Chapter 2. Where Is My Data and How Do I Get to It?

Now that we have looked at the latest trends in reporting and have gained an understanding of the many challenges that go along with report development, we are ready to start data gathering and report writing. As any developer or consultant that has been tasked with filling user requests for reports is aware, ultimately the very first question after deciding on the reporting tool is, "Where is my data and how do I get to it?"

Knowing where to begin is a critical first step in the development process. The aim of this chapter is to provide helpful tips for finding and locating data in the Dynamics GP 2013 ERP system and company databases. Although we'll discuss some reporting tools that do not require us to know the SQL database structure for Dynamics GP companies, it is still helpful to understand how GP stores its data.

In this chapter, we will discuss the following: