Dynamics GP Partner Newsflash: Crystal Reports for Great Plains

Crystal Reports designer is very traditional tool and there are a lot of CR designers and IT professionals, who are very comfortable to support Crystal Reports for Microsoft Dynamics GP former Great Plains.  In this small publication we would like to give you highlights on Crystal Reports Design and Deployment for Dynamics GP via remote web sessions, or remote desktop connections USA and Canada nationwide:

1.       Dynamics GP tables structure and DB platform.  Great Plains Dynamics GP, starting with version 8.0 is available on Microsoft SQL Server only.  GP 8.0 was compatible with SQL 2000 (or MSDE) and GP 9.0 and 10.0 is compatible with both: Microsoft SQL Server 2000/MSDE and Microsoft SQL Server 2005/MS SQL Express.  To review Dynamics GP business processes data flow and tables structure you can install Dynamics GP SDK from CD #2 or simply look the structure in GP interface: Dynamics GP->Tools->Resource Description->Tables/Forms/Fields

2.       Dynamics GP Crystal Reports design best practices.  If you are making first steps with CR, you should review report design wizard, however this approach is not recommended for production reports.  In production, Crystal Report should be based off SQL Server Stored Procedure (where CR automatically maps procedure parameters into report parameters, plus you have unlimited power of temporary tables – where direct select statement and unionizing do not help), or SQL view.  Dynamics GP company and system databases allow you to add custom objects, such as SQL stored procedure or custom SQL view

3.       Crystal Reports niche.  In Great Plains Dynamics GP you typically deploy Crystal Reports where you are building industry specific reports: Sales by product/salesperson/region/class, to give you good example.  If you are looking for strictly financial reports: P&L, Balance Sheet, Statement of Cash Flow – consider FRx, CR is not the best choice