First, here are a few settings in the catalog, then I’ll show you the column layout. In the catalog, make sure the Detail Level is set to Financial & Transaction. It’s also a good idea to change the orientation to Landscape (on the Page Setup subtab) and make the margins as narrow as you can get them (.25).

As soon as you generate a report and drilldown on a few accounts to test, you can figure out which of these codes you like and which don’t do a bit of good. Then you can edit the column layout and delete the ones you don’t need. But be aware that the information they provide changes with the type of account you’re drilling into, so it’s good to test on several accounts before you start deleting.

Oh and by the way, these are called T-codes since they, ah, start with the letter T.

Here’s the column layout to use to start with:

Just so you know, the T-codes give different data depending on what general ledger you’re using. And on the finished report, they don’t show up until you drill on the account level data, so don’t freak out when you don’t see them on the report just after it finishes generating. You have to, you know, drill down to get to them.

I like to set up one report in FRx specifically for transaction level drilldown. Transaction level reports take longer to process and heaven help you if you send the whole thing to the printer. For most other reports I leave the Detail Level set to Financial & Account. Give this a shot—hope it saves some time.

ShareThis

So when you generate your report, if you’re missing accounts and activity after what you think is a Page Break, PB is probably the culprit. It looks like FRx is buggy, but it’s designed to work this way. Switch it to PI and you should be good to go.

PB is meant to be used only in a report that contains both a balance sheet and an income statement.

Lamentably, there’s not an out-of-the-box way to add a vertical column break in FRx. You can accomplish the same thing with multiple catalogs but it’s messy and hard to maintain. I usually just export to Excel and breathe a sigh of relief at the print capabilities there. (For what it’s worth, Management Reporter does have a column break.)

ShareThis

Note: If you don’t use Microsoft Dynamics (either GP, AX, SL, or NAV), you can skip this post.

Carried over in migration to Management Reporter

• Company Information, including Company Code, Company Name, Specification Set, Regional Options, and Period Descriptions
• Specification sets, including Report definitions, Rows, Columns, and Trees
• Account sets
• Font styles

Not carried over in migration to Management Reporter

• Company configuration information
• Generated reports (.frd files)—after migrating report definitions, you can regenerate any historic reports that you want to be available in the report library
• Report definitions that were created by using the Microsoft FRx 6.7 Dimension wizard
• Security configuration, including user names and passwords
• E-mail addresses tied to a report definition
• Data related to Microsoft FRx 6.7 features that are not available in MR

My Comments

• The DrillDown Viewer (.frd) files are not migrated, but you can either create PDFs or retain the DrillDown Viewer program to view the files. (Or regenerate in MR as mentioned above.) This is a link to my post on creating PDFs.  And this is my post on creating a PDF binder from FRx reports if you want to put multiple reports together.
• Pre-migration is a perfect time to clean up those spec sets and get rid of or archive reports that you no longer use. Cheaper, faster, cleaner, more efficient for the migration AND down the road. This is the 1st step at any migration I’m involved in.
• Migrate data before you create new building blocks.
• This sort of goes without saying since I’m preaching to the choir here, but you’ve got to generate the new reports and compare them side by side to the old FRx reports to ensure the numbers are identical. Depending on the situation, I often do this in Excel to ensure nothing gets missed. It’s less dramatic and exciting than having hard copies with tick marks, but it’s still nice to have an electronic proof.
• There most likely will be new reports that will need to be created due to some functionality that’s in FRx but not in Management Reporter. It may just be a redesign is needed, hopefully making the report simpler and easier to follow.
• Last but not least—hang on to your FRx installation for a while!

ShareThis

(Launcher was technically designed to allow non-designer users to run reports. Most folks don’t want the CFO in there fooling around with the designs, right? Give them Launcher and allow them to generate reports all day long without touching the FRx Designer.)

But another great use is having it run multiple reports for you. Here’s how. Open Launcher—it is a separate program that installs in the FRx program group, so go to Start>Programs>FRx 6.7 and you’ll see Report Launcher.

Open it (you don’t have to close FRx Designer), select the appropriate Company you want to view, highlight multiple reports using the Shift or Control keys, and click Generate Report. It will ask you for login credentials; enter these and the reports kick off. There are exceptions, I know, but these generate quickly. And it’s great to run them unattended so you can move on to other things while they are processing!

This is a screenshot of all the balance sheets and cashflows to be generated. I used the Shift key (you can also just highlight and drag). I could have also used the Control key to add additional reports to be generated:

Launcher lists only the reports for that one company, so the list of reports could very well look different from your list of reports in Designer. Repeat for other companies if necessary.

