Automatically generate sheets with tree in Report Designer Add-in

I know this question has been raised many times, and seem to recall that there is an enhancement coming to do this.  Could someone please confirm that it's a feature that will be added soon?  And if so, how soon?   As a Sage 500 partner, I know it will come later than for 100/300.   So I hope folks in the 100/300 world can tell me if this feature is coming and when.

Current tree functionality in RDA -

1. Build a report template

2. Copy that sheet, then drag and drop another tree unit to it

3. Repeat until you have all the tree units covered.

Problems with this -

1. Very tedious if you have many units on the tree (many of our clients have hundreds)

2. Performance hits when you have a huge workbook with hundreds of tabs

3. Inflexibility if you need to modify the template layout or add a tree unit in the middle

Ideal Solution that I am hoping/dreaming will be added soon

A function/macro/add-in to automatically generate sheets based on the template and tree selection.    With this, one will never have to do steps 2 and 3 above.   Instead, they will build and maintain the template, then have SI automatically generate copies of that template for different reporting units.   Essentially, how FRx works.   Can SI get to that point?

Thanks!

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    Yes, of course I selected multiple worksheets/tabs that need to be distributed.     SI creates a PDF for every sheet/tab.

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    Hi John

    The focus for Sage Intelligence Reporting for FY16 will be to deliver customer value through additional prebuilt reports for our Sage Intelligence Reporting on premise products, beyond the out-the-box reports, delivered through the Report Utility.  We will support all of our Sage colleagues with their product releases (including new environments  - Windows 10, Office 2016 etc.) and with critical bug fixes.

    At the same time, Sage Intelligence Reporting Cloud will be reimagined to delight customers who make the move to the cloud. Exciting new features will be built into our cloud (or hybrid) products.

     

    Based on this strategy, this functionality is currently being  developed to our cloud based product, with Sage X3 receiving this functionality by next year already.   When running the report, the user will be able to select which reporting trees to run for (multi select is possible) and multiple copies of the same report will be generated based on the reporting tree selection.   You will also be able to create your reporting tree and apply it to multiple layout already available.  

     

    We  currently have a few cloud based integrations in the pipeline.   We are aiming to get the functionality out to all our partners who have a cloud based product during the course of next year where possible.

    Regards

    Karlien

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    Hi Karlien,

    I am very happy to hear about this.   A couple of questions -

    1. When might the Cloud version be available to Sage 500 customers?

    2. How is the "Cloud" version different from the current RDA Excel version?  Is it web-based?

    Thanks!

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    Thanks Peter, but the "Generate Output file" option on Report Manager only does .xls, at least for the Sage 500 version (we still only have the one with tiny icons).

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    Peter, you are brilliant and I spoke too soon -  that actually worked - even though .xls is the only type available, if I type in a file name with .pdf extension, it actually does generate a pdf file with all the tabs' reports in one file!

    Do you know where I can get the SMTP mail addin?

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    Hi

    We have not received any update from Sage 500 with regards to their plans to more into the cloud space.  That unfortunately, will have to be taken up with them.

    The cloud version is web based yes. The 'Layout Generator' found in the desktop has been reimagined in the cloud based products to be a web based enhanced drag and drop functionality where you are able to create and assign reporting trees to layouts.

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    I don't think Sage 500 as a product will ever move into cloud space as a web product.  Are you saying that the underlying ERP must be cloud/web-based to use the SI cloud version?  It would seem to make sense for SI cloud to continue to work through the SQL backend regardless of how the underlying ERP works.

    I really appreciate your updates and would love to hear more details about how this works.

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    Hi John

    For cloud based products, data is received through an API, there is thus not a connector module that hooks up directly to the SQL database as more often that not that database sits on a virtual environment the users machine can not access.

    Our cloud based product, Sage Intelligence Reporting Cloud (SIRC), is a brand new product. It does not contain all the features you are use to in the SIR product but has an ever growing set of features, the latest being developed is the Report Designer with Reporting Trees I mentioned above.

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    Ok, sounds like SIRC may never be available for Sage 500 then. So what's the plan for the SIR as we know it?  Is it going to be retired and deprecated at some point, once the SIRC product is ready?   Or will both products be maintained and updated?  

    If SIR will still be around for the long haul, will it ever see this feature with reporting trees?

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    Hi.

    For this financial year at least our focus is getting our cloud product up to the same high standards of our desktop product.

    That is however not to say we will never improve the desktop again. But  when will be based on our strategy next year and customer demand.