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

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.

Set up Excel integration for a financial report (create an Excel template)

To set up Excel integration for a financial report, follow these steps to create an Excel template.

  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 to enable with Excel, and then choose the View Financial Report action.
  3. On the Financial Report page, choose the Create New Excel Template action. This action downloads a template Excel workbook with a single worksheet named after the report.
  4. Copy the worksheet, and rename it to Data.
  5. Rename the report worksheet to your liking.
  6. In the report worksheet, mark all cells that show data from the financial report, including column and row headers. On the Home ribbon, find the Number menu and choose General as the category.
  7. Choose the leftmost cell of the area with data from the financial report, and set a reference to the equivalent cell in the Data worksheet. Drag the formula to extend it to all cells in the first row, and then drag the row down to cover all rows in the financial report.
  8. Hide the Data worksheet.
  9. Format the report worksheet to suit your needs.
  10. Save the workbook in OneDrive, or a similar place where the file is backed up and versioned.
  11. Close the workbook.
Tip

Tip:
The Row No. field is shown on the data worksheet, but you might not want to include it on your worksheet.

Note

Note:
If you make changes to the row or column definitions of the report you created a template for, you must update the template too. Each row and column in the Excel template must be in the same position as the generated report.

Run a financial report with an Excel template

To run a financial report with an Excel template, 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 to enable with Excel, and then choose the Export to Excel/PDF menu.
  3. Choose the Update Copy of Existing Document action.
  4. Upload your Excel template (close the Excel workbook before uploading it).
  5. On the Name/Value Lookup page, choose the Data worksheet.
  6. Business Central runs the financial report and merges the resulting data with your Excel template.

Example: Use and update an Excel template to create a monthly report

You can create an Excel template that contains the reports that you include in your reporting package. Each report in the workbook must have a data tab and a tab that has the formatted report. When you update your monthly package, use the Update Copy of Existing Document for each report. Be sure to save after each update.

Follow these steps to produce your monthly financial report.

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 4. icon, enter Financial Reports, and then choose the related link.
  2. Choose the financial report you used to create the Excel template, and then choose the View Financial Report action.
  3. Change the date filter to the next month.
  4. Choose the Export to Excel/PDF and Update Copy of Existing Document actions.
  5. Select the template you saved in OneDrive (or a similar place.) Make sure that the Excel file is closed. Otherwise, an error message will state that the file is in use.
  6. The next screen shows the worksheets/tabs that are available in the Excel workbook. Choose the Data tab, and then choose OK. If you choose the tab labeled IS, your formatting will be overwritten and you'll need to start over.
  7. The Excel workbook is updated with data and downloaded to you. Be sure to enable editing to show your changes when opening the workbook.
  8. Save the workbook with a different name than the original template.

Save Excel templates as Excel layouts

INTRODUCED IN: Business Central 2025 release wave 1.

Instead of saving your Excel templates locally, you can import them into Business Central with the Excel layouts for Financial Reporting feature.

Manage Excel layouts for a financial report

To manage Excel layouts for 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 to enable with Excel layouts, and then choose the Definitions menu.
  3. To open the Financial Report Excel Layouts page where you can create, import, export, run, and delete layouts, choose the Excel Layouts action.

Create an Excel layout for a financial report

To create an Excel layout for a financial report, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Financial Report Excel Layouts page for the report.
  2. To create a layout, fill in the Code, Description, and File name fields.
  3. Choose the Run/Export action to download the Excel template.
  4. Create your layout using the steps described in Set up Excel integration for a financial report (create an Excel template).
  5. When your layout is ready for testing, close the Excel workbook and choose the Import action. Upload your Excel workbook.

Run a financial report with an Excel layout

To run a financial report with an Excel layout, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Financial Report Excel Layouts page for the report.
  2. Select the row with the layout, and then choose the Run/Export action.

Replace an Excel layout for a financial report

To replace a financial report with a new Excel layout, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Financial Report Excel Layouts page for the report.
  2. Select the row with the layout, and then choose the Import action. Upload the new Excel workbook.

Define a default Excel layout for a financial report

To define a default Excel layout for 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, open the financial report
  3. On the Options FastTab, in the Default Excel Layout field, choose the default Excel layout for the report.

Run a financial report with a default Excel layout

To run a financial report with a default Excel layout, 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, open the financial report.
  3. Choose the Export to Excel/Print action, and then choose the Open in Excel (using layout) action.

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.

    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

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.

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Financial analytics overview
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Setting Up Finance
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