Sage ERP MAS Intelligence Module

FRx Replacement Module Produces Reports In The Familiar Excel Interface

When Microsoft announced the retirement of the FRx financial reporting software, which has for many years been included with Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200, Sage began searching for a replacement. Sage ERP MAS Intelligence has been identified as the ideal FRx replacement solution for Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200. It provides powerful and easy-to-use financial reporting, and it can provide business intelligence across your entire system, including SageCRM and Sage Abra.

Power and Familiarity Of Excel

Excel has become the reporting and analysis tool of choice for accountants and executive management, so it made sense to choose a reporting tool for Sage ERP MAS 90 that is based on this familiar interface. Sage ERP MAS Intelligence comes with a selection of report templates to help you quickly and effortlessly produce pre-formatted reports. Then you can simply refine and expand your reports using all the flexibility and power of Excel. Sage ERP MAS Intelligence allows you to spend more time focusing on analysis and less time pulling data together.

Comprehensive Integration

Sage ERP MAS Intelligence is carefully integrated so that it already recognizes the data structures within Sage ERP MAS 90. The software reads your data and automatically knows your fiscal periods, chart of accounts, detail transactions and various types of balances. As a result, you will quickly be able to build your intelligence solution to work the way you do.

Informed Decision Making

The Dashboard Analysis report provides a one-page summary of key business information, featuring Top-N details on customers, items and expenses. View information both textually and graphically to help with daily and long-term planning. In addition, comparative profit and loss figures are displayed for current month and financial year-to-date. You can drill down to get further insight into what makes up the numbers.

Components

Sage ERP MAS Intelligence is organized into several components, similar to that of the FRx system it replaces. The components are Report Manager, Report Viewer, Report Designer and the Connector Module. You can mix and match the components to achieve the level of functionality you require.

Report Manager

At the heart of the system is Report Manager. This is where you create and edit new reports, as well as filter and aggregate data. Here you will find built-in report templates that help you get a quick start using the system. There are templates for financial reports as well as Financial Analysis, Dashboard Analysis, General Ledger Transaction Details, Inventory Status, Vendor Purchases and Customer Sales.

With Report Manager it is a simple matter to create your layout, set multilevel groupings and consolidations, and add formulas where you want them, all using intuitive selection tools. You can even use “what-if” analysis to instantly see the impact on an area of your business by changing a set of values on your reports. Report Manager includes flexible security settings to allow you to set permissions and protect sensitive data from unauthorized access or manipulation.

Report Viewer

Report Viewer licenses are available for staff members who need to run reports, but not create them. A Report Viewer license allows you to view existing reports, including the ability to filter data and change parameters such as date ranges. It also includes the ability to drill-down through existing reports.

Report Designer

You can use Report Designer to author new reports. When you have a Report Designer license you can import data from external sources to be included in your reports.

Connector Module

The Connector Module gives you access to information from multiple data sources and Sage ERP MAS 90 companies. With this module you can produce consolidated financial reports for multiple companies and connect to and report on data from other ODBC-compliant data sources, including Sage Abra.

What’s Included?

The Intelligence module will be available for customers on Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 Version 4.4 and Extended Enterprise Suite Version 1.4. Customers on a current subscription plan will receive, at no charge as a replacement for their FRx license, a one-user license for the Sage ERP MAS Intelligence Report Manager. This license gives you the ability to:

• Author new reports (organize, create, edit), as well as filter and aggregate data based on existing data containers.
• Run, edit and clone the standard report templates, including financial reports, dashboards, financial trend analysis, general ledger, sales, purchases and inventory transactional reports.
• Set security and permissions on all reports.
• Connect to one company database at a time; if running two or more companies, you can redirect the software as needed to access data from your other company codes or purchase an additional Report Manger or a Connector license

Advanced Capability Add-ons

You can purchase the following advanced capabilities to add to the basic Sage ERP MAS Intelligence system:

• Import/Export functionality requires the purchase of a Report Manager license, Designer Module or the Connector Module
• Optional Report Scheduling requires the purchase of an additional Report Manager license, the Designer Module or the Connector Module
• Connections to other types of databases or more than one company database at a time requires the purchase of a Connector Module

Note that because Sage ERP MAS Intelligence utilizes Microsoft Excel, you will need to have Excel 2003 or Excel 2007. In order to run the Report Designer, customers will need Excel 2007.

Sage will not include FRx in the next release of Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 (4.5). Sage will continue support of FRx as part of previous releases, according to the published Supported Versions Policy. Please give us a call with your questions.

Please contact one of our Clifton Gunderson Technology Solutions professionals for all of your business technology needs.

The information contained herein is general in nature and is not intended, and should not be construed, as legal, accounting, or tax advice or opinion provided by Clifton Gunderson LLP to the reader. The reader also is cautioned that this material may not be applicable to, or suitable for, the reader’s specific circumstances or needs, and may require consideration of non-tax and other tax factors if any action is to be contemplated. The reader should contact his or her Clifton Gunderson LLP or other tax professional prior to taking any action based upon this information. Clifton Gunderson LLP assumes no obligation to inform the reader of any changes in tax laws or other factors that could affect the information contained herein.