Excel Report Integration is available with Dynamics GP 10.0. Its part of the GP 10.0 core functionality so there is no additional charge for Excel Report Integration. However, if you deploy the Excel reports by using MS SharePoint Server 2007, there is an additional charge to do this. What is Excel Report Integration: By default Excel reports are created based on existing SmartList Favorites. These reports use an Office data connection (ODC) to update data at any time. Essentially what you have are Excel reports connected to your SLQ database that can be saved and subsequently opened up again and refreshed at any point in time. This is very different and much better than what we're used to with SmartList where you have to continually export the repot to Excel to get the latest results. Cool! The reports, of course, are available within Great Plains where they can be accessed from the reports list. They can also be generated to a network share or to SharePoint with appropriate security. The dual deployment capability is good example of the Microsoft initiative of providing business intelligence for everyone throughout the organization whether they are GP users or not.
The actual report deployment is a two step process accomplished in the reporting tools setup window. Here a network share has been specified for both the data connections and the reports library so that non-GP users can access the reports.
Users can view the Excel reports and data connections only if they have admin credentials on SQL server and have access to the network share. So security needs to be addressed at the share folder and at the database level. If the reports are deployed to SharePoint, then SharePoint group or individual user security also needs to be setup.
Here are a couple of other things about Excel reports:
You can change an existing Excel report and save the report by using the same name or by using a new name
Say you don't want to use the standard report but you want to create a new Excel report (maybe a pivot chart/table report). You can use the data connection that is provided to create your unique Excel report.
If you want additional information on Excel Report Integration, please see the TechKnowlege article 949524
