Prior to becoming a consultant, I was a CFO for an international manufacturing and distribution company. As a result, whenever I look at a potential solution, I tend to look at it from the perspective of the end-user. The questions I ask is “will this product provide me with the information I need to make my job more efficient and cost effective?” “Does it truly leverage technology in such a way that it provides me access to relevant information easily?” When it comes to Sage Intelligence, the answer to those questions is a resounding YES. Below, I’ve detailed how Sage intelligence can assist any organization in obtaining real time access to relevant information from your Sage 300 ERP.
In summary, Sage Intelligence is a simple, flexible reporting solution that gives you meaningful insights into your business information, on the go. Available in the cloud as well as on-premise for Sage Accounting, Business Management and payroll solutions, Sage Intelligence empowers you with immediate access to ready-to-use reports and dashboards that offer instant insights into the business without having to leave your Sage solution.
It is important to point out is that out of the box, all output from Sage 300 utilizes Crystal Reports. This is a very powerful reporting solution that is used to provide all of your transaction and analysis reports, and even all forms such as checks, Invoices, Confirmations, picking slips, (etc.). As powerful as Crystal Reports is, it’s limitation is that it is a static reporting solution. Meaning, when crystal provides output, that output cannot be sorted or filtered. In other words, what you see is what you get. If you want to see the information differently, you either have to modify the report or change your parameters and filters and run the report again.
With Sage intelligence you get true Dynamic Reporting. Meaning when you run an Intelligence report, you can then filter, sort, pivot, and analyze that output in real time.
Because of the design of Sage Intelligence combined with Excel tools, the applications are extensive. Some of these applications include:
As mentioned earlier, Sage Intelligences comes with pre-loaded reports. Those reports can then be copied and modified as needed. Types of preloaded reports include Dashboards, Financial Trend analysis, GL transaction details, Sales, inventory status, purchases, and many financial statement formats including balance sheets, income statements, and cashflow statements.
In addition, Sage 300 provides access to the Sage intelligence report utility. This utility provides an extensive library of additional reports covering all of the Sage modules including A/R, A/P, O/E, I/C, P/O, and Project and job costing to name a few.
With these tools and resources, it is easy to see that with Sage Intelligence you can create any form of reporting, analysis, or dashboards based on any database, module, or combination of databases and modules. Below is an example of a sales dashboard we created showing data for shipping, inventory receipts, receiving status. Using Excel tools we added filters so the user can filter on any one or combination of years and fiscal periods which will update the data and graphics in real time. Data is coming from multiple database tables, and even non sage excel files:
Another feature of Sage intelligence is the ability to automate distribution of any intelligence report. You also have the ability to send these workbooks with static values along with embedded formulas. This provides flexibility, as recipients can determine how results were drived, view data based on other parameters and identify changes that need to be made to achieve desired results. Once setup, reports can be scheduled to send out on regular intervals via task scheduler
So if you are using Sage 300 and have not taken advantage of this power reporting solutions and would like more information, please contact us. We would be more than happy to answer any questions and provide a demonstration.
