Scott Smith, President of Technology Group International, noted, “The report writer allows both existing and new Enterprise 21 customers to produce sophisticated financial reports with very minimal effort or data set up. It is designed to fully capture the advanced general ledger and financial reporting structure inherent in our ERP software.”

Technology Group International (TGI), a leading ERP software solution provider, announced the release of an easy to use financial report writer that is fully integrated into TGI’s flagship software product, Enterprise 21.

The new report writer automatically exports data from Enterprise 21’s General Ledger module into commonly used spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel. This export process gives the average user the ability to quickly produce financial data in a presentation format that is easily customized to mimic their organization’s unique look and feel.

Sample financial reports include:

Balance Sheets

Income Statements

Profit and Loss Statements

Financial Ratios

Cash Flows

The financial report writer accommodates organizations with multiple departments, cost centers, divisions, or companies. It is available with all new sales of the Enterprise 21 ERP system.

About Technology Group International, Ltd.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Technology Group International is a proven technology leader delivering Tier 1 application software functionality at a price performance level that can be readily accepted by organizations of all sizes. Specializing in software solutions for small and mid-market manufacturing and distribution companies, TGI’s integrated Enterprise Series software suite is a complete business process management solution. The product offering includes Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Warehouse Management System (WMS), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), Decision Support System (DSS), Business Intelligence, Manufacturing Execution System (MES), and eCommerce. TGI implements, maintains, enhances, and supports its packaged distribution and manufacturing software solutions directly and via its channel partners.

More “erp Software” Articles

Scott Smith, President of Technology Group International, noted, “The report writer allows both existing and new Enterprise 21 customers to produce sophisticated financial reports with very minimal effort or data set up. It is designed to fully capture the advanced general ledger and financial reporting structure inherent in our ERP software.”

Technology Group International (TGI), a leading ERP software solution provider, announced the release of an easy to use financial report writer that is fully integrated into TGI’s flagship software product, Enterprise 21.

The new report writer automatically exports data from Enterprise 21’s General Ledger module into commonly used spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel. This export process gives the average user the ability to quickly produce financial data in a presentation format that is easily customized to mimic their organization’s unique look and feel.

Sample financial reports include:

Balance Sheets

Income Statements

Profit and Loss Statements

Financial Ratios

Cash Flows

The financial report writer accommodates organizations with multiple departments, cost centers, divisions, or companies. It is available with all new sales of the Enterprise 21 ERP system.

About Technology Group International, Ltd.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Technology Group International is a proven technology leader delivering Tier 1 application software functionality at a price performance level that can be readily accepted by organizations of all sizes. Specializing in software solutions for small and mid-market manufacturing and distribution companies, TGI’s integrated Enterprise Series software suite is a complete business process management solution. The product offering includes Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Warehouse Management System (WMS), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), Decision Support System (DSS), Business Intelligence, Manufacturing Execution System (MES), and eCommerce. TGI implements, maintains, enhances, and supports its packaged distribution and manufacturing software solutions directly and via its channel partners.

1. OK, let’s assume that you need few new fields to be associated with Business Partner, such as Statement Type: email or mail.  You will need new field on the Business Master table, the field should be named Statement Method, it should be Drop Down List with two options: Email and Mail.  Please, open Tools->User Defined Tools->User Defined Fields-Management.  Expand Master Data, Business Partner, highlight it and click add button at the bottom of the form.  Name the field Statement Method, give appropriate description, alphanumeric, Structure: regular, mark Set Valid Values for the Field and click new to create Email and Mail options in this new DDL.  Now, open Business Partner and pull out existing customer, for example.  in Menu: View->User Defined-Fields and you should notice that New Small Windows is now open to the right of the Business Partner Master Data window, here you may select Email or Mail from DDL, when you will click on OK (or Add, if you are adding new Business Partner/Customer), Statement Method will be saved together with the regular Business Partner info.  For those of you who are IT people or Software Developers, please click on View->System Information and then place your cursor over new field – you will see that it is created in OCRD table (Business Partner Master Table)

2. Let’s come out on the fresh air and between us, who are Corporate ERP consultants discuss, what we just saw.  In other more traditional Corporate ERP, MRP, CRM, Sales Order Processing systems, etc., this is legitimate so-called “customization”, where programming is required or at least recommended.  SAP Business One does the job in out-of-the-box install with five minutes long setup procedure.  Please, relax and expect more surprises, let’s move on to new custom table creation

