Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Documentation
Index

Financial Report Regions

A financial report region runs a Business Central financial report (account schedule) and lays its rows and columns out on the sheet as read-only cells. The result is cached and recomputed when a setting or a referenced [Cell] changes, after any write-back through the sheet, or when you press the refresh button on the region's badge — so the numbers follow every slicer pick without re-running the report on every keystroke. Every amount keeps the drill-down you know from the Financial Report overview page.

Quick Start

On the Financial Reports page, select a report and choose Open as Spreadsheet: a new, unsaved sheet opens, already dashboard-shaped — the report's description as a title, a Period ?RANGE slicer wired to the region's date filter, and one ?DIMENSION slicer per dimension of the row definition (the analysis view's dimensions, or the two global dimensions) wired to the matching dimension filter. The slicers start on the report's own stored filters, so the first render matches the overview page — then one pick recalculates the whole statement. The region itself anchors at A6 with the description column pre-widened. Or add the region to an existing sheet with Regions → New Region → Financial Report.

Setup

Field Meaning
Range Only the top-left cell places the region; the report's rows and columns determine the extent.
Financial Report The financial report to run. It must have both a row group and a column group assigned.
Company The company whose ledger entries the report reads — G/L, budget, cost, statistical and analysis view entries, converted when its local currency differs. Blank reads the company you are working in; accepts [Address]. The report definition and the chart of accounts always come from the current company, and a company set on a report line or column keeps precedence. See Reading Another Company and Cross-Company Data.
Date Filter Optional override, for example 2026-01-01..2026-12-31. Accepts [Address] — point it at a ?RANGE slicer to drive the period from the sheet. Blank falls back to the report's own stored date filter, and then to the work-date month.

Dimension and filter overrides

The Dimensions group carries optional overrides for Dimension 1–4, Cost Center, Cost Object, Cash Flow, G/L Budget and Cost Budget filters. For each one: the region's override wins when set; a blank field falls back to the report's own stored filter. Every override accepts [Address] cell references — a ?DIMENSION(AREA) slicer cell makes a dimension switchable on the sheet, a ?FIELD slicer over budget names makes the report's budget column switchable.

How the Report Renders

  • The header row shows each visible column's Column Header. Columns whose Show setting is Never are omitted.
  • Row descriptions render with their indentation, and the line's Bold / Italic / Underline settings carry over as cell styles.
  • Column rounding factors (1, 1000, 1000000) are applied to the values.
  • Column Show = When Positive / When Negative blanks values of the suppressed sign.
  • Row visibility honours the line's Show setting (No, If Any Column Not Zero, When Positive/Negative Balance) together with the report's Show Lines with Show=No option.
  • Header/spacer lines (no totaling) render description-only.

The rendered cells are ordinary cells to the rest of the sheet: formulas can reference them, charts can plot them, conditional formats can style them. User content typed at the same address overrides the region cell.

Drill-Down

Ctrl+click an amount to drill down to the entries behind it — the same behaviour as the overview page, at month granularity. The drill re-resolves the region's filters (including [Address] tokens) at the moment you click, so it always matches the number on screen even after a slicer change.

Worked Example: A Switchable Income Statement

One region, two slicers, a statement the whole team can flip through:

  1. Slicers: H1 = ?RANGE->2026-01-01..2026-12-31, H2 = ?DIMENSION(DEPARTMENT)->.
  2. Region settings: Financial Report = your income statement, Date Filter [H1], Dimension 1 Filter [H2].
  3. Beside the report, add your own ratio rows referencing its cells (=B8-B15, =Round((B8-B15)/B8*100, 0.1)).
  4. Pick Last Month in H1 and department SALES in H2 — the statement, your ratios and every drill-down follow. Pick (All) in H2 to remove the department filter again.

This is exactly the layout Open as Spreadsheet generates for you (title, period slicer, dimension slicers, wired filters) — start there and grow: add ratio rows, more slicers, charts.

Tips

  • Combine with a ?RANGE slicer for the date filter and a ?DIMENSION slicer per dimension override, and the region becomes a fully interactive statement.
  • Since the region resizes with the report, leave room below it, or keep unrelated content in columns to the right.
  • Financial report figures also work in XLOOKUP lookups (row descriptions are matched with their indentation trimmed, so you can type Inventory and match Inventory).