FastClose Installation Instructions

Before You Start

There are several components to FastClose including:

• FastClose Repository Database

• FastClose Server

• FastClose Designer

• FastClose (Desktop) Reader

• FastClose Scheduler

• FastClose (Web) Reader

You can discover more about these on our website.

For a full installation of the product, read on, following these steps:

• Creation of the FastClose repository database

• Installation of the FastClose Server and unpacking of the client installers.

• Configuration including:

  • Single Sign On

  • Connecting to the repository

  • Licencing

  • Connecting to your ERP

  • Adding Users and Groups

  • Installing the Worker Service (Scheduler)

  • Installing User Clients (Designer, Excel, Reader)

  • Importing pre-built templates and solutions for your ERP.

FastClose Repository Database & Login

Database

To create the FastClose repository database, start SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the database server.

Expand the tree on the left until “Databases” is shown. Right click on “Databases” and select “New Database”. We recommend naming this database “FastClose”. FastClose Server will create the necessary tables in a later step.

Login

To create the login for FastClose, first collapse “Databases” and expand “Security”. Right click “Logins” and choose “New Login”. We recommend naming the login “FastClose”, select “SQL Server authentication” and enter a password. Untick “Enforce password policy” so that the password never expires nor requires change on first login.

Click “User Mapping” to grant the login access to the FastClose Repository.

Grant the user db_datareader to the ERP database and db_datareader, db_datawriter and ddl_admin rights to the FastClose repository.

If your ERP database is on the same database server, you can also grant access to the ERP database to this login. Click the checkbox next to the ERP database then select db_datareader and click OK.

If you can't use a SQL Server login for FastClose, then you will need to configure the above access for whatever domain account the FastClose server will run as (installation described below), such as a Managed Service Account.

Install FastClose Server

Downloading the Software

You will have received a link in your email to the software download, so click on that to do the download. When the download is complete, copy it to your application server.

Once there, double click the Installer to run it. FastClose Server communicates on port 5101 by default and we suggest you leave that unchanged.

Wait until the installation completes.

NB: In the event that the installer can't find the version of .net framework required on the server, it will warn you. Click here to Download .NET 6.0. The item required is the Hosting Bundle.

Open a Firewall Port

It is possible that the application server will have Windows Firewall installed and running. If so, it may be necessary to open a port on it, so that FastClose clients can communicate with the server. See the Appendix for instructions on how to open a port on the firewall.

Configuration can now be completed either on the server or from a personal machine at a desk away from the server room.

Single Sign On

FastClose can be configured to authenticate users via a traditional username / password challenge known as ‘FastClose authentication’ or can use ‘Windows authentication’ which uses the Windows login name to identify a user.

Using Windows Authentication means the user's identity is taken from the current windows session and they don't have to provide username and password as they login.

Windows Authentication can be setup at a later date if desired but if single sign on is desired now, follow the guide Configuring Single Sign On in FastClose to configure it at this point.

Configuring the Repository

Now launch a web browser such as Chrome, Edge or similar. If the Server only has Internet Explorer available, it will be necessary to install a more modern browser OR configure the server remotely from a user machine.

Browse to http://[ApplicationServer]:5101 where “[ApplicationServer]” is the name of the server you have installed FastClose on. If the installation was successful, you should see a web page like this:

Click the link “Click here to configure the repository” next to the text “The repository is not yet configured”. Enter the FastClose Repository database information. The fields are:

• Name

  • Defaults to “FastCloseRepository” and there's no need to change this.

• DataSource

  • The name of your database server, including any instance name. If the FastClose repository is installed in SQL Server Express, this will usually have the format of “[MachineName]\SQLExpress”.

  • NB: Avoid the use of localhost here as it makes it impossible to read the log from client machines.

• Database Name

  • Enter the name of the database you created earlier. We recommended “FastClose”.

• Authentication Type

  • Whether the connection will use a Windows account or a SQL Server login.

• Username

  • The name of the SQL Server login

• Password

  • The password of the SQL Server login

• Connection Timeout

  • Leave as default for now

• SSL Encryption Settings

  • Leave unchecked for now

The credentials will be validated when you click Save. If successful, you will be prompted to upgrade the database. This will create the tables and views necessary for FastClose. First click the link “Click here to upgrade the repository”.

Then, click the “Upgrade Repository” button.

Logging in for the first time

Click on the Sign In link in the top right corner, logging in as "Administrator", the default password will have been supplied to you separately. It is recommended you change this once you have some other users set up (covered below).

