Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Documentation
Index

Glossary

This glossary defines key terms used in Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting documentation.

A

Account Schedule

A Business Central feature for creating customized financial statements, edited today on the Row Definitions page. AFR extends account schedules with indicator capabilities.

Add. Reporting Currency

Additional Reporting Currency - A secondary currency used for reporting in companies that operate in multiple currencies.

AFR

Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting - The extension described in this documentation. It was previously named Advanced Financial Reporting; the AFR abbreviation is still used in the permission set and documentation file names.

AI Provider

The AI service (for example Azure OpenAI or Anthropic) and model configured on the AI Providers page. It is used by the Spreadsheet Agent and by AI reports.

AI Report

A single-page HTML report written by an AI agent from live Business Central data for one period, generated from an AI report instruction. See AI Reports.

AI Report Instruction

The reusable recipe behind AI reports: a prompt saying what to report on, plus date formulas for the report period, its length and the comparison period.

API

Application Programming Interface - A way for external applications to access Business Central data. AFR provides web service APIs.

B

.bcsheet

The file format of an exported spreadsheet: a zip archive holding a single sheet.json with the sheet's cells, regions, conditional formats, scenarios and init code (permissions excluded). Created with Export and read by Import on the Spreadsheets list.

Budget Matrix

A budget region: a G/L budget laid out as accounts by periods with editable, validated write-back to the budget entries.

Business Central (BC)

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central - The ERP system that AFR extends.

C

CalcDate API

An AFR web service that returns financial report lines, selecting the period with the startDateFormula and endCalcDateFormula date formulas. Published as calcDateLines (12 columns) and calcDateLines24 (24 columns).

Column Definition

The column layout of a financial report, defining time periods, amounts, and formulas for columns.

Column Period Filter

A filter type that applies the date range from the column to indicator calculations.

Company

A Business Central company - a separate set of books within the database. AFR supports cross-company reporting.

Codeunit

An AL object containing business logic code.

Cross-Company

Accessing data from multiple companies in a single report.

D

Date Range Region

A spreadsheet region that lays out a run of dates from a start date and a date-formula interval — single dates, start/end pairs or ready-made date filters — for other regions to point at. Its start date can be a ?RANGE slicer cell ([C2] = the picked range's start, END([C2]) = its end), so a monthly axis follows the period picker.

DateFilter API

An AFR web service that returns financial report lines for an explicit dateFilter. Published as dateFilterLines (12 columns) and dateFilterLines24 (24 columns).

Dimension

Analysis categories in Business Central such as Department, Project, or Cost Center.

Dimension Filter

A filter that limits data to specific dimension values.

E

Extension

An app that adds functionality to Business Central. AFR is an extension.

F

Field

A column within a table, such as Amount or Quantity.

Filter

Criteria that limit which records are included in calculations.

Financial Report

A Business Central report type combining row and column definitions to produce financial statements.

FlowField

A calculated field in Business Central that computes its value based on other records.

FlowField Region

A spreadsheet region that calculates one field of one table once per cell in a run, its [Cell] filter references shifting one step per cell — for example a balance per period beside a Date Range region.

Formula

A calculation expression in account schedules that combines values from other rows.

Formula Behavior

An AFR feature that controls how formulas on rows interact with column settings.

G

Generation Log

The record of how an AI report was made: the prompts, the agent's messages and every tool call with its parameters, such as the SQL statements it ran.

Global Dimension

Company-wide dimensions (1 and 2) available for filtering on most transactions.

G/L Entry

General Ledger Entry - The posting table for all financial transactions.

H

House Style

The global style prompt on the AI Report Setup page: colours, number formats, language and mandatory sections that every AI report follows.

HTTP Client

Business Central functionality for making external web service calls.

I

Indicator

A Totaling Type value added by AFR that lets a financial report row retrieve data from any table, not just G/L entries.

Indicator Card

The page (captioned Define Indicator) for configuring an individual indicator's data source and method.

Init Code

AL procedures defined per spreadsheet, callable from any formula on that sheet. Init code travels with templates.

Indicator Library

A collection of pre-defined indicators that can be reused across reports.

Inter-Company

See Cross-Company.

J

Job Queue

Business Central's scheduled task system used for automated report distribution.

K

KPI Card

A spreadsheet region that renders a value cell as a card — stat, trend, target or status style — with an optional comparison, delta and sparkline.

L

LCY

Local Currency - The base currency of a Business Central company.

Lookup (Method)

An indicator method that retrieves a single value from a matching record.

M

Method

The calculation type for an indicator: Count, Sum, Min, Max, Average, Lookup, or Custom.

O

OAuth 2.0

An authentication protocol used for API access to Business Central.

OData

Open Data Protocol - The web service format used by Business Central APIs.

P

Permission Set

A collection of object permissions that can be assigned to users. AFR ships one: AFR_Hgd.

Pivot Region

A spreadsheet region that groups and aggregates a table into a cross-tab — row field, optional column field with date buckets, aggregate and totals — with per-cell drill-down.

Posting Account

A G/L account that receives posted transactions.

An AFR configuration for automated report generation and distribution.

R

Region

A rectangle of a spreadsheet managed by the calculation engine. Thirteen types: Table, Chart, Financial Report, Page, KPI Card, Budget, Query, Report, SQL, Pivot Table, Date Range, FlowField and Image.

Row Definition

The row layout of a financial report, defining accounts, formulas, and indicators.

S

Scenario

A named copy of a spreadsheet's cell contents (Base, Stretch, Worst Case) that can be captured and loaded while regions and styling stay shared.

SharePoint

Microsoft SharePoint - Can be used as a destination for distributed reports.

Sheet Permission Level

The access a user has to one spreadsheet document: Owner, Read Only, Read Only (No Print) or Edit Budget Entries. A sheet with no permission rows is unrestricted.

Slicer

A spreadsheet input cell with a picker, written as ?LIST, ?FIELD, ?DIMENSION, ?DATE or ?RANGE. Region filters read its value through [Cell] tokens, so one pick recalculates the whole sheet.

Static Filter

A filter with a fixed value that doesn't change based on column or report settings.

Sum (Method)

An indicator method that totals values from matching records.

T

Table

A data structure in Business Central storing records of a specific type.

Table Extension

An AL object that adds fields to an existing table.

Template

A reusable rectangle of a spreadsheet — cells, styles, regions, conditional formats, sizes and init code — stored once and applied at any cell of any sheet.

Totaling

The field specifying which accounts or calculations apply to a row.

Totaling Type

The classification of a financial report row: Posting Accounts, Total Accounts, Formula, Underline, Double Underline — and, with AFR, Indicator.

W

Web Service

An interface for external applications to access Business Central data and functions.

Work Date

A system date in Business Central used for default date values.

Write-back

Editing a spreadsheet region cell so that the value is validated and written to the underlying record — an editable table region's field or a budget matrix amount.

Quick Reference

Term Simple Definition
Indicator Custom data row from any table
Method How to calculate (Count, Sum, etc.)
Filter Criteria to limit records
Library Reusable indicator definitions
Print Job Automated report distribution
API External data access
Region A live-data or visual rectangle on a spreadsheet
Slicer An input cell that refilters the sheet
Scenario A saved version of a sheet's cell contents
Write-back Editing a region cell into the database