R365 Custom Financial Reports Writer: Initial Setup

This article is part of the R365 Financial Report Writer training. Click here for more information on R365 Financial Report Writer.

The initial setup of the R365 Financial Report Writer requires the following:

1.  Your R365 Sales or CSM representative enables the R365 Financial Report Writer

2.  You submit a request to provision your R365 Database for use with the R365 Financial Report Writer. This process should take no longer than 24 hours from the time the request is submitted

3.  A User with the following Permission sets up Organizational Units for reporting purposes:

   • Administration → System Setup → System Preferences → View/Edit Organization Structure

4.  A User with the following Permissions builds and customizes your financial reports:

   • Reporting → Custom Financial Reports → Reports → Create/Edit Custom Financial Reports

   • Reporting → Custom Financial Reports → Templates → View/Create/Edit/Delete CFR Templates

1. Add Financial Report Writer to your Service Agreement

The R365 Financial Report Writer is an additional service that is added on to your existing service agreement (or included in your service tier). Once you have worked with your R365 Sales or CSM Representative and the R365 Financial Report Writer has been added to your service agreement, the service will be enabled in your R365 database.

2. Database Provisioning

Due to additional data connections and preparation that must take place, the R365 Financial Report Writer is not immediately available for use after it has been activated. A specific Database Provisioning process must be completed before you can use the service. Once your R365 representative has enabled the R365 Financial Report Writer service, navigate to the 'Custom Financial Reports' list page and submit the Database Provisioning request by clicking the 'Provision Database' button (as shown in the image above).

Once a request has been submitted, the page will change to the following:

Each User can click 'Notify Me' to receive an automated email notification once the Database Provisioning process is complete. Please Note: During the Database Provisioning process, you can proceed to complete step #3 and setup your Organization Structure. Step #4 however, cannot be started until the provisioning is complete.

When a notification request has been submitted, the 'Notify Me' button will be replaced with the following screen:

If you have requested the email notification, you will receive the email when the provisioning process is complete. Additionally, this page will disappear and you'll be able to start using the R365 Financial Report Writer.

3. Setup Organization Structure of Custom Financial Reports

After your Database Provisioning request has been submitted, you can start this step. It is not required that your provisioning be completed to complete this step.

The R365 Financial Report Writer allows you additional reporting capabilities through the creation of your own custom Organization Structure, meaning you will create your desired organizational hierarchy for reporting purposes. Unlike the default Organizational hierarchy that exists throughout R365 (as well as in My Reports), you now have the ability to modify that structure, using Location Reporting Categories, for use in your Custom Financial Reports.

Please refer to the following article for specific instructions on Setting up Your Organization Structure.

4. Build Your Reports

Example Reports

R365 Financial Report Writer comes with several example reports that are built based on the National Restaurant Associations recommended Chart of Accounts. These reports are included 'out of the box' and can be used with your existing General Ledger, assuming it uses similar GL Account blocking structures as the National Restaurant Association's recommended COA, namely the following: 

• Assets: 1000 - 1999

• Liabilities: 2000 - 2999

• Equity: 3000 - 3999

• Sales: 4000 - 4999

• Food Costs: 5000 - 5999

• Labor Costs: 6000 - 6999

• Operating Expenses: 7000 - 7999

• Non-Controllable Expenses: 8000 - 8999

• Corporate Overhead & Other: 9000 - 9999

If your General Ledger does not follow these blocking structures, the example reports will likely not work for you without modifications. They will still however hold value as you can review their layout and structure and build your own reports off of their examples.

Building Reports

The R365 Financial Report Writer allows you to build reports from scratch, or start from an existing report. Within the Custom Financial Reports list you will find both 'Reports' and 'Templates'. Click here for more information on building reports in the R365 Financial Report Writer.

Once you have completed these steps, you are ready to start using your Custom Financial Reports created using the R365 Financial Report Writer!