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Which SAP Business One reporting options are right for my business?

SAP Business One offers several reporting options – standard reports, drill down to source transaction, SAP Drag and Relate, SAP Reporting Dashboards, Crystal Reporting, Excel Pivot Tables, BI on Demand, SAP Query Manager / SAP Query Generator and SAP Analytics powered by HANA. The question most SAP Business One customers and prospective customers ask is which of these SAP reporting tools is right for my business.

It has been the experience of the SAP Business One Reporting team at Leverage Technologies that there is no right or wrong answer with regards to reporting. When deciding on a reporting platform SAP Business One customers have to take into account several questions – requirements, mobile access, remote offices, the volume of data, static Vs dynamic reporting, on-screen or printed reports and budget (how much do I have to spend).

The good news is that the team at SAP has delivered several SAP Business One reporting options. Let’s explore each reporting tool in more detail:

SAP Business One standard reports – each area of functionality in SAP Business One offers standard pre-delivered reports (profit and loss, balance sheet, sales analysis, purchase analysis, inventory analysis, and financial comparison reports). Most of these reports offer multiple criteria (date range, customer/customer group, project, division and properties).
Drill down to source transaction – SAP Business One offers multiple drills down / drill around capabilities enabling a user to drill down from summary on-screen information to the source transaction. This functionality enables the user to get quick easy access to information – great if you are on the phone to a customer or supplier. Let’s not forget that with a quick click of the mouse you can also access gross profit, last prices and other information.
Drag and relate – is built into SAP Business One Reporting. Drag and Relate allows users to drag a customer code over the required information (for example invoices or deliveries) and get instant access to on-screen reports of the applicable information. See below for a demo on SAP Business One Drag and Relate. Also available on the LeverageTech YouTube channel.

SAP Dashboards – access your KPI’s and user-specific reporting in graphical easy to understand dashboards. SAP offers several standard dashboards (cash flow, financials, purchases, sales and service).
Crystal Reporting – SAP Business One has several embedded Crystal Reports (for example the bank reconciliation report with drill down to source transaction). Users can write their own Crystal Reports or have their SAP Business One partner write reports on their behalf. If users want to write their own reports you will need to make sure that you have the correct SAP Crystal Reporting licenses. Once written the SAP Crystal Reports can be included on the SAP Business One menu making reports easy to access.
Excel Pivot Tables – a potentially powerful reporting tool using technology that we are all familiar with – Microsoft Excel. Create pivot tables and have them refresh from SAP Business One data at the push of a button. Use the pivot tables and/or the Excel Slicer to slice and dice the information that you want – analytics at a very low cost of ownership.
BI on Demand – enables users to load and create dashboards and graphical reports in the cloud. SAP provides the infrastructure – you provide the data.
SAP Business One Query Manager and Query Generator – using these great SAP Business One reporting tools users can quickly create their own queries. SAP has made life a lot easier for users to create their own reports by providing access to table and field names using the “system information” functionality. Reports can include drill-down and graphical representations. See below for a demo on SAP Business One Query Manager. Also available on the LeverageTech YouTube channel.

SAP Analytics / SAP HANA – SAP Business One analytics brings data and information sources from remote databases into local memory, providing better quality analytics – faster and real-time access to transactional data. Perform multi-dimensional analysis on your SAP Business One data.

What we can see is that the team at SAP has provided SAP Partners and Customers with a range of different reporting options. In most instances, customers will use a combination of reporting options – dashboards for KPI management, standard reports for quick/on-screen analysis, Crystal Reports for the board pack reporting and analytics for multi-dimensional reporting analysis. The great news is that you can decide which reporting tools are right for your business.

