Release Notes

This guide covers the 2.x.x.x release family of Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting. It describes the current feature set without tying the documentation to a particular build. Install compatible updates to use the features described here; check Extension Management for the package installed in your environment.

Product Name

The app is named Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting, formerly Advanced Financial Reporting. Its app ID and AFR_Hgd permission-set name remain the same. Installation commands should use the identity read from the supplied package; see Installation.

Features in the 2.x.x.x Release Family

Spreadsheets

A spreadsheet editor inside Business Central with saved documents, AL-expression formulas, styling, fill handle, undo/redo and copy/paste to and from Excel.
Thirteen region types: Table, Chart, Financial Report, Page, KPI Card, Budget Matrix, Query, Report, SQL, Pivot Table, Date Range, FlowField and Image.
Slicers for lists, field lookups, dimensions, dates and ranges, with cell-driven region filters and a table-view builder.
Date Range regions can start from a ?RANGE slicer ([C2] = the range's start, END([C2]) = its end) and shift the anchor with a trailing date formula ([C2]<-1Y>), so monthly axes and prior-year runs follow the period picker. See Date Range Regions.
Editable table regions and budget matrices. Financial Reports and G/L Budget Names can open directly as spreadsheets.
Per-sheet access levels: Owner, Read Only, Read Only (No Print), and Edit Budget Entries. The AFR_READONLY_Hgd permission set prevents region write-back and runs formulas/init code with read-only database access.
Conditional formatting on any kind of cell: the threshold decides what a Cell Value rule compares — a number matches number cells, a date (2026-01-31, Today) matches date cells with every operator, and TRUE, FALSE or a word matches boolean, text and enum cells with Equal To / Not Equal To. Colour scales and data bars fall back to a date range when a range holds no numbers. See Conditional Formatting.
Templates, a visual gallery, conditional formatting, init code and scenarios that capture ordinary cell sources and formula bindings. Scenarios do not snapshot live budget/table values; see Scenarios.
Preview and browser printing by page region; spreadsheet import/export as .bcsheet files.
Export to Excel: calculated values, styles, number formats, page worksheets, native tables and charts. KPI cards export as text (label, value, delta, target/status); images are omitted; export is unavailable at Read Only (No Print). See Preview & Printing.
Company settings on Table, Pivot, FlowField, Image, SQL, Budget Matrix and Financial Report regions. Query and Report remain in the session's company. Regions reading another company are read-only.
The Spreadsheet Agent, with tools for building and editing sheets and a library of dashboard patterns. Region tools report the region's row count or its source error (a failing SQL statement, a missing table, a bad filter) on the call that caused it, and recalculate lists such regions next to formula errors. App upgrades refresh the bundled patterns automatically; custom skills are left alone.
The Spreadsheet profile and Role Center, showing a saved sheet selected by each user.

Financial Reporting

Indicator rows with Lookup, Sum, Count, Min, Max, Average and Custom calculation methods, filters and an imported indicator library.
Company overrides on report rows and columns, with currency conversion for supported standard cells. Indicator amounts are not converted.
Formula Behavior for controlling intersections of formula rows and formula columns.
Report distribution by email, SharePoint or interactive zip download, with Job Queue scheduling for email/SharePoint delivery.
CalcDate and DateFilter APIs with 12-column and 24-column endpoints. DateFilter honors an explicit date filter; the older obsolete endpoint remains available for existing integrations.

Platform Compatibility

Component	Required Major Version
Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting	2.x.x.x
Business Central server	28.x.x.x or later
AL runtime	17.x.x.x
AL Compiler and Interpreter (Hougaard)	5.x.x.x
AL AI Services (Hougaard)	5.x.x.x
Statistical Accounts (Microsoft)	26.x.x.x or later; use the version supplied with your BC release

Business Central 28.x.x.x supplies the required runtime. These labels describe release families; the app package carries the exact dependency requirements checked during installation. AppSource installs compatible Hougaard dependencies automatically. For on-premises, obtain compatible dependency packages from Hougaard and install them first. See System Requirements.

Upgrade Notes

Review Installation and confirm that the server and dependency apps meet the requirements.
Back up your configuration and test the update in a sandbox.
Verify representative spreadsheets, indicators, print jobs and API integrations with the intended user permissions.
Run Create Self-Test Sheet from the Spreadsheets list and inspect its results.
Refresh an existing agent skill library with Import Bundled Skills when you want the updated patterns. First copy any custom content using a bundled code to a distinct custom code: import replaces matching codes, even when the existing skill is not marked Bundled. See Spreadsheet Agent.

Known Issues and Support

See Limits & Troubleshooting and Common Issues for documented behavior and workarounds. Contact Hougaard for current known issues, historical release details, older major-version compatibility or planned features.

To identify an installed package, search Extension Management, select Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting, and read its version. Include that installed version and reproduction steps when contacting Support.

Documentation Updates

The guide uses major-version labels such as 2.x.x.x and 5.x.x.x. Documentation changes when functionality, setup or compatibility changes; a new build alone does not require relabeling the guide. Literal API/protocol identifiers in integration examples retain their required syntax.