Dynamics Report Manager (DRM) from Rockton Software lets you create links to launch reports from any screen in Microsoft Dynamics GP. I’m going to show a few examples of less clicks and less hassle for the user when performing day-to-day tasks. DRM gives you a bunch of options to run your SSRS reports:
* Run the SSRS report when the built-in GP report runs.
* Run the SSRS report after a button click or entry/exit from a field.
* Run the SSRS report from the Additional menu available on every window.
Make your users happier and make the processes easier for everyone inside of GP. Let’s dig in.
Example 1: Running a report right from the transaction entry or inquiry screen
Two reports that are basically buried in the Purchasing reports are Cash Requirements and Received/Not Invoiced. This is an easy way to surface these reports for the users and give some other options/features that aren’t part of the built-in reports.
Once the report is added and you complete the wizard to add the launch point, now you can get one click access to Cash Requirements from the Build Payments Batch or Edit Payment Batch window. For Received/Not Invoiced, it can be accessed right from Purchasing Invoice Entry (since you have to go there anyway to enter any invoice match).
Example 2: A list of reports to pick from on the Sales Transaction Entry/Inquiry window
This is a fun example because it completely bypasses the Sales Document Print Options window and lets the user print any or all of the sales documents associated with the SOP transaction on the screen.
DRM lets you add lots and lots of reports to a launch point and one of the actions is “Show Report Pick List.” This loads a list of all the reports linked to the launch point!
Once you set everything up, the pick list appears when clicking the Print button on Sales Transaction Entry/Inquiry. Just check or uncheck the forms you want to see and print. Each of the forms opens in a new window. Fewer clicks! Yay!
Example 3: Launching multiple reports from the Sales Batch Entry window
Another great example of using automation to just spit out the picking tickets and packing lists all at once, right from the batch selected on the Sales Batch Entry window.
Two windows open automatically: one for the picking tickets and one for the packing lists. DRM passes the Batch Number field to each of the forms and the report is programmed to filter by any Sales Order Processing invoice transactions in the batch on the screen after running the transfer process from order to invoice.
Example 4: Generating a customer statement from the Customer Maintenance window
This is as simple as adding a launch point to the Customer Maintenance window — either in the Additional menu or preempting the logic of one of the buttons on the screen.
DRM passes the customer number in the Customer Number field to the report and – Presto Change-O — a nicely formatted SSRS statement is generated to the screen. Since it is an SSRS report, we can do some nice formatting, like change the color of the due date and amount if it is overdue.
Example 5 (bonus, free of charge): Opening a completely unrelated report to another transaction in GP
Commission Plan from EthoTech calculates salesperson and employee commissions in Dynamics GP. When processing commissions, one of the options is to have the module create payables transactions for all your salespeople. When looking at the PM transaction, what if you could see the report of all the commissions tied to that voucher?
You can!
The voucher number is the common piece of data between Payables Management and the Commission Plan tables when processing commissions. All you must do is create a launch point on the Payables Transaction Entry or Payables Transaction Entry Zoom window with the voucher number as the data to pass back to the report.
These are just a few examples of connecting SSRS reports to Microsoft Dynamics GP. You get a modern reporting tool, access to ALL your GP data using SQL and, as a bonus, making tasks easier for your users! Win!
