SAP Crystal Reporting


SAP Crystal Reports

SAP Crystal Reports was an early reporting software created in the 1980s. It was subsequently acquired by BusinessObjects and eventually joined the SAP portfolio when SAP acquired BusinessObjects. SAP has continued to develop the product and has released the latest version SAP Crystal Reports 2020.

SAP Crystal Reports

SAP Crystal Reports was an early reporting software created in the 1980s. It was subsequently acquired by BusinessObjects and eventually joined the SAP portfolio when SAP acquired BusinessObjects. SAP has continued to develop the product and has released the latest version SAP Crystal Reports 2020.

SAP Crystal Reports helps business users analyze data by creating richly formatted, multi-page reports from virtually any data source, delivered in more than a dozen formats. Such formats can be used to generate customer or partner facing assets such as custom invoices, billing statements, letters, sales and operations reports, and promotion campaigns with drag-and-drop interfaces.

While SAP Crystal Reports is marketed to small and medium-sized businesses, it can be an easy reporting tool for enterprises too.

SAP Crystal Reports Benefits

SAP Crystal Reports makes it easy for business users to create reports easily while also ensuring security and access rights. Some of the advantages it provides are:

  • Ability to easily analyze and report on business data by creating intuitive reports and dashboards with drag-and-drop simplicity
  • Security settings for reporting environments by defining user rights to access, view, refresh, export, or print reports
  • Insights to understand business and share the facts to provide ready-to-consume information, as reports and dashboards, to colleagues, suppliers, partners, and customers.

SAP Crystal Reports files are saved with extension “.rpt”

Reporting and analytics are fields where many vendors are coming up with innovations such as pre-built reports, automation, and intuitive user interfaces. Apart from SAP BusinessObjects, Qlik, Pyramid Analytics, and apexanalyticsalso provide rich reporting and analytics capabilities.

While such tools are a boon to business users, there is increasing recognition that what comes out of data depends on data quality. Hence, many SAP companies are embarking on data management projects ranging from master data governance, intelligent data cleansing, enabling data virtualization to analyze data rather than making static copies, etc. This also becomes critical when the security, access control, and compliance requirements come into play.

SAP Crystal Reports is a useful tool in the reporting portfolio for low value reports. However, the demands for analytics in today’s complex data volumes may be better met with more sophisticated solutions.

1111 results

  1. Spotlight: How Mobile Technologies and Analytics Can Streamline Finance Processes

    Published: 01/April/2013

    Reading time: 5 mins

    /MobileAt the Financials 2013 conference in Las Vegas, the topics of mobility and predictive analytics were referred to often in the keynote presentations and in several sessions. To learn more about how finance managers can use these technologies to improve their business processes, I asked Carsten Hilker, solution manager at SAP Labs, to answer some...…

  2. Prepare Your Landscape for the Migration to SAP S/4HANA Finance

    Published: 01/September/2016

    Reading time: 35 mins

    Whether you are already implementing SAP S/4HANA Finance or you are still in the evaluation stage, you need to learn about the architecture considerations before making the move to better prepare your current SAP ERP system for the migration. Sonam Pawar, A speaker at the upcoming SAP Financials 2016 conference in Singapore, answered questions on…

  3. Understand What Role MDX Plays in Third-Party Reporting Tools

    Published: 01/May/2004

    Reading time: 49 mins

    Third-party reporting tools generally use Multidimensional Expression (MDX) to generate reports and query multidimensional data sources in BW. The author explains the features and functions of the technology, the differences between shallow and deep MDX, and how it affects your BW resources.   Multidimensional Expression (MDX) is the industry standard language used to query multidimensional...…

  4. Meet Your EU Compliance Requirements by Enabling Electronic Intrastat Reporting

    Published: 31/August/2009

    Reading time: 24 mins

    Learn how to configure SAP ERP Central Component for identification and transfer of transactions for Intrastat reporting to SAP BusinessObjects Global Trade Services. Then you can set up SAP Electronic Compliance Reporting (SAP ECR) for reporting on goods shipped within and outside the European Union. Key Concept SAP Electronic Compliance Reporting (SAP ECR) is a...…

  5. Deliver Tangible Benefits to Performance and Flexibility with Layered, Scalable Architecture

    Published: 07/November/2011

    Reading time: 14 mins

    Get ahead of industry confusion by learning what Layered, Scalable Architecture (LSA) is and learn how it can improve your systems. Discover how many LSA concepts are familiar techniques with new names. LSA offers many business benefits, the most important of which is a stable foundation on which to grow your systems. Key Concept Layering...…

  6. Real-Time Operational Reporting with SAP HANA Live

    Published: 27/January/2016

    Reading time: 18 mins

    Get an overview of the hundreds of SAP HANA Live (formerly part of the Composite Analytic Framework, or CAF) views that you can use to enable real-time operational reporting and analytics. Using this approach, companies can use standard views directly as data sources for reporting. This approach also enables companies to form an alternative foundation...…

  7. SAP S/4HANA Finance for Group Reporting (On-Premise)

    Published: 02/June/2020

    Reading time: 7 mins

    Integrating financial consolidation tools with SAP S/4HANA source data, ensuring a smooth monthly close, and remaining agile in changing business environments remains a concern for SAP customers. To address these concerns SAP created SAP S/4HANA Finance for group reporting. Initially released in version 1809, the new and improved functionality is available in version 1909. Learn…

  8. From Complexity to Intelligence: Scaling Enterprise AI with SAP Business AI, SAP Databricks, and DXC Technology

    Published: 14/March/2025

    Reading time: 6 mins

    This article discusses how DXC Technology leverages over 30 years of partnership with SAP to help enterprises effectively implement and scale AI solutions, such as SAP Business AI and SAP Databricks, overcoming challenges like data silos and governance issues to drive significant business transformation.

  9. Simplify Segment Reporting with the New General Ledger

    Published: 15/November/2005

    Reading time: 16 mins

    Find out how the new General Ledger (G/L) in mySAP ERP differs from the classic G/L. With its new segment functionality, you do not need to create a Special Purpose Ledger to meet different compliance standards. Key Concept One of the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is to report financial information by line...…

  10. Best Practices for Allowing Power Users to Develop Queries in BW

    Published: 01/March/2004

    Reading time: 30 mins

    More and more businesses now authorize power users to develop queries in the BW production environment. Often the benefits of relying more on power users to create queries outweighs the risks and can even reduce the workload for your BW team. The author examines some of the key issues, policies, and best practices that you...…