David,

I worked with GP for a while, recently. While there are several 'legacy' versions, if you are talking Windows you are probably talking Great Plains Dynamic. (or, Great PAINS as it's known to experienced users). Which means the data is stored in SQL Server tables. The 'standard' add-on report writer is Crystal Reports. You CAN get into the SQL tables with no problems. HOWEVER, I've NEVER seen a less documented product when it comes to accurately describing what fields in what tables are used for exactly what. Even the consulting group that sold it to the company that I was working for could only vaguely describe the data links. But I'm no whiz kid....maybe someone else can read those tables and make immediate sense out of them...I could not. The internal reporting is barbaric, the Report Generator is absurd, so I naturally looked to other means for extracting data. I found VFP to be a great help in getting some things to be accessible, but if you don't know what the table relations and links are it's a nightmare. On the other hand, if you've sold GP to a client, and can stay on good terms with them, you'll probably have a support contract for life....

Regards,

David R. Katz