FRX 60

FRx for Epicor Basic Training Guide Version 6.
Epicor Software Corporation makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents of this manual and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. We welcome user comments and reserve the right to revise this publication and/or make improvements or changes to the products or programs described in this publication at any time, without notice. Copyright 2000 by Epicor Software Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the prior written consent of Epicor Software Corporation. Trademark Acknowledgments Epicor is a trademark of Epicor Software Corporation. Clientele is a registered trademark of Epicor Software Corporation. Platinum is a registered trademark of Platinum Technology, Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners and are acknowledged. Epicor Software Corporation, 2000.
Table of Contents
1: Application Overview and Setup . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
Chapter Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 FRx for Epicor Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3 FRx for Epicor Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 Report Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 Report Launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 DrillDown Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 Report Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4 Web Port. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5 The Report Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6 Row Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6 Column Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6 The Reporting Tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-7 Catalog of Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8 Sample Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-8 Thin Client vs. Fat Client Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9 Typical Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9 Upgrading from an Earlier Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10 Files that are Converted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10 Technical Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11 Client - Report Designer, Drill Down Viewer, Report Launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11 Report (or File) Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11 Back Office Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-12 Communications Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-12 Client Directories and File Changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-13 FRx Financial Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-13 FRx Financial Reporting\Sysdata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-14 FRx Financial Reporting\io_data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-14 Other System Changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-15 frx.ini. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-15 FRX32.CFG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-17 odbc.ini. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-17 Profile Files (eBackOffice Implementations) . . . . . . . . . 1-18 FRx Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-19 Registering Your Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-20
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Company Set-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-21 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-21 Company Information Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-22 Report Designer Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-23 Setting up Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-23 Setting up Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-24 Company Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-25 Edit Options Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-26 Change Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-26 Selecting the Default Processing Company . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-27 Chapter Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-28 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-30
2: The Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1

Chapter Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2 The Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3 Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4 Tool Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4 Edit Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5 File Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5 Navigating in a Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6 Cut, Copy, Paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7 Configuring Worksheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-8 Edit Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-8 The Report Designer Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-10 File Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-10 Company Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-11 Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-13 Windows Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-13 Admin Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-16 Admin-Security. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-16 Admin-System Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-17 View OFSI Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-19 Processing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-20 Help Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-21 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-22 Context Sensitive Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-23
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Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-23 Chapter Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-24 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-26
3: Row Format Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1

Chapter Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3 Group Exercise - 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4 Core Row Format Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4 Film Works Sample Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5 Displaying GL Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6 Single Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8 Excluding Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9 Account Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-10 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-11 Controlling the Display of Amounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-12 Performing Simple Inter-Row Calculations . . . . . . . . . 3-13 Point and Click Totals and Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-15 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-16 Displaying Underscores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-17 Displaying Currency Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-18 Displaying Descriptive Text or Section Headings . . . . 3-19 Row Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-20 Renumbering Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-21 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-22 Locking Row Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-23 Solution - Group Exercise 1: Row Format Worksheet. 3-24 Solution - Group Exercise 1: Column Layout. . . . . . . . 3-25 Generating a Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-26 Group Exercise - 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-27 Automatically Building a Row Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-27 The Master Row Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-28 Restricting the Range of Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-29 How the Normal Balance Affects Totals . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-30 Solution - Group Exercise 2: Row Format. . . . . . . . . . . 3-31 Solution - Group Exercise 2: Column Layout. . . . . . . . 3-32 GL Link Field Syntaxs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-33 Wildcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-33
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Full Account Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-33 Excluding Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-34 Combining Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-34 Chapter Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-35
4: Column Layout Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1

Chapter Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3 Group Exercise 1 - Introduction to Column Types . . . . . . . 4-4 Displaying Descriptive Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5 Displaying GL Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6 Base Reporting Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6 Displaying Column Headings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-9 Assigning Special Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11 Special Print Control Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12 Column Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13 Solution - Group Exercise 1: Column Layout . . . . . . . 4-14 Solution - Group Exercise 1: Row Format . . . . . . . . . . 4-15 Group Exercise 2 - Restricting Data Using Accnt Filters . 4-16 Displaying Data for a Subset of Accounts . . . . . . . . . . 4-17 What is an Account Filter? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17 Performing Inter-Column Calculations. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-19 Solution - Group Exercise 2: Column Layout. . . . . . . . 4-20 Solution - Group Exercise 2: Row Format . . . . . . . . . . 4-21 Group Exercise 3 - Reporting on Multiple Periods . . . . . . 4-22 Displaying Data For Multiple Periods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-23 Solution - Group Exercise 3: Column Layout. . . . . . . . 4-24 Solution - Group Exercise 3: Row Format. . . . . . . . . . . 4-25 Group Exercise 4 - Reporting GL Journal Entries . . . . . . . 4-26 Specifying the Detail Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-27 Configuring the Transaction Detail Report . . . . . . . . . 4-28 Solution - Group Exercise 4: Column Layout. . . . . . . . 4-30 Group Exercise 5 - Using Column Restrictions to Build a WTB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-31 Building a Row Format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-32 Restricting a Column To Debit or Credit Amounts. . . 4-32 Forcing Zero Amounts to Not Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-35
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Specifying the Detail Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-36 Solution - Group Exercise 5: Column Layout . . . . . . . 4-37 Solution - Group Exercise 5: Row Format. . . . . . . . . . . 4-38 Chapter Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-39
5: How Rows and Columns Work Together . . . . 5-1

Chapter Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3 Group Ex 1 - Including Base Calculations In a Report . . . . 5-4 Base Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5 Identifying the Base Row. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-6 Solution - Group Exercise 5: Row Format. . . . . . . . . . . . 5-7 Solution - Group Exercise 1: Column Layout. . . . . . . . . 5-8 Group Exercise 2 - Calculation Priority. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-9 Performing Calculations in the Row Format . . . . . . . . 5-10 Formatting in the Row . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-10 Restricting Column Data Using Account Filters . . . . . 5-11 Setting the Calculation Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-12 Solution - Group Exercise 2: Row Format. . . . . . . . . . . 5-14 Solution - Exercise 2: Column Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-15 Group Exercise 3 - Row Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-16 Overriding the Column Definition with Modifiers . . . 5-17 Displaying Current and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-17 Solution - Group Exercise 3: Row Format. . . . . . . . . . . 5-18 Solution - Group Exercise 3: Column Layout. . . . . . . . 5-19 Group Exercise 4 - Sorting Report Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-20 Sorting Reported Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-22 SORT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-23 ASORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-24 Solution - Exercise 4: Row Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-25 Solution - Exercise 4: Column Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-26 Chapter Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-27
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6: The Reporting Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1
Chapter Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3 Sample Reporting Trees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4 Sample Reporting Trees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-5 The Reporting Tree Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-6 Key Fields. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7 The Reporting Tree/Row Format Relationship . . . . . . . . . . 6-8 Group Ex 1 - Restructuring (Editing) a Reporting Tree . . . 6-9 Drag and Drop Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-10 Solution - Group Exercise 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-11 Group Exercise 2 - Automatic Build Based on Formal Account Segmentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-12 The Automatic Build Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13 Film Works Sample Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-14 Group Exercise 2 - Solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-15 Group Ex 3 - Restricting Accounts Included in the Build 6-16 Solution - Group Exercise 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-17 Group Ex 4 - Modifying the Formal Segment Hierarchy . 6-18 Solution - Group Exercise 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-19 Group Ex 5 - Creating New Accnt Segmnts . . . . . . . . . . 6-20 Solution - Group Exercise 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-21 Group Ex 6 - Excluding Reporting Units From the Build. 6-22 Solution - Group Exercise 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-23 Individual Exercise - Automatic Tree Build . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-24 Solution - Individual Exercise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-25 Chapter Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-26
7: The Catalog of Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1

Chapter Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3 Creating Report Headers and Footers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4 Page Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-5
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Report Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6 Handling Rounding Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-7 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-7 Output Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9 E-mailing Report Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10 The Viewer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-11 Printing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13 Export to Excel or Lotus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-14 E-mailing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-15 Microsoft SQL Cubes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-16 Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-18 Web Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-19 Chaining Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-20 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-20 Customizing Report Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-21 User-Defined Font Styles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-21 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-21 Adding Lines for Visual Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-23 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-24 Sample Tabular Balance Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-24 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-25 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-26 Trouble Shooting Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-29 Demonstration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-30 Chapter Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-31
8: Consolidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1
Chapter Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-3 Group Exercise 1 - Using Reporting Unit Filters . . . . . . . . . 8-4 Company Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-5 The Multi-Company Reporting Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-6 Displaying Data For A Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-7 The Master Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-8
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Table of Contents
Solution - Group Exercise 1: Reporting Tree . . . . . . . . 8-10 Solution - Group Exercise 1: Column Layout. . . . . . . . 8-11 Solution Group Exercise 1 - Row Format . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12 Chapter Review. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-13
9: Tutorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1
Training Class Tutorial - Creating a Variance Report. . . . . 9-2 Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2 Solution - Report A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-7 Solution Report B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-8 Solution - Row Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-23 Solution - Reporting Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-25
Solution - Column Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-24
A: Report Launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1

Chapter Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-2 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-3 Starting the Report Launcher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-4 Generating a Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-5 Changing a Reports Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-6 Base Period, Detail Level or Transaction Type . . . . . . . A-6 Page Orientation, Margins, Scaling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-7 Report Output Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-8 Checking A Reports Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-9 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-11 Chapter Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-12
B: Account Listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-1

Film Works Natural Account Listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-2
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Table of Contents
C: Answer Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-1
Chapter 1. Application Overview and Installation. . . . . . . C-2 Chapter 2. The Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-4 Chapter 3. Row Format Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-5 Chapter 4. Column Layout Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-6 Chapter 5. How Rows and Columns Work Together . . . . C-7 Chapter 6. The Reporting Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-8 Chapter 7. The Catalog of Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-9 Chapter 8. Consolidation Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C-10
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Chapter
Application Overview and Setup
Chapter Overview
Chapter Overview
This chapter introduces the FRx for Epicor Software components and describes the typical Desktop (Report Designer, DrillDown Viewer, Report Launcher) and Report Server configuration. It also provides instruction on the setup required to access your General Ledger data, and implement security within Report Designer.
At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
List and define the role of the Report Designer building blocks Identify the directories, files, and system changes that are created during a Client Desktop install Describe the typical configuration for the Designer, DrillDown Viewer, Report Launcher, and Report Server Register the Report Designer application Set up Report Designer to access General Ledger data Implement Report Designer security
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FRx for Epicor Overview
FRx for Epicor Overview

Designed as a User-Oriented Tool Supports Standard Windows Functionality Spreadsheet Flexibility with Database Controls Full 32-bit Architecture Throughout (Versions 5.5, 6.0) Optimized for Client-Server Processing Modular Approach to Report Design Removes Reporting Limitations from the Chart of Accounts Import/Export to Excel Drill down to View Financial, Account or Transaction Detail Presentation Quality Reports Automatic e-Mail Distribution Enhanced Output Options - XML, HTML, Microsoft SQL Cube (Local or Server) Enterprise-Wide Reporting Capability Workgroup or Enterprise Report Server (Versions 5.5, 6.0) Report Scheduler for Automated Report Processing MAPI Compliant E-Mail Report Distribution WebPort (Version 6.0) Centralized Report Management Secured Environment - Folder and File Level Security Shared Viewing via Internet Browser
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FRx for Epicor Components

Report Designer
The Desktop allows users to create Report Building Blocks (rows, columns, and reporting trees), and define report templates (catalog ids) which can be used at any time. For each report, users can define the specific information to be included, the report layout, and the presentation format.
Report Launcher
The Report Launcher is a separate program designed for users who need to generate reports without modifying the way in which they are designed. It is ideal for employees who are responsible for generating and distributing the same reports on a regular basis.
DrillDown Viewer
Any licensed user with network access can use the DrillDown Viewer to view and drill through financial reports that have been generated and stored on the network. With the remote DrillDown Viewer installed on the workstation, a remote user can receive presentation quality reports generated and sent via e-mail by another user. The remote user can subsequently print the reports just like a local user.
Report Server
The Report Server utilizes full 32-bit functionality and three-tier architecture to launch reports from a client workstation and generate the reports on a high-end server.
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FRx for Epicor Components
Benefits of Report Server: Processing is performed on high-end machines, improving performance in high-volume situations and minimizing the time required to generate reports. Client workstations are available to perform other tasks while processing is occurring on the Report Server. Total hardware costs can be reduced by purchasing only one high-end machine for financial reporting instead of purchasing multiple machines for every user who needs to generate reports. Software purchase dollars can be reduced by purchasing Report Launcher only instead of the Desktop for those users who are responsible for generating and distributing reports. Reports can be scheduled to process during off-peak hours. Users can set the priority of each report (high, medium, or low) so that reports that are urgently needed will be generated before reports assigned a lower priority. The Report Server is available in Workgroup Server and Enterprise Server editions. The Workgroup Server is targeted to mid-sized companies and generates reports sequentially. The Enterprise Server edition is targeted to large companies and uses multiple processors in one server to parallelprocess up to four reports at a time. Both the Workgroup and Enterprise editions include a Report Scheduler and various data refresh capabilities.
Web Port
The WebPort repository lets users (and the WebPort Administrator) store, share, and view Report Designer reports (and non-FRx for Epicor objects) in a secured Web environment. In the repository, reports (and other objects) are organized into Explorer like folders with access rights granted at the folder or report level. Users can view reports via an Internet Browser, eliminating the need for any client software on remote workstations.
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The Report Designer

The Desktop utilizes a building block approach that enables you to combine text, amounts, calculations, and summarization in unlimited fashion. The three individual building blocks of a report are: The Row Format The Column Layout The Reporting Tree.
Row Format
The Row Format supplies the following report elements: Row descriptions and formatting Link(s) to General Ledger accounts - Account Sets, Period Modifiers Totals, Calculations Links to external spreadsheets (Excel/Lotus).
Column Layout
The Column Layout defines the following report elements: Column heading and period covered Data type displayed (GL/WKS/Calc/Fill/Desc) Book information displayed (Actual/Budget/Non-Financial data) Column Calculations Column Filter(s) (Account Filters/Date Filters/Reporting Unit Filters, Currency Codes, etc) and formatting
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The Report Designer
The Reporting Tree

