I have created a few reports with parameters that can be changed dynamically from the preview window and had the report layout and contents change appropriately based on parameter values.  The parameter needs to be to Editable as seen below.

This allows you to toggle the display of the parameters using this button in the preview window.

You can set a report up to be optimized for on screen viewing rather than printing and set the page size to be as big you need to.

However, i haven't done much with crystal report's charting and graphics so i can vouch for how robust or capable it is.

Business Insights Explorer views are pretty flexible and also allow some charting so that is something else to consider if you are looking to stay within the sage 100 toolset rather than look at another third party solution.

Dataself has a great analytics tool (for a monthly fee)... and I know Power BI can be used (if you know how).

Visual Cut (3rd party tool) has a feature to use Crystal Reports for generating a self-refreshing web dashboard... but I have not played with it yet.

Hi Futureguard - we're building software that integrates with Sage and makes building interactive dashboards as easy as typing a Google search. For instance, you (and your internal audience for the dashboards) can type queries like "inspections for projects in Texas last month" and get an interactive chart in milliseconds that you can filter and drill-down into.

If this interests you, reach out! [email protected]. Thanks!

Have you tried to interact with Crystal Reports via its COM/OLE automation API?

Fortunately I was able to get VB6 IDE with current Windows common controls to run on Windows 10 and MS Server 2016. Crystal reports is an integrated component with VB6 and a great tool to do what you are hoping for as a custom OCX.

Hi Tom,

Your query based analytics offering looks interesting. I was unable to find any pricing on your site. Does this mean it's open source and free? 

It's neither , but we'd love to have you try it out to get feedback! Can you email me so I can learn more about your needs to determine if we can help? [email protected]. Thanks!

No I haven't. I was hoping to find something easy, down and dirty so to speak. I'm not having much luck unfortunately.

Thanks for your help, Brenda

I'm a developer not a user. 

Is pricing too scary to post?

We're a new startup (that's building as we speak!), so we haven't finalized our pricing. We'd love to learn more about your use-case, so we can ensure we address it in what we're building. Can you email me to schedule a 10min call, or share your email so I can coordinate? Btw, we're all former (or current) developers ourselves, having worked at Amazon for the past 6 years. Thanks!

OLE with Office and Crystal offers a lot of possibilities but not a walk in the park to code.