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:

    SAP Wants Oracle to Reveal Software, Support Profit Margins
    PC World - 3 hours ago
    SAP wants Oracle to reveal profit-margin information for JD Edwards and PeopleSoft software and support, according to a joint discovery statement filed this ...
    SAP pushes for jury decision on Oracle lawsuit Accountancy Age
    all 6 news articles


    Sydney Morning Herald

    Apple unveils software updates, new laptop
    San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - 12 hours ago
    The presentation included updates to the iLife and iWork software suites, a new 17-inch MacBook Pro with an 8-hour battery and a new digital rights ...
    Video: Steve Jobs Weight Loss Due to Hormone Imbalance AssociatedPress
    Macworld goes for the soft sell with budget-minded software USA Today
    Apple's Macworld Surprise Is the Software PC Magazine
    CNNMoney.com - Macworld
    all 3,117 news articles


    Earthtimes (press release)

    IBM Lotus Delivers New "Social" Notes and Free Symphony Software ...
    CNNMoney.com - 23 hours ago
    At Macworld, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the availability of Lotus Notes 8.5 collaboration software with social computing features for all Mac OS X ...
    IBM deploys Lotus Notes on Mac and iPhone TG Daily
    Macworld: IBM finalizing free Symphony office suite for Macs Computerworld
    Lotus Notes 8.5 ships, free IBM Symphony suite coming MacNN
    VNUNet.com - eWeek
    all 49 news articles


    Times Online

    ITunes embraces 3-tier pricing, will remove anti-copy software
    Los Angeles Times, CA - 14 hours ago
    Apple also updated much of its software. The latest version of iPhoto scans for individual faces so computer users can label photos of friends or family, ...
    Apple removes protection software from songs TourDates.Co.Uk
    Apple changes iTunes prices; removes copy protection USA Today
    Apple changes iTunes pricing CNNMoney.com
    Bloomberg - Shiny Shiny
    all 1,077 news articles


    BBC News

    Indian Software Giant Admits Financial Wrongdoing
    Washington Post, United States - 1 hour ago
    The revelation shook India's stock market and sent shock waves across the country's booming software industry, while television commentators quickly dubbed ...
    Chairman of India's Software Company Quits ToTheCenter.com
    Satyam Chairman Resigns After Falsifying Accounts Bloomberg
    Chairman of 'India's Enron' Resigns After Falsifying Financial Data FOXNews
    CNNMoney.com - Reuters India
    all 1,607 news articles


    HEB Mexico adds price optimization software
    Bizjournals.com, NC - 4 hours ago
    HEB’s Mexico subsidiary will begin using a price optimization software program currently in use by its parent company. Supermercados Internacionales HEB ...


    Acresso Software Finalizes Intraware Acquisition
    CNNMoney.com - 28 minutes ago
    Acresso Software (Acresso), a privately-held company and an investment of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, LLC, announced today it has completed the ...


    CNET News

    Borland laying off 130 employees; CEO resigns
    Bizjournals.com, NC - 1 hour ago
    Borland Software Corp. is cutting 130 employees from its ranks as it shuffles executives and lowers its revenue expectations for the most recent quarter. ...
    VMware Taps Borland CEO for Chief Operating Officer PC World
    Borland Software reports preliminary Q4 financial results ... RTT News
    Borland CEO leaves, joins VMware InfoWorld
    CNET News - Bizjournals.com
    all 77 news articles


    Plymouth software firm Paisley sold to Thomson Reuters
    Bizjournals.com, NC - 3 hours ago
    Paisley, a maker of risk-management and fraud investigation software, has been sold to Thomson Reuters’ tax and accounting business for an undisclosed ...


    CNET News

    Sun Buys Cloud-computing Vendor Q-layer
    PC World - 7 hours ago
    Sun Microsystems has bought Q-layer, a Belgian vendor of software for automating the management of computing clouds, it said Wednesday. ...
    Sun Acquires Cloud Computing Automator Q-layer eWeek
    Sun acquires cloud computing vendor ZDNet
    Sun Comes Up on Belgian Acquisition TheStreet.com
    Register - CNET News
    all 63 news articles

    Software - Google News

    home | site map
    © 2006