The Reporting Tree is the key to the power and flexibility of the Designer. Note: A Reporting Tree is a user-defined set of reporting units. For each unit in the Tree, the Designer can generate a report. The Reporting Tree lets you: Define the departments and reporting relationships free from the constraints of the Chart of Accounts. Create multiple views of a single organization.
Figure 1-1 Reporting Trees
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Catalog of Reports
The Catalog of Reports supplies the following report criteria: The building blocks to base the report on The level of detail to print (Financial, Account, Transaction Detail). The status (posted, unposted, both) of data to include. The global report formatting (Report Headers/Footers, Rounding, General Options). The output mode (Printer, DrillDown Viewer, Excel, Lotus, ASCII, XML, etc) and associated formatting options. The distribution method (e.g. Email, Publish to Web, etc).
Sample Report
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Thin Client vs. Fat Client Installation
Thin Client vs. Fat Client Installation

The Report Designer, DrillDown Viewer, and Report Launcher software can be installed in either a thin-client configuration (executables reside on a network server) or a fat-client configuration (executables reside on the client workstations). As a general rule, the thin-client configuration reduces the amount of time required for software maintenance and upgrades because the program files are loaded and stored on a shared or networked directory. The fat-client installation works well if you want or need to minimize dependency on the network.
Typical Configuration
A networked Client (Install Desktop Applications) installation (thin client) is the most common configuration in a multi-user environment. The networked installation shares information among the users and lets reports be processed on the Report Server. Two steps are required to install the Client on a network file server (or Report Server): Install Client to a shared network directory. Install the system files on all remaining workstations that need to access the Desktop (Report Designer, DrillDown Viewer or Report Launcher). Note: FRx Software Corporation recommends that you use UNC ( \\computer name\share name\directory name\file name) to specify the shared network directory. If you use drive mapping, the drive mapping must be the same on all workstations that need to access the Desktop. All Desktop users and the Report Server (if applicable) must have full access to this directory.
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Upgrading from an Earlier Version

If you have FRx for Windows 4.7 or 5.0 or FRx for Epicor 5.5 or 6.0 (Beta) installed on your workstation or on a network server, FRx for Epicor 6.0 version lets you continue to use the reports, specification sets, and company information previously created. Both thin-client and fat-client Client installations attempt to detect a prior 16-bit version of FRx for Epicor. If it is found, FRx Software Corporation generally recommends that you install the 32-bit Client to the existing 16-bit installation directory.
Note: If you want to run both FRx for Epicor 5.5 or 6.0 (Beta) and the newer 6.0 version, FRx Software Corporation recommends that you install the Client software to a new directory.
Files that are Converted

The following files are automatically converted during the upgrade. Specification Sets Company, Security, and Registration.
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Technical Specifications
Technical Specifications
Client - Report Designer, Drill Down Viewer, Report Launcher
Microsoft Windows 9X Windows NT 4.0 Workstation with Service Pack 4 (Intel) Windows NT 4.0 Server with Service Pack 4 (Intel) Note: Windows 2000 will be fully supported in the future.
Additional Software Requirements

Default Printer Outlook or MAPI compliant EMAIL Excel or Lotus Minimum requirements Internet Explorer 5.0 or Internet Explorer 4 with Service Pack 1 (XML Parser) ODBC Data Source to GL Microsoft Local Cubes Output - Microsoft Data Access 2.1+ (MSXML.dll) & OLAP Services with Service Pack 1 or Excel 2000 Microsoft Server Cubes Output - Microsoft Data Access 2.1 + (MSXM.dll) & OLAP Services with Service Pack 1 & SQL Server 7.0 Client & Windows NT 4.0 Workstation or Server with Service Pack 4 +
Report (or File) Server

Windows 9X Windows NT 4.0 Workstation with Service Pack 4+ Windows NT 4.0 Server with Service Pack 4+ Note: Windows 2000 will be fully supported in the future.
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Additional Software Requirements

Default Printer Outlook or MAPI compliant EMAIL Internet Explorer 5.0 or Internet Explorer 4.01 with Service Pack 1 (XML Parser) Excel (exporting via OLE) ODBC Data Source to GL Microsoft Local Cubes Output - Microsoft Data Access 2.1+ (MSXML.dll) & OLAP Services with Service Pack 1 or Excel 2000 Microsoft Server Cubes Output - Microsoft Data Access 2.1 + (.dll) & OLAP Services with Service Pack 1 & SQL Server 7.0 Client & Windows NT 4.0 Workstation or Server with Service Pack 4+.
Back Office Database

Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 or 7.0 ( 4.2a) Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 (Platinum ERA 7.0 & eBackOffice Release 7) Pervasive 2000/Btrieve 6.15 (PFW 4.8a)
Communications Protocol
TCP/IP is the recommended protocol. IPX (Novell) supported, but it is not recommended. Named Pipes is not supported.
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Client Directories and File Changes

The following directories, files, and file modifications are created during the Client (Install Desktop Applications) installation process. These directories may be located either on a shared network directory (thin-client), or on a local client workstation (fat-client).
FRx Financial Reporting

The location for all Desktop program files FRX32.exe FRXA32.exe DRILL32.exe Launch32.exe Upgrade~.exe FRX32 *.DAT Report Designer Reporting Engine DrillDown Viewer Report Launcher Upgrade Utility
Points to the SYSDATA Directory Support Files for *. files
Note: These files are used for error messaging. fspfw32.exe fspfd32.exe fspsql32.exe OFSI Platinum for Windows OFSI Platinum for DOS OFSI eBackOffice Release 7
Note: FRx is a Visual Basic application. It loads all required *.dll and *.ocx files into the windows\system or winnt\system32 directory.
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OFSI: The Interface to Platinum ERA

FRx Open Financial Systems Interface (OFSI) is an interface method which utilizes data access techniques (including ODBC) to access financial data directly from the host general ledger. This method is seamless to the user and does not require additional processing steps or staging of data to a data repository. It is the optimal interface method in most cases since reporting can be performed on a real-time basis
FRx Financial Reporting\Sysdata

The location for all system files: Accounting System Information (acctsys2.mdb) Company Information Database (frxsys2.mdb) Specification Sets (*.f32) Local GL Index File (*.g32) Report Templates (*.tpl) System Settings (SYSTEM.CFG)
FRx Financial Reporting\io_data

The default location for all reports output to Excel or Lotus and all external worksheets accessed by the Designer.
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Other System Changes

The following client files are added or modified as a result of the installation process: frx.ini; frx32.cfg; win.ini; gl.prf; and sm.prf (eBackOffice implementations only); and odbc.ini. See the sample files below.
frx.ini
The application replaces your existing frx.ini file with a new frx.ini. This file contains user defined interface options as well as Network settings. [Options] DefAcctSys=154 ExitDialog=False AppSize=0/0/640/464 AppMax=TRUE ChildMax=TRUE ToolHelp=Yes suppressNetName=FALSE ShowAccountCode=FALSE ShowRowCode=FALSE TreeStyle=0 ToolBar=Yes StatusBar=Yes EditAction=EditBar [CONFIG] LastCompany= Queue32=TRUE [Network] CreateLocalGL=FALSE MaxUnits=5000 WorkDrive=C:\TEMP [Debug] StopWatch=FALSE DebugMain=FALSE DebugMainSQL=FALSE DebugMainFetch=FALSE DebugMainField=FALSE DebugMainGL=FALSE debug=FALSE
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frx.ini (continued ...)

DebugTRX=FALSE DebugAcct=FALSE DebugTree=FALSE DebugSQL=FALSE DebugFetch=FALSE DebugSF=FALSE DebugGL=FALSE DebugOFSI=FALSE DebugOFSISQL=FALSE DebugOFSIFetch=FALSE DebugOFSIField=FALSE DebugOFSIDataConnect=FALSE DebugOFSIProgFlow=FALSE DebugOFSISysSpecific=FALSE [Queue Monitor] GridColWidth=855,1605,2295,1500,1005,1005,1500 FormSettings=968,2175,7650,6645 [Recent File List] File1=ROW - ASSET DETAIL File2=TREE - FILMWRKA File3=TREE - CONSOL File4=COL - CONSOL_FW_FWC
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FRX32.CFG
This file stores support information and the system settings you define on the Admin-System Preferences and Admin-Processing Options windows. [System] Sys32TypeId=104A9C6A34 [SysData] Directory=C:\Program Files\FRxShare\SysData\
odbc.ini
The installation program creates an odbc.ini file, if one does not exist. This file provides the odbc driver path the system uses when communicating with your database. Below is a sample odbc.ini. Note: ODBC Data Sources can be defined through the ODBC Data Source Administrator or via the Report Designer Company Information-System Specific Information tab.
[ODBC 32 bit Data Sources] MS Access 97 Database=Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb) (32 bit) dBASE Files=Microsoft dBase Driver (*.dbf) (32 bit) Excel Files=Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls) (32 bit) FoxPro Files=Microsoft FoxPro Driver (*.dbf) (32 bit) Text Files=Microsoft Text Driver (*.; *.csv) (32 bit) PJCCOMPAQ=SQL Server (32 bit) [MS Access 97 Database] Driver32=C:\\System32\odbcjt32.dll
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odbc.ini (continued ...)

[dBASE Files] Driver32=C:\WINNT\System32\odbcjt32.dll [Excel Files] Driver32=C:\WINNT\System32\odbcjt32.dll [FoxPro Files] Driver32=C:\WINNT\System32\odbcjt32.dll [Text Files] Driver32=C:\WINNT\System32\odbcjt32.dll [PJCCOMPAQ] Driver32=C:\WINNT\System32\sqlsrv32.dll [LocalServer] Driver32=C:\WINNT\System32\SQLSRV32.DLL
Profile Files (eBackOffice Implementations)

The following line must be added manually to the GL section of the GL.PRF file and the Applications section of the SM.PRF file (eBackOffice implementations only):
FX = Frx Financial Reporting\frx32.exe
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FRx Indexes
The FRx index is a Report Designer maintained database that contains vital information about the Epicor accounting system, such as fiscal year calendar, account structure, chart of accounts, etc. Report Designer utilizes indexes to reduce the amount of system call time required to access and search through the entire chart of accounts. Epicor PFD 5.0, PFW 4.7, 4.8, and 4.8a have only local indexes. Server scripts are not required. Epicor eBackOffice Release 7, 7.1, and Platinum SQL 4.2a have server-based indexes, so server scripts are required. Note: These scripts are automatically installed when the eBackOffice, dbUPDATE routine is run. No manual intervention should be necessary.
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Registering Your Software

The Organization window lets you define and register the accounting systems your company uses. It also lets you specify the type of security you wish to implement.
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Company Set-Up
Company Set-Up
Overview
You must complete one Company Information record for each physical accounting database that you want to report against. Note: There are currently no limitations on the number of companies that can be set up.
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Company Information Fields

FRx Company Code: Enter a unique, user-defined, eight digit code to identify the company within FRx. Company Name: Enter the company name as you want it to appear in report titles. Accounting System: Select the appropriate system type for the company. Specification Set: Enter the name of the Specification Set that contains the company data files and report configurations. Import\Export Path: Enter the default location of Excel or Lotus worksheets. Amount and Date Format: Select the custom amount and date style to be applied to the companys reports. Functional Currency: Select the functional currency to be applied to the companys reports. Period Description: Enter the singular and plural period description to be used in report headings (for example, Period Ended versus Month Ended). Last Period for Adjustments Only: Select this field if you have 12 fiscal periods, but use a 13th adjustment period. System Specific Information: Depending on the system type chosen, there may be additional database-related fields to complete. For example, for eBackOffice, you must supply a Data Source Name and identify the Control and Company database that will be accessed.
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Report Designer Security

Report Designer supports two types of security: User Login and Network. User Login security requires that each user have a Report Designer User ID and password. Network security ensures that Report Designer uses the users network user ID. No password is required. You identify the type of security you wish to implement in the Organization, Security window. Note: Your System Administrator must also set up user access rights via the System Manager.
Setting up Users
You use the Admin-User Information window to set up users and define user specific worksheet editing preferences. Note: A user may be granted access to a company, catalog id, row, column, or tree by giving the user individual access rights, or by assigning the user to a group.
1-23
Setting up Groups
The Group Information window allows you to create user groups.
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Company Security
Use the Admin- Security- Secure Companies window to grant access to companies, individual users or groups.
Note: The Properties button opens the related information window for the highlighted user or group.
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Edit Options Window

The Edit Options window lets each user customize his/her user interface.
Note: The user interface options will be covered in detail later in the course.
Change Password
The Admin-Change Password window allows a user to change his/her password.
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Selecting the Default Processing Company
Selecting the Default Processing Company

For each session for which you wish to process reports (or create or edit report building blocks), you must select a Default Company. The default company identifies the location of the specification set and General Ledger data the application accesses. To select the default processing company, choose the Select Default option from the Company menu. The application will display the following window:
To designate a company as the default company, highlight the company name.
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Chapter Review
.
Complete the following:
1.
List and describe the three Report Designer report building blocks. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
2.
List and describe the FRx for Epicor Software Components. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
3.
List three benefits of implementing the Report Server. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
4.
Name the directories created during a Client (Desktop Applications) install. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
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Chapter Review
Chapter Review (continued ...)

