Regions Overview
Regions are rectangles managed by the calculation engine. Data regions fill themselves from Business Central, using live reads or cached results according to their type; chart and KPI regions render visuals over the calculated sheet; page regions define the presentation. See Refresh Behaviour for when a region fetches fresh data.
Creating and Managing Regions
The New Region toolbar button opens the region wizard directly. The Regions toolbar button opens the region list, which shows each region's ID, description and type, with three actions:
- New Region — a guided wizard: name and type first, placement second, then a type-specific details step, and finally a Ready to create summary; Finish creates the region. Nothing is created until you finish, so cancelling leaves no trace. The grid selection at the time you clicked New Region (or Regions) seeds the new region's range.
- Settings — opens the setup dialog matching the selected region's type.
- Save as Template — stores the region's rectangle and everything inside it as a template (see Templates).
You can also click a region's badge directly on the sheet to open its settings, and delete or rename regions straight in the list grid.
Common Region Properties
| Property | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Region ID | The unique ID (up to 30 characters). For table regions it doubles as the record variable name formulas can use (=CUSTOMERS.Count), and it decides the tab order of page regions in previews. |
| Description | The user-facing name: shown on the region badge, as the preview tab caption and as the printed page heading. Blank falls back to the ID. |
| Range | Where the region lives, for example B2 or B2:H20. Every range field has an AssistEdit picker that lets you select the cells directly on the live sheet. |
| Color | The region's colour — one hex value; the tint, header and border shades are derived from its hue. Blank uses the default green scheme. |
| Company | On every region that reads the database (Table, Pivot, FlowField, Image, SQL, Budget, Financial Report): the company whose data fills the region. Blank reads the company you are working in. Accepts [Address]. See Reading Another Company below. |
Placement: corner vs. rectangle
- Data regions (Table, G/L Journal, Sales Document, Purchase Document, Financial Report, Budget, Query, Report, SQL, Pivot, Date Range, FlowField) use only the top-left cell of their range — their width comes from their columns and their height from their data.
- Charts, KPI cards, images and pages fill the whole rectangle.
Region IDs as formula names
A table region's ID becomes a record variable available to every formula: =ITEMS.Count, =VE.TableSum("Sales Amount (Actual)"), =CUSTOMERS.Name. Two caveats:
- An ID that looks like a cell address (like
B2) is not registered as a record name — it would collide with the cell. - IDs with a leading zero in the digits, like
SO01, are fine.
See Functions for the record members.
Refresh Behaviour
| Region type | When it re-queries |
|---|---|
| Table, G/L Journal, Sales Document, Purchase Document, Date Range | On every recalculation — always live. |
| Financial Report, Budget, Pivot, FlowField | Cached: recomputed when a setting or a referenced [Cell] changes, after any write-back through the sheet, or via the refresh button on the region's badge. |
| Image | Cached: the picture is re-read when a setting, the rectangle or a referenced [Cell] changes, or via the refresh button. |
| Sankey | Cached: the diagram is redrawn when a setting, its title or the rectangle changes, or via the refresh button — not when its flow cells change, because the layout is expensive. |
| Report, SQL, Query | Cached: re-run when the configuration changes (for SQL, when the resolved statement changes) or via the refresh button. A write-back does not refresh them. |
Reading Another Company
Every region that reads the database — Table, Pivot, FlowField, Image, SQL, Budget and Financial Report — has a Company setting. Blank reads the company you are working in; a company name reads that company's data instead, so one sheet can put several companies side by side, or switch between them.
- Which company: pick it from the lookup — the exact company Name, not the display name. The setting accepts
[Address], so a?FIELD(Company, Name)slicer cell switches the region — or every region pointing at that cell — from the sheet. Cached regions re-query when the resolved company changes, like any other setting; a name that matches no company shows on the region badge as an error. - Read-only: a region reading another company never writes back. A table region renders without editable cells even with Allow Table Editing on, and a budget matrix of another company refuses edits — field validation on a write would run against the current company's related tables (units of measure, dimension values, accounts).
- Drill-down opens the other company's records: the list or card page shows that company's data.
- Financial Report regions read the entries — G/L, budget, cost and statistical, and analysis view entries — from the chosen company, and convert the amounts when its local currency differs, exactly as a company on a report line or column does (see Cross-Company Data). The row and column definitions and the chart of accounts always come from the current company, and a company set on an individual line or column keeps precedence over the region's.
- Query and Report regions have no Company setting: Business Central runs a query or report object in the session's company only.
- The view builder lists the other company's values in its lookups, so filters can be picked rather than typed.
Drill-Down
Ctrl+click a drillable region cell:
- Table region cells open the record's own card/list page.
- Financial report amounts drill down to the entries behind the number, like the Financial Report overview page.
- Budget matrix amounts open the budget entries in the cell's scope; comparison cells open the general ledger entries of the compared period.
- Pivot amounts open the source table's list page filtered to exactly the records behind the number.
- FlowField values open the source table's list page filtered by that cell's resolved filters.
A formula placed on top of a drillable region cell keeps the drill — the drill targets the record behind the address, not the displayed value.
Cell-Driven Filters: the [Address] Token
Almost every filter a region carries accepts [Address] tokens — table views, financial report filter overrides, budget matrix settings, SQL statements, and chart titles. On every recalculation the token is replaced by that cell's current value, so pointing filters at slicer cells makes the whole sheet follow the user's picks:
WHERE(Posting Date=FILTER([C2]),Item No.=FILTER([E2]))Numeric cells resolve without thousand separators, date/range slicers resolve in the culture-independent XML format (2026-01-31), and ?FIELD slicers resolve to their raw committed key even when the cell shows a display field's text — so cell-driven filters behave identically for every user, whatever their regional settings. A [token] that is not a valid cell address is left untouched.
When rows or columns are inserted or deleted, or a template is applied elsewhere, [Address] tokens shift along with the cells they point at.
FlowField regions add one more rule: their tokens shift one step per cell of the run ([B6] reads B6 in the first cell, B7 in the second), and a $ pins a part of the reference — [$C$2] stays on C2 in every cell.
Example — one slicer, three regions: put ?FIELD(Item, No., Description)-> in E2 (an item picker opening the item lookup page; after a pick the cell shows the description, the filters below get the number). Then:
- the items table region's view:
WHERE(No.=FILTER([E2])) - a pivot over Value Entry:
WHERE(Item No.=FILTER([E2])) - a chart region's title:
Sales for item [E2]
One pick in E2 and all three follow. (In formulas, reference the slicer as a plain E2 — the bracket token belongs to region filters and SQL only.)
Region Colours and the Sheet Scheme
Every colour field opens the shared colour dialog: palette suggestions derived from the sheet's remembered colour scheme (the base colour and derivation method of your last pick, saved with the document), standard swatches, your recent picks, and free hex entry. This keeps a sheet on one consistent colour story without manual bookkeeping.