Working with Management Reporter in Dynamics GP vs. Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

With Microsoft launching its newest Dynamics ERP system, Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, many of you may be wondering what financial statement application they will be using on the back end. The good news for those looking to switch from Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations is that Operations will also be using Management Reporter (MR). For those who are familiar with designing reports in MR, the core functionality is exactly same, but there are some things that have changed. At first glance of MR in Operations, you will not see any differences from the MR you are used to. As you begin to dive deep into the settings and options you will begin to see some subtle differences.

Here are 9 things that are different between MR for Dynamics GP and MR for Dynamics 365 Operations:

1. In the past, you could launch MR as its own separate application. Now you will see reports directly in Operations in a similar manner to viewing the report definitions in the left pane of MR. To launch MR from Ops, you can click New, or you can select a report and choose the Edit option.

2. Tools>Options – Several options no longer exist in Operations, including the option to choose what default report viewer application it launches reports in. By default, the reports now launch and open into Dynamics 365. There are two other default settings for what Library the reports will be sent to and any report link locations can no longer be specified.

Dynamics GP

Dynamics 365 F&O

3. On the Output and Distribution tab of reports, the report output locations are no longer there since we don’t have these options anymore, and several XPS options are also no longer available. The only remaining XPS option in Operations is the Include row and column page breaks.

Dynamics GP

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

4. Two new Date and time AutoText exist for the Headers and Footers tab, Report generated date and Report generated time.

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

5. On the Settings tab and in the Options section, they have removed the Page Setup tab that allwed for defining the page layout and margin settings.

Dynamics GP

6. Column options have been removed and added in Operations. They have removed the XBLR Currency and XBRL Dimensions options, and they have added a Line Numbers display option.

Dynamics GP

Dynamics 365 F&O

7. Two column types have been removed and 1 new column type has been added. They have removed the XBRL ELEMENT (XBRL Element from Rows) and the WKS (Amounts from external worksheet) column types and added the

Dynamics GP

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

8. Several Tree related columns have been removed. The Worksheet Link, Workbook or Report Path, Worksheet Name, and XBRL Dimension columns have all been removed in Operations.

Dynamics GP

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

9. With the libraries option no longer existing, there is no longer the tool for Report Library Permissions.