I like to use Launcher to generate every report at the beginning of a day, then when I go into the catalog, each report has already been updated. And using the Drilldown Viewer I can print, or just view, without having to regenerate. As always, it’s a great idea to make sure all your reports have a footer that contains the date and time so you can tell at a glance when the report was generated.

Just as with chaining, there are a few things to pay attention to:

• Report date: all catalogs need to have the same report date
• Output: if output is Printer and your Detail Level is something other than Financial, you’re going to get reams of paper. I like keeping output at Drilldown Viewer and Detail Level at Financial & Account so you can drilldown.
• Tree Options: in the Report Options tab, Tree Options tab, if Select units at run time is selected then your report won’t generate automatically without stopping to ask you which units you want to select. I often pick ‘Include all units’.

Hope this gets you out of the office sooner!

ShareThis

I attended his 50 Tips session at Convergence last year and it was PHENOMENAL! Excellent tips, tricks and shortcuts for GP users. So if the new book is anything like his session, it’s pure gold. Per Mark: “If you have liked any of the 50 Tips Presentations this book is for you.”

This is his post on the book entitled Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Cookbook.

And the permanent link to his GP blog can be found on the right hand side of this page under Resources.

Enjoy!

ShareThis

This is what I hear from MBS:
“For New or Existing Customers of Dynamics GP who do not yet have FRx, additional FRx may not be licensed, unless 1) they need a feature not offered in Management Reporter, and 2) they sign a written exception through the business desk by working through the partner’s PAM.”

For AX and SL, the integrations from Management Reporter will be available in the fall, so that’s probably when FRx will be removed from their price lists. The integrations will be for the newest versions of both AX and SL. NAV integration comes later.

Meanwhile, it would be good to put a tickler on your calendar so the deadline for AX and SL and NAV doesn’t slip past. You know how time flies. {smile}

ShareThis

• 64 bit—native
• Back end completely rewritten—brand new .NET and C# code base replaces FRx’s VB6
• SQL Server instead of Access—way more stable
• Improved multi-user capabilities
• Report Library—centralized storage used to view reports and group reports into folders
• Report Viewer—replaces FRx’s Drill Down Viewer
• Undo/Redo—everybody is thrilled with this one
• Formatting and Images—can add logos, and formatting is done from familiar toolbars
• Column Page Breaks—everybody is thrilled with this one too
• XBRL—tag in the rows and generate the XBRL instance document

I am really excited about this product. Safe to say it’s been a long time coming.

ShareThis

May 2010

• Management Reporter version 2 ships in May 2010
• Integrates only with GP
• All new GP 2010 customers receive MR
• Existing customers who upgrade to GP 2010 have the opportunity to stay with FRx or to migrate to MR

Feature Pack 1—planned for 2nd Half Calendar Year 2010

• Integrations to AX and SL
• Currency translation in GP (then MR will pull already translated currency)
• Integration to report on Forecaster data

Feature Pack 2—planned for 1st Half Calendar Year 2011

• Bi-directional text (right to left)
• Report scheduling
• Interactive report viewer
• Drill to Dynamics

Management Reporter 2012

• Adds light budgeting
• Further enhancements

Management Reporter 2012+

• Additional financial reporting, budgeting & forecasting
• NAV integration

ShareThis

• If you rely heavily on email distribution
• If you need to report on Forecaster data
• If you export to Excel and really need the ‘Format as Excel Outline’ functionality
• If you use FRx’s Currency Translation module
• If you extensively use Effective Dates (often used for Quarter To Date reporting)
• If you use lots of Row Linking
• If you rely on WebPort

But know that things are changing very quickly and functionality is being added every day. So while the above list is true today, it may not hold true in just a few months.

Another thing to know—there may be workarounds for the above list, especially for email distribution, Excel outline, quarter to date reporting, and row linking. (Even for WebPort; wouldn’t that be fun to ditch?) Anyway, there may be some creative solutions.

There may be other factors to consider too, and each situation should be considered on a case by case basis, but barring any big barriers I’d sure be tempted to go for it.

ShareThis

I’ve already emailed clients about this but also want to post it.

Microsoft is removing FRx from its price list on May 1, 2010—this coming Saturday.

Meaning—if you want additional FRx licenses or modules you better get them now.

I can’t imagine buying and implementing Currency or Report Server or Webport with FRx’s replacement Management Reporter so close to shipping, but I definitely can imagine that somebody out there might need additional Drill Down Viewer licenses.

Who to call? I don’t sell FRx so the best place to start is your VAR.

ShareThis