From best practices for Dynamics 365 Business Central reporting to uncovering the strengths and limitations of the Account Schedules feature on the platform, we are here to offer you a guided walk-through by 4-time Microsoft MVP Kerry Peters and 8X Microsoft Business Applications MVP and EFOQUS Managing Partner, Erik Hougaard for enhanced reporting in your environment. We’ll help you learn the art of what’s possible in the platform and report any data from anywhere in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Image: Account Schedules Overview in Dynamics 365 Business Central
A lot of people have used Microsoft Account Schedules in some way, but there are still plenty out there that are not familiar with this remarkable reporting feature in Dynamics 365 Business Central. More often than not, we find that organizations dump their trial balance into excel, and in some cases, they try to rearrange and summarize the data. However, these aren’t considered financial reports in the real world, they are merely financial results as they do not provide any insights into the business itself. Therefore, what businesses need is a way to really understand what these results mean and to obtain a rich understanding of the data.
Image: Account Schedules Report exported to Excel
Introducing Dynamics 365 Business Central Account Schedules
Account Schedules is a module in Dynamics 365 Business Central with specific capabilities around financial reporting in Dynamics 365 Business Central that helps you take your insights that extra mile. From Microsoft Dynamics NAV to Dynamics 365 Business Central, Account Schedules has seen very few changes, the foundational concepts have stayed the same, but the one change that was added with Dynamics 365 Business Central is the ability to copy Account Schedules.
Look at the high-level income statement below, it shows a comparison against budget and also tells us what budget remains for the year.
With just a little bit of out-of-the-box tweaking behind the scenes, and by choosing to update a workbook we arrive at our financial report that is beautifully formatted into an excel document. That’s how easy it should be for you to produce clear and comprehensive financial statements out of the box.
Now, we want you to understand the reporting capabilities that are available for you through Account Schedules in Dynamics 365 Business Central so that you too can quickly create informative reports. We understand the technology investment made by organizations in a Dynamics 365 Business Central ERP platform and to make the most of it, it’s important to use the financial reporting features to their full potential.
Navigating through Account Schedules in Dynamics 365 Business Central
Going back to the basics, look at this opening screen below from where you will begin your journey with Account Schedules. It highlights the main aspects that will define the account schedules that you will create.
Image: Multiple Account Schedules within Dynamics 365 Business Central
It’s important to understand how to set up a row, a column layout that defines what periods of time you want to incorporate with those rows, and finally how to incorporate dimensions to expand the reporting and make it robust. With the help of dimensions, you will be able to move beyond financial reporting and explore operational or managerial reporting as well. Once you become familiar with this, it becomes clear that by utilizing the ‘Process Menu’, you can navigate to every place you need to go and have a great start with building Account Schedules in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Image: Navigation Menu for Account Schedules Dynamics 365 Business Central
This is the navigational menu that gets you to the two design views. The ‘Edit Account Schedule’ option will allow you to design your row, the ‘Edit Column Layout’ option enables you to design column layouts and the ‘Overview’ option enables you to view the results.
Why Use Account Schedules in Dynamics 365 Business Central?
Account Schedules speeds up the reporting process and helps organizations significantly cut down on the time and resources spent generating financial reports. Especially in the case where there are multiple entities involved, the Account Schedules module has helped organizations reduce costs by up to one-third of original spending.
Reasons to utilize the Account Schedules module in Dynamics 365 Business Central:
- Speed – Changes are applied instantaneously, without a discernable pause and you always have the most updated version of reports.
- Drill-down – Drill down on any of the results and see the originating transactions that make up the result.
- Integrate with Budgets – Integrate Account Schedules with budgets for enhanced visibility.
- Dimensions – Move beyond financial reporting and explore operational and managerial reporting.
- Excel Download – Produce clear and comprehensive financial statements out of the box that are beautifully formatted into an excel document.
- Customized Financials – Customize financials in Account Schedules to meet your organization’s needs.
