Crystal Reports replacement
Crystal Reports is the part of a legacy system most often forgotten in a modernisation and the part the finance team notices first. SAP has ended support for Crystal Reports 2016, ends mainstream maintenance for 2020 on 31 December 2026 and for 2025 a year later, and has moved its investment elsewhere. The reports keep running after those dates; the runtime embedded in your application stops being patched. Solve With Software extracts what each report does, its query, its formulas and its layout, and rebuilds the reporting layer on the modernised system, with every report checked against the old output before the old one is switched off.
Free · 1 hour · no obligation
Where Crystal Reports stands
Winding down on a published schedule. Support for Crystal Reports 2016 ended on 31 December 2024. Mainstream maintenance for Crystal Reports 2020 ends on 31 December 2026, and for Crystal Reports 2025 on 31 December 2027. SAP's investment has gone to its cloud analytics products rather than to Crystal.
The reports don't stop on those dates. What stops is patches, fixes and standard support for the runtime, which in a legacy business system is usually a 32-bit component embedded in a VB6, Delphi, Access or .NET application, installed on every PC that prints. The runtime that came with the application is often older than any of those dates already.
Why reports get forgotten, and why that's expensive
Because they sit outside the code. A modernisation maps the screens, the data and the rules, and the reports live in .rpt files that nobody opened. Then the new system goes live, the month-end runs, and the finance director asks where the aged debtors report is.
Reports are also where a surprising amount of business logic lives. A Crystal formula that decides what counts as overdue, a selection rule that excludes a customer type, a subreport that pulls from a table the main system forgot. Those rules are part of the system, and they only exist in the report.
What replacing Crystal Reports involves
- Inventory. Every .rpt file, where it's called from, who runs it and how often. Half are usually dead. The ones that remain are the specification.
- Extract what each report does. The query or the stored procedure, the formulas, the grouping and totals, the parameters, the layout. Written down as a description, because the .rpt format isn't one you can read.
- Choose the reporting layer for the modernised system. Reports built into the application in most cases; a reporting product where the business needs ad-hoc analysis; sometimes both.
- Rebuild each report and run it side by side with the Crystal version on the same data. Totals, row counts, and the layout the finance team recognises. A report doesn't switch until it matches.
- Retire the runtime when the last report has moved, and with it the 32-bit dependency on every PC.
Each report is a small stage of its own, which is why the work can be priced as a fixed number and done in the order the business cares about.
Embedded in an application, or stand-alone?
Two different jobs. Crystal embedded in a VB6, Delphi, Access or .NET Framework application is part of modernising that application: the reports move when the system does, and they're usually the last stage. Stand-alone Crystal, where the finance team runs reports against the database directly, is a reporting migration on its own, and it can happen without touching the application at all. The assessment establishes which you have and prices each accordingly.
Your data
Untouched. Reports read; they don't change. The rebuilt reports run against the same database as the Crystal ones, side by side, until each matches. Where the reporting layer needs its own tables or views, they're built and tested on a copy, then in staging, before anything connects to live.
What it costs
The assessment is from £395 + VAT, sized on a free one-hour consultation, with an exact price before you commit. For Crystal Reports it inventories the .rpt files, identifies which are alive, extracts what a sample of them do, and prices the rebuild report by report as fixed numbers. What drives the price and the payment terms each have a page.
The risks of waiting
An unpatched 32-bit runtime on every PC that prints, with the dates above already passing. A Windows update that stops the runtime registering on a new machine, which is how most Crystal problems arrive. And the rules that live only in the reports being lost in a modernisation that didn't inventory them.
How we approach it
Inventory first, then match every report before switching it. Marc Allington has built and replaced reporting layers on the systems Crystal usually sits inside, VB6, Access and .NET, so the runtime and its habits are familiar. Everything we build runs on open, widely used technology, in your own accounts, with full source code and ownership transferring to you on final payment.
The technical checklist for a Crystal Reports migration
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Crystal version and runtime version, and where the runtime is installed | Sets the support date and the 32-bit dependency footprint. |
| Every .rpt file, who runs it, how often, and from where | Dead reports don't move; live ones are the specification. |
| What each report reads: tables, views, stored procedures, and which database | Some reports read from tables the main system forgot; that has to be found. |
| Formulas, selection rules and subreports | Where the business rules hide. Each is extracted and written down. |
| Parameters and scheduling | How the report is run, and by what. |
| Output formats: print, PDF, email, export | Each is a requirement of the new reporting layer. |
| Embedded or stand-alone | Decides whether the reports move with the application or on their own. |
Each answer goes into the report with a fixed price per report.
Questions
What people ask before they book.
Will our Crystal reports stop working when support ends?
No. The reports keep running. What ends is patches and support for the runtime, which is a 32-bit component on every PC that prints. The practical failure usually comes with a Windows update that stops it registering on a new machine.
Can the new reports look the same as the old ones?
Yes, where that matters, and it usually does for the reports the finance team sends outside the business. Each rebuilt report is run side by side with the Crystal version until the totals, rows and layout match.
What should replace Crystal Reports?
It depends on who runs the reports. Reports the application produces for its users are built into the modernised application. Reports the finance team builds themselves need a reporting product, and the assessment recommends one from how they work.
Our reports have a lot of formulas. Do those get lost?
Not if they're inventoried. Formulas and selection rules are business rules, and they're extracted and written down before the report is rebuilt. That's most of the work and the reason it's done report by report.
Can you replace the reports without touching the application?
If the reports run stand-alone against the database, yes. If they're embedded in the application, they move as part of modernising it, usually as the last stage. The assessment establishes which you have.
Start with a free consultation
An hour on your system, online or by phone. From there we size the assessment, from £395 + VAT, and give you an exact price before you commit.
Want the numbers first? See how pricing works.
Written by Marc Allington, founder. .