Crystal Reports

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Posted on by JEI04

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Does anyone currently use Crystal Reports to create financial reports? If so can you list the benefits of using this software as compared to the FrX capabilities?

Thanks very much!

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Rob Iversen 695 on at

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Hello,

I believe Crystal Reports is a bit more complicated to use than FRx, but can access almost any data and system in your ERP. FRx is GL information only.

If you have further questions please feel free to contact me at Rob.Iversen@MSXGroup.com.

Thanks

Rob

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Community Member on at

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I have done a Income Statement and Balance Sheet in Crystal. Unless you can create SQL views, Crystal is not the tool. The way GL data is stored in GP does not lend itself to Crystal. FRx is the better bet.

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Richard Wheeler 75,850 Moderator on at

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Yes, FRx would be prefered or you can try Management Reporter. Of course, there is a product from Solver USA called BI 360 that blows both of them out of the water.

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L Vail 65,271 on at

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I'll put my vote in for FRx or Management Reporter before Crystal. FRx and company were designed just to do financial statements and they do it very well.

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Victoria Yudin 22,769 on at

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We have created numerous financial reports using Crystal before, it's not terribly difficult, but no walk in the park either. Two considerations that you must either code for or work around:

- If you are creating reports with Balance Sheet accounts you need to either code to handle open years/closed years or take that into consideration when running the reports.

- If your fiscal periods are not 'standard' you have to make sure to code for/around that.

The times I would recommend Crystal (or SSRS) for financial reporting over FRx or Management Reporter (MR) are:

- When you want formatting that is not possible in MR or FRx and want to get this formatting upfront (as opposed to running the report in FRx or MR, then exporting and formatting).

- When you need to show additional information that is not available in FRx or MR because it's only pulling from the GL.

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Jonathan Craigue 65 on at

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If you know the SQL to use, using Crystal Reports should be a snap - you just need to develop and test the SQL in SQL Management Studio or your tool of choice, then paste it into the Command window on the DSN..

Go into Database Expert, select a DSN (or create one) that connects to your database, click on the Command object, and paste in your SQL... nothing to it.

You can call stored procedures, select from tables, views, do joins, add parameters...

Am I missing something?

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Jonathan Craigue 65 on at

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And for the record - what Victoria said.

If you have it, I would recommend SSRS over Crystal, also, for many reasons, but FRx or Management Reporter may be your best choice.

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