3. User Defined Tables. Tools->Customization Tools->User Defined Tables Setup, here give it the name, description, and select No Object if the table will be stand alone, or select Master Data if it is supposed to be linked to Master Data table, or Master Data Rows (in you plan to link it to Business Partner Address, which is Master Data Row classified table), Document (if you plan to link it to AR Invoice, or other legitimate document header), or Document  Rows (if you plan to link it to AR Invoice Inventory Item or Service Line, for example).  In our example, let’s try to be moderate and give you just simple example, we would like to create Non-Inventory Item Monthly Cost table, which is No Object.  Give it the name, description, and then Tools-> Customization Tools->User Defined Fields Management, expand User Tables, highlight Non Inventory Item Monthly Cost and click Add: Add Year, Month and Cost fields (feel free to apply your judging on the type).  Now, let’s enter the rows into newly defined table.  User Defined Windows, select your newly created table and feel free to enter data there.  Small comment, SB1 designers looks like were trying to make our life easier, so the created two mandatory fields: Code and Name, we recommend you to enter unique values there

4. SAP Business One Executive Demo or technical presentation.  Via Web Session and Phone Conference you can request this service being USA, Canada Nationwide, in Europe, Brazil, Latin America and Internationally

5. Second Opinion on SB1 implementation or modules selection.  This service is popular if your local SB1 reseller failed in challenging implementation, when you have to do complex Data Conversion, Integration to Legacy Systems, including Lotus Notes, Oracle Custom DB, legacy ecommerce

6. SAP B1 as Publicly Traded Multinational Corporation local branch ERP.  SB1 licensing is relatively cheap and considering the fact that it is localized (translated to local languages in the majority of the countries: Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Israel, Russia, China, to begin the long list; plus it is certified with foreign countries tax agencies).  Special considerations to the customers, where their corporate ERP is not localized in the overseas branches.   Good example is Dynamics GP Great Plains, it is only supported in USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Arabic countries, Spanish Speaking Latin America and English Speaking South East Asia.  If you have Dynamics GP Great Plains as your Corporate ERP in USA or Canada, please consider SAP Business One in such country as Brazil, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, etc., for your local branch with GL or even full data consolidation to Dynamics GP via Great Plains Integration Manager.  SAP Business One allows simple data export to Microsoft Excel, or you can do exported data marking on SB1 SQL DB level

7. How to get help?  Please, call us: 1-866-528-0577, help@albaspectrum.com

1. How to select SAP Business One Reseller and implementation partner?  There are several aspects in our opinion in selection process.  First of all, you should try to find SB1 VAR by your industry expertise (here you should decide on the tradeoffs between SAP Business One consultant to be local and being experienced in your industry).  SAP Business One application is flexible and often you do not need customizations, as you can implement custom logic procedurally – this is good news, however your SAP Business One Consultant should be able to advise you on the procedure

2. SAP Business One Software Licensing Schema.  At this time (2010) it is all-in-one (where your SAP B1 user gets access to all the modules in the selected suite: Professional, CRM, Financials, Logistics)

3. SAP Business One Versions.  Currently (January 2010) the version is still SB1 2007A (for USA), but in few weeks or month, we expect SAP Business One 8.8 release for all the new and existing customers.  The advantages of SAP B1 8.8 are apparent, especially when you are multinational corporation and plan to utilize SBO for your international subsidiaries in such countries, as Brazil, China, Russia, Germany, France, India, Great Britain, Spain, South America, Caribbean.  SAP Business One 8.8 has the advantage over 2007A/B, that it could be deployed on the same Microsoft SQL Server for all international branches

4. SB1 local service in Chicago, Atlanta.  Our local service is available in Northern Illinois, Georgia.  We are happy to offer you USA, Canada and international support (including such countries as Brazil and Russia), however if your Corporate ERP selection policy requires local presence, we can commute to your office, if you are located in Northern Illinois (Chicagoland metro area) or in Georgia (Atlanta metro area)

5. Migrating from legacy accounting software.  Popular examples are Great Plains Accounting (GPA) for DOS, Windows or Macintosh, MYOB, PeachTree, QuickBooks.  In international environment you may also be in migration from Microsiga to SAP Business One (Brazil), or from 1S Bukhgalteria (Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine)

1. Specification Set file in Sysdata folder.  If you are creating FRx catalogs in Default specification set, they are likely stored in FRxRpts.f32 file.  Extension of this file might be a bit misleading, but it is in fact Microsoft Access Database file, however it is encrypted (MS Access password retrieval is outside of the scope here, take your own research).  All FRx Catalogs (reports), Column Layouts, Row Formats, Reporting Trees are stored in this database as records in respected tables.  For example, if you would like to change specific Row Format, review these tables: Row_Master, Row_Detail, Row_Link_Control, Row_Link_Detail.  If you would like to go even further in your FRx exercise review AcctSetMaster table, where you should be able to see all the account sets, if you deploy these constructions on FRx Row Format

2. Row Format mass modification.  If you would like to quickly remap huge FRx report to the company with similar account format, but with different portions of Natural Segment or Full Account – you should be able to do this in the tables, mentioned in paragraph #1

3. Microsoft Access Lock files.  These are with MDL extension.  If you are working with Mass modification of FRx specification set, you should avoid FRx users to be logged in.  If you are generic programmer and not FRx user, the simplest way to understand if somebody is using FRx is to look at Sysdata folder if any MDL file is there.

