Rows, Columns and Trees – From FRx to Management Reporter to Acumatica Analytical Report Manager

Many Microsoft Dynamics GP users think back fondly on Microsoft FRx. It used to be fun to create financial reports, I loved all the rows, columns, and trees in FRx that provided so many options. FRx wasn’t part of the original Dynamics GP; other ERP systems used it too.

Several years ago, Microsoft decided to replace FRx with a better version: Management Reporter.  Although Management Reporter’s hype was promising, I don’t believe it ever really matched up to its promise, and its functionality was not complete. Management Reporter is an updated interface, and it has lots of options. And although it looks as if it should be a useful tool, it is only a thirty-two-bit application, and it hasn’t been updated in the last eight years.

The truth is that Management Reporter was never as good as FRx. There are other Microsoft products such as Jet Reports, but they are not much better. Happily, when I began working with Acumatica, I realized that they had taken all the FRx concepts: the rows, the columns, and the trees, and created a brand new financial reporting tool that has rows, columns, and unit sets, which are basically the same as trees.

To my delight, FRx functionality is back (and improved) in Acumatica. It is called Analytical Report Manager (ARM) Reporting Tool. This reporting functionality is built right into the core of Acumatica; it’s not an add-on. I can enter the system with one click and instantly access and dive into my financial data. The modern responsive design of Acumatica makes the screen fit my device, so viewing the information is easier than ever. It has been nearly three years since we moved our internal office systems from Microsoft Dynamics GP to Acumatica, and I love its financial reporting. It is similar to my first love, FRx, but even better.

If you are interested in learning more about financial reporting and would like to see what Acumatica has to offer, let’s talk. Contact CAL Business Solutions at 860-485-0910×4 or sales@calszone.com By George Mackiewicz, CAL Business Solutions, www.calszone.com.

Additional Screenshots of Acumatica Analytics Report Manager (ARM) follow.

Acumatica Analytics Reporting Manager (ARM) 4
Acumatica Analytics Reporting Manager (ARM) 5
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