Released on: May 27, 2008, 3:49 pm

Press Release Author: Alba Spectrum

Industry: Computers

Press Release Summary: Microsoft Dynamics GP has all the advantages of reporting
tools, available for Microsoft Windows in General (Crystal Reports writer is good
example of industry reporting tool), .Net platform (here we would like to mention
SRS or MS SQL Server Reporting Services), and application specific and recommended
tools: FRx for financial reports and GP ReportWriter for integrated reports. Plus
you have an option to create really custom report programmatically in Microsoft
Dexterity, but this requires Dex programmer experience.

Press Release Body: Microsoft Dynamics GP has all the advantages of reporting tools,
available for Microsoft Windows in General (Crystal Reports writer is good example
of industry reporting tool), .Net platform (here we would like to mention SRS or MS
SQL Server Reporting Services), and application specific and recommended tools: FRx
for financial reports and GP ReportWriter for integrated reports. Plus you have an
option to create really custom report programmatically in Microsoft Dexterity, but
this requires Dex programmer experience. Let's review each tool in brief:

1. FRx. If you are thinking about P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, plus if
you are planning to do consolidated version of the above mentioned reports, where
you slice your finances by GP account segment and wildcard, then FRx is the tool to
deploy. As advanced feature, you can have FRx report combining data from GP
companies and Excel worksheets - something when you have really tiny subsidiaries,
where GP is not implemented and you have compiled reports in Excel

2. SRS and Crystal Reports. Both tools are similar in their niche (however SRS is
web based tool, which could give you additional options). For both you should
consider creating SQL stored procedure or view to be the base of your report. And
then in Crystal you simply define parameter and group records by intended criteria.
Both tools are good, when you need really simple reports or in opposite - really
advanced reports (as you understand SQL select statement is almighty and if required
crosses DB platforms via such constructions as SQL linked server - you can combine
GP data with something like Oracle)

3. Report Writer. This is Great Plains Dexterity written and completely integrated
with GP module, where you typically do such nice things as placing your company logo
on Sales Invoice or Purchase Order form

4. Dexterity reports. If you have or plan to have Microsoft Dexterity
customization, specially created for your company as your business processes are
really unique and there are no add-ons on the market to automate them yet. In this
scenario, you should know that Dex is also powerful to program reports from scratch
and incorporate them into your Dex modification

5. Web Reports. If you are familiar with such tool as eConnect, you can deploy it
in web application to pull data, such as posted transactions from GP and make them
available for querying through the web


Web Site: http://www.albaspectrum.com

Contact Details: Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum http://www.albaspectrum.com
help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving Great Plains USA and
Canada nationwide. Local service in Chicago, Houston, Dallas, San Diego. Please
visit our information portal Pegas Planet: http://www.pegasplanet.com . If you need
custom programming for GP, we are happy to help you with Dexterity, eConnect,
VBA/Modifier, SQL Stored Procedures, Crystal Reports. We also provide instant
support to new and existing clients via web sessions