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View a financial report on-screen, as a PDF, or in Excel

After you set up definitions for your financial reports, you can start using the data to support your finance and accounting processes. The Financial Reporting feature offers multiple ways to view the reports:

  • On-screen, with drill-through to the underlying numbers.
  • As PDF documents designed for sharing and printing.
  • As Excel files that use the template or layout of your choice.

This article describes each approach.

View a financial report on-screen

You can view any report on-screen with drill-through to the underlying numbers.

To view a financial report, follow these steps:

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 4. icon, enter Financial Reports, and then choose the related link.
  2. On the Financial Reports page, select the financial report you want to view, and then choose the View Financial Report action.

The page has Options and Dimensions FastTabs. If the FastTabs aren't available, you might need to enable them with the Show all options action.

On the Options FastTab, specify how the report shows data. For example:

  • Use the View by field to specify the period for which to summarize data. Specifying a period is a good way to make the data more granular.
  • Use the Date Filter field to show amounts for a certain data or date range.
  • The Show All Lines toggle specifies whether the page displays all lines, or excludes empty lines, as defined in the row definition.
  • The Negative Amount Format field allows you to define how you want to format negative numbers.

On the Dimensions FastTab, you can choose to filter data according to global dimensions.

Tip

If you change a setting, to refresh the data on the screen, use the Recalculate action.

Show or hide the Row No. field on a report

The Row No. field might show when you view a report on-screen. The field doesn't show when you view the report in a PDF. To show or hide the field, personalize the page. To learn more, go to Personalize your workspace.

Integrate financial reports with Excel

You can integrate a financial report with an Excel workbook template, adjust the layout to suit your needs, and then update the Excel template with data from Business Central. For example, this integration makes it easier to generate your monthly and yearly financial statements in a format that works for you.

To learn more, go to Integrate financial reports with Excel.

You can print financial reports using your device's printing services. Business Central also offers options to save reports as PDF files.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 4. icon, enter Financial Reports, then choose the related link.
  2. On the Financial Reports page, select the report to print, then choose the Print action.
  3. Fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.
  4. In the Printer field, select the device to which the report is sent.
    1. The (Handled by the browser) option indicates that a printer isn't specified for the report. In this case, the browser handles the printout and displays the standard printing steps. You can choose a local printer connected to your device. (Handled by the browser) isn't available in the Business Central mobile app or the app for Teams.
  5. In the Layouts field, you can choose between layouts for portrait or landscape orientation.
  6. To control how negative numbers show in the report output (in PDF), on the Options FastTab, choose your preferred format in the Negative Amount Format field. Your selection here overrides the default format defined on the report.
  7. Choose the Print action.

Tip

The name of your company always shows in the upper right of the PDF. If you specify a Display Name on the Companies list page, that name shows instead of the name in the Name field (which isn't easy to change).

Schedule a financial report or save as a PDF document

You can save a financial report in file formats such as PDF. Business Central can also generate recurring financial reports.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 4. icon, enter Financial Reports, then choose the related link.
  2. On the Financial Reports page, choose the Print action.
  3. Set the report accordingly, then choose the Send to action.
  4. Select the file format or the Schedule action, and choose OK.
  5. To generate a scheduled or recurring financial report, fill in the fields. Hover over a field to read a short description..

    For recurring financial reports, set the Earliest Start Date/Time and Expiration Date/Time fields with the first and last date, respectively, to generate the financial report. Also, select the days on which to generate the report by filling in the Next Run Date Formula field. To learn more about date formulas, go to Use Date Formulas.

Prepare financial reporting
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Finance
Setting Up Finance
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