Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Documentation
Index

Overview

What is Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting?

Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting (formerly Advanced Financial Reporting, abbreviated AFR) is a powerful extension for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central that enhances the standard Financial Reports functionality with advanced capabilities for creating sophisticated financial statements and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Purpose

The standard Financial Reports feature in Business Central allows you to create financial statements based on G/L accounts and account schedules. Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting extends this capability by enabling you to:

  • Pull data from any table in Business Central into your financial reports
  • Create custom indicators that calculate values using various methods (Lookup, Sum, Count, Min, Max, Average, Custom)
  • Build multi-company reports that consolidate data across different companies
  • Work in a full spreadsheet editor inside Business Central — live data regions, formulas, charts, KPI cards, interactive slicers, editable budget matrices and drill-down, without exporting to Excel
  • Let an AI agent write finished reports from your live data, such as monthly management reports, collections overviews and board packs, on demand or on a schedule. See AI Reports.
  • Expose financial report data through API endpoints for Power BI and other integrations
  • Automate report distribution via email, SharePoint or zip download

Who Should Use This App?

Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting is designed for:

  • Financial Controllers who need comprehensive financial statements
  • CFOs and Finance Directors requiring executive dashboards and KPIs
  • Business Analysts creating custom reports and metrics
  • IT Professionals integrating Business Central financial data with external tools

Key Benefits

  1. Flexibility: Access any data in Business Central, not just G/L entries
  2. Live spreadsheets: Reports and dashboards that stay connected to the data — no exports, no stale snapshots. See the Spreadsheets Overview.
  3. Consolidation: Create multi-company reports with automatic currency conversion
  4. Automation: Schedule and distribute reports automatically
  5. Integration: Connect with Power BI and other tools via APIs
  6. Reusability: Build an indicator library for consistent reporting across reports

Getting Started

To begin using Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting:

  1. Install the extension from Microsoft AppSource
  2. Register your license key (production environments only; Business Central Online sandboxes need no key)
  3. Configure your first indicators
  4. Build your financial reports

For detailed instructions, see the Installation and Registration guides.

Support

For assistance with Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting, visit www.hougaard.com or contact support@hougaard.com.