5. You must complete at least one __________ __________ record for each General Ledger the Report Designer will access.
6.
You can set the default processing company, for a processing session, by selecting the _________ command from the __________ menu.
7.
The Report Designer supports the ___________ and _____________ _______________ security options.
8.
True/False: User Network security requires that each user have a unique User Id and Password.
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Notes
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Chapter
The Interface
The Interface
Chapter Overview
FRx for Epicor employs a graphical user interface (GUI) that supports basic Windows functionality (Drop Down Menus Right Mouse Click Functionality - Cut, Copy, Paste, etc.) and MDI. In addition, FRx for Epicor provides on-line help, systems - context sensitive help, and indexed help.
Use the Control Panel components Setup the User Preference Options Know the role of the Report Designer Menus Utilize the application On-line Help systems
2-2
The Control Panel
The Control Panel

The Control Panel is the main Report Designer window. This window provides access to every application function including the report building blocks.
8 8
To access an existing column layout, row format, reporting tree, or catalog id (or to create a new one) double click on the corresponding icon. To access functions that relate to the system configuration or companies, select a command from the Admin or Company menus.
2-3
The Interface
Status Bar
The status bar appears at the bottom of the Control Panel. It indicates the applications status and default company during the session. Note: The status bar display can be turned on or off by selecting the Option-Status Bar menu command.
Tool Bar
A tool bar is available within each main window - the Control Panel, the Catalog, the Row format, Column layout, or Reporting Tree worksheet. The tool bar gives you quick access to functions such as opening, saving, or printing a worksheet.
To activate a function, point at the appropriate tool bar button and click.
Note: The tool bar display can be turned on or off by selecting the Options-Tool Bar menu command.
Edit Bar
The edit bar appears in the upper left-hand corner of each worksheet immediately below the tool bar. It lets you edit the content of a cell and review the results (in the edit bar) before committing the changes to the actual worksheet. To change the content of a worksheet cell, highlight the cell and then press the F2 function key. Use your left and right arrow keyboard keys to move to the position(s) requiring editing. Note: When you start typing, edited data appears first in the edit bar.
2-4
The Control Panel
Demonstration
Your instructor will now demonstrate the tool bar button functions.
File Management
A special File Open window appears when you select the File-Open command. This window shows the files name, an informal description, and a Search option.
2-5
The Interface
Navigating in a Worksheet
By default, the Report Designer moves to the next logical cell when you press the keyboard TAB key or UP or DOWN arrows. If you prefer, you can set the application up to move to the next logical cell when you press the ENTER key. Open the AdminEdit Options window:
Check the Move Selection After Enter checkbox to activate this option.
Note: In a row format or tree worksheet, the next logical cell is the cell in the column immediately to the right of the current cell. In a column layout, the next logical cell is the cell immediately below the current cell.
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The Control Panel
Cut, Copy, Paste . . .

FRx for Epicor supports Windows 9X and NT right mouse click functionality. To cut, copy, or paste information: Select the cell Right mouse click Choose the appropriate command from the menu
2-7
The Interface
Configuring Worksheets
Edit Options
The Admin-Edit Options window enables you to specify the manner in which row format, column layout, and reporting tree worksheets are displayed and edited.
Zoom Buttons on Worksheets

Check the Zoom Buttons on Worksheet checkbox to enable the display of selection lists (zoom windows) on worksheet cells.
Add Row Codes Automatically

This feature automatically assigns numeric row codes to rows that are inserted into an existing row format with numeric row codes. The row code assigned to the newly inserted row is a value halfway between the row code values assigned to the rows immediately above and below the insertion point.
2-8
Configuring Worksheets
Confirm on Move of Parent Tree Unit

When you enable this option, the Report Designer asks for confirmation before moving a parent-level reporting unit within a reporting tree.
Note: The Move Selection after Enter option was discussed in the previous section, Navigating in a Worksheet.
2-9
The Interface
The Report Designer Menus

You execute commands in the Report Designer through a series of drop-down menus. These menus appear below the Title Bar at the top of each main window.
File Menu
The File menu lets you open a new worksheet or to quickly open, save, close, or print an existing worksheet.
Note: Use the Compact FRx Database option to repair damaged files or records in specification sets or the System databases that contain company information and accounting system registration data. All users must exit the application before a compact command can be executed.
2-10
Company Menu
The Company menu allows you to enter or edit company information or to select a new default company.
International Formats
Open this window to define international amount and date formats for any company.
2-11
The Interface
Specification Sets
A specification set is a database that contains a group of row formats, column layouts, reporting trees, and catalog IDs. Each company can have its own specification set or several companies can share the same specification set. Use the Specification Sets window to: Create new specification sets. Import or export existing specification sets or specific report building blocks. Import/Export specification set files are created with a .f32 extension.
2-12
Options Menu
The Options menu allows you to determine whether the Control Panel displays a Tool Bar, Status Bar, or Edit Bar. It also defines the manner in which worksheets are edited. See the previous section - The Interface.
Windows Menu
The Windows menu allows you to control the display of multiple windows and to return to the Control Panel (hot key is F6) from any screen. Additionally, if the Report Server has been implemented, the Windows menu will display options for viewing queue status and report schedule data. Users who have licensed the Report Designer or the Report Launcher submit reports to the queue database (located on the Report Server) via the Catalog or the Report Launcher. Reports are submitted for immediate execution or scheduled (via the Report Scheduler) to be processed at a future time.
2-13
The Interface
Queue Status
Use the Queue Status window to check the status of reports. All records in the queue database may be viewed, or you may select a subset of records for viewing by clicking on one of the Display Status options. Any reports that resulted in a process error are logged, and the Report Server continues with the next report in the queue.
2-14
Schedule Status
A Report Scheduler is included with Report Server and is used to automate repetitive report generations. Users can schedule reports by specifying a frequency (once, hourly, daily, weekly, etc.) as well as the date and the time of day. After a scheduled report is processed, the system displays the next scheduled time the report is to be generated. Use the Schedule Status window to review the next scheduled processing date/time assigned to a report.
2-15
The Interface
Admin Menu
To access system administrator functions, including security setup and maintenance, use the appropriate command on the Admin menu of the Control Panel.
Note: The Organization, Users, and Groups options were discussed in Chapter 1.
Admin-Security
Use the Admin-Security menu options to enable companies, rows, columns, reporting trees, and/or catalogs to be secured at the user and/or group level.
Note: Security options are available only if Report Designer security is enabled as discussed in Chapter 1.
2-16
Admin-System Preferences
The functions in the System Preferences dialog box are reserved for administrator use only. If you are logged in as Administrator, or if you belong to the Administrators group, you can open this dialog box.
Automatic GL Index Rebuild

With this feature enabled, Report Designer rebuilds the general ledger index once daily before generating a report, or before building either a row format or a reporting tree from the chart of accounts.
2-17
The Interface
Turn Off Component Passwords

Select this feature to prevent users from applying password protection to individual row formats, column layouts, and reporting trees.
Rebuild Local Index

Rebuilding the local GL index takes time and you may want to limit this function based on the size of your chart of accounts and the number of users. Select FRx Administrator Only to enable only the Administrator or a member of the Administrators group to rebuild the local index. Select All Users to enable any user to rebuild the local index.
Login Time Out (Seconds)

Enter the number of seconds to limit the amount of time allowed for login.
Query Time Out (Seconds)

Enter the number of seconds to limit the amount of time allowed for queries.
Use Space Character

If your accounting system includes spaces in the account number, click the checkbox and select the character that you want the system to use to indicate the spaces. The default character is an underscore.
2-18
View OFSI Settings

The Open Financial Systems Interface ( provides a common interface to financial system data regardless of the underlying financial system. As an administrator, you can view the current OFSI settings for your product. To view OFSI settings, select Admin - View OFSI Settings; the following window appears:
2-19
The Interface
Processing Options
From this dialog box you can elect to build your General Ledger index on the Report Server and to setup an optional work drive. Setting up an optional work drive can improve the systems performance. You can set up a separate drive to build the .FRD file. Once the .FRD file is completed, it is automatically exported to the destination drive specified in the Output File Name box of the Catalog of Reports window.
Note: The remaining options in this dialog box are reserved for technical support use only. You should not make any changes in this dialog box unless instructed to do so by a member of the technical support staff.
2-20
Help Menu
The Help menu provides you with two mechanisms to access on-line help: the Help Index and the Context Sensitive Help command.
Help Index
To activate the Help Index, select the Contents command from the Help menu. The system automatically displays the following window.
2-21
The Interface
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate using the Help Index to find information on Account Filters in the Column Layout.
2-22
Context Sensitive Help
To obtain information that pertains to the current field or activity, press the F1 function key.
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate using the Context Sensitive Help feature to get information about the Row Format, Row Code field.
2-23
The Interface
Chapter Review
.
1.
True/False: Report Designer employs a graphical user interface (GUI).
2.
List and describe three user configurable worksheet options: _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
3.
True/False: You have the option to display a Toolbar and/or a Status Bar. The Toolbar provides quick access to the File Menu commands. The Status Bar provides you with information on the systems status.
4.
To activate Context Sensitive help, move to the field you need information about and press the __________ function key.
5.
True/False: FRx for Epicor supports Windows 9X, NT right mouse click functionality.
2-24
Chapter Review

6. Describe the contents of a specification set. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
7.
True/False: All users must exit the Report Designer before a compact database command can be successfully completed.
8.
True/False: Each General Ledger must have a separate specification set.
9.
True/False: The directory can never be relocated.
10. To instruct Report Designer to maintain the GL index on the Report Server, you must enable the appropriate option on the _____________ ________ window, which can be accessed from the _______ menu.
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The Interface
Notes
2-26
Chapter
Row Format Basics
Row Format Basics
Chapter Overview
The row format is one of the required building blocks for every Report Designer report. It defines the descriptive rows or lines in a report (e.g. Cash in Bank, Total Revenues, etc.). It also specifies all totaling and inter-row calculations, as well as the General Ledger codes that go into each row. Finally, the row format provides capabilities to incorporate data from external worksheets as well as other row formats.
Know how the Report Designer uses the GL account mask structure Automatically generate a row format from the chart of accounts Understand how to specify General Ledger accounts using ranges, wildcards, and account sets Create totals and calculations within the row Edit a row format (insert/delete rows, etc.) Use print control options Understand the row/link capacities in the row format
3-2
Introduction
Introduction
You can create row formats manually by entering data directly into the Row Format main window, or you can take advantage of the Add Row Codes From Chart of Accounts feature that enables you to automatically build basic formats from your General Ledger Chart of Accounts. Below is a sample row format file.
3-3
Row Format Basics
Group Exercise - 1
Core Row Format Concepts
Your instructor will guide you through the process of manually building the row format for a summary style Balance Sheet. A sample of the finished report appears below.
3-4
Group Exercise - 1
Film Works Sample Database

The account structure (of the sample company) used throughout this course is described below.
Account Mask:
Locations: 0 = Corporate HQ 1 = Denver 2 = San Francisco Departments: 000 = Corporate 100 = Sales 200 = Service Sub-accounts: 000 = Admin 001 = Retail 002 = Wholesale 003 = Lab 004 = Studio 012 = Intercompany
XXXXNatural Account Code
X XXX - XXX
& See the Appendix for a complete list of the Film Works
natural accounts.
3-5
Row Format Basics
Displaying GL Data
To display General Ledger data, you must specify the GL account codes in the Row Format, Link to General Ledger column. You must also enter any descriptive text you want to appear on the row in the Description field.
The GL Link
When you open a new Row Format, the Report Designer automatically builds a link to the General Ledger. This link enables you to reference and display GL account data in the row.
To view the link, select the Open Link Window command from the Link menu.
Note: When the application builds the Link to GL, it automatically assigns a Link Type of GL and provides a sequential Link Name (e.g. GL1, ROW1, etc.).
3-6
Group Exercise - 1
Natural vs. Full Account

Typically, the Link to General Ledger column contains only the natural segment of the account code. The responsibility segment(s) are defined by the reporting units in the tree. The Report Designer builds the full account code when it combines the row format with the reporting tree at print time. A row format that contains only the natural segment of the account code is the most flexible. It can be combined with multiple trees to generate reports for: each department in your organization; or, each region in which your company operates. It can also be used to generate reports for multiple companies that have the same chart of accounts (account mask and numbering scheme). Note: If you define the entire account number in the row format, you narrow your options sharply. You could use the row to generate detailed departmental reports, but higher level reports would not be possible.
The Range Syntax

To display data for a range of GL accounts, enter the beginning account number in the From Account (range) field of the GL Account Links window. Then, enter the ending number in the To Account (range) field. The entry that appears in the Formula area of the window will look like the following: X TO Y. Note: In the Formula area at the top of the window, the system displays the syntax that will appear in the Link to General Ledger column.
3-7
Row Format Basics
Sample: Range Syntax

To display data for all Film Works asset accounts, enter the following values in the GL Account Links window:
Single Accounts
To display data for a single natural account, enter the account code in the From Account (range), or Individual Account field.
Sample: Single Natural Account

For example, to display the balance of the inter-company receivable account, enter the natural account code for Due From FWC Elimination in the From Account field: 1309.
3-8
Group Exercise - 1
Excluding Accounts
To exclude an account from a range of accounts, enclose the account within parenthesis.
Sample: Excluding Accounts

To exclude the balance of the inter-company accounts from the Total Asset range, enter the following syntax: 1100 TO 1999 - (1309) - (1319)
3-9
Row Format Basics
Account Sets
You can create an Account Set by assigning a name to a group of accounts. Then, you can use this account set name in multiple row formats. For example, you could create an account set that groups all expenses associated with travel and entertainment, and name the set Travel and Entertainment. After creating an account set, you can select that set as your General Ledger link. You can also combine existing account sets to create nested account sets. You can create an account set from the Link to General Ledger column in a row format file by opening the GL Account Link window, entering the accounts to be included in the set, and clicking the Account Sets, Save As option.
When the Save as Account Set window is displayed, enter an account set name and a description. Click on < OK>.
3-10
Group Exercise - 1
When a change to your General Ledger requires the account set to change, you can use the Edit Menu-Account Sets option to edit the account set. Select the desired account set; make the appropriate change;s and click the Save option. You can also use this window to create a new account set.
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate creating an account set for fixed assets.
3-11
Row Format Basics
Controlling the Display of Amounts

