CHOOSING THE RIGHT REPORTING TOOL Jeff Smith, Socius MEMBERSHIP HAS ITS BENEFITS @GPUG 1
SESSION OBJECTIVES Help your organization get the maximum return on investment in Microsoft Dynamics GP by making you aware of its powerful reporting tools and helping you choose the right one (s) to meet your needs 2
KEY DECISION FACTORS How many people need the information? Are the data consumers on premise? Is the data consumer specific? How often is the data required? Are the data consumers also Dynamics GP users? Are all of the data consumers employees of the firm? 3
KEY DECISION FACTORS Have I provided this information to someone else already? How complex is the reporting requirement? What skills do you have on staff? What is the nature of the data? 4
AVAILABLE REPORTING OPTIONS Management Reporter GP Report Writer Smartlist Designer/Smartlist Builder SmartView * This list is not all inclusive, but includes commonly used tools 5
AVAILABLE REPORTING OPTIONS Excel Reports/Excel Report Builder Analysis Cubes for Excel SQL Server Reporting Services Reports Business Analyzer Power BI Jet Reports * This list is not all inclusive, but includes commonly used tools 6
MANAGEMENT REPORTER Financial statement reporting tool Flexibility to provide reports for internal and external review Replaced FRx Includes drill-down functionality Designer and viewer licenses available @GPUG 7
MANAGEMENT REPORTER Ease of use = Moderate Common User = Controller/Financial Analyst In the Real World: GAAP Financial Statements Board and Executive Committee Financial Package Company Consolidations Budget vs. Actual Departmental performance analysis @GPUG 8
MANAGEMENT REPORTER @GPUG 9
MANAGEMENT REPORTER @GPUG 10
DYNAMICS GP REPORT WRITER Over 600 out-of-the-box reports Requires GP Concurrent User License Many of these reports are being duplicated with SQL Server Reporting Services, Excel or Word (forms) Commonly used for: Business forms Modifying existing reports Required for usage of Word templates 11
DYNAMICS GP REPORT WRITER Ease of use = Moderate to Difficult Common User = Technical User In the Real World: Adding aging buckets to Payables and Receivables Trial Balance reports Adding text to Sales Invoice on who to call for billing questions Moving fields on the check document to fit pre-printed check stock 12
DYNAMICS GP REPORT WRITER 13
SMARTLIST DESIGNER/SMARTLIST BUILDER Widely used query and reporting tool Multi-Company functionality Requires GP Concurrent User License Drill-down functionality to GP data Easy integration to Excel and Word Smartlist Builder is provided by eone Business Solutions Smartlist Builder can report on data from multiple sources @GPUG 14
SMARTLIST DESIGNER/SMARTLIST BUILDER Ease of use = Easy to Moderate Common User = All Users In the Real World: Research sales activity per territory Clean up customer or vendor master list Chart of accounts across all entities Account balances across all entities 15
SMARTLIST DESIGNER/SMARTLIST BUILDER 16
SMARTLIST DESIGNER/SMARTLIST BUILDER 17
SMARTVIEW eone Business Solutions Query and reporting tool Simple Does not requires GP Concurrent User License Drill-down functionality to GP data Easy integration to Excel and Word @GPUG 18
SMARTVIEW Ease of use = Easy to Moderate Common User = All Users In the Real World: Research sales activity per territory Clean up customer or vendor master list Chart of accounts across all entities Account balances across all entities @GPUG 19
SMARTVIEW 20
EXCEL REPORTS/EXCEL REPORT BUILDER More than 200 built into Dynamics GP 2013 Publish to Network Share or SharePoint Refreshable GP license not required @GPUG 21
EXCEL REPORTS/EXCEL REPORT BUILDER Ease of use = Easy to Moderate Common User = Financial Analyst In the Real World: Inventory levels in pivot table Customer addresses for a mail merge Excel power users needing access to GP data Use for detail behind pivot tables and charts @GPUG 22
EXCEL REPORTS/EXCEL REPORT BUILDER @GPUG 23
EXCEL REPORTS/EXCEL REPORT BUILDER @GPUG 24
EXCEL REPORTS/EXCEL REPORT BUILDER @GPUG 25
ANALYSIS CUBES FOR EXCEL GP License Not Required Leverages data warehouse Provides Excel Pivot Table Functionality Design Access in GP or in Excel Easily drill down on data Publish to SharePoint @GPUG 26
ANALYSIS CUBES FOR EXCEL @GPUG 27
SQL SERVER REPORTING SERVICES More than 250 built into Dynamics GP 2015 GP license not required Web Browser Access Highly Customizable Reports Provides ability to pull data from multiple sources (i.e. companies, data sources) @GPUG 28
SQL SERVER REPORTING SERVICES Security is based on Active Directory Reports can be easily exported to Word, Excel,.pdf or image files Provides drill-down functionality Universal tool that is not GP specific If connected to exchange, reports can be e-mailed on a schedule @GPUG 29
SQL SERVER REPORTING SERVICES Requires knowledge of Dynamics GP tables Requires resources familiar with SQL Server and SSRS to develop and maintain reports @GPUG 30
SQL SERVER REPORTING SERVICES Ease of use = Moderate to Difficult Common User = Financial Analyst/ Controller/Transactional User In the Real World: Inventory Stock Status Report Historical Aged AR Trial Balance Fixed Asset Depreciation Detail Project Time by Employee @GPUG 31
SQL SERVER REPORTING SERVICES @GPUG 32
SQL SERVER REPORTING SERVICES @GPUG 33
BUSINESS ANALYZER Meant to be an organized dashboard Best suited for graphical presentation of data Leverages SQL Server Reporting Services and Management Reporter reports Available on Dynamics GP home page, on desktop, or as app on tablet Cross-platform availability (ios, Android, Windows) @GPUG 34
BUSINESS ANALYZER Ease of use = Moderate to Difficult Common User = Executive In the Real World: Home Page Metrics KPIs for Executives Dashboards published on monitors throughout the office or warehouse @GPUG 35
BUSINESS ANALYZER @GPUG 36
BUSINESS ANALYZER @GPUG 37
BUSINESS ANALYZER @GPUG 38
BUSINESS ANALYZER @GPUG 39
POWER BI @GPUG 40
POWER BI @GPUG 41
POWER BI Natural Language Query @GPUG 42
POWER BI @GPUG 43
THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING Jeff Smith jsmith@socius1.com @GPUG 44