FRx Reporting or Some Notes on New Year Resolution

If you are on Microsoft Dynamics ERP platform, please, note that in 2010 Microsoft introduced Microsoft Management Reporter, which should be a replacement for FRx.  For other accounting and Corporate ERP platforms, please check with your reseller on the FRx status for your application.  In this small publication we would like to come through known issues, especially the one, that show up when you are closing the year in accounting:

1. Changed Default Base Period to “C”.  In fact here the reporting tool is trying to help you and it changes so-called Base Period to CUR or current.  In various applications you may find either C or CUR.  As FRx is multiplatform report generator, it decided that C is probably good enough.  In your situation, however your accounting system likely expects CUR.  Reporter is trying to provide maximum generation performance, and the natural way is to use GL period summary table.  Likely that you just closed your fiscal year in General Ledger and didn’t create Fiscal or Calendar period table for the new year.  Reporter cannot find open fiscal periods, and it is in confuse.  Don’t try to fix this issue in FRx, instead login your accounting system and create fiscal periods.  When you have that routine done, your reporting will resume work as expected.  Additional recommendation is to try to rename and rebuild .g32 files in Sysdata directory.  In order to locate this directory open Admin -> Organization and hit Sysdata button

2. Rebuilding Specification Set.  This measure might be recommended, when you are getting all sort of strange messages, and you have suspicions, that metadata file is corrupt.  The set is residing in MS Access database, usually frxrpts.f32.  Even if file extension is not .MDB – this is in fact MS Access database, however password protected.  Access DB is easy one to repair via rebuild.  We recommend you backup your Sysdata, then try to export every object (row formats, column layouts, catalogs, trees) and then reimport

3. Report generation performance.  If you are large organization with numerous subsidiaries, and you have consolidated Profit and Loss statement report to generate – you may wait half an hour or longer to have the job done.  Of course, if you upgrade your computer from Windows XP 32 bit to Windows 7 64 bit (with 8GB RAM) – you may get some performance gain, maybe ten, or even twenty five percent.  We recommend you to consider simple way to get performance boost.  Open your Catalog, in Detail level, instead of Financial & Transaction choose Financial Report.  If you make this change, report will be just as is, without drill down to transaction details, but it should be generated in a matter of minutes

4. Under the hood.  It is possible to customize this reporting tool, a bit exotic type of work, but we like it.  The fact of MS Access database opens direct SQL update.  Here you may have all spectrum of custom programming: changing segment or account masks in Row Format in one button click from custom Visual Basic application, as a generic example

5. FRx versus generic reporting tools, such as Crystal Reports, MS SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).  Well, theoretically everything could be designed in Crystal Reports.  CR, however is not equipped to do Financial Reports, it doesn’t have special connectors to your General Ledger: Summary tables, Historical versus Open year.  If you do report in Crystal, you have to create these logics from scratches.  This is why we advise you to think twice, prior to choosing generic reporting tool to generate Balance Sheet or P&L

6. Microsoft Management Reporter.  So far we hear only good feedback: it converts FRx reports as expected.  Design has similar building blocks.  Don’t take our words as a trigger to immediate switch, as only initial version was just released, as we are writing these lines in February 2011

7. Support domestically in the USA, Canada, Mexico and internationally.  This option is possible via Web Sessions, Skype or Phone conferences and direct visits onsite (in the case of the large scale project).  Our consulting team speaks English, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Filipino.  Feel free to call us 1-866-304-3265, 1-269-605-4904, or email help@efaru.com