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
Dexterity Customization for Dynamics GP Evaluation Level Paper
When you are developer it is always a good idea to read technical manuals. But if you was just assigned to the IT team to decide if Dexterity is the right tool to customize your ERP application then first you need something which is in style of ‘easy reading papers’ or FAQ
Planning Dynamics GP Customization in Large Corporation
If you are reading this page then chances are high that you were not able to find ISV add-on and need customization project. Let’s talk about planning, quality assurance and future event such as version updates.
Dynamics GP Invoice Logo Attributed to Specific Company or Crossing the Borders of Three SOP Forms
Initial Great Plains Dynamics architecture had three SOP Invoice forms: Long, Short and Blank. Modern GP is popular in scenarios where you have more than three companies under one business entity umbrella
