Consulting and Upgrades
Confused by exactly what Sage Intelligence report writing components are included with your Sage 100 maintenance? You’re not the only one. We’ve received calls from a number of customers in the process of researching FRX financial reporting alternatives.
One great option is to use the included Sage Intelligence reporting, a portion of which every Sage 100 customer on maintenance has access to.
I just ran into an issue with Sage 100 v2013 and FRX. The customer was using Terminal Service / Citrix for each user. Some users would be able to access FRx however when they printed the report there was no report preview. The previewer was blank ( or appeared to have “ hung “ ).
The fix in this issue was somewhat straightforward and it was all related to a set of local files that each user has stored in their profile as described below.
Search for drildown.ini (NOTE: One l in drildown ) on the local machine.
Open this file in Notepad, and check the AppSize setting. BE CAREFUL making changes in this file as you can cause more problems than you’re trying to fix…but try setting the AppSize to say AppSize=0/0/640/464.
Note: The AppSize appears to be set dynamically by FRx. I observed that when I logged into the system the numbers would change. The above numbers seem to be a good startign point (0/0//640/464).
Location of this file (Note: Change out {insertusername} for the name of the user on the PC)
C:\Users\{insertusername|\AppData\Local\FRx Software\FRx 6.7 folder
Applied fix and it worked.
In a Terminal Server / Citrix environment the two key files (stored under local profiles):
If there is something wrong in either I found that it can cause FRx not to launch although you may get the prompt to login. Once you login you see the FRx Desktop on the taskbar but no program launches as you might expect.
If you have a user that can start FRx in a TS/Citrix environment, and another who cannot. Try taking a copy of the above files from the profile that’s working ( C:\Users\{insertusername|\AppData\Local\FRx Software\FRx 6.7 folder ) and moving it to the profile of the user where FRx won’t start.
Be sure you backup any file you change — BEFORE you change it. And remember, FRx is no longer supported so you should really look at migrating to another of the recommended reporting tools:
Email me at wayne@s-consult.com or text 860-516-8990 and I can get you information on alternatives to FRx or provide a price on helping you make the switch.
Looking for a replacement for your Sage 100 ERP FRX Financial Report Writer? We think you have two great options.
The first option that we’ll look at on August 7, 2013 is a solution from Renovo FYI which is best suited for users who are happy with the reporting that they receive from FRX and have little desire to expand that reporting (for example – to other non-financial files such as customers, vendors, inventory).
Renovo FYI offers an interface which is very similar to FRX and the company even offers direct data conversion of most FRX files for a low fee (a BIG plus for companies with lots of layouts that they don’t wish to re-create).
Renovofyi offers the following benefits:
Join us August 7, 2013 at 9am PT / 10am MDT / 12pm ET for a one hour demonstration of the Renovo FYI reporting tool – Register Now
Sage 100 ERP 2013 was released during December 2012 and marks the last release for which Sage have indicated the popular FRX Financial Report Writer will be guaranteed to interact with your Sage 100 ERP financial data.
You may recall that Microsoft owned FRX and made a decision to stop development and sales of the product with the final support cutoff date being December 2012. While most users of FRX continue to use the product without interruption – there is no guarantee that a future release of Sage 100 ERP will remain compatible with FRX.
For this reason I think it’s time for FRX users to start researching the top alternatives and prepare to migrate your financial reporting.
The easiest and least costly way to migrate your data would be to begin using the standard financial statements included with Sage 100 ERP General Ledger. If you can make use of these “canned” statements then you can bypass any additional expenditure of time and money.
Realizing that most companies may not want to step back to less capable financial reporting – one other alternative is RenovoFYI.
RenovoFYI claims that they can convert FRX data (pricing starts at $800) with about a 90% accuracy rate. Their licensing for a single user version starts at $2,000 (one user / one data company) with a two user / ten data company version starting at $ 5,500.
Ongoing software maintenance is 20% for silver support and is added to the above costs and invoiced annually thereafter by RenovoFYI.
The company will take your FRX data (rows, columns, trees) and convert them and return the data to you. They also can install and train on RenovoFYI remotely for an added cost.
The program runs in a web browser and requires a SQL database (SQL Express supported).
Here’s a quick overview of the look and feel of RenovoFYI
As more customers have adopted 64 bit operating systems they’ve found that one of their core financial reporting tools – FRX – has refused to install. Even though Microsoft will stop the support and upgrades for FRX on December 31, 2012 the product is for all purposes already a lame duck.
If you’ve recently updated workstations and tried to load FRX for your Sage 100 ERP (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 or 200) you may have found that you can load the FRX just fine but when you go to print the report you receive an error “Unable to process this output request for the following reason: C:\Windows\System32\Msxml.dll could not be found…”.
If you follow the suggestion and try to register the msxml.dll in the System32 you’ll receive a failure message.
The solution for most people has been to copy the DLL into the sysWOW64 and then use RegSRV32 to register it from that folder.
Double check the msxml DLL version as the one which has reportedly been working for most people is 8.0.5226. If you check the DLL version on your computer and it’s earlier than 8.0.5226 then try downloading and installing service pack 11 for FRX for Sage 100 ERP.
Version(s): 4.x
Problem / Description:
FRX version 6.5+ will not usually install on 64 bit Windows OS. An error message may occur when trying to register msxml.dll from the System32 (as the Sage KB directs)
Resolution:
NOTE: Installing the below fix (registering MSXML) appears to get the FRX system running. Makie sure you have the latest FRX SP 11.
A. Install and register the 64 bit (put this in syswow64) using Regsvr (see attached file) v8.0.5226
After registering (used Regsvr32) I received:
“Runtime error -2147220503( 800403E9) fatal error language database (path)/FRxXML4.dll not found” when launching FRx
Resolution:
Register the .DLL files on the workstation.
In Window’s Explorer, go to the FRx program file directory.
Double-click on FRxReg.exe.
Date Created: 8/27/12
Created By: Wayne Schulz
Source: SC
Updated:
Source: 90 Minds Consulting Group
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