4. For the rest of us, who are not programmers, but rather Dynamics GP and FRx Financial Reporting users.  FRx has links to several major Corporate ERP applications, among them Dynamics GP Great Plains, Solomon Dynamics SL, Axapta Dynamics AX, Epicor, Navision Dynamics NAV.  FRx has links to General Ledger module, where it respects Historical, Open and Work Transactions, the details of these transactions are available if you allow it on FRx report as drill downs.  FRx reporting tree allows you to consolidate multiple companies, plus you can consolidate Excel worksheets on your FRx report, in the case when your Corporate ERP for foreign country is not FRx compliant – good example is SAP Business One driven Branch in Brazil, where SB1 is localize and Dynamics GP is not

5. How to get help?  Please, feel free to call us: 1-866-528-0577, outside of USA: 1-630-961-5918 or email us help@albaspectrum.com  We are very technical and real Dynamics GP Dexterity, SAP Business One SDK programming gurus.  We have Great Plains Software Development Factory and could support unlimited Dynamics GP Customization and Programming needs.  Plus we speak English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and not only as native speaking sales folks, but as real technical consultants.  If you prefer skype: albaspectrum

1. Picking and Packing and Picking List.  This is reasonably simple option for you to document your P&P process, especially if your business is exposed to industry compliance regulation, especially in Medical, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare supplier industries.  You should expect to trace parties by lot numbers or even do down to unique serial number for each item of finished goods and row materials

2. Production or light discrete manufacturing. Here you have Bill or Materials, Production Orders, including Production Order for Disassembly, where you are disassembling into parts your returned finished goods and placing them back to the shelves and bins

3. Basic MRP.  Here you have  MRP wizard with inventory replenishment, or production planning.  Here you can take into consideration your Sales Orders, or in other words do procurement for confirmed Sales Orders, if you do not plan to carry inventory levels and do order execution only.  Full featured Manufacturing Add-ons are also available as Add-ons to SB1

4. Modifications.  In SB1 you may not need customization, as you can really modify its tables, and even include new tables and objects with setup.  Plus, these so-called user defined fields and tables will be automatically exposed to you via associated automatic interface.  These user defined tables could be incorporate into such reporting tools as Crystal Reports or you could see them with Queries.  In CR you could expect such advanced reporting as Bill of Lading, Freight Forwarding Agent Settlement to name couple of example

5. Barcode Extensions.  When you are implementing SAP Business One in Logistics, Supply Chain Management,  Warehouse Management, Consignment, please consider working with your SAP Business One Reseller on the appropriate solution, as Barcoding batches should be uploaded to SB1 as Picking Tickets, Packing Slips, Stock Counts, Sales Order Lines

6. SB1 Implementation phases.  From our experience we would like to suggest you to expect reasonable from your new Corporate ERP.  If you launching up Startup, probably you should first plan SB1 Financials (AR, AP, GL, Collection Management, Business Partners) for the phase one, and only then you should move on toward Supply Chain Management

7. Additional consideration.  If you are multinational corporation or if you at least have subsidiaries internationally, where headquarters Corporate ERP is not localized, you can consider SBO for your company there.  Good scenario: you have Dynamics GP formerly known as Great Plains in USA, and you are opening subsidiary in Brazil, Russia, China, where GP is not localized.  Then you implement SAP Business One in Brazilian Subsidiary (it is translated to Portuguese and it is Brazilian legislation compliant), and you establish ongoing GL data integration or consolidation to your GP Brazilian company via Dynamics GP Integration Manager.  Similar scenarios are available for Oracle EBusiness Suite, Epicor, Accpac, and of course for mySAP, and SAP R/3 and other high end SAP ERP/MRP suites.  We also published numerous materials on SAP Business One implementation guidelines in Service Warranty Contracts, Rental Contract administration, Foods and Beverages industry, etc.

