ERP

ERP Custom Reporting (pdf)

Most ERP applications today integrate Crystal Reports as their forms and reports tool. We were pleased to watch this move to Crystal over the years. Crystal is a strong and flexible software that allows us to modify your business forms to look exactly as you would like. For example:

• Clients ask that your Invoice form show full item descriptions and your staff wants to hide the labor code for certain types of projects? No problem.
• Want the Pack Slip to include those items not yet shipped? No problem.
• Production manager needs a Production Plan report that shows jobs currently on the production floor, their stage, and estimated completion? No problem.
• Client requires barcodes on your Pack Slip and package labels? No problem.
• Warehouse manager wants the Pack Slip to auto-print when they print package labels? No problem.

Epicor Vantage/Epicor Vista
Our Epicor experience goes back to 2007 when we began working with a client that heavily utilizes this ERP package. Many of you know v6 has a much different programming back-end than does 8.x and now 9.x. We’ve worked in them all and enjoy the added capabilities of the newer releases, but are happy to help clients no matter what their current version.

Beginning in 2011 we have taken our Epicor knowledge up a couple of notches. In addition to doing forms modification and report development, we now offer a more complete set of consulting services for Epicor:

• Conditionally program fields; require user input, send emails for certain scenarios, etc. via the BPM (Business Process Management)
• Add custom fields to capture information unique to your operation
• Automate forms printing via the BAM (Business Activity Manager)
• Customize user themes; each user’s screens can be customized to their needs, personalizing program user interface
• Utilize BarTender software to print barcode-capable labels
• Customize searches, create quick reports, etc. utilizing BAQ’s (Business Activity Queries)
• Create user specific dashboards
• Allow upper management to quickly analyze the business critical data via Executive Dashboards
• Train staff to use Crystal Reports with the Epicor data

Sage Mas90\Sage Mas200\Sage Mas500
Sage Mas90 is where we got our start back in 1998. Mas90 (owned by State of the Art back then) became integrated with Crystal for most of its forms. I (Lila) knew Crystal Reports and had acquaintances ask for help. Feeling it was the start of a very good thing, I established Crystal Certified, and here we are 14 years later. We use Mas90 as our own accounting tool and have assisted dozens of Mas (90/200/500) users over the years with their forms and reporting requests. Some examples:

• Modify statements to be more user-friendly to your clients
• Create a new version of the Customer Sales Analysis report for the sales manager
• Add a user defined field to capture special codes on AP invoice data entry. Then create a report to pull data based on that special code
• Modify the Inventory Trial Balance report to exclude items with zero balance
• Automatically send sales reps their territory recap at the end of each month
• Automatically send sales data to manufacturers for rebating purposes
• Train staff to use Crystal Reports with the Mas data

Ross
We have one client that uses this ERP software and are pleased to have this experience. As with many applications, we assisted our client with getting the initial connectivity from Crystal Reports to the data. Being an external software, it sometimes takes a few extra steps to get the two “talking” to each other. Just part of what we do. We are looking for more clients that utilize Ross as their ERP software. Thus far our experience with Ross included:

• Forms modifications
• Adding parameters to existing reports
• Modifying existing reports to change groups and add totals
• Train staff to use Crystal Reports with the Ross data

Global Shop Solutions
We have one client that uses GSS as their ERP software. It was our pleasure to learn this system, its table structure and its report management features. The GSS staff were very friendly and helpful in getting us connected to the GSS data from Crystal. They also provided documents on how to add new custom reports to the GSS menu, etc. We are looking for more clients that utilize the GSS ERP software because it has been a great experience. Some of the things we’ve done with the GSS system:

• Forms modifications
• New report to allocate shop-floor resources for all current jobs (this report saves 4 hours each week of staff time because they used to do it manually)
• Modifying existing reports to change groups, add totals and add parameters
• Train staff to use Crystal Reports with the Global Shop Solutions data

Your ERP of Choice
If your ERP is not listed here, no problem. Often times we are contacted by customers who use applications we have not yet worked with. Having a breadth of experience with many applications, we know how to quickly analyze key factors and recognize similar aspects from one application to the next. We utilize your staff’s knowledge on how they use the ERP, and we utilize the ERP support staff’s knowledge as much as possible. All in all it will not take us long to get up to speed on your ERP’s ins and outs. We see this learning curve as our obligation to serving you most efficiently. Once we have the solid foundation, we can assist you with whatever size project you have. Whether one report or multiple, we can assist. Our hope is to establish a long-term relationship with you so that in years to come, if you need reporting assistance, you’ll give us a call. We’ll always be here.