Reports and Report Selection
Document Creator ships with various document reports, built-in/extension-provided layouts and a template label translations package. These reports can be easily set up using the Apportunix Report Selection page.
Apportunix Report SelectionLink
The Apportunix Report Selection page allows you to manage all report selections in a single page:
Note that you can sort on the Usage Type field on this page to group everything from the same category together (e.g., Sales, Purchase, ...). The report usages that are added by extensions get the "Extension" usage type (at least, by default).
Tip
You can use the Email Body Layout Name field to choose a Document Creator or Word layout from the Report Layouts page to use as template for the email body of your emails.
N.B. Selecting layouts from the Report Layouts page is not possible by default in Business Central. The Microsoft Base Application still uses the legacy/deprecated Custom Report Layout table for selecting layouts and e-mail body layouts in (custom) report selections. This is a major inconsistency that is solved with the Apportunix Report Selection page.
Tip
Please follow the Tour for instructions on how to use this page. You can retake the tour by clicking on the title of the page.
Some additional clarification on the most important actions can be found in the following sub-sections.
Set Document Creator DefaultsLink
You can use the Set Document Creator Defaults action to set the available Document Creator report objects to their respective report selection. This allows for a very quick setup, i.e., in this way the current company will use all report objects provided with Document Creator and their respective default layout or usser-selected layout.
RefreshLink
You can use the Refresh action to refresh the page with the most recent settings. However, please note that the changes you made on this page will be aborted.
SaveLink
You can use the Save action to save your changes manually. Your changes will be saved automatically when you close this page.
Restore DefaultsLink
You can always choose to restore the report selections back to the Business Central defaults using the Restore Defaults action. This will delete all report selections and return the report selections to their defaults.
Report SelectionsLink
The Report Selections action is a record-scoped action that allows you to open the respective report selection page for the usage of the selected report selection. For example, if you have selected a "S.Invoice" report selection record, then this action will open the Report Selection – Sales page and will also set the usage filter to "Invoice" when the page is opened. On that page you can edit the detailed settings for the report selection.
Note
This Report Selections action will open the respective page, initialized with/filtered on the selected usage, only if the page supports this.
Also, the action can only open the respective report selection page for extension-provided usages when this is implemented by the extension publisher.
Business Rel. Layout SelectionsLink
The Business Rel. Layout Selections action is a record-scoped action that allows you to open the Business Rel. Layout Selections action for the usage of the selected report selection.
- In this page you have an overview of all business relations that have custom report/layout selections for a specific usage! (In the screenshot you see the custom sales order selections.) Normally you would need to first navigate to the customer/vendor card to view the selections per customer.
- This page has a Copy from Report Selection action to easily copy the 'main' settings to the selected record.
- You can specify an Email Body Layout Name and Layout Name for a customer/vendor specifically. You can also select Document Creator layouts for both of these, just like on the Apportunix Report Selection page.
Report LayoutsLink
This is a record-scoped action that opens the Report Layouts page filtered to the report object of the selected report selection record. For example, if the report selection record specifies that report 11249662 “Sales – Invoice” should be used, then this action will open the Report Layouts page only showing the layouts for this report object:
ReportsLink
Document Creator provides a set of reports and layouts which cover the requirements of Small- to Midsized Businesses significantly better than the standard reports. These include reports for sales, purchase, reminders/finance charge, transfer, service, assembly, warehouse, and many more documents.
The reports already offer a complete dataset that cover the needs for most users and even then, you can use the Dataset Extensions feature to add new columns, data items and translatable labels, all by yourself, directly from the Business Central web client, using data from any table, without developing additional report or reportextension objects.
