Seen enough? Want to talk about working together? Great!
First things first—I need to ask a lot of questions. Much of the information I need from you is on this page. If you want to send me this information, it gives us both a headstart. If not, we can discuss on the phone.
1. Questionnaire
This will give me the basics re your FRx or Management Reporter implementation. (If you’re in IT, don’t worry—I’ll talk to the accountants about many of these, but the version and GL will help a lot.)
General Questions:
1. Are you running FRx or Management Reporter?
2. What’s the version? Go to Help>About and give me the full version number.
3. On which ERP/General Ledger system?
4. What’s your account structure? (e.g. natural-department-location-profit center)
5. If you use FRx, do you use Report Manager or Report Server?
6. Is this a new implementation or do you have existing reports?
7. Do you have multiple companies to consolidate?
8. Do all your companies use the same GL?
9. Do all your companies use exactly the same chart of accounts?
10. Do all your companies use the same fiscal year?
11. Do you use any alternative accounting periods such as 52/53 week or 4/4/5?
12. Have any currency issues? If you use FRx, do you use the multicurrency module?
13. Do you have security enabled?
14. Do you need to report using statistics like headcount or units?
15. If so, are your stats in the GL or do you need to link to excel?
16. Have you experienced any installation-related issues, or is everything stable?
17. Any specific difficulties you’re having?
18. What’s your timeframe?
19. I’m in Austin, Texas. Where are you?
20. Do you want assistance onsite or is this a Remote Access project?
A few more questions if you want users trained:
1. How much training do you want for your user(s)? Quick overview or do you want them doing the report development (or somewhere in between)?
2. What’s the experience of users (beginner, intermediate)?
3. How many users are to be trained?
4. Are there any specific issues you want covered?
5. Do you know what reports do you want completed at the end of training?
6. How many Designer licenses do you have? (In FRx, see Admin>Organization>Maximum users. In Management Reporter, see Tools>Registration.)
2. Send Me Example Reports
Do you have examples of what you want to create in FRx or MR? Those help me tremendously in determining the scope of your project. Many companies have these in Excel. If not, please send hard copies.
If you send me confidential financials in Excel, it’s a good idea to password protect the file before sending it. Then give me the password in a separate email, or better yet, verbally in a voicemail message at 512-425-0600.
If you don’t have example reports, you can always take a look at the Most Requested Reports. These are done in FRx but the same popularity holds true for Management Reporter!
3. Send Me Your Existing Reports
If you have existing FRx or MR reports, you can export them and send me the file. This will allow me to see your building blocks and account structure. Financial results definitely do not transmit, so confidentiality isn’t a concern.
Here’s how in FRx:
1. With all building blocks closed, choose Company menu, then Specification Sets
2. Highlight the spec set you’re using (it’s probably obvious, but if not, try ‘Default’)
3. Click the Export icon
4. On the Catalogs tab, choose the Select All button
5. ‘Mark Related Rows, Columns, and Trees’ should remain checked
6. Click Export button
7. Name the file (extension will be .tdb) and note location (or better yet, save to desktop)
8. The file generates quickly (watch lower left corner) and without notice of completion
9. Close the spec set screen
10. Email the file to me at jlh at jharrigan.com
Here’s how in Management Reporter:
1. With all building blocks closed, choose Company menu, then Building Block Groups
2. Highlight the group you’re using (it’s probably obvious, but if not, try ‘Default’)
3. Click the Export button
4. On the Report Definitions tab, choose the Select All button
5. Click Export button
6. Name the file (extension will be .tdbx) and note location (or better yet, save to desktop)
7. When the file finishes generating, the screen closes
8. Close the Building Block Group screen
9. Email the file to me at jlh at jharrigan.com
Once you send me this information, I’ll review it, then we’ll talk live. Look forward to hearing from you!