AI Reports

An AI report is a finished, single-page HTML report that an AI agent writes from your live Business Central data. A typical report has a header, an executive summary, KPI tiles, tables, charts and a closing note on data sources. You describe what the report should cover once, in an instruction. Every run of that instruction produces a new report for the period its date formulas resolve to on that day. Runs can be started by hand, in the background or on a job queue schedule.

Where the Spreadsheet Agent builds an interactive sheet together with you, the AI report agent delivers a static document: something to read, print, download and send on. It reads data; it never changes it.

The Building Blocks

Part	What it is	Where
AI provider	The connection to the AI service (endpoint, access key, model) the agent runs on.	AI Providers page — see Setup & Data Privacy
AI Report Setup	Company-wide settings: the house-style prompt every report follows, and the generation limits.	AI Report Setup page
Instruction	A reusable recipe: a prompt (what to report on) plus three date formulas (report period, its length, comparison period).	AI Report Instructions — see Instructions & Prompts
Report	One generated HTML page for one resolved period, with its status, summary, generation log and its own permission list.	AI Reports — see Viewing & Sharing
Report agent	The AI that works through the app's read-only data tools, renders charts with the app's own engines and writes the page.	Runs unattended — see Generating & Scheduling
Designer agent	The same agent in a chat beside a live view of the report, used to design a report and write its instruction.	AI Report Designer — see Interactive Designer
Permissions	Owner / Read Only lists on each instruction and on each generated report.	Permissions action — see Permissions

All pages are found through Business Central search (AI Report Instructions, AI Reports, AI Report Setup) and from the app's menu page.

What Happens in a Run

The period is resolved. The instruction's date formulas are applied to the work date: for example, the current month, compared with the same month last year.
A report row is created with status Queued, the resolved period, a default title (the instruction description plus the period) and a copy of the instruction's permission list.
The agent works. It receives the instruction's prompt plus the context the app adds: company name, local currency, today's date, the period and comparison period, and the house style. It then calls its tools to:
- find tables and read their field definitions,
- run SELECT queries,
- run the company's financial reports,
- read saved spreadsheets,
- render charts, KPI tiles, sankey flows and diagrams,
- write, read back and correct the HTML page.
The result is stored. The report becomes Completed with the HTML, the agent's closing summary and a generation log. If anything goes wrong it becomes Failed with the error, keeping any page written before the failure.
Housekeeping. The instruction's Last Status is updated, and older reports beyond the instruction's Reports to Keep are deleted.

A run typically takes one to several minutes.

Two Ways to Build a Report

Write the prompt yourself. Describe the report in plain language on the instruction card, then use Generate and Open. Read the result, sharpen the prompt and run it again. This works well when you know exactly what you want.
Design it with the agent. Open the Interactive Designer Agent and ask for the report in a chat. The page takes shape beside the chat and every change shows up live. When the report is right, the agent writes the instruction for you, so that unattended runs reproduce the design period after period.

What the Agent Can and Cannot Do

It only reads Business Central data. No tool inserts, modifies or deletes business records. Spreadsheets it reads are opened read-only and never saved.
It sees what the user who starts the run may see: Business Central permissions, company access and spreadsheet permissions all apply. For a scheduled run, that is the job queue entry's user.
It can read other companies of the same environment when the prompt asks for it (SQL queries and financial reports take a company name).
The app's own spreadsheet, AI report and AI provider tables are off limits to its queries, whatever the user's rights.
Every number in the report comes from a tool result. The agent is instructed never to estimate or invent figures, to state assumptions and empty data sources in the report, and to cross-check totals.
Data the agent reads is sent to the AI provider you configured. Read Data and Privacy before you start.

Quick Start

Configure an AI provider and switch on AI Report Agent on it (Setup).
Optionally write a house-style prompt on AI Report Setup.
Open AI Report Instructions, choose New, enter a code and a description.
Set Period Start Date Formula -CM, Period Term Date Formula 1M and Comparison Period Date Formula -1Y (the current month against the same month last year).
Write the prompt, for example: "Monthly sales report for the sales team: revenue and gross margin versus the comparison period, top 10 customers and top 10 items by revenue with change, revenue by salesperson as a bar chart."
Choose Generate and Open, wait for the report and read it. Check the Generation Log to see which data the agent used.
When you are happy, use Schedule to run it automatically, and set Reports to Keep so the list stays tidy.

In This Chapter

Page	Covers
Examples & Walkthroughs	Six complete scenarios: a monthly management report, designing with the agent, a board pack, a daily collections report, reusing a spreadsheet, comparing companies
Setup & Data Privacy	AI providers, the AI Report Setup page, house style, limits, permission sets, what data goes where
Instructions & Prompts	The instruction card, period formulas with worked examples, writing good prompts, example prompts
What You Can Ask For	Data sources, charts, KPI tiles, sankey flows, diagrams, tables and layout, each with example requests
Generating & Scheduling	Generate, Generate and Open, Generate Again, job queue schedules, statuses, report retention
Interactive Designer	Designing a report in a chat, saving it, having the agent write the instruction, testing it unattended
Viewing & Sharing	The AI Reports list, the viewer, download, print, generation log, deleting
Permissions	Owner and Read Only on instructions and reports, security groups, sharing a single report
Troubleshooting	Error messages, failed runs, unexpected numbers, and what to do