This is a very short excerpt from FRx in 8 Hours—Intermediate. It’s in Chapter 8—Extras.
Departments in Row Format
Well, I talk all the time about how the best way to set up a report in FRx is with the natural account in the row, but sometimes you just need to have departments in the row! One way is to specify the full account structure in the row format, but that prevents you from using a reporting tree since the full account structure will override the tree and result in duplicated data.
Another way to accomplish this is a shortcut. In a new row format, use Edit>Add Rows, and change the placeholders to ask FRx to pull in just departments:
Results:
With this design, you will have to use a reporting tree, and it will specify that the 3 digit department segment is in the row by use of the Ampersand &. So your reporting tree will look like this in the FW demo database:
You can elect to run the report for just unit 2 by using the Starting Unit in the catalog:
It’s worth noting that the column layout Account Filter cell is used to restrict the natural accounts—usually to some or all of the P&L accounts.
For more information on this manual or to purchase, see www.FRxBuzz.com/FRx-Training-Manuals/.
I’ve recently finished and released FRx in 8 Hours—Intermediate. It’s the followup manual to FRx in 8 Hours—Introduction. Both are self-study tutorials, but the new manual covers many more reports. There’s way more information on this page: www.FRxBuzz.com/FRx-Training-Manuals/
SP11 has recently been released. Today’s post is courtesy of Kim Leonard at Microsoft. Thank you Kim! Kim is on the support team for FRx and just updated the SP10 “Good Bad Ugly” post with this new information on SP11. I thought it was so important that it should have its own post. Here’s Kim:
Regarding the Good/Bad/Ugly, I can give you highlights for Service Pack R11670 as follows:
•Windows 2008 and Windows 7 will be supported with FRx 6.7 SP11.
•The FRx WebPort will be supported with Windows 2008 and Windows 7. A separate download is necessary to install FRxWebport SP11 to be supported on Windows 2008 and Windows 7. This will be available on MS Downloads (the same place where all the FRx Service packs are stored) eventually but not currently uploaded yet. Windows Vista will continue to be not supported with FRx WebPort. More »
Rumor has it that Microsoft may be closing the Denver FRx office within the next few months. (Background: FRx began its life in Denver, then was acquired by Great Plains which in turn was acquired by Microsoft. A year or two ago, FRx Software Corporation was merged into Microsoft Corporation, but it has always maintained its Denver office.)
It sounds like the jobs, but not necessarily the people, are moving to Fargo. This is quite significant because Denver is where the developers live, as well as higher tier tech support.
This team is working on FRx SP11, but they’re also working on Management Reporter, getting it ready to ship next year. If they all lose their jobs, what happens to these plans? Is MR delayed? Or maybe it doesn’t ship at all? I have no idea. I’d love to know.
Adding horizontal and/or vertical lines to a report in FRx will often make a good report just that much better. Not to mention more legible for your audience. Can be very impressive and it’s really pretty easy. Here’s how. More »
Well, I’ve been focused on the future of FRx for so long that it’s been a while since I posted a How To. By special request from the Wednesday presentation at Convergence (sorry again for the dreadful visual capabilities of the room we were in!), here’s how to do column placement.
Quite often in FRx you simply need to put the value in one column into a different column. This is easy in excel with by just entering an ‘=’ with the cell reference. It’s not quite as easy in FRx but it’s still fairly straightforward.
It’s easier if you think of the intersection of each row and column as having a cell reference, just as in Excel. So the reference for FRx column B and row code 1410 would be simply B1410. More »
Really hate to be the bearer of bad news but here goes.
What are your FRx options if you don’t use one of the 4 Microsoft GLs? If you use Sage or Epicor or one of the other 40 or so GLs that FRx works with, your options are quite limited.
Your software publisher’s contract for FRx support ends December 2010. That is FRx’s End of Life. I don’t know yet if you can get per-incident phone support after this date, but it’d probably be smart NOT to count on it.