The extensions provides reports for the following documents/usages in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central:
Usage Type | Document | Usage ID | Usage | Report ID | Report Caption |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sales | Sales - Quote | 0 | S.Quote | 11249660 | Sales - Quote |
Sales | Sales - Order Confirmation | 1 | S.Order | 11249661 | Sales - Order Confirmation |
Sales | Sales - Invoice | 2 | S.Invoice | 11249662 | Sales - Invoice |
Sales | Sales - Credit Memo | 3 | S.Cr.Memo | 11249663 | Sales - Credit Memo |
Sales | Sales - Blanket Order | 20 | S.Blanket | 11249667 | Sales - Blanket Order |
Sales | Sales - Return Order Confirmation | 36 | S.Return | 11249665 | Sales - Return Order Confirmation |
Sales | Sales - Shipment | 38 | S.Shipment | 11249664 | Sales - Shipment |
Sales | Sales - Return Receipt | 39 | S.Ret.Rcpt. | 11249666 | Sales - Return Receipt |
Sales | Sales - Work Order | 40 | S.Work Order | 11249670 | Sales - Work Order |
Sales | Sales - Picklist | 53 | S.Order Pick Instruction | 11249669 | Sales - Picklist |
Sales | Sales - Draft Invoice | 88 | S.Invoice Draft | 11249668 | Sales - Draft Invoice |
Sales | Sales - Pro Forma Invoice | 89 | Pro Forma S. Invoice | 11249671 | Sales - Pro Forma Invoice |
Purchase | Purchase - Quote | 5 | P.Quote | 11249680 | Purchase - Quote |
Purchase | Purchase - Order | 6 | P.Order | 11249681 | Purchase - Order |
Purchase | Purchase - Invoice | 7 | P.Invoice | 11249682 | Purchase - Invoice |
Purchase | Purchase - Credit Memo | 8 | P.Cr.Memo | 11249683 | Purchase - Credit Memo |
Purchase | Purchase - Receipt | 9 | P.Receipt | 11249684 | Purchase - Receipt |
Purchase | Purchase - Return Shipment | 10 | P.Ret.Shpt. | 11249686 | Purchase - Return Shipment |
Purchase | Purchase - Blanket Order | 21 | P.Blanket | 11249687 | Purchase - Blanket Order |
Purchase | Purchase - Return Order | 37 | P.Return | 11249685 | Purchase - Return Order |
Reminder/Finance Charge | Reminder | 15 | Reminder | 11249721 | Reminder |
Reminder/Finance Charge | Issued Finance Charge Memo | 16 | Fin.Charge | 11249720 | Issued Finance Charge Memo |
Inventory | Transfer Order | 26 | Inv1 | 11249740 | Transfer Order |
Inventory | Transfer Shipment | 27 | Inv2 | 11249742 | Transfer Shipment |
Inventory | Transfer Receipt | 28 | Inv3 | 11249741 | Transfer Receipt |
Inventory | Assembly Order | 51 | Asm.Order | 11249730 | Assembly Order |
Inventory | Posted Assembly Order | 52 | P.Asm.Order | 11249731 | Posted Assembly Order |
Job | Job Quote | 87 | Job Quote | 11249750 | Job Quote |
Service | Service - Quote | 29 | SM.Quote | 11249700 | Service - Quote |
Service | Service - Order Confirmation | 30 | SM.Order | 11249701 | Service - Order Confirmation |
Service | Service - Invoice | 31 | SM.Invoice | 11249702 | Service - Invoice |
Service | Service - Credit Memo | 32 | SM.Credit Memo | 11249703 | Service - Credit Memo |
Service | Service - Contract | 34 | SM.Contract | 11249707 | Service - Contract |
Service | Service - Shipment | 42 | SM.Shipment | 11249704 | Service - Shipment |
Service | Service - Draft Invoice | N.A. | N.A. | 11249708 | Service - Draft Invoice |
Service | Service Item Worksheet | N.A. | N.A. | 11249706 | Service Item Worksheet |
Service | Service - Pick List | N.A. | N.A. | 11249709 | Service - Picklist |
Service | Service - Pro Forma Invoice (Posted Shipment) | N.A. | N.A. | 11249705 | Service - Pro Forma Invoice (Posted Shipment) |
Usage Type | Document | Warehouse Usage ID | Warehouse Usage | Report ID | Report Caption |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Warehouse | Put-Away List | 0 | Put-away | 11249766 | Warehouse Activity Put-Away List |
Warehouse | Pick List | 1 | Pick | 11249764 | Warehouse Activity Pick List |
Warehouse | Movement List | 2 | Movement | 11249765 | Warehouse Activity Movement List |
Warehouse | Inventory Put-away | 3 | Invt. Put-away | 11249766 | Warehouse Activity Put-Away List |
Warehouse | Inventory Pick List | 4 | Invt. Pick | 11249764 | Warehouse Activity Pick List |
Warehouse | Inventory Movement List | 5 | Invt. Movement | 11249765 | Warehouse Activity Movement List |
Warehouse | Receipt | 6 | Receipt | 11249762 | Warehouse Receipt |
Warehouse | Shipment | 7 | Shipment | 11249760 | Warehouse Shipment |
Warehouse | Posted Receipt | 8 | Posted Receipt | 11249763 | Posted Warehouse Receipt |
Warehouse | Posted Shipment | 9 | Posted Shipment | 11249761 | Posted Warehouse Shipment |
Import Translations TemplateLink
The translations template package can be found under the Downloads for "Document Creator" (in the dedicated folder "Document Creator" | "Downloads" | "Translations") that can be accessed via the Apportunix website.
