Computer And Technology Blog

Microsoft Great Plains or Dynamics GP ERP application is working on Microsoft SQL Server Db platform, and this fact opens GP to such industry reporting tool as Crystal Reports.  CR can work with such report base constructions as SQL View and even SQL stored procedure ? deploying these technologies you virtually have no limits in pulling data from Great Plains company database.  

This FAQ style publication will try to compare Crystal
Reports with other Great Plains reporting tools: Report Writer, Dexterity, FRx,
Advanced Financial Reporting, SRS:

1.      
Crystal versus Great Plains ReportWriter.  There are fields, where RW is better option,
especially when you need to just modify Sales Order Processing Invoice Blank
form ? RW form is integrated with GP user workstation interface and it is more
natural to just modify existing SOP Blank Invoice form.  However there are scenarios, where you need,
say 20 different invoice forms with possibly different product logos and brands
? in this case RW has only three forms to offer: Blank, Long and Short,
probably Crystal integration is more feasible

2.      
Crystal versus Dexterity.  Dexterity can do the same job, as in Dex you
can program GP cursors as well as call SQL stored procedures and scripts.  However Dexterity customization project
requires a lot of programming, debugging and QA time, plus Dexterity developers
are not common resource on the contractors market

3.      
FRx.  If
you need pure financial reports: Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statement or
Statement of Cash Flow, and even if you are favoring CR ? consider to deploy
FRx, as FRx has direct link to Great Plains General Ledger and it doesn’t make
sense to reinvent the wheel

4.      
SRS, or Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.
 At this time, in our opinion, SRS is
catching up and its nicety is in its web nature.  Both Crystal and SRS do similar job with
similar techniques.  SRS reports design
requires modest Microsoft Visual Studio interface surfing skills

5.      
Advanced Financial Analysis.  Despite its Advanced name, this is very
archaic tool, and we recommend to consider FRx instead.  AFA typically is used with Small Business
Financials , where FRx is too expensive to implement

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