SAP Business One Implementations – ensuring success

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SAP Business One implementation success – eight steps to help you achieve your implementation goals:

Choose an SAP Business One partner who has experience in your industry. One of the great things about SAP Business One is that the solution is widely used and supported. When selecting an SAP Business One partner for your SAP Business One implementation and support make sure that they understand your industry. Previous implementation experience in your industry is a huge advantage. SAP Business One is a highly configurable solution which has been successfully implemented in a range of different industries. Implementing SAP Business One in a project based business is very different to implementing for a distribution business. Previous experience counts.
Scope of works – make sure that you complete a comprehensive scope of works before the configuration begins. “Measure twice – cut once”. The highly configurable nature of SAP Business One is one of the products great strengths. Make sure that you know what you want from your implementation, what the functional requirements are and any reporting requirements BEFORE the configuration begins.
Ensure comprehensive end user training – this might appear obvious but is sadly often overlooked during an implementation.
Board room pilot –the board room pilot and user acceptance testing gives users, management and your implementation partner a chance to use SAP Business One in a test environment prior to going live. What is critical but often overlooked is a test plan…..what needs to be tested and by whom. Business critical functional requirements – printing invoices, receiving stock, placing purchase orders – must all be tested as part of the plan.
Adequate testing of data – this is absolutely critical and a major trap for inexperienced implementers of software. SAP Business One offers some great implementation tools to assist with data conversion – the Data Transfer Workbench is one such example. But at the end of the day your SAP Business One implementation partner can only import the data that you supply…….so make sure that you export the data that you want from your old system, clean the data, test that you have exported the right data in the right formats and then test the data upgrade into SAP Business One. Checks and reconciliations are required.
Realistic go live date – from the time you place your order for SAP Business One until go live date there is a lot of exciting work to be done – both by your internal team and your SAP Business One implementation partner. Your internal team will have to dedicate time to workshops / discussions re. required functionality, user acceptance testing and data conversation assistance. Make sure that you give users enough time to be involved in the implementation and at the same time have time to do their day to day job.
Integration and development work – no two companies are the same so using the SAP Business One SDK (Software Development Kit) offers great flexibility – you can develop your own applications, integrate to third party applications and choose form several hundred SAP complimentary solutions. Make sure that any development and or integration work is thoroughly tested.
Manage change – even small SAP Business One projects require some level of change management. SAP Business One offers a fantastic opportunity to take advantage of market leading functionality, dashboards, reporting, analytics and mobility. Ask users to explore this new functionality. Take advantage of the full breadth of functionality available in SAP Business One by encouraging users to change the information that they request and get out of your new business management software – challenge the way you previously did things – manage the change with users.

SAP Business One – Improving Cash Flow

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When you are asked to increase the available capital at your business, are you able to quickly identify options to increase profits, reduce expenses, and otherwise generate cash flow?

Many business managers and owners struggle to answer when this question is posed to them. However, those who use SAP Business One are able to quickly identify at least 5 ways in which to improve cash flow. What are some of their options?

Explore sales activities to eliminate ineffective marketing campaigns, identify loyal customers, and identify which customer demographic has the most potential for growth – then tailor sales activities accordingly.
Identify financial waste that’s the result of inventory considerations – then develop a strategy for more just in time production, choosing better warehousing options, or eliminating products that are not selling well.
Assess purchasing decisions and supplier relationships to evaluate potential areas for savings such as renegotiating terms of sale, working with another closer supplier, or lowering the quantities associated with minimum requirements.
Eliminate time spent in meetings by ensuring that everyone who needs to access key business data is able to do so, even when they’re on the road.
Identify areas in which operational expenses could be reduced, either by eliminating overtime or more clearly defining the roles of key staff members.

Of course, all of these are just starting points. SAP Business One also enables businesses to reduce IT costs – both by using a single system to access all business data and through the ease of expanding the system as business needs change, simply by adding additional modules to the system.

SAP Business One gives small to medium sized businesses a competitive edge by making it possible to access all of the same data as the bigger players in their industries. Whether you’re looking for simple solutions that allow you to increase cash flow quickly or you hope to identify areas where significant changes could greatly improve your company’s bottom line, we offer the options you need.

