Publishing info out of Solomon via email

Using Crystal reports:

Recently I saw a statistic that there are 18 billion emails generated each day. Clearly emails are very valuable business and personal tools for quickly communicating. In Solomon, you have the ability to output data so that it can be attached to your email in many ways; including automatically attaching and manually attaching the emailed documents. All of the reports coming out of Solomon are created from Crystal reports. As a standard feature of Crystal, you can export to various formats. The three Crystal export formats that I like and use regularly for email attachments are: Adobe PDF files, HTML files, and Excel files. I have listed these three options in the order which I believe creates the best duplicate image of the original report or output.

· Adobe PDF files maintain the look, feel and form of the original report very well.

· HTML export versions allow an excellent copy of the original report.

· Excel also does an excellent copy of the original, with the understanding that the exported data excludes special function logic such as sub totaling or grand totaling.

To get an exported file from email, I like the option of printing the report to screen (i.e. Print Preview button), then I can select the report to be exported to one of the various formats that come standard with all Solomon reports. When you click the ‘envelop icon with a down arrow’ towards the top / center of your previewed report, it gives you output format choices:

After clicking the Export button, you get:

In the first field, Format, you select the output format you like. I recommend either PDF, HTML, or Excel as my favorite formats for email attachments.

Creating Individual Invoices and Packing Slips for Emailing:

One of the challenges, however, is that the entire report is stored as a single output file. This does not work well when you are printing invoices or packing slips which are going to be routed to different email addresses. Within the Solomon program, the only way I know to get individual documents as separate PDF or HTML files, is to process one at a time. This solution is awkward at best.

I have recently found what appears to be a much better solution. This add-on software package is called: LeadTools ePrint. LeadTools ePrint is an Image/file converter that allows you to convert your images or documents from any Windows application to over 140 file types including searchable PDF, DOC, TIFF, JPEG etc, as easy as printing the file.

This program, which costs about $99, allows you to set up a printer-like device which does the image/file conversion.

(see: http://www.leadtools.com/Utilities/PrinterDriver/eprint_printer_driver.htm)

This program is versatile because you select it just like you would any printer, then execute the printing process. During the middle of the file conversion, the program confirms the name and location of the exported files. In addition, the program allows you to create a separate file for each page of the output, which works well for multi- page invoices and packing slips. Here is an example of a PDF created from this software:

Based on preliminary testing, this software package looks promising; as I explored this project only through the proof of concept stage. With about 1 hour of testing, I was able to easily process multi-page invoices as multiple single page PDF files. There are, however, issues where the standard format for the fields is being lost. You see the fields being concatenated and displaying without proper spacing. I believe that with some Crystal report changes, we can create the PDF output files so that they maintain the desired spacing. Here is another example of a multi-page report, which was created as separate PDF files, and did not have any spacing problems.

I suspect you will be able to find other software print conversion programs which can solve this problem; as well as create modification to the Crystal report so that spacing is maintained. If we can be helpful in solving this problem for your company, give us a call.

Attachments via Solomon Desktop:

Solomon desktop allows remote access to your Solomon data. You are remotely running Internet Explorer, which gives you the ability to log in and run many of the same reports that you could run on your local network. One of the really special features is that you can request, after the processing of the report, that the report be returned to you automatically as an attachment on an email. With Solomon desktop, you can virtually access any screen or report in your Solomon system.

Here is an example of a Solomon desktop screen which can be used to remotely access Solomon reports:

Application Server can email reports:

You can request that your Solomon reports be run at a specific date and time and the report can be emailed to you. In addition, the application server has the ability to accept specific code in an email, which instructs the application program to run the report and email it back to you.

The format of this email is somewhat like old computer job control language. Nevertheless, once you get a working example of the remote job request, it is easy to modify this working example and get the report you want. Here is an example of the steps needed to run remote application server reports:

To submit an Application Server request via e-mail:

1. Establish an Internet connection and start your Web browser.

2. Access the browser's e-mail function to create the Application Server e-mail request.

3. Type Request at Subject (or whatever field title identifies the subject of the

e-mail message).

4. In the body of the e-mail request message, define the Application Server request,

using the following fields and observing the following request submission rules:

User ID:

Password:

Screen:

Description:

Priority:

Template ID:

Parameters:

Company:

[Distribution]

Format:

Notify:

Email:

[Options]

Logging:

Errors:

Processing:

[Screen]

Number:

Data:

Control:

Output:

Emailing Financial reports from FRX:

Financial statements are produced typically by FRx. FRx has the ability to output financial reports to various output formats, including: Xml, Excel, and Lotus, ASCII, and Olap cubes. Any of these exported reports can later be attached to an email. You can take advantage of the built-in email capabilities. Once you generate your reports, you can set up FRx to send the reports via e-mail to a variety of users. You have the option of sending the report as an email attachment or linking it to a shared network directory.

One nice feature of using FRx to email financial reports is you can take advantage of the FRx tree, and establish a separate email address for each branch of the tree. So, in the situation where each branch of a tree may represent a department, you can quickly send FRx reports to each department manager. Alternately, you can establish an address list which is specific to a catalog ID, which allows multiple people to receive the same reports.

There are several FRX add-on products which allow publishing your financial statements to a shared web site. These programs allow authorized users to view the financial reports with either Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. The products are called: Web View and Web Port. The web repository can be either an existing company intranet/extranet or a specially created FRx web repository on the Solomon server.

Another nice feature is that if the report was developed with any drill down capabilities, there will be a URL link which allows this feature to be run from the browser. So, just like running FRx on your workstation and using the drill icon to see the detail account balances for a line on a PL statement, or drilling down to see the transactions which comprised the total being displayed for each account/ sub account; the same functionality exists for the web viewer.

FRx reports can also be included with Solomon desktop screens and reports; which is another way of sharing Solomon data over the internet and viewed with a browser.