The Report Designer by default displays debits as positive amounts and credits as negative numbers, within parenthesis. To force revenues (or other credits) to appear as positive numbers, use the C code in the Normal Balance field. Note: When you use the automatic build feature, Report Designer places a C in the Normal Balance field of all revenue, liability, and equity accounts.
Sample: Displaying Liabilities As A Positive Number

To display total liabilities as a positive number, a C is placed in the Normal Balance field of the Liabilities row, as shown below.
3-12
Group Exercise - 1
Performing Simple Inter-Row Calculations

Totaling rows are used whenever simple addition or subtraction between rows is required. This feature allows you to summarize data from rows located anywhere in a single worksheet. To designate a row as a totaling row, select the FMT Code field TOT option. Then, enter the row codes (or range of row codes) to include in the total in the Related Rates/ Rows/Unit field. Note: You can add together an unlimited number of row codes in a single totaling row.
Note: The FMT Code field determines the nature of the row, and controls its appearance in the actual report.
3-13
Row Format Basics
Sample: Range Syntax in TOT Rows

To calculate Total Liabilities and Equity, create a TOT row and use the following syntax in the related rows field: 130 TO 167. This instructs the Report Designer to add up the results from all the rows in the range 130 to 167, inclusive.
Note: If the beginning or ending range values dont exist, the application looks for the next higher (or lower) code in the sequence.
& For a more detailed explanation of TOT rows, refer to the

FRx User Guide, Chapter 3.
3-14
Group Exercise - 1
Point and Click Totals and Calculations

FRx for Epicor versions 5.5 and 6.0 support point and click techniques for totals and calculations.
To total a continuous range of rows:

1. 2. In the TOT row, click the Related Rates/Rows/Unit cell. By default, the Report Designer selects the group of rows immediately above the current TOT row up to the preceding TOT row.
To total non-contiguous rows:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. In the TOT row, click the Related Rates/ Rows/Unit cell. Click the Sum icon from the toolbar. Use the arrow keys to highlight the row that you want to select. Press the desired operand key (+ or -). Repeat steps 3-4 for each row that you want to include in the formula. When you have selected all the rows, review your formula. If you want to accept the formula, press Enter.
3-15
Row Format Basics
To total non-contiguous rows (contd):

8. 9. If you want to revert to the original (default) formula, press ESC. If you want to edit the current formula, press F2 and make the desired changes.
These same techniques can be applied to CAL rows to create calculation formulas. Note: You can add (+) or subtract (-) the row values in a TOT row. You can add, subtract, multiply (*), or divide (/) the row values in a CAL row.
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate point and click totaling for a continuous range of rows, and for a non-contiguous group of rows.
3-16
Group Exercise - 1
Displaying Underscores
To display a single or double underscore in a row, select the - - - or === codes in the FMT Code field. You can prevent printing of an underscore row when related amounts are not present. Simply, enter the related row code in the Related/Rates/ Rows/Unit field of the underscore row.
Sample: Related Rows

If Total Assets = $0.00, the Report Designer (by default) does not print the Assets row. To prevent the related underscore row from printing, enter the value 100 in the Related Rages/Rows/Unit field of the underscore row. See the sample below:
3-17
Row Format Basics
Displaying Currency Symbols

The Report Designer automatically displays a currency symbol in the first row of each report. To force the application to display a currency symbol on other rows, use the Print Control column CS option.
Sample: Displaying the Currency Symbol

To force the display of a dollar sign on Total Liability and Equity row, assign a CS in the Print Control column as shown below:
& For a more detailed explanation of Print Control options,

refer to the Frx User Guide, Chapter 3.
3-18
Group Exercise - 1
Displaying Descriptive Text or Section Headings

To create a section heading (or display descriptive text), you must enter the desired text in the Description field and select the DES code from the FMT Code column zoom window.
Sample: Section Heading

For example, to create a descriptive title for the assets section of a balance sheet enter the following:
Sample: Blank Row

To create a blank row above the Liability and Equity section of the Summary Balance sheet, select the DES FMT Code option and leave the Description field blank.
& For a more detailed explanation of Descriptive Rows, refer to

the Frx User Guide, Chapter 3.
3-19
Row Format Basics
Row Codes
The numbers or labels that appear in the Row Code column identify each row in the worksheet. As you build a row format, you may find it necessary to pull an amount from one row into another. The row code is used to reference these rows.
Note: Row codes are not required for all rows; only those rows that will be referenced by other rows.
The maximum row code number is 32,765. The maximum number of characters in a row code or label is 16.
Adding Row Codes Automatically

If you would like Report Designer to automatically add row codes, select the Add Row Codes Automatically check box in the Admin, Edit Options window.
3-20
Group Exercise - 1
Renumbering Rows
Report Designer has a renumber feature in the row format. This feature is available to users of numeric row codes or users of combination numeric / descriptive row codes. Report Designer renumbers row codes that begin with numbers and skips renumbering of any rows that begin with letters (e.g., NET_SALES). To renumber a row worksheet, select the Renumber Rows command from the Edit menu. The following window will appear:
Note: The recommended technique for using numbers to identify rows is to start at row code 100 and skip 30 to 50 between successive rows.
3-21
Row Format Basics
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate renumbering rows using the values in the table below. Notice that during renumbering, Report Designer automatically updates all totals and calculations within the row format.
Field
Starting at Row Code Increment Rows by 100 30
Value
& For a more detailed explanation on how to renumber a row

format, refer to the FRx User Guide, Chapter 3.
3-22
Group Exercise - 1
Locking Row Formats

You can lock a row format (or other building block) by selecting the File- Save-As menu command, or by clicking on the Tool bar Lock icon. Enter a file name and a description. To lock the file from the File Save As window, click on Password and enter a password.
When a user attempts to open a file that has been previously locked, Report Designer will prompt the user to enter the assigned password. Users who are unable to supply the required password are restricted from making any changes; the file is opened in Read Only mode. Such users can use the File Save As command to create a copy of the file, which can be edited. File locking can be applied to row formats, column layouts, reporting trees, and catalog Ids.
Note: If the FRx for Epicor Administrator has enabled the Turn Off Component Passwords option in the Admin/System Preferences window, the file locking feature is not available.
3-23
Row Format Basics
Solution - Group Exercise 1: Row Format Worksheet
3-24
Group Exercise - 1
Solution - Group Exercise 1: Column Layout
3-25
Row Format Basics
Generating a Report
To generate a report, you must define a report catalog id. The Catalog ID identifies the Row Format, Column Layout, and Reporting Tree that should be used when the report is run.
Note: The report date automatically defaults to the last day of the current GL period. You can override the report date by entering a different date in the Report Date field.
3-26
Group Exercise - 2
Group Exercise - 2
Report Designer enables you to automatically build a row format based on information in your chart of accounts. The automatic build process transfers a subset of accounts to a row format. Once this process is complete, descriptions, totals, and formatting can be added to generate the desired report.
Automatically Building a Row Format

Your instructor will guide you through the process of automatically building the row format for a Profit/Loss statement. A sample of the finished report appears below.
3-27
Row Format Basics
The Master Row Format

Typically the automatic build feature is used to generate a master row format (based on the natural account segment). This row format contains one row for each natural account segment value included in the build process. To automatically build a master row, select the Add Rows From Chart of Accounts command from the Edit menu. The following window will appear:
Note: The formal account segmentation is displayed in the Account Mask field. This fields identifies the position of the natural account segment (&&&&) and the account segment(s) that should be transferred to the row format. By default, Report Designer masks the natural segment characters with ampersands.
3-28
Group Exercise - 2
Restricting the Range of Accounts

To restrict the range of accounts that are included in the build process, enter the limits of the range for each segment in the corresponding Starting Acct Segment and Ending Acct Segment fields.
Sample: Restricting the Build Range of Accounts

To generate a master row format for the Film Works P/L accounts, restrict the natural segment range as follows:
& For a more detailed explanation on the Add Row Codes From
Chart of Accounts feature, refer to the FRx User Guide, Chapter 3.
3-29
Row Format Basics
How the Normal Balance Affects Totals

When a C is placed in the Normal Balance field, it reverses the sign for both display and totaling purposes.
Example: Using a Total to Calculate Net Sales

In the Film Works Profit / Loss Statement, Net Sales is calculated by subtracting the rows for Sales Returns and Sales Discounts from the sales row. The formula is: (Sales) - (Sales Discounts) - (Sales Returns)
Note: Sales typically has a credit balance. By default, Report Designer displays credit balances as negative balances. The C in the Normal Balance field switches the sign on the revenue account to a positive value for both totaling and display purposes.
& For a more detailed explanation of the Row Format - Print

Control Options, refer to the FRx User Guide, Chapter 3.
3-30
Group Exercise - 2
Solution - Group Exercise 2: Row Format
3-31
Row Format Basics
3-32
GL Link Field Syntaxs
GL Link Field Syntaxs

A single row can reference: Multiple GL accounts (Ranges or Wildcards) Full GL account codes Combinations of ranges or accounts, wild cards and specific accounts
Wildcards
To designate a group of contiguous accounts, you can use a combination of characters and wildcards. The FRx wildcard is the question mark. It functions like the DOS ? and represents a single character.
Sample: Using Wildcards to Reference Multiple Accounts

To specify all Film Works office expense accounts - 5200, 5225, 5240, 5250 (Office, Supplies, Maintenance, Rent) use the following syntax: 52??
Full Account Codes

You can report on a single account code by designating the actual full account in the GL Link Field.
Sample: Specifying a Full Account Code

To specify the Film Works Income Tax Expense account, use the following syntax: 5500-0000-000
3-33
Row Format Basics
Excluding Accounts
To exclude an account from a range of accounts, enclose the account within parenthesis.
Sample: Excluding Accounts

To exclude the balance of the inter-company accounts from the Total Asset range, enter the following syntax: 1100 TO 1999 - (1309) - (1319)
Combining Accounts
Specific accounts, ranges of accounts and wild cards can be combined in a row.
Sample: Combinations of Accounts

In the following example, we assume a four-character natural code: 6210 + 6220 + 6300 + (6420 TO 6480) + 71??
3-34
Chapter Review
Chapter Review
.
1.
True/False: By default, the Add Rows From Chart of Accounts feature builds one row for each natural account segment included in the general ledger Chart of Accounts.
2.
True/False: The TOT row enables you to perform simple addition and subtraction of row amounts.
3.
Identify the TOT syntaxs for: summing a range of contiguous rows, or summing discrete (noncontiguous) row codes. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
4.
True/False: An account set can never be modified.
5.
True/False: Totals and calculations can be entered manually, or they may be created using point and click techniques.
6.
True/False: By default, Report Designer displays debit amounts within parenthesis.
7.
True/False: The Normal Balance, C option switches the sign for both display and totaling purposes.
3-35
Row Format Basics

8. Report Designer automatically displays the currency symbol on the first row of the report. To instruct Report Designer to display this symbol on other rows, select the __________ option in the __________ __________ Row Format field.
9.
True/False: You may combine multiple syntaxs in the GL Link field such as: the range syntax, the use of wildcards, and the addition (or exclusion) of single natural accounts: 1100 TO 5000 - (4999) + 7???
3-36
Chapter
Column Layout Basics
Chapter Overview
The column layout is the second required report building block. It defines the layout of the report, the time frame (Fiscal Year and Period) reported on, and any calculations that must be performed for every row of the report. In addition, the column layout provides filtering options to let you restrict the data reported on (e.g. Account Filters, Reference Code Filters, Date Filters, etc.)
List the types of columns available Understand the Base concept as it applies to years and periods Create a new column layout Define column calculations Use account filters to restrict data Design a custom transaction detail report Use print control options Define automatic and manual column headings
4-2
Introduction
Introduction
The column layout contains a description of the column contents, calculations, and headings used in a report. Below is a sample column layout.
4-3
Group Exercise 1 - Introduction to Column Types

Your instructor will guide you through the process of building the column layout for a Profit/Loss statement. A sample of the finished report appears below.
4-4
Displaying Descriptive Text

Description (DESC) columns are used to display the content of the row format Description cell. To designate a column as a description column, select the DESC column Type option.
Note: Report Designer requires each column layout to contain one DESC column. This column may be placed anywhere in the layout and can optionally not display in the final report.
& For a more detailed explanation of Description columns, refer

to the FRx User Guide, Chapter 4.
4-5
Displaying GL Data
Report Designer requires a Type, GL column to display data from the General Ledger.
Note: When you assign a column Type of GL, default information displays for the Book Code/Attribute Category Fiscal Year, Period Code and Current Period/YTD fields. Base Reporting Period The period a column reports on is determined by the column layout Period Code and Fiscal Year fields. Both fields may be defined using the term Base. The term Base is a variable. At report generation time, Report Designer substitutes the Report Date (in the Catalog - ID) for the term Base. Therefore, the Base reporting period is the period defined at report execution time.
Note: Defining the reporting period using the term Base reduces the maintenance required on column layouts.
4-6
Sample: Displaying Current Period GL Data

To display the Film Works, Inc., current period performance (Income Statement), define a Type, GL column with a CUR designator in the Current Period/YTD field.
4-7
Displaying YTD GL Data

To display the Film Works, Inc., Year-To-Date data (Income Statement), define a Type, GL column with a YTD designator in the Current Period/YTD field.
4-8
Displaying Column Headings

If you want a heading to display (above a column), enter the desired text in the corresponding Column Headers cell(s). Report Designer will automatically center and underline the description. Note: You can optionally create variable headings by entering test or selecting special codes in the Header Options window.
Sample: Hard Coding a Column Heading

To place a column heading of YTD over the Film Works, Inc., Year-To-Date results (Income Statement), simply key in YTD in the Column Headers row 1 field as shown below.
4-9
Sample: Creating a Variable Column Heading

To create a column heading that dynamically displays the current month, click on the zoom window in the Column Headers field. The following window is displayed.
Click the Insert Code button to the right of the Cell Text field. The Select Column Heading window is displayed. Click on the @Month option.
Note: Starting with version 5.5, variable headings are now enabled in a CALC column. However, you must enter base syntax in both the Fiscal Year and the Period Code fields of the Calc column in order to use a variable heading.
4-10
Assigning Special Formats

Use the Special Format Mask field to assign decimal, currency, and percentage formatting to your column amounts. This mask automatically overrides the global formatting you define for the company in the Company Information, Amount & Date Format field. Note: If you define a special format in a row calculation and in the column, the row formatting overrides the column formatting in the column for that particular row.
Sample: Assigning a Percentage Format

To assign a percentage format to a column, open the Special Format Mask zoom window. Select the desired percentage format.
4-11
Special Print Control Options

You can use print control settings to adjust the display and printing characteristics of an individual column.
Sample: Suppressing Rounding in a Statistical Column

By selecting the SR option in the Print Control cell, you can suppress rounding in a column even if the global formatting for your report is a rounded presentation. This is especially important if you are displaying non-financial or statistical data.
4-12
Column Restrictions
The following optional codes restrict certain types of data to display within a GL column. You can use multiple codes within a single column if necessary.
4-13
4-14
4-15
Group Exercise 2 - Restricting Data Using Account Filters

Your instructor will guide you through the process of building the column layout for a side-by-side Income Statement. Operating results for the Film Works, Inc., departments will be displayed in separate columns of the report. A sample of the finished report appears below.
4-16
Displaying Data for a Subset of Accounts

You can restrict a column to report on a subset of accounts by using the account filter technique. This technique requires a GL Type column and an account filter (pattern) in the Account Filter field.
What is an Account Filter?

