The business intelligence suite in Sage 500 ERP (formerly "Sage ERP MAS 500") recently received some key enhancements including the ability to create Reporting Trees - an important feature for Sage 500 customers that need to model complex reporting structures and hierarchies. Here’s a look at the new reporting trees and a few other business intelligence features recently added.
REPORTING TREE OVERVIEW
Most organizations have a hierarchical structure in which departments (or other business units) report to one or more higher-level units. In a traditional organizational chart, the lower units on the chart typically report up to increasingly higher units.
With the new Reporting Tree functionality, you can create a visual model of your reporting structure without changing any underlying financial data. Each reporting tree is a collection of reporting units, and each reporting unit can represent an individual department within your general ledger or a higher-level summary of several units. After your new Reporting Tree is set up and saved, simply link it to one or more Report Design layouts saved within your workbook.
OTHER BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ENHANCEMENTS
A number of other enhancements, new features, and resolved issues were added to the Business Intelligence suite with Product Update 3 for Sage 500 ERP including:
- Mapping Tool for Report Designer - a number of enhancements were added, most notably the ability to add and delete Row Reporting Groups directly from the mapping interface.
- New Report Distribution Options - fully automated, unattended report delivery and distribution to a file, ftp site, or email address in a number of standard formats (Excel, PDF, and others).
- Simplified Drill-Down - the process of drilling down to additional detail has been simplified.
- Report Performance Improvements - the underlying process and technology that pulls financial data from Sage 500 into Microsoft Excel is now faster than ever.
- New Self-Guided Tips - useful tips now pop up on the menu when you hover over a button.
Want More Info? Contact us for a copy of the release notes with all the details of the new Business Intelligence enhancements.