SAP Business One – iPhone / iPad app – v 1.6.0

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Following on from the hugely successful launch of the SAP Business One iPhone and iPad applications SAP has now released Version 1.6.0. New functions and features (compatible with SAP Business One 8.82 – released in March 2012) include :

creation of sales order / sales quotation
handling of service calls

The SAP Business One app allows you to interact anytime and anywhere with SAP Business One. Easy to navigate, see data graphically represented and in real time with changes automatically updated to the SAP Business One backend.

A recap of some of the functions and features available include:

Alerts and approvals – get alerts on specific events such as deviations from approved discounts. Prices or credit limits. View and complete approval requests with drill down to relevant information.
Drive sales activities – create and view sales opportunities, sales quotations and sales orders. Get access to customer information including contact person, address and activities.
Service contracts – view details of service contracts and customer equipment cards by entering an items serial number. Process service calls from picking up to closing a service call.
Reports and dashboards – use built in Crystal Reports to present key business information, add customised reports and view key business data in interactive dashboards.
Manage business partner information – view business partner details, create new customers, suppliers and leads. Log new activities.
Monitor inventory and product data – monitor stock levels, get detailed product information and find detailed inventory information by warehouse.

Thanks for reading – I hope you enjoy the blog and I trust that you will find the SAP Business One iPhone / iPad app very useful – the team at Leverage use the app every day.

Download the app today.

SAP Business One 8.82

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Great news – SAP Business One 8.82 is now in general release. New functions and features include :

Enhancements to the payment wizard
Marketing campaign management
Master Data Enhancements
MRP Enhancements
Dashboard updates

Enhancements to the payment wizard :

SAP Business One 8.82 enables you to use the payment wizard in a simpler way, and with more incorporated functions. Using the enhanced payment wizard function, you can now:

Define all selection criteria in the payment wizard. Note that the Payment Run Defaults – Setup window was removed.
Define payment methods in a simpler and clearer way
Handle bank charges in the payment wizard
Define projects for transactions
Sort and find transactions
Refresh the recommendation report
Simulate a payment summary before execution

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Marketing campaign management :

SAP Business One allows you to create, maintain, and analyze your marketing event information using the campaign management function. You can manage a promotional campaign by:

Creating and maintaining target groups
Creating a campaign using the Campaign Generation Wizard
Managing the campaign data
Generating leads and sales opportunities directly from a campaign
Analyzing campaigns based on the Campaign List report

Master Data Enhancements

Master data cleanup :

SAP Business One 8.82, master data cleanup provides administrators and power users an easy way to remove or deactivate master data that is not required anymore for the operations of the company. It provides also a log for the batch removal and deactivation process. With this enhancement, users are able to clear a range of high-volume used master data, including items, business partners, G/L accounts, projects, profit centers, and distribution rules, either by physically removing the master data or by deactivating it, without compromising the business logic integrity.

BP and Item Master Data Series:

The master data series permits users to define number series for customer, vendor and item master data. Assisting in auto-assignment of master data numbers during creation, results in higher efficiency in maintaining, tracing and managing master data records.

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MRP Enhancements : The Material Requirements Planning (MRP) module has been enhanced in the following ways:

MRP Wizard:

More document data sources for MRP calculation (for example, blanket agreements, recurring transactions, inventory transfer requests, and so on) and provision of flexible document selection
Significantly enhanced item and warehouse selection in the MRP run
Provision of extended control of item planning data when executing the MRP run
Expanded inventory level fulfillment options (maximum and required)
Enabled historical planning
Enabled automatic lead time calculation
Added future data display and calculation
Enhanced the wizard result display and recommendation report

Order Recommendations Report:

Enabled right-click menus for reports, which lets you investigate the item before you issue the recommended document
Enabled the option to select purchase quotations to be created instead of the recommended order
Enabled alerts for the recommendations

Inventory Transfer Request:

Inventory transfer request is a new document introduced into SAP Business One 8.82. You can now define inventory transfer request as an MRP recommendation type. This way, MRP will recommend inventory transfer between warehouses before recommending purchase orders or production orders.