An account filter is a pattern of characters and wildcards (?) that defines a single account or group of accounts.
Sample: Account Filter for Denver Sales Accounts

The filter that uniquely identifies the Denver sales accounts is : ????-1100-??? Notice that the second segment of the Film Works, Inc., account mask was used to identify the required account(s). See the diagram below.
4-17
Sample: Denver Sales Account Column

To display data for the Denver Sales accounts, define a GL column and enter the account filter (defined previously) in the Account Filter field:
Note: You can enter up to 20 account filters in the GL Account Links window of a column. If you need to group more than 20 accounts or groups of accounts, use multiple columns and a Calc column which sums the columns that contain the account filters.
4-18
Performing Inter-Column Calculations

The Type, Calc column enables you to perform calculations between columns. You can perform simple combinations (adding or subtracting of column amounts), or complex calculations (manipulating column amounts and/or absolute numbers) using any standard operator.
Note: There is no limit to the number of characters in a single formula.
Sample: Calculating Total Sales Activity

To derive total Film Works sales activity (Departmental Income Statement), you must add together the Denver and San Francisco sales amounts. Create a Calc column to perform this operation and enter the following formula in the Calc Formula field: A+B
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Group Exercise 3 - Reporting on Multiple Periods

Your instructor will guide you through the process of creating a statement that displays the Film Works, Inc., operating results on a quarterly basis.
A sample of the finished report appears below.
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Displaying Data For Multiple Periods

Report Designer lets you display General Ledger activity for 1 or more periods in a column. To show GL data for multiple periods, you must define the range of periods to be reported. The application provides two methods for doing this: Specifying actual period numbers Supplying relative period references Note: Internally Report Designer knows each period by its period number. Assume for example, that a firm has 12 reporting periods in a fiscal year, one for each month. Report Designer numbers and knows these periods as periods 1 through 12, Period 1 being January.
Sample: Using Period #s to Reference Multiple Periods

To display Film Works, Inc., data for the first quarter of the year (Quarterly Income Statement), enter the following range of period numbers in the column Period Code field. 1 TO 3 This instructs Report Designer to report on the first quarter, January through March.
Note: This technique produces the correct result only if you run the report at the end of the quarter.
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Group Exercise 4 - Reporting GL Journal Entries

Your instructor will guide you through the process of building the column layout for a Transaction Detail report. This report will display the following data for the Film Works, Inc., Cash accounts: The beginning and ending balance (for the requested periods) The General Ledger journal entries A sample of the finished report appears below:
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Specifying the Detail Level

Report Designer lets you report on GL journal entries via the Catalog - ID, Detail Level field. To display individual journal entries, select either the Transaction Only or Financial and Transaction option.
4-27
Configuring the Transaction Detail Report

Report Designer lets you choose the transaction field(s) which display on the final report. Each journal entry field has a related Transaction Detail Codes option. To configure a report, select the appropriate Type for each column in the worksheet.
Sample: Displaying the Transaction Account Code

To display the account code of the Film Works, Inc., Cash account(s), create a column with a column Type of ACCT.
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Sample: Displaying Beginning and Ending Balances and Period Activity

To display the beginning and ending account balance and the period(s) activity, Report Designer requires 2 GL Type columns: A Current Period column to display the journal entry activity for the period(s) A YTD column to show the beginning and ending account balance See the sample column layout below.
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Group Exercise 5 - Using Column Restrictions to Build a WTB

You instructor will guide you through the process of constructing a Working Trial Balance Report.
A sample of the finished report appears below:
FilmWorks Demo Trial Balance For the Two Months Ending February 28, 2002 Debits Credits
1100-1000-000 Cash-Checking-Denver 1100-2000-000 Cash-Checking-S.F. 1110-0000-000 Money Market (Short-Term)-FilmWorks 1200-1000-000 Account Receivable-Denver 1200-2000-000 Accounts Receivable-S.F. 1205-1000-000 Allow. for Bad Debt-Denver 1205-2000-000 Allow. for Bad Debt-S.F. 1300-1000-000 Due from FWC 1309-1000-000 Due from FWC (Elimination) 1310-1000-000 Inventories-Sales-Denver 1310-2000-000 Inventories-Sales-S.F. 1319-1000-000 Inventories-Sales (Elimination) 1350-1000-000 Inv Supplies-Denver 1350-2000-000 Inv Supplies-S.F. 1430-1000-000 Prepaid Other-Denver 1430-2000-000 Prepaid Other-S.F. 1510-1000-000 Leasehold Improve-Denver
33,976 29,485 46,057 78,030 78,550 1,116 943 265,862 263,184 349,881 176,204 59,541 3,162 3,451 1,805 2,031 35,000
5350-1000-000 Advertising Expense-Denver 5350-2000-000 Advertising Expense-S.F. 5400-1000-000 Commissions Expense-Denver 5400-2000-000 Commissions Expense-S.F. 5500-0000-000 Income Tax Expense-FilmWorks 5650-0000-000 Interest Expense-FilmWorks 7000-0000-000 Interest Income-FilmWorks Total
7,410 6,789 28,270 23,317 50,754 2,250 3,293,286 457 3,293,286
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Building a WTB Row Format

You can use the Link to General Ledger wildcard capabilities to quickly create the row format for a Working Trial Balance report. See the example below.
Restricting a Column To Debit or Credit Amounts

Report Designer lets you restrict the data displayed in a column according to criteria that you define. This criteria can be: Only Include Posted Transactions in Column Only Include Unposted Transactions in Column Include Debit Amounts Only Include Credit Amounts Only, etc Note: For a complete list, zoom on the column layout Column Restrictions field.
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Sample: Restricting a Column to Debit Amounts Only

To display the current balance of all Film Works, Inc.s debit accounts, set up a column as follows:
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Sample: Restricting a Column to Credit Amounts Only

To display the current balance of all Film Works, Inc.s credit accounts, set up a column as follows:
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Forcing Zero Amounts to Not Display

In some reporting situations, you may wish to suppress the printing of 0 (zero) amounts in the column(s). Report Designer provides a feature in the row format to handle this requirement. This feature is the BO, Print Control option.
Sample: Suppressing Zero Column Amounts

To force Report Designer to not display 0 (zero) amounts in the WTB Debit or Credit columns, apply the BO, Print Control option to every row.
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Specifying the Detail Level
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Chapter Review
Chapter Review
.
1.
Define the term Base Reporting Period. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
2.
True/False: You may display Actual/Budget or Statistical GL data in a column.
3.
Name the three methods for defining the period(s) reported on in a column. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
4.
True/False: You can display more than one period of data (in a column) by specifying a range of periods in the Column, Period Code field.
5.
Define the term Account Filter. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
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6. True/False: You display data for a subset of accounts by entering an Account Filter in the Column, Account Filter field.
7.
True/False: Report Designer automatically centers and underlines the text in the Column Heading field.
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Chapter
How Rows and Columns Work Together
Chapter Overview
The Row Format and Column Layout work together to define a reports content. This chapter presents several examples, such as percentage calculations in the column , that illustrate the interaction between these building blocks.
At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
Understand how Report Designer handles calculations in the row and column Create a report which includes base percentage calculations Define and use row modifiers Sequence a reports output
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Introduction
Introduction
Report Designers feature set enables you to meet a variety of different reporting requirements such as: Calculations in both the row and column Percentage calculations (column) that depend on a row value Current and year-to-date data in a column Actual and budget (or statistical) data in a column Project reporting in the row or column (reference codes)
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Group Exercise 1 - Including Base Calculations In a Report

Your instructor will guide you through the process of creating a common size Income Statement for the Film Works, Inc., Company. This statement presents both current and year-to-date operating results. Each component of the Income Statement is expressed as a dollar amount and as a percentage of Net Sales or Total Operating Expense. A sample of the finished report appears below:
5-4
Base Calculations
Base calculations are defined in the column layout. They enable you to perform a percentage calculation that involves a row amount.
Sample: Calculating Current Activity As a % of Net Sales

To display the Film Work, Inc., current period operating results as a percent of Net Sales, define a Calc column as follows:
Note: The term Base is a variable. When Report Designer performs the calculation, it substitutes the value from the CBR row for Base.
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Identifying the Base Row

You specify the denominator to use in the Base calculation through the use of special rows in the row format. These rows are known as CBR (Change Base Row) rows.
Sample: CBR Rows For Base % Calculation

To enable the calculation Sales/Net Sales (in the Film Works, Inc. Common Size Statement), insert a row above the first row in the row format and assign the row a FMT Code of CBR. Then, supply the row code for the Net Sales row, Base row, in the Related Rows/Unit cell.
Note: You can define multiple CBR rows in a single row format. When Report Designer locates a new CBR row, it begins using that row amount as the denominator in the base % calculations
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5-8
Group Exercise 2 - Calculation Priority

Your instructor will guide you through the process of updating the Departmental Income Statement (created in a previous exercise) to include the calculation of gross margin.
Following is a sample of the modified report.
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Performing Calculations in the Row Format

Report Designer provides a CAL row to enable you to perform calculations in the row format. These calculations may involve other rows, integers, or any of the standard operators (+, -, *, /). Note: The maximum number of characters per formula is 240.
Sample: Calculating Gross Profit Percentage

To calculate the Gross Profit Percent (in the Selected Regional Sales Data report) you must divide Net Sales for the period by Gross Profit for the period. The formula for this calculation is: @430/@310 Note: The @ symbol tells Report Designer that the numbers that follow are row codes and not integers.
Formatting in the Row

You can define special formatting which applies to a single row of the row format. This formatting takes precedence over any formatting specified in the report catalog or the column layout.
Sample: Special Percentage Formatting for Gross Profit %

To apply a percentage format with fill characters (0) in the ones and tenths positions, use the following syntax: @430/@310 ##0.0%;(##0.0%)
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Restricting Column Data Using Account Filters

You can restrict a column to report on a subset of accounts by using the account filter technique described in Chapter 4 of this training guide.
Sample: Account Filter for Denver Sales Accounts

The filter that uniquely identifies the Denver sales accounts is: ????-1100-??? Notice that the second segment of the account mask is used to identify the desired account(s). See the diagram below.
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Setting the Calculation Priority

Report Designer, by default, performs calculations defined in the row prior to calculations defined in the column. When a cell is the intersection point for a row and a column calculation, you may need to reverse the default calculation priority. To change the calculation order, select the Calculate Columns First radio button on the Catalog, Report Options - Advanced tab.
5-12
Sample: Calculation in Both the Row and Column

In the Regional Sales Data report, two calculations are being performed:
1. 2.
Gross profit is being calculated in the row format (R310) Total sales (Denver and San Francisco) is being calculated in the column layout (Col C)
The application by default performed the row calculation before the column calculation. As a result, Report Designer derived the Gross Profit % for Total Sales by summing the gross profit percentages for the Denver Retail and Denver Wholesale units. To enable Report Designer to correctly calculate the Total Sales Gross Profit %, change the calculation priority to Calculate Columns First.
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Solution - Exercise 2: Column Layout
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Group Exercise 3 - Row Modifiers

Your instructor will guide you through the process of modifying a row format to enable the display of both current and year-to-date sales data in a single column.
Following is a sample of the finished report.
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Overriding the Column Definition with Modifiers

When generating a report, Report Designer combines the account code (defined in the Row Format) with the period, data and account type (identified in the Column Layout). By default, all rows in a single column display the same kind of data (period and data type). Occasionally, within a single column, you may need to display different information in selected rows of the report, e.g., budget rather than actual data. To enable this reporting requirement Report Designer provides Row Modifiers.
Displaying Current and YTD Data

To override the reporting period defined in the column, you use a period modifier. Row Modifiers can be used to force the display of current or year-to date amounts or the beginning balance for an account. Note: Row Modifiers affect only the row(s) to which they are attached.
Sample: Displaying YTD Data for Selected Rows

To display both current and year-to-date Sales in a single column (Current and YTD Regional Sales Report): Define a GL Type, Current Period column. Apply the /Y modifier to the Row Format row that displays sales. A sample of the correct syntax follows : 410? - (4109), /Y
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Group Exercise 4 - Sorting Report Output

