A Matrix report is a powerful tool for delivering complicated statistical reports to your users.  Often your data will not have a static number of rows and columns which may make grouping and subtotaling a challenge.  Fortunately, Reporting Services has an answer for you.  It’s the Matrix control. 

With the matrix control you can create a report with a dynamic number of rows and columns and any number of row and column groups in a jiffy.  Also, with just a few clicks you can generate group totals at any level.  Like all reporting tools there are some limitations.  One common reporting need, that becomes a major challenge, is calculating group averages rather than group totals.  Although this sounds fairly trivial it requires that your tool allows you to use nested aggregates in your calculations, which Reporting Services 2005 does not. 

Figure 1 illustrates the results that you get if you attempt to use the Avg() function.  Notice that the Average of the Total line is not correct.  Fortunately, there is a workaround.  With a bit of code and an understanding of the way that Reporting Services evaluates the various row and column groups in your matrix report, you can add many advanced calculations to your reports.  To understand when the matrix group totals are being evaluated and when they are not, you must use the Inscope() function.  This function returns true or false and takes a group name as an input parameter. 

Figure 2 illustrates the scope of each row and column group as each cell of the matrix is evaluated.  Notice that when the column total is being evaluated the column group {Month} is out of scope and when the row total is being evaluated the row group {Division} is out of scope.  Also, notice that when the grand total is being evaluated, both the row and column group are out of scope.

Now that you understand when each group total is being evaluated, you must add a custom function to calculate your average or whatever calculation you desire.  In this example, there are four different scopes which the function must handle. The function uses the Scope of each group to determine when the column/row cell, subtotal, average, and the average of the subtotals is being evaluated. The custom function for the first two cases simply returns the aggregate value passed in i.e. Sum(amt). The third case will maintain two variables.  The first is a  running total, the second will be a count of the number of values added to the total.  In addition, the function will return the subtotal value. The fourth case will calculate and return the average, and reset the running total and count variables.  The call into your custom function from the data cell in the matrix report would look like this.  
=Code.SumOrAvg(Sum(Fields!Amt.Value),AVG(Fields!Amt.Value), InScope("GRP_Month1"), InScope("GRP_Division1"))

Figure 3 illustrates our matrix report with the correct average value being calculated for every row of the matrix report.
As you can see from this example, the Inscope() function gives you the power to control the values in every cell of your matrix control.  Happy Reporting !!!

Source Code is attached to this blog entry. Please see the attachment below...

The MaxQ Solomon Process Engine will error on Sales Order type transactions if the 'D' in the 'CompanyID' tag is a lower case 'd'.

If using a Terminal server, the reason for this error may be the following:

When you connect to a terminal server, by default, the printers attached to your workstation are “mapped” into the terminal services session . This applies to fax printers as well. 

The cause of the “operation failed” messages seems to be that when someone with a fax printer defined on their own computer connects to the Terminal server, there will be two fax printers defined and this will cause the error. 

Also there doesn’t seem to be a way to programmatically select a fax printer through the objects exposed by Microsoft at this time.

The work-around is to disable Windows printer mapping on the Terminal server. This can be done through the Terminal Services Configuration program located in Administrative Tools.

This is ACA bug 4088.
Example:

1. Enter new ACA batch - select customer, then click 'Check Deductions' 
- when prompted to save, save the batch.
2. On the 'Check Deductions' screen enter a deduction on the first row
(approved or unapproved).
3. Click on the 'CM Search' button, save when prompted. Run 
the search and select 2-3 CM/s from the ones that are returned. 
Click 'OK' to bring them back in the grid.
4. The CM/s will come back in the grid, however these new 
'reapplication' lines will have the deduction code of the deduction 
on the first line, as well as the Account and Subaccount values.

The fix can be downloaded here:

http://maxqtech.com/CS/forums/thread/3597.aspx

PCI Requirements for Merchants:

Merchant	Volume of Transactions	Required Action
Level 1	Over 6,000,000 transactions per year.	Annual on site audit and quarterly remote scans of their web sites and servers
Level 2	150,000 to 6,000,000 transactions per year	Annual self assessment questionnaire and quarterly remote scans
Level 3	20,000 to 150,000 transactions per year	Annual self assessment questionnaire and quarterly remote scans
Level 4	Less than 20,000 transactions per year	Annual self assessment questionnaire and quarterly remote scans highly recommended

To properly print the MICR line on checks, your PC may need to be setup to print True Type fonts as graphics to your printer.

To do this, click Start - Settings - Printers.

Select your printer, choose Printer - Properties, choose options to make sure "Print True Type as graphics" is selected; look in the Font or Graphics folders for these settings.

You may also have to change the print mode to "raster." If these options are not present in your printer properties, try a few of the other settings such as "download True Type as bitmap soft fonts".

There is a new version of the MaxQ Process Engine which is an attempt to make the engine more resilient against errors. 

With it you can specify a period of time during which the engine will not consider a database connection problem to be fatal.  For example, the values below would indicate that the engine is to continue retrying between the hours of 9:00 PM (range start) and 6:00 AM (range end) unless there are no successful connections for two straight hours (range retry duration).  

The “number of attempts on connection failure” setting is used during the hours that do not fall into the error handling range.  It indicates how many consecutive attempts to connect to the database must fail before a fatal error is raised.  These values must be changed by altering the text property of label controls on the Process Engine screen through customization manager.  These labels are invisible; so you must enter customization mode to see them.

To install it, just place it in the XEngine folder under the Solomon folder (you’ll need to do this in each of your Solomon folders).  The file needs to be renamed to XXJ1000.EXE from XXJ1000.EX_.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Example:

Number of attempts on Connection Failure:                                                         10

Range Start:                                                                                                       21:00:00

Range End:                                                                                                         06:00:00

Range Retry Duration in Minutes:                                                             120 (THIS HAS TO BE IN MINUTES)