In our previous few blogs we saw Custom Reports Sorting and Custom Reports data fetching through Web Services. Now in this blog we will see how Sage Intacct allows you to export Custom Reports from one Company to import into another thus eliminating the need of recreating the Custom Reports.

We often work in Sandbox or Implementation companies and happen to create Custom Reports for any of our purposes using the Intacct Custom Report wizard and then we may want to move the report into Production Company. To do so there are a few steps that we would need to follow:

Create a XML file-
Create a text file and write the following and save it with .xml extension

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<customErpPackage>
                <packageDescription>
                                <name>Name of the Package</name>
                                <description>Package description if any</description>
                                <author>Company Name</author>
                </packageDescription>
</ customErpPackage>

Here we created a basic structure of a Sage Intacct Custom Package. A Custom Package is a collection of all the Custom fields, Events, Smart Links, Custom Reports that we want to transfer to other companies. Below the <packageDescription> element we can add the XML definitions of the above mentioned customization components. Custom Report definitions go within the <customReports></customReports> tags, Custom field definitions go within the <customFields></customFields> tags and all the events and links definition goes within the <smartLinks></smartLinks> tags.

Export a Custom Report-

1. Go to Platform Services or Customization Services > Custom Reports > search and locate your Custom Report.
2. View the report and click Export Def. This will download an XML definition of your report.
3. Edit the XML file you created and add the downloaded report definition between the <packageDescription> element within the <customReports> element in the wrapper <customErpPackage> element.
4. Remove the extra XML declaration(<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>) that has been added below the <packageDescription> element and save the file.

Note: You can add as many report definitions as you want within one <customReports> element.

Import a Custom Report-

1. Log on to another Intacct company where you want to transfer this report.
2. Go to Platform Services or Customization Services > Custom Packages > New Package > Browse and select the XML file you created > click Import.
3. Go to Platform Services or Customization Services > Custom Reports > Search the name of the imported Custom report.

This is how you can take your Custom Reports across different companies through a Custom Package. Just create and export it once and import in number of companies you want. In case you change some fields or groupings or anything else in the Custom Report, you can again export the report definition and replace it in your older XML file and re-import it in other companies. Note that, the imported Custom Reports cannot be edited so you need to make the changes in the Company where you created it at first and then update it in other companies by re- importing.