All Your D365FO Reporting Options in One Place: Docentric AX vs. ER

In this part of the All your D365FO Reporting options in one place series, we compare Docentric AX to Electronic Reporting (ER) across 5 core reporting elements: Data Source, Format Design, Document Generation, Document Distribution, Configuration & Management. In the introduction video, we outline how the comparison between Docentric AX and ER will be structured.

Data Source

We will compare the data source generation between Docentric AX and ER.

With Docentric you can re-use the ER data source, but you also have a flexibility to re-use the SSRS data source. In both cases you can additionally change the report data source in an extremely efficient, Docentric way of coding for the data sources.
With ER you are limited to using and maintaining only the ER data sources.

Format Design

Watch the videos in this chapter to see several common requirements that you will encounter when designing a report format. They will help you understand how a tool with specialized templating features, like Docentric AX, accelerates and simplifies the process in comparison to a plain MS Word or Excel-based template designer offered in ER.

In the videos, we also show in what way user-friendly Docentric AX boosts your productivity by decreasing the cycle of implementing and testing the modifications.

Adding a field

Conditionally showing the content

Adding a collection of lines

Testing for different languages

Cheque design

Document generation

There are two groups of architectural solutions connected to document generation: in first group document is generated on an external server (in case of SSRS and most of the ISV options), meanwhile in second group, represented by both Docentric and ER, document is generated within D365FO. The second one has many benefits over the first architectural approach, such as security, performance, scalability, as well as a tight integration with standard D365FO processes around posting and printing. It also opens a path for smooth implementation of additional frequently requested document processing features, and Docentric OOTB offers many of them.

🎬 In this video you can see how the user-friendly Docentric setup allows you to configure PDF document encryption and document properties, feature not available in ER.

Document distribution

In ER and in Docentric AX, documents are distributed through different Print destinations. Both solutions offer these 5 print destinations: Archive, Screen, Printer, File and Email.

Watch these videos to understand a comparison of Docentric and ER print destinations capabilities.

Email print destination

File, Printer & Archive print destinations

Emailing improvements

Configuration & management

Through the above chapters, you could see the configuration possibilities in both solutions, Docentric AX and ER. As the most frequently used reports are Print management reports, we are pointing out in the video below that Docentric AX is perfectly integrated with Print management, while also introducing many improvements to it.

Summary

ER was originally created to support the structured data exports, financial reports, or tax-related reporting. On the other hand, Docentric AX was designed and developed with a main objective to empower business users to use a familiar, user-friendly tool, MS Word, to design their business documents. By watching the video below, you will be able to see where Docentric provides clearer benefits.