It Is Time to Rethink Management Reporter for Microsoft Dynamics ERP

January 4 2016

I never thought I would see the day when people would long for the return of FRx, but that's where we are at the start of 2016. FRx 6.7 was buggy, old, and finicky, but it was pretty consistently buggy, old and finicky. It was also set in stone after 12 service packs, so when it broke, it tended to break in known ways. When Management Reporter (MR) was announced, the Dynamics community breathed a collective sigh of relief. Maybe now the Dynamics ERPs would get a modern financial reporting application we thought.

About Mark Polino

Mark Polino is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a former Microsoft MVP (2007-2018) for Business Solutions. He is the author or coauthor of 5 books related to Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Mark also maintains the Dynamics GP focused website DynamicAccounting.net. He speaks and writes regularly about ERP related topics. Mark has been a controller and CFO for a division of a publicly traded company and he has  worked as a consultant implementing ERP solutions. Mark holds additional certifications including Certified Information Technology Professional (CITP), Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) , Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). Dynamics Credentialed Professional for Dynamics GP 2015 (Core Install and Core Financials), Xero Certified. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Central Florida and an MBA from Rollins College. Mark lives with his family in Florida.

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Comments

VictoriaYudin's picture

AMEN! Victoria Yudin Dynamics GP MVP 2005 - 2016 http://www.flex-solutions.com/gpreports.html Blog: http://victoriayudin.com

Jeff Petersen's picture

Just use AFA and everything will be A-OK

carl_sheffield@hotmail.com's picture

Mark.. thank you for being outspoken about this.

LesWrightCMA's picture

Thanks Mark. To quote an old Tiffany song, "It could have been so beautiful"! A true client-server, SQL based Dynamics CPM solution that was to replace not just FRx, but MS Forecaster, as well as, Microsoft's Enterprise Reporting solution. I find that many of our clients' CPM needs continue to be too far ahead of MR; and even though unlimited users now come free, more and more are forced to invest in alternative solutions that work. You can find more of my thoughts on MR online in the following places: Personal Blog: http://dynamicscpmblogger.blogspot.ca BDO Solutions BA Blog: http://www.bdosolutions.com/ca/insights/category/software/bi/ LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/leswrightcma If you're looking for an alternative, my personal blog is a good place to review for background information. Feel free to reach out! Sincerely, Les

JohnSJoyce's picture

Not to digress from the subject matter, but if there was ever a website where I wouldn't think I'd be reading a quote from an old Tiffany song, it would be here!

jefflfrye's picture

Tommy James and the Shondells did the song first, as well as Mony, Mony, A Billy Idol cover. Jeff Frye

edodesu1's picture

The truth is spoken. I went with BI360. The learning curve was pretty severe, but once the 'light went on' I couldn't be more pleased with the results.

jharrigan's picture

I'll echo Victoria's AMEN!! I've been telling people for years to look at options, to not to accept MR just because it's the official offering. "Management Reporter is not good enough." Couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you Mark! Jan Lenoir Harrigan http://FRxBuzz.com

volleydad's picture

This is a great start to the list of problems with Management Reporter and yes I do work for a firm that one of the alternatives to MR and Forecaster. The other problem that Microsoft has never addressed is to get the "Management Reporting" into MR! By that I mean reporting from Payables, Receivables, Inventory, Purchase Orders, etc. Give users the ability to Cost Accounting with Inventory data, detailed Cash Requirements with Payable and Receivable due dates and many other reports with data from the modules of Dynamics not called General Ledger, or worse the General Ledger data in the Data Mart. Tom Franks Solver 310-691-5308

bbertchie's picture

In my opinion - PerformancePoint should have been the go forward option.