The Good News for Users of Crystal Reports with Microsoft Dynamics GP

As a company that specializes in reporting for Microsoft Dynamics GP, we have received a large number of inquiries recently asking about the future of using Crystal Reports with Dynamics GP because of a Microsoft announcement that Crystal Reports is being taken off the Dynamics GP price list. 

This announcement has been interpreted by many to mean that Microsoft Dynamics GP is not supporting Crystal Reports anymore.  Truth be told, Microsoft Dynamics GP never really ‘supported' Crystal Reports. Now, Microsoft is supporting its own reporting technology, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).

Crystal Reports is an independent software package, originally developed by a company called Crystal Services Inc., then acquired by Seagate Technology, Business Objects, and finally by SAP in 2007.  Crystal Reports is not specific to any accounting package or any particular data connection, and is simply one of the more popular and well known reporting software offerings out there. 

In the past, Microsoft (and Great Plains Software before it) listed Crystal Reports on the Dynamics GP price lists and gave customers an opportunity to acquire an OEM version of Crystal Reports together with their Dynamics GP license.  This was primarily for convenience, and gave partners and customers an easy way to combine the licensing purchase.  There were also some guides available showing how to use Crystal Reports with Dynamics GP, but with the proliferation of similar information on the internet, these are not used widely anymore.  Microsoft now has SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and thus, quite understandably, a competing product like Crystal Reports is coming off the Dynamics GP price list.

The good news for any company using Crystal Reports with Dynamics GP today is that it ...