Licencing FastClose

You should have been provided with a licence key prior to starting the install. The next step is to install this. Expand the “System” area on the left hand side, and click on “Licencing”:

Click on “Add New” and paste the licence key into the box provided. FastClose Server will authenticate with our FastClose Licencing Server and then enable the product.

Connecting FastClose to the ERP

There are three steps to this. First you are going to define a new data source, then you are going to select the catalog for your ERP, and finally provide the database connection information for your ERP.

At the time of writing, FastClose supports connections to any ERP where the data resides on an accessible SQL Server instance or SAP Hana instance. In addition it can also communicate via API with Nextworld and Epicor Public Cloud instances.

As SQL Server, is the current most commonly used connection type, we describe this below, but if your ERP is elsewhere, please click on one of the following links for more specific guidance:

• SAP Hana

• Nextworld

• Epicor Public Cloud via REST API

SQL Server

Expand Connections and click ERP Data Sources. Click “Create New Data Source...” and choose "New SQL Server Data Source". Fill in the connection information to connect to your ERP SQL Server database. The fields are:

• Name

  • The name of the connection, the best practice is to name the connection to match your database name.

• Data Source

  • The name of the database server, including any instance name.

• Database Name

  • The name of the ERP database on the database server

• Authentication Type

  • Where the connection will use a Windows account or a SQL Server login.

• Username

  • The user name of the SQL Server login

• Password

  • The password of the SQL Server login

• Connection Timeout

  • Leave as default for now

• SSL Encryption Settings

  • Leave unchecked for now

Test the connection information to ensure all is in order. Click the “Save” button to save your changes.

(other connection types, re-join the setup steps here)

Move to the "Catalogs" submenu as shown below.

Click "Discover New Catalogs" which will find the catalogs shipped with FastClose. The catalog file describes the tables and relationships within your ERP. It is named to indicate the ERP name as well as the major version of the ERP.

Tick the catalog or catalogs which correspond to your ERP version.

NB: For Kinetic, select Epicor10.

Click "Save", this will create the necessary settings to use the catalogs.

Move to the "ERP Connections" submenu as shown below.

Click "Create New ERP Connection".

This screen has three fields:

• Name

  • The name of your connection. This will appear in reports in the connection selector. For Epicor users, this is often “Live” or “Pilot”. NB: For SAP Business One customers with multiple company databases, this should be the name of the Company whose data is stored in the database.

• Catalog

  • Select the catalog that matches the ERP type (and version if appropriate) of the database.

• Data Source

  • Select the database to connect to.

Click "Save" to save your changes.

NB: You can ignore "Validate" - this is a development and trouble shooting tool.

Users and Groups

The next step is to create the users and groups who will use FastClose. It is worth creating at least one user who is an Administrator user in case the Administrator password gets changed and mislaid.

Click “Users” in the menu on the left and “Create New User”. The following fields are available:

• Username

  • The username that the user will use to login with in combination with their password. The best practice is to use the user’s Windows username as the FastClose clients will default to it in the login screen.

• Email

  • The users email address. This is used if the user requests a "Reset Password" link to set a new password when the current one is forgotten.

• First Name

  • The user’s first name.

• Last Name

  • The user’s last name.

• Comments

  • Optional comments to add

• Password

  • The user’s password

• Confirm Password

  • Confirm the user’s password

• Time Zone

  • The time zone the user typically works in

• Culture Name

  • The cultural preferences that they would like to use. This also determines the language that the embedded help system sends to the user.

• User must change password on next login

  • Tick this if you are just supplying an initial password

Clicking the “Save” button will allow you to move on, to select the groups the user will be a member of. If you have already set up your groups, you can select the appropriate ones here. Administrators will have full access to all FastClose reports and folders regardless of the folder or report permissions.

Click “Save” to save your changes.

NB: FastClose does support restrictive password policies to ensure users select robust passwords. Information on how to set this up server wide, can be found here.

Administrator User’s Password

If you have created a new user who is a member of the Administrator’s group, it is recommended to change the default Administrator user’s password. Click the “Edit” button next to the Administrator user.

Enter a new password and confirm the password. Click “Save” to save your changes.

Install FastClose Scheduler Service

If you have purchased the Scheduler Service, now is a good time to install it. Follow the instructions here to complete this, and then return to this point.