8. Real Time Integrations to SB1, EDI.  SAP BO is open to programmers via its SDK, real time integrations should be considered as SB1 SDK coding routines.  EDI or Electronic Document Interchange could be realized as SAP Business One Data Transformation Workbench routine or SDK programmed add-on

9. Licensing.  With initial idea of all-in-one per named user, at this time you can choose full features users or specific suite only users: CRM, Inventory, Reporting, etc.  Current version is SAP Business One 2007, if you are in USA, it is 2007A.  Version is important if you are deploying add-ons or custom SAP B1 SDK programming – in custom module SDK code should be recompiled for you SB1 version and applied patch

10. SAP Business One Remote Support.  In modern computer web session, you do  not really need to have local SAP B1 Partner to come to your office to shake hands.  In our scenario, we have USA nationwide customers, and local service we provide in Chicago, San Diego and Houston

11. How to get help?  Please, feel free to call us: 1-866-528-0577, or email us: help@albaspectrum.com  We are open to give you SAP Business One Executive or Technical demo, email us your industry requirements, so we could prepare appropriate case study.  If you are already SB1 customer and you are not happy with current support quality, feel free to appeal to second opinion and see if we could do better job.  We speak English, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.  We have solution, which integrate Microsoft CRM Contract Cases and Tasks with SAP B1 Sales Invoices

1. Accounts Receivable export.  Open GPA, Open AR, Reports->Customer List, fill in selection criteria or simply enter through each field to select All customers, click Print->Screen or Export File, mark Titles, Legends, Headers, Footers and print all your customers.  If you printed to the file, you should be able to import it to Excel and do necessary data massage for using it as source file for new Corporate ERP data conversion (if you are migrating to Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0, 9.0, 8.0, 7.5, you do not have to do it, as Great Plains Dynamics has GPA migration tool, simply call your Great Plains Partner for details) to Oracle Financials/Applications/eBusiness Suite, Accpac, QuickBooks, Lawson, Epicor, Navision, Axapta, SAP Business One, etc.  Now, for Historical AR records, simply select Transaction History report

2. Accounts Payable, Purchase Order and (Sales) Order Entry, use the same report: Transaction History in each section.  For GL Transaction history we recommend you to use Trial Balance report – this is GL traditional naming convention for Posted Transactions analysis report, and it should give you enough supporting info for GL history records.  Chart Of accounts is exportable via Account Lists report.  In our opinion, you do not even have to come to direct data reading consideration, as GPA reporting is reasonably robust and versatile, and you can use reporting even if you are on such exotic versions as Great Plains Accounting for Mac (Macintosh OS: PowerPC etc.).  If you still would like to read your GPA Btrieve files in Microsoft Access, let’s move to the next paragraph

3. Setting up GPA ODBC driver.  Here you need to create DDF files, as they are required by Pervasive SQL and its predecessor Btrieve.  Please, insert your GPA CD, and go to Docs section Btrieve.  Below is the quote from ODBC2000NT Manual:  Install the Data Definition Files (DDFs)  Install the Data Definition Files (DDFs) for Great Plains Accounting. Great Plains has produced DDF files for Versions 9.1 and later that are ODBC-compliant and differ from prior versions of the DDF’s. Because these files differ from earlier versions, we are NOT claiming compatibility with ODBC on versions of Great Plains Accounting prior to Version 9.1. To install these DDFs, go to a DOS prompt and switch to the directory of a company whose data you wish to access. Insert the diskette labeled “ODBC Disk 1 of 2.” Type A:INSTALL A:. This will load the FIELD.DDF, FILE.DDF and INDEX.DDF files into that company directory. These must be installed directly in the company’s data folder (ex. GPDATA) that you wish to set up the data source for, otherwise you will not be able to see your data.

4. GPA Migration Path to Great Plains 7.5.  If your business is flourishing and you would like to walk away from archaic Corporate ERP, such as GPA for DOS or Windows (support was terminated by Great Plains Software in 2001, Microsoft Business Solutions, current owner of Great Plains Dynamics offers discount for migration, typically 40% of the GPA modules owned by your organization), please call us for upgrade path info and reenrollment into Microsoft Dynamics GP annual enhancement program

5. New Company License Key in GPA.  If you would like to open new company in Great Plains Accounting, please give us a call, we will send you Dynamics GP Partner Change Form, when we see your records in Microsoft Business Solutions Customer database, we can generate new reg key, associated with your new company name

6. GPA knowledge base level support.  Virtually every error was documented and resolved during the GPA support era in late 1980th through early 2000th.  All we need from you is exact error message and description of your actions to reproduce this error, the rest is our job – we should recommend you matching solution or the next step to further identify the error nature.  Please, note that there is no way to purchase new modules or add new users to your GPA licensing, as Microsoft shut GPA licensing DB down in earlier 2000th

7. How to get GPA help?  How to get help?  Please, feel free to call us: 1-866-528-0577, outside of USA: 1-630-961-5918 or email us help@albaspectrum.com  We are very technical and real Dynamics GP Dexterity, SAP Business One SDK programming gurus.  We have Great Plains Software Development Factory and could support unlimited Dynamics GP Customization and Programming needs.  Plus we speak English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and not only as native speaking sales folks, but as real technical consultants.  If you prefer skype: albaspectrum