Your instructor will guide you through the process of modifying a row format (Tutorial 1) to sequence an actual vs. budget variance report in ascending order (by size of variance).
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Sorting Reported Values

The SORT and ASORT Format Codes are typically used to sequence an actual vs. budget variance report by the largest variance.
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SORT
The SORT code sequences the report in ascending or descending order based on the value in a selected column. To use this code: Select the SORT Format Code. Enter the range of rows to be sorted in the Related Rates/ Rows/Unit field. Enter the column letter to be used for the sort in Column G. To sort a report in descending order, enter a negative sign (-) before the column letter. Note: Do not include formatting or total rows in a sort calculation. Report Designer will sort these lines along with the General Ledger rows.
Sample: Sorting a Report in Ascending Order

To sequence the expense section (of the variance report) in ascending order, Set up a row with the Sort Format Code Identify the rows to be sorted in the Related Rates/Rows/Unit field. Enter the column letter to be used for the sort in Column G. See the sample on the next page.
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ASORT
The ASORT code sorts the report by the magnitude of the variance. In other words, the sign of the variance is ignored.
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Solution - Exercise 4: Row Format
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Solution - Exercise 4: Column Layout
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Chapter Review
Chapter Review
.
1.
State the syntax required, in the Column Layout, to calculate Column B amounts as a percentage of a row value. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
2.
True/False: You may specify multiple CBR rows in a row format.
3.
True/False: Report Designer Row Modifiers override the reporting period or data type defined in the column layout.
4.
True/False: By default, Report Designer performs calculations in the row before calculations in the column.
5.
State the syntax (GL Link field) required to force the display of YTD amounts in a row. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
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Chapter
The Reporting Tree
The Reporting Tree
Chapter Overview
The reporting tree is the third and optional Report Designer building block. It is thought to be the key to the power and flexibility of Report Designer. A reporting tree consists of a group of reporting units. Each unit being tied to a group of accounts in the General Ledger. For each reporting unit, Report Designer can generate one report A reporting tree then, represents a collection of reporting units or reports. Report Designers power lies in the fact that you can create an unlimited number of trees or views of your organization. Allowing you to slice and dice your data and analyze it from any perspective you like. At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:
Understand the interrelationship between row formats and reporting trees Know the purpose of each field in a reporting unit Automatically build a reporting tree from the chart of accounts Manually create a reporting tree List the different methods available for viewing and editing reporting trees
6-2
Introduction
Introduction
The Reporting Tree is the name for a group of reporting units. A reporting unit may be a department in your organization (group of GL accounts) or a higher level unit that combines information from other reporting units. Note: Report Designer allows you to redefine or add or change reporting units, in the tree, without affecting the General Ledger. The ability to define a reporting account segmentation , that differs from your GL account structure, is the key to the power and flexibility of Report Designer.
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The Reporting Tree
Sample Reporting Trees

FLMWORKA: Regional Tree
Reports for FilmWrkA Summary Company Denver San Francisco
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Introduction
Sample Reporting Trees

FilmWrkB: Functional Tree
Reports for FilmWrkB: Summary Service Sales Note: The grand totals in the two Summary reports are equal, but the underlying detail reports (Sales & Service vs. Denver & SF) are different.
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The Reporting Tree
The Reporting Tree Worksheet

Report Designer works in a rollup fashion. To produce reports for detail units, it gathers data from the General Ledger. To produce reports for summary units, it summarizes data from the detail reports.
6-6
The Reporting Tree Worksheet
Key Fields
Following is a description of the key fields in the Reporting Tree Worksheet: Company Code: Identifies the location of the data for the reporting unit. Unit Code: The unique identifier for the reporting unit.
Title/Description: Defines the title for the reporting unit when the Header (or Footer) uses the @Title code. Account Mask: Specifies the group of accounts to report on for a detail level unit. Roll Up %: Defines the percentage of amounts from lower level units that should roll up to the summary level unit. The default system value is 100%. Security/E-Mail: Identifies the user or e-mail address of and individual or group that should have access to or receive the output for a reporting unit. Additional Text: Defines the additional text information to include in the Header/Footer of report .
& For a more detailed explanation of Reporting Tree, refer to

the FRx User Guide, Chapter 5.
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The Reporting Tree
The Reporting Tree/Row Format Relationship

A reporting tree has a special relationship with a row format. Together they define the full set of account codes Report Designer reports on The Account Mask (Reporting Tree) field identifies the segment supplied by the row and the segment(s) provided by the tree. A reporting tree may only be combined with a row format that supplies the complimentary segment(s) values. See the diagram below.
6-8
Group Exercise 1 - Restructuring (Editing) a Reporting Tree

Your instructor will guide you through the process of modifying an existing reporting tree using Report Designers drag and drop capabilities. A sample of the FilmWrkA tree in its initial form appears below.
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The Reporting Tree
Drag and Drop Tasks

To restructure a reporting tree, simply click on and drag reporting units to their desired location. Note: The worksheet and reporting relationships between units will be automatically updated.
Student Action
Select the Studio SF unit, drag it and drop it on top of the Studio Denver unit. Studio SF becomes a child unit reporting to Studio Denver.
Student Action
Select the Studio SF unit and then choose the Promote Unit command from the Tree menu. Studio SF is now at the same level in the hierarchy as Studio Denver.
Student Action
Select the Lab SF unit, drag it and drop it on top of Denver Service. Lab SF now rolls up to the Denver Service reporting unit.
Student Action
Select the Service SF unit by clicking on the Service SF unit row in the tree worksheet. Then, select the Delete Unit command from the Edit menu. Service SF has been removed from the reporting tree.
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Solution - Group Exercise 1

A sample of the FilmWrkA tree, after editing, appears below:
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The Reporting Tree
Group Exercise 2 - Automatic Build Based on Formal Account Segmentation

Your instructor will guide you through the process of generating a reporting tree based on the account segmentation established in the Film Works, Inc., General Ledger. A sample of the completed tree appears below.
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The Automatic Build Feature

Report Designer provides you with a feature to automate the build of reporting trees. This feature generates reporting units based on criteria you define. To access the automatic build process, select the Edit menu, Add Reporting Units From Chart of Accounts command. The following window will display:
Note: Report Designer builds trees based on the account structure and ranges defined in the Segment Ranges field.
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The Reporting Tree
Film Works Sample Database

The account structure (of the sample company) used throughout this course is described below.
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Group Exercise 2 - Solution

To generate a reporting tree based on the Film Works formal account segmentation, accept the default settings in the Add Reporting Units From Chart of Accounts window.
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The Reporting Tree
Group Exercise 3 - Restricting Accounts Included in the Build

Your instructor will guide you through the process of generating a tree that meets the following criteria:
The tree conforms to the formal Film Works, Inc., GL account segmentation The tree excludes all corporate account activity A sample of the tree appears below:
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Group Exercise 3 - Restricting Accounts Included in the Build

To generate the desired tree, accept the default Segment Hierarchy (and mask) and supply Segment Ranges restrictions as shown below:
Note: Report Designer only builds reporting units for those segment values that exist in the Chart of Accounts and fall within the range(s ) you define in the Segment Ranges fields.
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The Reporting Tree
Group Exercise 4 - Modifying the Formal Segment Hierarchy

Your instructor will guide you through the process of building a tree to produce summary level reports for the Film Works, Inc., Retail, Wholesale, Lab, and Studio units.
A sample of the tree appears below.
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Group Exercise 4 - Modifying the Formal Segment Hierarchy

To generate the desired tree, you need to depart from the formal Segment Hierarchy. This hierarchy specifies that sub account (Department) reporting units should roll up to location/department (Location/Division) units. To modify the Segment Hierarchy, click and drag the units to the location shown below.
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The Reporting Tree
Group Exercise 5 - Creating New (Reporting) Account Segments

Your instructor will guide you through the process of building a regional tree for the Film Works, Inc., Company.
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Group Exercise 5 - Creating New (Reporting) Account Segments

To build a tree based on location, you must define a location reporting account segment. Select the SPLIT icon and place your cursor between the first and segment character of the second segment and click.
Your Reporting Account Segmentation should now include 4 segments: Natural, Location/Division, New Segment1 and Department.
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The Reporting Tree
Group Exercise 6 - Excluding Reporting Units From the Build

Your instructor will lead you through the process of building a tree that produces summary level reports for the Denver and San Francisco regions and detail level reports for the Retail, Wholesale, Studio, and Lab activities within each region.
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Group Exercise 6 - Excluding Reporting Units From the Build

To build the desired tree, you should: Create a Location reporting account segment as illustrated in the previous exercise (Exercise 6) Enter ??? in the New Segment X mask field. Note: ??? in the mask field for a segment instructs Report Designer to not build reporting units for that segment of the account code.
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The Reporting Tree
Individual Exercise - Automatic Tree Build

Use the Add Accounts From Chart of Accounts feature to construct the following reporting Tree.
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Individual Exercise - Automatic Tree Build
Solution - Individual Exercise

To construct the tree, do the following: Create a location reporting segment as illustrated in Group Exercise 7 Reverse the segment hierarchy to ensure that location or regional units roll up to department units Restrict the ranges for the regional and department (subaccount) segments See the solution below
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The Reporting Tree
Chapter Review
.
1.
True/False: A reporting tree represents a suite of reports.
2.
True/False: Report Designer allows you to define a reporting (account) segmentation that may differ from the formal GL account structure.
3.
True/False: Detail level reporting units are tied to the General Ledger. The Account Mask field for these units defines a set of GL account codes.
4.
Report Designer works in a __________ fashion. To produce reports for detail units, it draws data from the GL. To produce reports for summary units, it summarizes the data in the detail reports.
5.
True/False: Only detail level units may have an Account Mask assigned.
6.
True/False: Ampersands in the Account Mask field indicate the account code characters supplied by the row format.
7.
True/False: A reporting tree may be combined with any row format.
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Chapter
The Catalog of Reports
Chapter Overview
The Catalog of Reports lets you assemble the building blocks Report Designer uses when a report is run. It also lets you specify the level of detail to present (Financial, Account, or Transaction Detail), the type of data to include (posted or unposted or both), the global formatting to apply, and the report distribution or output mode.
Understand the different reporting levels - financial, account detail, and transaction detail Produce reports using posted or provisional data (posted + unposted) Utilize the different output and distribution modes available: the Printer, the DrillDown Viewer, HTML, XML, Excel, Lotus, or ASCII text files, Microsoft SQL OLAP Local and Server Cubes, Hyperion Essbase OLAP Cube, and e-mail.. Define report formatting and rounding options Create presentation quality reports using custom font styles Use the advanced trouble shooting reports Link (chain) catalog IDs
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Introduction
Introduction
The Catalog of Reports is used to define the building blocks of each report and to supply the global report formatting.
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Creating Report Headers and Footers

You may define custom Headers or Footers for your reports. Report Designer lets you use a combination of system defined Codes and free form text to create the lines of your report title (Header) or footer.
Note: The use of Codes enables you to define a header (footer) that is dynamically updated. For example, the @Title code instructs Report Designer to use the Title/Description field from the reporting tree. When the tree is modified, the @Title section of the header is automatically updated.
To set up a report Header or Footer, select the Page Options-Headers/Footer tab.
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Page Setup
Page Setup
You can specify the report margins, scaling and orientation (Portrait or Landscape) on the Page Options - Page Setup tab.
7-5
Report Formatting
Report Designer enables you to define the degree to which amounts are rounded and how amounts are presented in reports. You may specify the following presentation options: How negative numbers appear (within parenthesis or preceded by a minus sign) Whether to print rows with zero amounts or to print reports with no amounts Whether or not a currency symbol displays on the first line of the report Whether or not to print commas in amounts How percentages appear (with the % symbol or as a decimal) The degree to which amounts should be rounded To define your report formatting and rounding settings, use the Report-Formatting tab.
Note: To round row values before totals or calculations, select the Use Rounded Values for Calculations and Totals checkbox. For reports that use a reporting tree, select the Roll Up Rounded Values in the Tree checkbox to round reporting unit amounts before rolling up results to the summary unit.
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Report Formatting
Handling Rounding Adjustments

Report Designer supports footing and crossfooting of rounded amounts. Therefore, totals and subtotals that use rounding must add down and across. To handle the adjustments that arise (due to rounding), Report Designer provides a Rounding Adjustments form in the row format. See the screen shot below.
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate implementing rounding for the BalSheet catalog id. Note that amounts will be rounded to the thousands.
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7-8
Output Options
Output Options
You can output a report to the DrillDown Viewer, the printer, an ASCII Text File, an Excel or Lotus worksheet., an HTML or XML file, or to a Microsoft SQL OLAP Local or Server cube.
Note: The default output mode is to the DrillDown Viewer.
To choose the output mode, select the Output tab. The following window will appear.
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E-mailing Report Output

To send report output as an attachment to an e-mail, or as a short-cut to the report output file, select the E-mail Options tab Enable E-mail check box. If you choose the Send as Attachment option, the report output is automatically compressed, an, sent along with an email to the designated recipients. If you select the Send as Link to File option, Report Designer creates a link to the report output file (on a shared network drive) in a new e-mail message. This feature provides users with demand-page viewing that sends only the requested information over the network, not the entire file. Note: You can create an e-mail distribution list from your MAPI enabled mail system (address list). You may optionally include a subject or message to be sent with the report output.
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The DrillDown Viewer

The DrillDown Viewer application lets you view, print, email, or export a report output. Note: You an export report output to a Lotus or Excel worksheet, an ASCII text file, an HTML or XML file or to a cube. If the report output being displayed is an Account Detail or Transaction Detail report, the DrillDown Viewer option produces a special file containing a summary level report and the data used to generate it. Users can view the report and its underlying details interactively.
See the next page for an example:
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Note: To drill down to account detail or transaction detail data, you must select either the Account Detail or Transaction Detail option from the Catalog, Detail Level field.
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Printing DrillDown Files

