Organization Hierarchies -- Management Reporter 2012 Feature Highlight

Organization Hierarchies -- Management Reporter 2012 Feature Highlight


Great video showing how Organizational Hierarchies can be used as trees in Management Reporter 2012

Please note that the video is nothing to do with me and I am simply pointing the reader to this great vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKHGAFa29sM

MR Report stuck in Report queue - startIndex cannot be larger than length of string

Management Report 2012
Trying to generate a report copied over from FRX 6.7 I experienced a problem.  What was happening is that the report would sit there stuck with a status of queued.  Looking in the event viewer application log on the server I saw the following error

System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: startIndex cannot be larger than length of string.
Parameter name: startIndex
   at System.String.InternalSubStringWithChecks(Int32 startIndex, Int32 length, Boolean fAlwaysCopy)
   at Microsoft.Dynamics.Performance.Reporting.Engine.Common.Definition.Row.HandleRelatedRow()
   at Microsoft.Dynamics.Performance.Reporting.Engine.Common.Definition.Row.Load(XElement element)
   at Microsoft.Dynamics.Performance.Reporting.Engine.Common.Definition.RowFormat.DeserializeRows(XElement xElement)
   at Microsoft.Dynamics.Performance.Reporting.Engine.Common.Definition.RowFormat.Load(XElement element)
   at Microsoft.Dynamics.Performance.Reporting.Engine.Common.ComponentKeyedCollection`2.Load(XElement element)
   at Microsoft.Dynamics.Performance.Reporting.Engine.Common.Definition.Load(XElement element)
   at Microsoft.Dynamics.Performance.Reporting.Scheduler.ReportRunner.RunReport(String reportDefinitionXml, Guid repositoryId, Guid generatedByPrincipalId, Guid reportFileId)

No idea so took a smaller sample of the report and this work.  so I slowly added sections of the report until I found the problem.

The error was appearing due to two of the rows in the report contained a tree reference in the Related Formulas/Rows/Units  but had no reference in the Link to Financial Dimensions column
Once I removed the tree reference and changed the rows to be DES  type (so that the client could map the information at a later date), it then worked

MR Different segment labels prevents consolidation reports from working

Management Reporter 2.0 (1664.19) A consolidation report was not working for a report that contained a tree which held three companies.  When the report was run the report, it only brought data back for only two companies. 

Resolution:
The Account Format in Dynamics GP although were correctly setup the labels were different.  We saw the following in the three companies effected.

Company 1 (CMP - NOMINAL - SUB)
Company 2 (CMP - NOMINAL - SUB)
Company 3 (SEGMENT1 - SEGMENT2 - SEGMENT3)

By changing the labels for the account segment for company 3, we were able to extract data for all companies.

MR Number Row Number Format Mask Overriden

Management Reporter 2.0 (1664.19) In the row setup for a report a number format mask was applied to a line which was dividing one row with another.  As a result of generating the report, the percentage did not appear to calculate correctly. 

The column number format mask was overriding the number format mask on the row.  To correct the issue we removed the number format mask on the column and this allowed the row number format mask to work

Missing Fonts causes Management Reporter to crash

Migration from FRX 6.7 to Management Reporter.  Trying to a open a row after a migration it reported an error and crashed Management Reporter
Font FONT NAME cannot be found

To resolve this issue if the fonts could not be installed perform the following:

1. Run the select statement in SQL Management Studio against the ManagementReporter database to find out how many objects are using the font:

Select * from ControlFontStyle where FontName = FONT NAME

2. Perform an update statement to change the rows to a different font such as Arial

UPDATE ControlFontStyle
SET FontName = NEW FONT
WHERE FontName = FONT NAME

Microsoft Reporter Service Pack 2

Management Reporter for Microsoft Dynamics® with Service Pack 2 provides general performance improvements and enhanced functionality for reporting. In addition, the following areas have been improved:


• Data provider updates for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.


• Data provider updates for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and support for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2.


• Improved support for multiple Active Directory® domains.


• Better support for rounding adjustments and adjustment periods.


• Performance improvements for reports with large numbers of transactions, many calculated rows, and Analytical Accounting.


• Improved error handling in report processing


If you have access to Customer Source you can download this with the following link

https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/downloads/servicepacks/msd_managementreporterservicepack2.htm?printpage=false&sid=mwm4nwdaom4ygerwp3k505qp&stext=Management Reporter Service Pack 2

How to Create a Demo Company in Microsoft Management Reporter that Connects to the Fabrikam Company in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010

Describes how to create a sample company in Management Reporter that will connect to the Fabrikam demo company in Microsoft Dynamics Dynamics GP 2010.

See article below

https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/documentation/howtoarticles/msdygp_mr_createdemocompany.htm?p=187 

Management reporter 2.0 and Additional settings Performance issue

I have found another issue whilst working on performance issues at a client and with the assistance of Microsoft have picked it up.

When setting up a company the in Management Reporter 2.0 with or without Feature Pack 1 with the following Additional Options will cause performance issues

Account Category,
User Defined 1,
User Defined 2,
User Defined 3
User Defined 4.

Also do not mark Dynamics GP Financials with Analytical Accounting. Hotfix has been released for Feature pack 1 but I can confirm if this helps with performance issues

Example of performance saving by unmarking the options is as follows for a report with a tree that contains 84 units:

With options marked: 60 minutes
Without options marked: 30 minutes

Management Reporter and future of FRX Reporting 6.7

Management Reporter is the new reporting tool released with Dynamics GP 2010 and will phase out FRx Reporter 6.7. Management Reporter is now in beta Microsoft have functionality lists, plans for future releases, migration guides etc on Customersource and Partnersource

Timeline

MR V2, which will begin releasing with Dynamics GP 2010 and will contain most of the FRx Reporter functions.

MR V3 (Calendar 2012) will contain Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting.

MR V4 (Calendar 2014) will contain Eliminations and Allocations and absorb additional functions from the Enterprise Reporting product



Please note that clients with Microsoft Forecaster 7.0 will not be able to link reports with Management Report until Feature Pack 1 is released. This however will simply introduce an importer to copy data back into Dynamics GP 2010 budgets for reporting. 2014 it will be completely replaced by Management Reporter