To import the translations for the Document Creator reports, please follow these steps:
- Open the Document Creator Translations page.
-
Invoke the Import Translations action.
-
Select the
Document Creator Translations - TEMPLATE.zip
file, and wait for the import to complete. - The template translations have now been imported.
Report SettingsLink
On the Document Creator Setup page there is a Reports section available with settings for the Document Creator reports.
Default Date Text FormatLink
The Default Date Text Format setting specifies the text format to use for the report columns containing Date fields. The default is set to format '4' which displays the date with the month fully written out.
In the Document Creator reports you will find both normal Date
columns, but also DateText
columns provided in the dataset.
The Date
columns contain the dates with the DateTime
datatype while the DateText
columns contain the dates as a string/text.
You can use the DateText
columns when you want dates as text and want them to be translated appropriately, e.g., a Sales Invoice for a French customer should have the dates as text translated to French.
Report-Specific SettingsLink
In the Report Settings part, you can specify settings for individual Document Creator reports.
First off, you can set the Date Text Format to use, which overrules the Default Date Text Format setting for a report specifically.
And secondly, you can enable the Load Item Pictures setting, to load the item pictures for the report, which is disabled by default for all reports due to performance considerations.
Report SubstitutionsLink
In the Report Substitutions part, you can specify report substitutions: demand report X is to be replaced by report Y whenever report X runs.
This can be used to replace the reports for document types that do not have a document report selection in Business Central, such as the Service Item Worksheet. You can replace the original Service Item Worksheet report by the Document Creator Service Item Worksheet by setting up the appropriate report substitution.
Caution
There are some exceptions to when reports can be substituted by another report, e.g., when a report is invoked via a page variable (which can be when a report requires initialization via (an) external procedure(s)). Please see Substituting Reports for an overview of the scenarios in which it is possible to substitute one report for another.
Adhering to Legal RequirementsLink
Please note that the built-in/extension-provided report layouts are set up to meet global requirements as much as possible. However, depending on where you do business, you may need to adhere to additional legal requirements and adjust your report layouts accordingly.
Intra-Community Delivery (EU)Link
If your company sells and/or exports goods to companies settled in other countries in the European Union, then this is known as "Intra-Community Delivery/Supply" (N.B., the customer should have a valid EU VAT Registration number). For this type of delivery, the "Reverse Charge" VAT Calculation Type should apply, which means that a 0% VAT rate applies but will not be charged (i.e., please check your "VAT Posting Setup" in Business Central carefully). However, on your invoices it is required that you state that an "Intra-Community Supply" applies, e.g.:
VAT zero-rated intra-community supply of goods following article 138 Directive 2006/112/EC
Additionally, both VAT Registration Nos. (from seller and customer) should be visible on the invoices as well.
To add the text for intra-community deliveries you can use the VAT Clauses functionality in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central:
-
First set up your VAT clauses in the VAT Clauses page. Also, set up the required translations for the text accordingly.
-
Then, link the VAT clause in the VAT Posting Setup to the records where the intra-community supply applies, using the VAT Clause Code field.
-
Ensure the VAT Clause descriptions are added and visible on your document layouts.
As an alternative, you can use the data columns that the Document Creator reports facilitate for this as well.
Under the InvHdr
dataitem, you can find an IntraCommDeliveryTxt
column which contains the text to be shown when an intra-community delivery applies.
You can add a TextObject to your report layout and set a condition so that the text is only shown when applicable (e.g., use the VisibleExpression
property and set it to [Total.ReverseChargeVATExists]
, or check the value of the [InvHdr.VATBusPostingGroup]
instead).
VAT Rates on InvoicesLink
Even if a 0% VAT rate applies when exporting your goods, your company may still need to show the VAT rate(s) even if a VAT amount of "0" is being charged. The Document Creator reports already facilitate this, i.e., if VAT applies, then the VAT rate(s) (N.B. one or multiple) will always be shown (together with their corresponding amounts). Of course, if you wish to change this, then you can edit the report layouts accordingly.