To print a report, select the File menu Print command. When the Print Selection window appears, Choose the Report Type (Financial, Account Detail or Transaction Detail) and correct Print Range (Current Selection, Current Reporting Unit or All Reporting Units) to print. Note: To define custom margins and report scaling, select the Page Setup push button.
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Export to Excel or Lotus

When you export report output to an Excel or Lotus worksheet, the DrillDown Viewer prompts you for the level of detail (Report Type) and kind of worksheet data (Worksheet Options) to export.
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E-mailing DrillDown Files

You can send your report directly to other users from the DrillDown Viewer via your email system. From the File menu select the Send command. This takes you and your file directly to your email system and sends the file to the user(s) you designate. Note: The drill down report is self-contained and can be viewed by users that do not have access to Report Designer but have the DrillDown application installed on their workstation.
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Microsoft SQL OLAP Cubes

You can export report output directly to a Local or Server based on-line analytic processing cube (OLAP) for fast and easy financial analysis. Report Designer automates the process of creating and transferring report data to a cube, eliminating the need for in-house IT involvement or OLAP design skills. The OLAP cube displays report data in an intuitive graphical format that supports financial analysis.
Note: See page x in this training guide for a detailed list of requirements for Server based cubes.
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Microsoft SQL OLAP Cubes
When Report Designer create a cube, it generates 6 dimensions or collections of information): Organization: Units from the Reporting Tree Period: Column Layout Period Codes Measures: Row Format Accounts (rows) Book: Column Layout Book Codes Project: Column Layout or Row Format Project Information Currency: Column Layout Currency Code/Currency Display (coming in a future release) Users can analyze report data by selecting and dragging and dropping these dimensions. This lets users create different views of the same information supports their ability to analyze financial data. Note: You can access the cubes Report Designer creates via via any OLAP browser that supports Microsofts OLAP standards.
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OLAP Descriptions
You can optionally define descriptions for the OLAP Book (period and fiscal years) dimension elements or actual values. To enter OLAP Descriptions for a column, select the OLAP Descriptions field in the column layout.
Note: You can enter OLAP Descriptions for GL, WKS, or Calc columns only.
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Web Publishing
Web Publishing
FRx for Epicor 6.0 offers a new product the WebPort that provides centralized report management and viewing for connected users in a Web environment. The WebPort repository lets a company store, share, and view FRx for Epicor reports (or non-FRx for Epicor objects) in a secured environment. Reports (objects) can be organized into Explorer type user-defined folders with access rights granted at the folder or report level. Users, with proper permissions, can access WebPort objects using an Internet browser. Thus, eliminating the need for any client software on remote computers. The Web Publishing tab lets users send reports directly to the Web Port where they may be viewed by users with the proper access rights. Note: Only users with permission to publish reports to the Web Port will be able to access the Web Publishing tab.
7-19
Chaining Reports
Report Designer enables you to generate multiple reports by executing a single report. The report you execute must be the first report in a chain of linked reports. Note: You can chain a maximum of 150 reports together. To establish a link between reports you: Recall the catalog id of the first report in the chain to the Catalog window Select the Chain to Catalog ID arrow (Output tab) and choose the catalog id of the next report in the sequence When you press the Generate (Catalog) button, Report Designer executes the first report in the chain. Upon completion of this report, it runs the second report and, so on. Note: The report linking feature is available for output to: the DrillDown Viewer, the Printer, an HTML, XML, Excel, Lotus or ASCII text file.
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate linking the BalSheet and IncStmt catalog ids together.
7-20
Customizing Report Formats

Report Designer Font Styles and row FMT Codes enable you to format reports directly in Report Designer. Font Styles let you control the appearance of your report text. FMT Codes give you the option of highlighting specific output with custom lines and boxes.
User-Defined Font Styles

User-defined styles describe the font type, font size, and formatting (bold, italics) that will be used for a report. You can apply styles to individual lines of the report header (footer) or to different rows and columns in the body of the report.
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate creating a new Font Style using a Font Type of Arial, a Font Size of 12 and the color Navy.
7-21
To apply a style to a report row:

Highlight the row and select the Font Style from the tool bar drop down list.
Note: All rows in the report will use the default style unless a different style is specified.
To apply a custom font to a report title:

Highlight the title row (Headers/Footers tab), select the Font Styles drop down arrow, and double click on the font style to apply.
7-22
Adding Lines for Visual Impact

To display a line across the page of a report, select the LNE format code in the desired row. After choosing this option, you must also enter one of the following descriptions in the Description column: Type = 1: Thin line (default) Type = 2: Thick line Type = 3: Dotted line Type = 4: Two lines: A thick line followed by a thin line Type = 5: Two lines: A thin line followed by a thick line
To apply a custom line to a report:

Insert a row where you want the line to appear. Assign a FMT Code of LNE and then identify the line type in the Description field to the left of the Format Code. See the example below.
7-23
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate using Font Styles and the LNE FMT Code to format a tabular Balance Sheet. A sample of the finished report appears below:
Sample Tabular Balance Sheet
7-24
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate using the BXB and BXC FMT Codes to place a box around a row (Net Income) in the Film Works, Inc., Operating Statement.
7-25
To place a box around a report row:

Insert a row where you want the top of the box to appear. Assign a FMT Code of BXB to the row. Insert a row where you want the bottom of the box to appear. Assign a FMT Code of BXC to the row.
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate applying custom fonts to the columns of a report. A sample of the finished report appears on the following page.
7-26
7-27
To apply a custom font and shading to a column:

Select the column Type field and then double click on a font style in the Font Style drop down list.
Note: The font style you select will apply to all rows in the column.
7-28
Trouble Shooting Options
Trouble Shooting Options

Report Designer provides you with several troubleshooting tools. These reports/messages can be used by selecting (disabling) specific options on the Report Options-Advanced (Catalog of Reports) tab. Following is a brief description of each tool: Display Report Processing Status: When this option is selected, Report Designer displays a window that informs you of a reports progress. Missing Unit Warning: When this option is enabled, Report Designer displays a warning message when a report is run with a reporting tree and not all reporting units are included in the report. Reporting units can be omitted due to column restrictions entered in the Column Layout-Reporting Unit field. Report Missing Accounts: When this option is selected, Report Designer produces a list of missing accounts on the Exception Report. Report Duplicate Accounts: When this option is selected, Report Designer produces a list of duplicate accounts on the Exception Report.
7-29
Demonstration
Your instructor will demonstrate running the IncStmt catalog with the Report Missing Accounts option selected.
Note: The Exception Report is not displayed in the DrillDown viewer. When a DrillDown file (*.frd) is printed the exception report is printed immediately after the Financial Report.
7-30
Chapter Review
Chapter Review
.
1.
True/False: The Report Type field enables you to control the level of detail displayed in a report. True/False: To access the drilldown file, a user must be connected to the server. True/False: The default output mode for a report is the DrillDown Viewer.
2.
3.
4.
True/False: You may embed scaleable fonts and formatting (Styles) in a report. When printed via Report Designer (the Drill Down Viewer or the Report Launcher) the finished report embodies the font styles assigned. You can chain together a maximum of ___________ report configurations (catalog ids). The Row Format, __________ __________ window enables you to determine the placement of any rounding adjustments required to insure that report subtotals and totals crossfoot. True/False: You can control whether page numbers and the system date or time print on a report. True/False: Any changes you make to the Catalog default settings affect all catalog ids.
5.
6.
7.
8.
7-31

9. True/False: Any Report Designer user can access the Web Publishing tab and export reports to the WebPort.
10. True/False: You can define titles for the elements of a reports Book dimension. When you export a report to an OLAP cube, these titles appear as description options for the Book dimension.
11. The ___________ ____________ fields in the reporting tree may be incorporated into a reports title via the Page Options-Headers/Footers, variable Code options.
12. You can automatically e-mail report output to one or more users. The list of users who receive the output may be defined in the _________, the ______ or _________________.
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Chapter
Consolidation
Consolidation
Chapter Overview
You can include data from almost an unlimited number (2000) of databases in a single report. There are several techniques to accomplish this, Reporting Unit Filters or Row Format Linking. In this chapter, we will illustrate the use of Reporting Unit Filters.
Build a Reporting Tree to report against multiple companies Implement Reporting Unit restrictions in the Column Layout Understand the consolidation options in the Catalog of Reports (Catalog-Report Options-Advanced, Rollup Basis)
8-2
Introduction
Introduction
Report Designer enables you to include information from multiple companies in a single report (suite of reports). The companies reported on may reside on the same or different servers. Report Designer provides two consolidation techniques: Row Format Linking and Reporting Unit filters. These techniques are used in different reporting circumstances: Row Format Linking is employed whenever: The databases reported on have unlike account masks or numbering schemes The desired report displays amounts (row) that represent the totals for all companies The desired reports display varying degrees of detail Reporting Unit filters are used when: The databases reported on have the same account mask and numbering scheme This chapter presents an example of the Reporting Unit filters technique.
8-3
Consolidation
Group Exercise 1 - Using Reporting Unit Filters

Your instructor will guide you through the process of creating a Consolidated Profit/Loss statement. This report displays data from the Film Works, Inc., and Film Works, Canada companies in a columnar fashion.
A sample of the finished report appears below:
8-4
Company Information
The purpose of this exercise is to create a consolidated statement for the 12 months ending December 31, 2002. The companies being consolidated, Film Works, Inc., (FW) and Film Works, Canada (FWC), both have adopted the calendar year as their fiscal year. Also, as the diagram below indicates, FW and FWC each have an 11 character account mask and use identical account code numbering schemes.
Film Works Consolidated
Film Works Inc.
Film Works, Canada
Fiscal Year:
December 31
December 31
Account Structure:
11 Digits
11 Digits
8-5
Consolidation
The Multi-Company Reporting Tree

You must use a Reporting Tree when reporting on multiple companies. The Reporting Tree, Company Code field specifies the location of each companys data (GL).
Sample: Film Works Consolidated Tree

The Company Code field in the Film Works Consolidated tree indicates the location of the FW and FWC databases.
8-6
Displaying Data For A Company

You can restrict a column to report on a specific company by using the Reporting Unit technique. This technique requires a GL Type column and a Unit Code in the Reporting Unit field. To enter a Unit Code, double click and select the Reporting Tree to which the unit corresponds. Then, when the list of Reporting Units displays select the unit from the list.
Sample: FW Company Data Column

To display the FW data, define a GL column and enter the FW Unit Code in the Reporting Unit field:
8-7
Consolidation
The Master Calendar

To produce a report that includes data from multiple companies, you must identify the Master Calendar or prevailing company fiscal year. The (Catalog ID) Report Date field specifies the period you wish to report on in the Master Calendar.
Once you define the Master Calendar and Report Date, you must select the consolidation Roll Up basis. This determines how Report Designer selects the period to report on in all companies.
8-8
Sample: Roll Up by Period Number

To generate the Film Works Consolidated statement, specify a Report Date of December 31, 2002, and select the Rollup Basis, Period Numbers option. This instructs FRx to report on period 12 of the 2002 fiscal year for all companies included in the report.
Note: The Period Numbers, Roll Up Basis causes Report Designer to select and report on the same period (number) for all companies.
8-9
Consolidation
Solution - Group Exercise 1: Reporting Tree
8-10
8-11
Consolidation
Solution Group Exercise 1 - Row Format
8-12
Chapter Review
Chapter Review
.
1.
True/False: Report Designer can consolidate only companies that have an identical account code segmentation and chart of accounts. To display data for a company database in an individual column you should place a __________________ _________________ __________________ in the column .
2.
3.
Define the term Master Calendar. _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
4.
To display data for a company database in an individual column you should place a __________________ _________________ __________________ in the column .
8-13
Chapter
Tutorials
Tutorials
Training Class Tutorial - Creating a Variance Report

Instructions
1. Review the solution on page 9-7 of this training guide. The completed report is an actual vs. budget analysis. It compares actual performance for the month of February 2002 to projected performance for the same period. The report also compares year-to-date performance through February 2001 with projected year-to-date performance at February 2002. Create the Row Format
2.
Open a blank row format worksheet. Open the Edit menu and select the option Add Rows From Chart of Accounts. Build the row format on the natural segment of the account code, and define the range of accounts to be included as 4000 to 7000. Use normal balance code C for all revenue accounts and any totals that are credit balances. Modify the row format to exclude the Inter-Company Sales (Elimination) account, 4109, and the Inter-Company COGS (Elimination) account, 4509. Combine all the accounts in the 5200 series (Operating Expense section) into a single line item. Insert rows for Totals (i.e. Net Sales) and other Format Commands. Remember to set up totaling operations that reflect the use of the C normal balance codes as detailed in the item above. Hint: You can combine the accounts by (1) using a range of accounts, (2) using an account mask that contains ?? wildcard characters, or (3) creating an account set. Once you have combined the accounts on a single row with the description Office Expense, delete the rows that display the 5200 series accounts individually.
9-2
Insert the CBR rows referencing the specific row codes required to display the following: Revenue items (through Gross Profit) as a percentage of Net Sales. Each operating expense line item as a percentage of Total Operating Expense. Income from Operations (and all subsequent lines) as a percentage of Net Income. Insert a row below the total row that computes Gross Profit, and create a calculation for Gross Profit Percent. Assign the format ##0.00%;(##0.00%). 3. Create the Column Layout
Study the completed report. Observe that the left side of the report is displaying current period activity, and the right side of the report is displaying year to date activity. Use Base for the fiscal year and Period Code in each GL column. Select Budget B (Original Budget) in the Book Code/Attribute Activity field of each column that displays budget data. Hint: Open the zoom window in the Book Code/Attribute Category field to view the syntax examples.
The columns that are labeled with a % will contain the formula X/Base%, where X will refer to the column that contains the data to be displayed as percentages of the designated base row amounts. Set up the formula for the Variance columns to display unfavorable variances in the Operating Expense section in parenthesis.
9-3
Tutorials
Hint: In this example, assume that an unfavorable variance occurs whenever 2002 actual expenses exceed 2002 budgeted expenses, or 2002 actual revenues are less than 2002 projected revenues. Remember to use the XCR code to control the display of variances related to credit balance accounts or totals.
Create column headings as displayed in the completed report. Use the Header Options, Spread From and To fields to center headings over a range of columns. 4. Create a Report Catalog ID for the Report
Set up a new catalog id for the report. When the report selection window(Select Catalog for Display) is displayed, click on the New press bar, located at the lower right of the screen A blank catalog ID screen is now displayed. Designate the row and the column you have created. Since the report will be run without a reporting tree, leave the User Reporting Tree check box blank. Set the report date to February, 2002. Save the report definition; verify that the report date field is still displaying February, 2002. Generate the report and compare the resulting data to the example report at page 9-7. If the data matches the solution, proceed to the next section. If the data does not match, debug the report row and/or column and rerun the report.
9-4
5.
Create the Reporting Tree
Open a new reporting tree worksheet. From the Edit menu, select the option Add Reporting Units from Chart of Accounts. The account mask displayed should be: &&&&-++++-+++. Use the Split Icon to isolate the first digit of the second segment (Location/Division). This digit represents Location, and the remaining three digits represent the Division (Corporate, Sales, or Service). Make no change to the third segment (Department). At this point, the Segment Hierarchy box will display the following: Location/Division (This is the Location indicator) New Segment 1 (Division) Division (Department - Retail, etc.) Specify the range of accounts for each segment as indicated below: Location/Division: Location): 1 to 2 (Denver, San Francisco) New Segment 1: 100 to 200 (Sales, Service) Department: 001 to 004 (Retail, Wholesale, Lab, Studio) Complete the tree by entering formal Reporting Unit Titles in column D of the reporting tree worksheet.
9-5
Tutorials
6.
Run report in Report Catalog
Return to the catalog, and specify the reporting tree you have created. Generate the report for Denver, San Francisco, and Summary. Compare the resulting reports to the reports on the following pages: San Francisco Denver 9-14 9-21 9-22
- Summary
Diagnose and resolve any discrepancies.
9-6
Solution - Report A
9-7
Tutorials
Solution Report B
9-8
9-9
Tutorials
9-10
9-11
Tutorials
9-12
9-13
Tutorials
9-14
9-15
Tutorials
9-16
9-17
Tutorials
9-18
9-19
Tutorials
9-20
9-21
Tutorials
9-22
Solution - Row Format
9-23
Tutorials
Solution - Column Layout
9-24
Solution - Reporting Tree
9-25
Appendix
Report Launcher
Report Launcher
Chapter Overview
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
Start the Report Launcher from Windows 9X, NT Select and run a report from the Report Launcher Modify the default report processing period, level of detail, print options (Page Orientation, Scaling, Margins), and output mode as defined in the Catalog ID View the status or progress of any report launched via the Report Launcher
A-2
Introduction
Introduction
The Report Launcher is a separate program from the Report Designer. You can use it to launch and view the progress of any report that is saved in the Catalog of Reports. The Report Launcher also provides you with the ability to change the formatting and settings of any report on the fly.
A-3
Report Launcher
Starting the Report Launcher

To start the Report Launcher from Windows 9X, NT: Click on the Start button and then point to Programs Select the folder that contains FRx Financial Reporting Click on Report Launcher The following Report Launcher window will appear.
A-4
Generating a Report
Generating a Report
You can use the Report Launcher to run any report that has been saved in the Catalog of Reports. By default, a report generates from Report Launcher using the settings and properties saved in the Catalog ID. For example, if BalSheet was saved as a financial report, output to the printer, Report Launcher also generates BalSheet as a financial report to the printer. To run a report: Select the company you want to work with from the Company box Choose the report you want to run by clicking on its Catalog ID in the Report Launcher window Press the Generate Report push button
Note: To change the order of records, click the column heading you wish to sort on. The reports automatically rearrange in alphabetical order by the selected column heading.
A-5
Report Launcher
Changing a Reports Settings

You can change some of the formatting and processing settings of a report before generating it from the Report Launcher.
Note: The changes you make are not permanently saved to the Catalog of Reports.
Base Period, Detail Level or Transaction Type

To change the Base period, Detail Level, Priority Level, or type of transactions (Posted, Unposted) included in the report: Click on the Properties push button When the Catalog Run Properties, Overrides tab appears, click on the appropriate field and select the new setting
A-6
Changing a Reports Settings
Page Orientation, Margins, Scaling

To change the Page Orientation, Margins or Scaling: Click on the Properties push button When the Catalog Run Properties window appears, select the Page Options tab Choose the group box that corresponds to the setting you wish to change, and enter or select the new value
A-7
Report Launcher
Report Output Mode

You can redirect the output so that the report generates to: a printer, a DrillDown Viewer file, an HTML or XML file, an Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 worksheet, an ASCII text file, or to a Microsoft SQL OLAP Server or Local cube, or an Hyperion Essbase OLAP cube. To change the output mode: Click on the Properties push button When the Catalog Run Properties window appears, select the Output tab Click on the Output Type down arrow and choose the new output mode
A-8
Checking A Reports Progress
Checking A Reports Progress

After generating one or more reports you can check the status of the report(s). To check the status of a report: From the View menu, click Queue Status. The following window will appear:
A-9
Report Launcher
In the Status Display group box, select an option to indicate the status of reports you wish to view. Queued/Processing: Reports that are currently queued or processing. Completed: Reports that have finished generating. All Reports: All reports that have been generated from Report Launcher. Process Errors: All reports with processing errors. Change the number of days you wish to view progress for by entering a new number in the Show Records field. Select a report record to view its processing details in the Queue Status dialog box. Note: To get a hard copy of the Queue Log, press the Print Queue Log push button.
A-10
Summary
Summary
The Report Launcher is a separate application from Report Designer. You can use it to run reports even if you do not have access to the Report Designer. From within Report Launcher, you can change a reports default formatting and setting options at report execution time. After you have run a report, you can check on the reports status through the Report Launcher, Queue Status window.
A-11
Report Launcher
Chapter Review
.
1.
True/False: The changes you make to a reports settings, from the Report Launcher, are saved permanently in the Catalog of Reports. True/False: You must have access to Report Designer to use the Report Launcher. To view the status of a report, you select the _______ command from the View menu.
2.
3.
A-12
Appendix
Account Listing
Account Listing
Film Works Natural Account Listing

Natural Account Description
CASH Money Market Accounts Accounts Receivable All for Bad Debts Due from FWC Due from FWC (Elimination) Inventories Sales Inventories Sales (Elimination) Inventory Supplies Prepaids Others Leasehold Improvements Acc Depr - Leasehold Improv Office Furniture & Fixtures Acc Dept Off Furn & Fixtures Office Equipment Acc Depr Office Equipment Money Market Account Accounts Payable Lease Payable Due to FWC (Elimination) Other Accrued Liab Notes Payable Suspense Account Retained Earnings 1100 1110 1200 1205 1300 1309 1310 1319 1350 1430 1510 1515 1520 1525 1540 1545 1600 2100 2180 2209 2350 2410 2500 3000
Natural Account
B-2
Film Works Natural Account Listing
Natural Account Description

Common Stock Add Paid In Cap Sales Sales (Elimination) Sales Returns Sales Discounts COGS Salary Expense Officers Comp Depr Expense Office Expense Supplies Expense Maintenance Expense Rent Expense Travel Expense Advertising Expense Commission Expense Income Tax Expense Interest Expense Interest Income Income Summary 3100 3110 4100 4109 4110 4250 4500 5000 5050 5100 5200 5225 5240 5250 5300 5350 5400 5500 5650 7000 Z400
Natural Account
B-3
Appendix
Answer Key
Answer Key
Chapter 1. Application Overview and Installation

1. The Row Format provides the link to the General Ledger; it identifies the specific GL accounts to be included in the report. The row format also provides the descriptive text that appears in the completed report, and it performs totaling and calculations. The Column Layout defines the time period for General Ledger data (current, ytd) and what type of GL data is to be displayed (Actual, Budget, or Statistical). Columns can also perform calculations and link to external worksheet data. The Reporting Tree allows you to create multiple views of your organization by defining reporting relationships independent of the structure in the General Ledger Chart of Accounts.
2.
Report Server allows reports to be launched from a client workstation and processed on a high-end server; it also provides scheduling capabilities. The Report Designer allows users to create reports by building and combining rows, columns, and reporting trees. Report Designer includes a Report Catalog where report templates can be stored for future processing. Report Launcher enables users to generate reports without modifying the way in which they are designed. The DrillDown Viewer allows any licensed user with network access to view and drill through financial reports that have been generated and stored on the network. The WebPort lets users store, share and view reports in a secured Web environment.
C-2
Chapter 1. Application Overview and Installation
Chapter 1 (continued ...)

3. Processing is performed on a high-end server, improving performance in high-volume situations. Client workstations are free to perform other tasks while reports are processing. Total hardware costs can be reduced since not all users will require a high-end workstation. Total software costs can be minimized since some users can be licensed only for Report Launcher or DrillDown Viewer instead of Report Designer. Reports can be scheduled during off-peak hours. Reports can be assigned processing priority (high, medium, or low). FRx Financial Reporting, FRx Financial Reporting\Sysdata, FRx Financial Reporting\io_data Company Information Select Default, Company Network, User Login False.
4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
C-3
Answer Key
Chapter 2. The Interface

1. 2. True. Add Zoom Buttons on Worksheets displays downward arrows for any field associated with a zoom window. Move Selection after Enter enables the cursor to move to the next logical cell when the Enter key is pressed. Add Row Codes Automatically instructs Report Designer to assign numeric row codes to any rows that are inserted into an existing row format file. True. F1. True. An Report Designer Specification Set is a database that contains the row formats, column layouts, reporting trees, and catalog Ids that are used for a companys reports. Each company can have its own specification set, or several companies can share a single specification set. True. False. False.
3. 4. 5. 6.
7. 8. 9.
10. Processing Options, Admin
C-4
Chapter 3. Row Format Basics
Chapter 3. Row Format Basics

11. True. 12. True. 13. 100 to 160, 100 + 130 + 185 14. False. 15. True. 16. False. 17. True. 18. CS, Print Control 19. True.
C-5
Answer Key
Chapter 4. Column Layout Basics

1. The term Base is relative. It instructs FRx to use the Reporting Period specified in the Catalog when the report is processed. True. Base, specific period # (1,2, etc.),range of periods using either specific periods (1 to 3) or using Base syntax (1 to Base, or Base-2 to Base). True. An Account Filter is a pattern of characters and/or wildcards that defines an account or a group of accounts. An account filter is used to restrict the display of data in the column in which it is entered. True. True.
2. 3.
4. 5.
6. 7.
C-6
Chapter 5. How Rows and Columns Work Together
Chapter 5. How Rows and Columns Work Together

1. B/Base, where B is a GL column and Base is a relative term referring to base rows in the row format flagged with a CBR format code. True. True. True. /Y.
2. 3. 4. 5.
C-7
Answer Key
Chapter 6. The Reporting Tree

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. True. True. True. Roll up. False. True. False.
C-8
Chapter 7. The Catalog of Reports
Chapter 7. The Catalog of Reports

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. True. False. True. True. 150. Rounding Adjustments. True. False. False.
10. True. 11. Additional Text Fields. 12. Catalog of Reports, Reporting Tree, Combination of the Catalog of Reports and the Reporting Tree.
C-9
Answer Key
Chapter 8. Consolidation Techniques

1. 2. 3. False. False. The Master Calendar is the fiscal calendar to be used as the basis of a multi-company report, when the companies have different fiscal year structures. For example, the fiscal year of a parent company would be selected as the master calendar if the fiscal year structures of the subsidiary companies differ from that of the parent. The Company field in the Catalog ID screen should display the company code for the Company with the prevailing fiscal year. ????????
4.
C-10

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FRx for Epicor Basic Training Guide Version 6.

2: The Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1

3: Row Format Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1

4: Column Layout Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1

5: How Rows and Columns Work Together . . . . 5-1

7: The Catalog of Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1

Solution - Column Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-24

A: Report Launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1

B: Account Listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-1

Application Overview and Setup

At the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

FRx for Epicor Overview

FRx for Epicor Overview

Application Overview and Setup

FRx for Epicor Components

FRx for Epicor Components

Application Overview and Setup

The Report Designer

The Report Designer

The Reporting Tree

Figure 1-1 Reporting Trees

Application Overview and Setup

Thin Client vs. Fat Client Installation

Thin Client vs. Fat Client Installation

Application Overview and Setup

Upgrading from an Earlier Version

Files that are Converted

Additional Software Requirements

Report (or File) Server

Application Overview and Setup

Additional Software Requirements

Back Office Database

Client Directories and File Changes

Client Directories and File Changes

FRx Financial Reporting

Points to the SYSDATA Directory Support Files for *. files

Application Overview and Setup

OFSI: The Interface to Platinum ERA

FRx Financial Reporting\Sysdata

FRx Financial Reporting\io_data

Client Directories and File Changes

Other System Changes

Application Overview and Setup

frx.ini (continued ...)

Client Directories and File Changes

Application Overview and Setup

odbc.ini (continued ...)

Profile Files (eBackOffice Implementations)

FX = Frx Financial Reporting\frx32.exe

Client Directories and File Changes

Application Overview and Setup

Registering Your Software

Application Overview and Setup

Company Information Fields

Report Designer Security

Report Designer Security

Application Overview and Setup

Report Designer Security

Application Overview and Setup

Edit Options Window

Selecting the Default Processing Company

Selecting the Default Processing Company

To designate a company as the default company, highlight the company name.