- Comes with Dynamics 365 Business Central – Account Schedules is already available to users of Dynamics 365 Business Central so it makes sense to make effective use of it.
- Direct Tie to General Ledger – Makes reports wickedly accurate and organizations can rely on the numbers because of the direct tie.
Why Do You Need the Advanced Account Schedules App?
Account Schedules only ties to General Ledger, not allowing organizations to look at sub-ledgers that provide an understanding of non-financial results. To bridge this gap, EFOQUS has developed the Advanced Account Schedules app. Its features unlock more capabilities within the Account Schedules module, enabling organizations to generate comprehensive reports.
The Power of the Advanced Account Schedules App for Dynamics 365 Business Central
The Advanced Account Schedules App comes without a setup, so all you need to do to get started is install the app to get going right away!
The strength of the Advanced Account Schedules App can be summarized in three noteworthy features:
1. The Advanced Account Schedules app adds an important column, ‘Company’, to the Account Schedules module in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
It allows users to label each row with the name of the associated company. This is an extremely handy feature, especially for organizations with multiple business entities. So instead of pulling data from different companies through different financial results, you can do it all in one place and use the company field as a filter for your organization’s Account Schedules.
Image: Advanced Account Schedules App Company Column
2. The Advanced Account Schedules app brings to you a new ‘Totalling Type’ called an ‘Indicator’.
In out-of-the-box Account Schedules, the ‘Totalling Type’ field defines the row and pulls numbers from the Chart of Accounts based on the selected type. You can define your Indicator by choosing the method you want to follow to pull data out of a table.
Image: Configuring Indicator Method with Advanced Account Schedules App
The filtering capabilities for the ‘Indicator’ feature are highly detailed and help you capture data on a granular level from your chosen table.
Image: Narrowing data segments with additional Indicator settings in Advanced Account Schedules App
Therefore, allowing you to generate interesting KPIs (key performance indicators). Moreover, custom instructions allow you to extend the app with auto-functionals. In the future, we are even looking to add the ability to drill down on indicator value in acc.sc.overview.
3. Generate an API Link with the Advanced Account Schedules App for Dynamics 365 Business Central.
It is the third remarkable capability brought to you by the Advanced Account Schedules app. This API page exposes the Account Schedule that you have created.
Image: Generating API Link for your Account Schedules through Advanced Account Schedules App
Using the API Link, you can go into PowerBI and create a report by connecting to the OData Feed and pasting the URL. The endpoint when called from PowerBI will recalculate everything, so the reports created will update constantly and have current data showing on your dashboard.
Image: Connect OData Feed
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Get More from Account Schedules with the Advanced Account Schedules App by EFOQUS
The Advanced Account Schedules App is designed to pull any number or value out of any module in Dynamics 365 Business Central directly into the Account Schedule so you can take your reports to the next level without juggling multiple data sources.
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Get Started with the Advanced Account Schedules App for Dynamics 365 Business Central Today!
One of the huge pieces of value that the Advanced Account Schedules App brings to organizations is the ability to monitor financial results while reviewing financial results. With Advanced Account Schedules, organizations can keep an eye on financial conditions, along with non-financial details at every step. The Advanced Account Schedules App is remarkable in that it enables organizations to stay proactive and approach month-end close in a completely new way!
The Advanced Account Schedules App is available for Dynamics 365 Business Central both on-premises and in the cloud. For the on-premises version, it is compatible with version 16 or later of Dynamics 365 Business Central and it can be used with the cloud stats version of Dynamics 365 Business Central. The cost is $1000 USD for a one-year subscription, and it’s licensed at the instance level so if you were to buy it, it would apply to your sandboxes and one production instance. You can purchase the Advanced Account Schedules App directly from AppSource or through your trusted Microsoft Partner. If you are a Microsoft Partner and would like to learn more about our Partner offerings, please reach out to us at info@efoqus.ca.
Download the Advanced Account Schedules App from AppSource today and feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions.