfoWorld
    InformationWeek - Wired News
    all 335 news articles


    Dorado Software Announces Redcell Storage Commander for Automated ...
    MarketWatch - Oct 10, 2008
    Redcell Storage Commander, Redcell OpsCenter, and Redcell Network Commander are generally available and trial software is available on the Dorado Software's ...


    The ONLY Property and Facilities Management Software Exhibition in ...
    1888 Press Release (press release), TX - 1 hour ago
    The three leading software solutions who are at the forefront of technology exhibiting under one roof at the only property and facilities management ...

    Software - Google News

    home | site map
    © 2006