The business intelligence (BI) capabilities built into Microsoft Dynamics GP have been evolving at a very rapid pace of late, and with major releases planned every 6 months now, you can look for that trend to continue. The SP2 release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 included four major BI enhancements, highlighted by the new SmartList Deisgner. The R2 release saw 5 major enhancements, including the ability to have Excel content in Business Analyzer. The latest release, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015, has brought still more BI features.
In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015, Business Analyzer has been updated (R7), and is now available via Windows 8, iOS, and Android. Furthermore, you can now have Management Reporter content in Business Analyzer. Management Reporter navigation integration is now available in Microsoft Dynamics GP. And refreshable Excel Reports can now be created from SmartList Designer.
You can use SmartList to publish a refreshable Microsoft Excel report to the Excel Report Library, as long as the SmartList report was created using an existing SQL Server view. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015 has a new navigation option for the SmartList Designer window, making it easier to open the tool.
To use the new refreshable Excel report feature, you must first set up Excel Reports in your system. Then you just open up SmartList and create a SmartList using an SQL Server view. Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015 comes with hundreds of SQL Server views to choose from, or you can craft your own. When you’ve created your SmartList, click Publish, and you’ve got your refreshable Excel report. It can be stored in your internal system or on a SharePoint site.