Install FastClose Designer on the First PC

So that FastClose has some starter content for users to work with, the standard templates and solutions need to be imported into the repository. This is done using the FastClose Designer tool, so that needs to be installed and configured on at least one PC now.

Using a web browser on the PC, navigate to http://[ApplicationServer]:5101
replacing [ApplicationServer] with the name of your FastClose server.

Then click on the Download icon (either central or bottom left)

Within that web page, click on the link to download the installer for Designer and then run it. Once installed, start FastClose Designer from the Start Menu.

Change the Server Address to match the address of your FastClose server, including the port number.

Click OK. You will then be prompted to log in, you can do this using the Administrator user as below, or some other user that belongs to the Administrators group.

Click OK. You are now logged in and ready to import the standard templates and solutions.

Install FastClose Standard Templates

The templates are provided via a link on the same download page that you downloaded the FastClose Server installer from. Save the .fcdb file to your PC.

Open FastClose Designer and log in, if you haven't already. Select the Advanced tab in the ribbon, and click “Import Templates”.

Select the templates file you saved to your PC and click “Open”. When complete, a message will show how many templates were imported.

To confirm templates are installed as expected, click “File” then “Home”.  If you see a screen with modules and templates, then template installation is complete.

Install FastClose Standard Solutions

FastClose also comes with a set of standard "solutions" reports that are a bit more specific and provide examples of certain focussed types of business report. These are provided via a link on the same download page that you downloaded the FastClose Server installer from. Save the .fcdb file to your PC.

Solution installation is very similar to template installation and is carried out within FastClose Designer.

Click “Import Solutions” within the Advanced tab of the ribbon. Select the solutions file and click “Open”. When complete, a message will show how many solutions were imported.

Installing FastClose Clients on User PCs

You’re now ready to install the FastClose client applications on each user’s PC.

Using a web browser on each client PC, navigate to 'http://[ApplicationServer]:5101/Admin/Downloads'

Click on each client required for that user, to download and then run the installer.

NB: To determine which version of the Excel Add-In to install, open Excel, go to the “File” menu, select “Account” and then “About Excel” (as below) – this will indicate whether your version is 32-bit or 64-bit.

Connecting FastClose Clients to FastClose Server

When a user first launches FastClose Designer, Reader or the Excel Add-in they will need to tell it where to find the FastClose Server.

When the installer has finished downloading, install it. Once installed, start FastClose Designer or the desktop Reader from the Start Menu.

Change the Server Address to match the address of your FastClose server, including the port number.

Click OK and the server address will be saved for use by all three FastClose client applications. You can then log in if you want to. Enter your username/password and click OK.

You are now logged in and ready to work with FastClose.

Verification

Now that the system is configured it is worth verifying that the setup is correct such that data can be displayed on screen.

Log into FastClose Designer as described above.

Click “File” then “Home” and select the GL 01 Balances template

Place your cursor in the Fiscal Year filter

and update the "Fiscal Year" to point at this year, and then click the run button.

If you see numbers come through to the grid - then connection to your ERP is verified.

This is also an opportunity to update this template so that subsequent users do not have to repeat this change.

In FastClose Designer go to the "File" menu and select "Options" at the very bottom. In the Options dialog, tick the "Advanced Features Enabled" box and click OK. Now select the "Advanced" tab in the ribbon and click on "Save As Template" to overwrite the existing "01 GL Balances" template.

Install FastClose Reader Web App Service

If you have purchased the FastClose Reader for the Web Application Service, now is a good time to install it. Follow the instructions here to complete this, and then return to this point.

Next Steps

Now that the system is installed and functional it is worth taking some time to configure it optimally for your users, configure groups, setup folders and so on.

Visit the Administration page on the FastClose website to find out how. In particular check out "1001 Planning User Group Config"

Appendix – Opening a Firewall Port on the FastClose Server

If it is necessary to open a port (usually 5101) to allow FastClose Clients to communicate with the server, follow the following steps:

In the Windows Control Panel area, locate and launch the Windows Firewall application, a screen similar to this one should be displayed:

Click on "Advanced Settings" (above) and then on "Inbound Rules" in this new screen displayed:

Click "New Rule" on the right hand side, select "Port" as below and click "Next".

Type 5101 in the box below, or if changed from this default in the installer, whatever port number was entered. Then click Next.

Accept the default "Allow the connection" in the next step:

and Domain and Private in the next step:

In the final step, give the rule a name, such as "FastClose Server" and click Finish:

and exit the Windows Firewall application.