Are you still using FRx ?

I know you’ve probably had a long relationship. You have had your share of troubles, and joys. I am pretty sure it has been an emotional ride – and its difficult to let go. However, it is time.

FRx is not supported on 64 bit, and as far as I know it will not be supported in GP 2013. There are viable alternatives out – Management Reporter from Microsoft has a new version, MR 2012 is looking good, and there is a nice migration path to upgrade your FRx reports.

Check out this post by David Musgrave which is a nice summary of resources The Management Reporter 2012 Lowdown - Developing for Dynamics GP

Another very nice alternative pointed out by my friend Michael Zurzolo is BI 360, which is an excellent excel based Financial Reporting tool -  http://www.solverusa.com/products/frx

So please, start planning to move away from FRx. 

FRx : Error 3617

Having used Management Reporter for a few days, I think FRx is here for few more years till MR catches on and builds on its extensive list of features.

So here’s an FRx error I received today -

"Error 3617 The changes you requested to the table were not successful because they would create duplicate values in the index, primary key, or relationship. Change the data in the field or fields that contain duplicate data, remove the index, or redefine the index to permit duplicate entries and try again." 

There was a related support article by Microsoft - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/964452

The article suggested - “Microsoft FRx Support will be able to assist in identifying what table contains the duplicate values that are causing the error but the GL vendor's support will need to be involved to resolve any database issues.”

Before I moved to that, I thought of researching a bit about the FRx install. The Service Packs seemed to be in place, but it turned out the FRx AA Add-In was not installed. That’s a separate install when you use AA with FRx. I have seen a lot of people miss it especially when setting up new FRx installs, so I thought I’d put it here.

 

ExpressLink versus DirectLink for Microsoft Forecaster

Christina Phillips at Dynamics GP Land had a great post up showing the architecture and relationships between Forecaster, Dynamics GP and FRx.

This is something I have seen a lot of people get confused about as well.

DirectLink is used in FRx to pull data from Forecaster and GL.

• You need this if you are doing your reporting in FRx Reporter and need Budget in your reports.
• Directlink has to be configured and installed on each workstation.

Go to Microsoft Forecaster >> Tools >> Options >> System Settings

Enable the option – “Use this database with Directlink”

Run the DirectLink installation scripts against the Forecaster database

See KB Article 938573 with detailed steps "How to install Microsoft Forecaster 7.0 DirectLink and how to configure DirectLink for Microsoft FRx”

Once done you should see the options highlighted below to get data from Forecaster into FRx  

 

ExpressLink is used in Forecaster to bring data from GL.

• This is used to bring in the Chart of Accounts and account balances from GL.
• ExpressLink is installed when you setup Forecaster. (Tools>>Import>>ExpressLink)
• ExpressLink requires that Microsoft FRx 6.7 Service Pack 9 or later be installed

See this KB Article for details - “How to Use ExpressLink”

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/962577

FRx and Forecaster Replacement– Management Reporter

There has been a lot of coverage about this recently, but I still do get asked these questions quite often, so here’s the summary -

1. What product is replacing FRx ?

Management Reporter. You get Management Reporter and not FRx when you buy GP 2010(unless you point out a missing functionality, which is probably going to be very rare)

See Mark Polino’s Posts about Management Reporter here, he has been covering it for quite some time.

2. When is FRx support ending

Support for FRx 6.7 will end around 2012

3. What about FRx Forecaster?

For now continue using Forecaster, its support would end around 2014, when Version 4 of Management Reporter is launched. By then the budgeting aspects would be integrated into Management Reporter and an upgrade path be available.

4. How difficult would it be to upgrade from FRx to Management reporter? How different is MR from FRx ?

There is a step by step wizard for Migrating the data.

FRx and Management Reporter are very similar. Management reporter is just more robust with a SQL Backend. I guess anything and everything would be more robust than FRx. I have seen strange FRx errors make grown-ups cry. I am definitely going to miss the Sysdata folder and the TDB files though.

See more great posts below

http://www.frxbuzz.com/shootout-an-frx-and-management-reporter-comparison/

If you like FRx, you'll love Management Reporter

5. Where can I find out more about Management reporter

Check out the Dynamics CPM Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/dynamicscpm/

They have lots of great posts coming out very frequently

Bonus feature! Using the new GP 2010 General Ledger Reporting Ledgers in Management Reporter

Management Reporter Feature of the week: Report Library

Management Reporter Features of the Week: Formatting, Organization and Report Groups

 

Information at Partnersource https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/solutions/mgmtreporter

FRx - Rebuild GL Index Option - The why and the how

Anybody who has worked with FRx for more than a day, probably knows about the Rebuild GL Index. If you have a problem with an FRx report - if it does not show accurate data, one of the first things you do is to rebuild the GL Index. Recently I was asked these questions about the Rebuild GL Index option -

Question 1 - Why do we have to rebuild the GL Index ? Can't FRx do this on its own ?

When Automatic GL Index Rebuild is disabled, the GL index files may become outdated. It is important to rebuild these files when information is updated in the general ledger. This move forces FRx to build the GL index by pulling all the accounts and subaccounts with posted information.
You can rebuild an index for the default company. To do this, follow these steps:
a.     Click Admin, and then click Build Local GL Index.

Question 2 - Can't you set it up so I don't have to do it manually ?

Yes, In Report Designer -

1.    Click Admin, and then click System Preferences.
2.    Verify that Automatic GL Index Rebuild is selected, and then click OK.
3.    Click Company, and then click Information.
4.    Select a company that is listed in the window. Click Set as Default, and then log on. Repeat this step for the next company that is listed in the window until you have repeated this step for all companies.

If you are using Analytical Accounting -

Go to Company | Information | System Specific Information for each company. Verify that the "Rebuild Chart of Accounts?" option is checked and then log in.

Question 3 - I turned on Rebuild Chart of Accounts as you suggested, but now it takes very long to login to the company.

You can setup a SQL Job to Rebuild the Chart of Accounts, which runs every night. This would ensure your performance is not affected and also that your GL Index is up to date.

The exact query would vary depend on your FRx companies setup, but here's a sample query when you are using AA and have one company.

delete from frl_acct_code_aa where entity_num = '1'
delete from frl_seg_desc where entity_num = '1'
exec csp_PopulateAccountCodeTable 1
exec csp_UpdateAccountCodeTable 1
exec csp_PopulateSegDesc 1

If you have two AA Companies the query would be like this.

delete from frl_acct_code_aa where entity_num = '1'
delete from frl_seg_desc where entity_num = '1'
exec csp_PopulateAccountCodeTable 1
exec csp_UpdateAccountCodeTable 1
exec csp_PopulateSegDesc 1
delete from frl_acct_code_aa where entity_num = '2'
delete from frl_seg_desc where entity_num = '2'
exec csp_PopulateAccountCodeTable 2
exec csp_UpdateAccountCodeTable 2
exec csp_PopulateSegDesc 2

Feel free to ask if you have any questions.