Microsoft is replacing FRx with Management Reporter (MR). Your MR options are even more limited than your FRx options. The only possibility is MR version 1, and that’s only if your GL publisher has already written an integration to it. You should contact the publisher (Sage, Epicor, etc) to find out what your options are. If they haven’t written an integration, then they may already have a non-Microsoft replacement product. I know several publishers are looking.
Future versions of Management Reporter won’t be available at all. Period.
I’ve been in New Orleans this week attending Convergence—almost didn’t go home—had to tear myself away from the food and drink and music and dance and people and history and architecture and fun, but that’s another story in itself. But here’s what I learned about FRx’s future.
First things first: if your GL is not Microsoft Dynamics GP, SL, AX or NAV, non of this post applies. I’ll do a separate post on that. Hint: don’t think you’re going to like it.
Bottom line, FRx is being replaced by Management Reporter (aka MR). MR is the next generation FRx—it looks and feels similar but runs on a better database (SQL Server instead of Access) and is written in a better language. Just a much stronger product all around even though it doesn’t yet have all the functionality of FRx.
Here’s the timeline. More »
Well I’m at Convergence (Microsoft’s end user conference for their business users) and I want to share the latest news about FRx and Management Reporter’s future.
If you use one of the 4 Microsoft Dynamics ERPs (GP, SL, AX or NAV):
- If you currently use FRx, you’re ok to stay on FRx 6.7 for a number of years to come, and you can move to Management Reporter on your own timeframe, or as soon as the integration is written.
- Management Reporter will eventually replace FRx.
- Microsoft is targeting the next releases of the ERPs for Management Reporter. So MR will probably be available with GP11 (I’m hearing summer/fall 2010) and SLx and AX6. Don’t know yet about NAV.
- New clients purchasing the next release ERPs will have the option of Management Reporter only.
Forecaster lives on until it’s merged into Management Reporter.
If you use one of the many other ERPs that FRx integrates with, such as Sage, Epicor, Viewpoint, Expandable, and a host of others:
- My understanding is that FRx contracts have been extended through December 2010 for sales. After that point, FRx will go on extended support until 2014. (Meaning after that, it’s toast.) (Correction on 3/14/09: I just learned that there is no support through 2014. Support ends December 2010 and that’s FRx’s End of Life.)
- Whether Management Reporter will be an option is solely up to your ERP software publisher.
We’ll get the official announcement tomorrow morning, and there may very well be more information forthcoming. Stay tuned!
This post is a supplement to my two upcoming Convergence presentations on FRx Best Practices. There just isn’t time to cover everything, so here’s a laundry list. The items in bold I’ll be covering in more detail next week in New Orleans. Meanwhile, here you go:
- Prevent corruption by Compacting the Spec Set regularly (once a week when used often). Get users out, then File>Compact FRx Database>Current Spec Set Database.
- Prevent corruption by saving a catalog before it is generated if a change has been made to the catalog.
- If system issues prevail, compare the workstation FRx version to the server FRx version. They should be the same. Help>About.
- IT nightly backups should include at least SysData and IO_Data.
- Create a set of Font Styles with a company name prefix. For instance, for company FW, set up and use the font style FW Bold (instead of using Arial,10,Bold) anywhere that needs a bold font. This allows everyone to use the same font more consistently across all reports.
- Export a spec set or report(s) daily when developing reports.
- Use a separate spec set for testing and/or report development, leaving the original reports intact.
- Make sure your reports are designed for Drilldown: check Detail Level in the catalog and avoid NP rows where possible.
- Use a footer with the catalog ID and date/time.
- Most of the time, the Filename on the output tab should equal Catalog ID.
- Use a check total to ensure accuracy.
- Use open row, column, tree, and catalog icons for navigation.
- Use comments liberally (with NP or REM rows) to explain logic.
- Italicize NP rows or columns: it makes it easier to follow your work!
- Tieouts: use view subtotals to drilldown on the check total to see amounts by account, then export current selection to excel if needed.
- Use Launcher for nondesigner users.
- Grab reports from FW Demo spec set (either by Save As or Export/Import).