OK, is anyone else constantly thinking about reporting? Just me? Well in case there are more of you out there – let’s talk reporting in Acumatica.
Acumatica’s out-of-the-box reporting tool is called ARM, or Analytical Report Manager, if you want to use its full name. This native reporting tool is one of the many reasons we love Acumatica (compared to some legacy ERP systems that require an additional add-on tool). Let’s look at a short introduction to ARM and row sets. [This will be an ongoing blog series so be sure to subscribe!]
Setting Up ARM
The first thing to note is that ARM pulls data from two places: the GL History table and the PM History table (if you’re using that). Occasionally, you’ll try to pull a report and won’t see certain data you were looking for – that just means that the batch likely hasn’t posted yet.
ARM is located under the finance module or GL, and the screens that go along with ARM are:
- Report Definitions
- Row Sets (the lines going DOWN the page)
- Column Sets
- Unit Sets
A good way to think about it is that Row Sets and Column Sets MUST be defined (Unit Sets are optional) and the Report Definitions screen is where those all come together.
Once you add reports to your menu you may see them under your financial statements category, but to actually access them and create them, you use the screens listed above. Before we look into ARM more, Acumatica has a cool list of things to remember when creating ARM reports:
Demo Reports in ARM
We can create financial reports from the general ledger, or create project reports from the Project module using those tables in ARM.
We’ll start by looking at report definitions. This way you can see a list of all your reports that are already out there. The way Acumatica is structured is out of the box, there are several reports that start with a D (which stands for “Demo”), and each one has a code in ID and a description or name, and the row set, column set, and unit set that they use are listed right next to them.
Again, with any report, a row set and a column set are required, and a unit set is optional. Unit sets actually take a report and multiply it by a subaccount, company, or branch, etc.
Quick Tip: you can open one of the demo reports, and make a copy of it. That way the original report stays intact if you need to revisit it later.
Building a Report from Scratch in ARM
The very first thing you need to do is create a row set. With row codes you have an ID and a description – write a good specific name in the description. And, whatever you do, DO NOT FORGET TO GIVE THE ROW SET A UNIQUE CODE first. If you start adding lines, get it perfect, then forget to add the code until the very end, you’ll lose everything and won’t be able to save or add to a new row set. You’ll need to start over.
Another good tip: when numbering your lines manually, increment them in large steps than you think you need. The reason for this is that you can’t insert lines later. But, you can add a number code in between previous lines, and upon saving, the lines will be in the order you want. Then simply renumber all the lines later. And the nice thing about that is it will renumber all your formulas, as well.
Hopefully this blog serves as enough to get you started thinking and playing in ARM for Acumatica. Tiffany Bennet recently gave a fantastic Intro to ARM presentation. Below is the intro to that presentation, and the rest can be found on our YouTube channel.
