Third-Party Software

In addition to the useful products available from Crystal Decisions (www.crystaldecisions.com), you can also find third-party software products that will enhance your report development and delivery capabilities.

The following products are some of the better products available today. All are available from their vendor's web sites, both in trial and full versions.

The Fiscal Calendar UFL

Fiscal Calendar UFL is a Visual Basic-developed User Function Library that contains functions for determining the fiscal year, quarter, month, and week that a date falls into. It can be used with Visual Basic, MS Access, ASP, MS Excel, and MS Word, just like any other COM object. Fiscal Calendar UFL is provided by Tatum Consulting (www.tatumconsulting.com).

CRW Reporting

Another excellent product provided by Tatum Consulting is CRW Reporting. This software is a Visual Basic program that provides a run-time interface to run Crystal Reports on any computer in your organization

Crystal Dashboard

Crystal Dashboard, another useful reporting window, is provided by Solutional (www.solutional.co.za). Crystal Dashboard allows you to embed an unlimited number of Crystal Reports into its customizable tabbed display. The reports are then automatically refreshed as often as you wish.

CustomInvoicing

CustomInvoicing is a superb product provided by Synergration (www.synergration.com). This software enables you to print and e-mail custom invoice and sales receipts directly from data stored in your QuickBooks file. Personalize invoices and sales receipts using Crystal Reports with your company logo, hyperlink, etc. CustomInvoicing then allows you to export data in PDF, HTM, and RTF formats.

ReCrystallize Pro

ReCrystallize Pro is a great product, provided by Recrystallize Software (www.recrystallize.com). ReCrystallize Pro allows you to quickly make your Crystal Reports reports available on your intranet or extranet, providing user-specific information to your managers, customers, sales force, and employees.

Financial Calculators

Financial Calculators is an invaluable tool for the report writer. Provided by RWENT, Inc. (www.rwent.com), Financial Calculator software allows you to create, save, and update a variety of different financial calucations, which you can then easily utilize in Crystal Reports for extensive printing options.

Crystal Reports Distributor

The Crystal Reports Distributor, provided by ChristianSteven Software Ltd. (www.christiansteven.com), is a powerful automation tool for Crystal Reports, allowing you to control the output of your reports in numerous ways. Check out Chapter 14 for more information on the Crystal Reports Distributor.