Week Numbering:

Three options to calculate week numbering are provided in the Holiday Dates window. Your definition here will impact the presentation of MRP recommendations and forecasts based on weeks.

Forecast:

Enhanced the item selection methods
Enabled forecast generation based on sales history
Provided Scale up/down

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Dashboard updates

New dashboard parameters:

SAP Business One 8.82 allows you define and modify parameter sets for dashboards using the Dashboard Parameters window. You can create and maintain parameter sets in this window.

The following parameter set types are supported:

Single
Quarterly
Monthly
Multiple

New dashboards – cash flow forecast, purchase orders dashboard and purchase quotations dashboard.

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To take advantage of these great new functions and features give the team at Leverage a call on 1300 045 046 or email us [email protected].

Thanks to the team at SAP for a great new release of product.

SAP Business One – Stocktake

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Every organisation with inventory would be required to have at least a stock take once a year. In this blog, we will step through the process of how to perform a stocktake in SAP Business One.
The process of a stocktake is as follows:
1. Print out the stock status from the system
2. Perform the physical count of the items and record the quantities found
4. Record the quantity of each item into the system
5. If variances occur, post the stock difference.
In SAP Business One:
Select [Initial Quantities, Stocktaking and Stock Posting] from the [Stock Management]->[Stock Transactions]

Select the [Stocktaking] tab.

You can further refine the stock take process by selecting:-
– A range of item codes by entering the item codes in the {From} and {To} fields
– Selected suppliers by entering the supplier code in the {From} and {To} fields
– An item group
– A range of item properties
If nothing has been selected, it will select all item codes.
The stocktaking screen will appear.

You can show the quantity of each item by un-checking the “Hide Quantity Stored” check box.

PERFORMING THE STOCKTAKE

In this example, I will be taking a select list of items only (One increase in stock, no changes and one decrease in stock).

Enter the quantity of the stock counted (total amount for that particular stock item)

In the above example:

Item A00001 has increased from 866 to 870

Item A00002 has not changed

Item A00003 has decreased from 980 to 970

Do note that the [Hide Quantity Stored] check box has been “unticked” to display the Stock in the Warehouse. Also notice that once you have entered the new quantity of the stock, the [Counted] check box is automatically ticked.

Continue to enter all of the items that have been counted into this screen.

Once you have entered all counted items, click on the [Update] button

Ensure that the correct warehouse has been selected and the {Price Source for Whse Stock Posting}

Enter some Reference and Details and note the GL Accounts the differences are being posted to.

Thanks to Clement and the team at Leverage for this blog.

SAP Business One – Crystal Reports Drill Down to Source Transaction

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In this blog we will look at functionality in Crystal Reports 2008 which allows the creation of the well-known yellow “drill down” arrows that can be found in SAP business one and that makes navigation between different areas in SAP so easy.When developing the SAP Business One Crystal Report the areas where navigation to source transaction is required are linked to the hyperlink arrows.

As can be seen from the example below three different areas in this report has been linked.

They are:

The sales order number
The business partner code
The item code

SAP Business One 8.8 Crystal Reports Drill Down

Clicking on sales order arrow 105, will take you into the SAP Business One sales order.

Clicking on business partner C60000, will take you into the relevant SAP Business One business partner.

As displayed (above) multiple links can be created to enable the user to drill down to source data. This eliminates writing down sales order numbers, business partner codes or item codes and then having to search for them in SAP Business One.This functionality also works from drill down and conditional displays on Crystal reports.

Drill down

A drill down report if so developed, would not show the hyperlink until a certain level of drill down in the report has been reached.

Conditional display

These hyperlinks would only display and allow the user to make use of it once a pre-defined condition has been met. For example: On a sales report, provide a hyperlink to customers that have purchased a specific product during the month.

This functionality can enhance any existing Crystal report and assist the user to navigate quickly and effortlessly to the relevant data in SAP Business One. The options are almost infinite.

Thanks to Burger and the SAP Business One Crystal Reporting team at Leverage Technologies for this blog.