Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Documentation
Index

Menu & Navigation

This guide explains how to navigate Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting features within Business Central and access the various capabilities.

Accessing the Features

The Menu Page

Search for Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting (also found with the search terms spreadsheet, account, financial or reports) to open the app's menu page. It has three groups:

Group Links
Spreadsheets New Spreadsheet, Spreadsheets, Spreadsheet Templates
Financial Reports Financial Reports, Row Definitions, Column Definitions, Print Jobs, Expose Financial Reports as API
Maintenance Indicator Library, About/License, AI Provider Setup

The quickest way to reach a single page is Business Central's search:

  1. Press Alt+Q or click the search icon
  2. Type the feature name
  3. Select from results

Common Search Terms

Search Term Opens
"Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting" The menu page
"Spreadsheet" The Spreadsheet editor (also: excel, sheet, cells, formula, calc)
"Spreadsheets" The Spreadsheets list
"Spreadsheet Templates" Spreadsheet Templates list
"Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Print Jobs" Print Jobs management
"Indicator Library" Indicator Library list
"Financial Reports API List" API list page
"About Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting" License registration

Feature Locations

Financial Report Features

Financial Reports (Standard location)

  • Access: Search "Financial Reports"
  • Shows: List of financial reports
  • Additions: Default API Report field and the Open as Spreadsheet action (generates a spreadsheet with a title and wired date-range/dimension slicers from the report)

Row Definition

  • Access: Edit Row Definition from Financial Report, or Row Definitions on the menu page
  • Additions:
    • Indicator totaling type
    • Indicator Defined column (after Totaling Type) with an assist-edit that opens the Define Indicator page
    • Company field on lines
    • Formula Behavior field
    • Start/End CalcDate Formula fields (used by the API)

Column Definition

  • Access: Edit Column Definition from Financial Report, or Column Definitions on the menu page
  • Addition: Company field on columns

G/L Budget Names (Standard location)

  • Addition: Open as Spreadsheet action (generates a spreadsheet with a title and wired period/dimension slicers over an editable budget matrix)

Indicator Features

Define Indicator (Indicator Card)

  • Access: Lookup on the Totaling field, or assist-edit on the Indicator Defined column, of an Indicator-type row
  • Purpose: Configure individual indicators

Indicator Library

  • Access: Search "Indicator Library" or the menu page
  • Purpose: View the imported library entries and import updates (read-only list)

Filters on Indicator

  • Access: From Indicator Library (or Select Indicator from Library) → Filters action
  • Purpose: View the filters of a library entry (read-only)

Spreadsheet Features

Spreadsheet

  • Access: Search "Spreadsheet" or New Spreadsheet on the menu page
  • Purpose: The spreadsheet editor

Spreadsheets

  • Access: Search "Spreadsheets" or the menu page
  • Purpose: List of saved spreadsheet documents

Spreadsheet Templates

  • Access: Search "Spreadsheet Templates" or the menu page
  • Purpose: Manage reusable spreadsheet templates

Distribution Features

Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Print Jobs

  • Access: Search "Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Print Jobs" or Print Jobs on the menu page
  • Purpose: Manage automated report distribution

API Features

Financial Reports API List

  • Access: Search "Financial Reports API List" or Expose Financial Reports as API on the menu page
  • Purpose: View API links, set default report

Registration

About Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting

  • Access: Search "About Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting" or About/License on the menu page
  • Purpose: Enter or view license registration

From Financial Report to Indicator

Financial Reports
     ↓
Edit Row Definition
     ↓
Select Indicator row
     ↓
Lookup on Totaling (or assist-edit on Indicator Defined)
     ↓
Define Indicator page opens

From Indicator Card to Library

Define Indicator
     ↓
Actions → Select from library
     ↓
Select Indicator from Library opens

Setting Up Automation

Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Print Jobs
     ↓
Create/Edit Job
     ↓
Select jobs → Add Job Queue
     ↓
Job Queue Entry created (On Hold)
     ↓
Job Queue Entries → set recurrence, Status = Ready

Page Reference

Standard Pages (Extended)

Page Extensions
Financial Reports Default API Report field, Open as Spreadsheet action
Row Definition Indicator totaling type, Indicator Defined, Company, Formula Behavior, Start/End CalcDate Formula
Column Definition Company field
G/L Budget Names Open as Spreadsheet action

App Pages

Page Purpose
Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Menu page with all links
Spreadsheet Spreadsheet editor
Spreadsheets List of spreadsheet documents
Spreadsheet Templates Reusable spreadsheet templates
Spreadsheet Role Center Role center showing a chosen spreadsheet
Define Indicator Configure indicators
Indicator Library View and import library entries
Filters on Indicator View library filters
Select Indicator from Library Pick a library entry for an indicator
Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Print Jobs Manage print jobs
Financial Reports API List API configuration
About Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting License management
Select Table Table selection for indicators
Select Field Field selection for indicators

Keyboard Shortcuts

Standard Business Central Shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Alt+Q Open search
Alt+N New record
F5 Refresh page
Escape Close page
Enter Open/Drill-down

In the Row Definition

Action Result
Lookup on Totaling, or assist-edit (…) on Indicator Defined Opens the Define Indicator page (for Indicator type); clicking the Totaling cell itself does nothing

Tips for Efficient Navigation

Finding Features Quickly

  1. Use Search: Fastest way to any feature
  2. Bookmark Pages: Mark frequently used pages as favorites
  3. Role Center: Consider adding tiles for common tasks

Working with Reports

  1. Open in Edit Mode: Use Edit Row/Column Definition
  2. Test Before Running: Use the Calculate Indicator (for test) field on the Define Indicator page
  3. Preview First: Run report preview before printing

Managing Multiple Reports

  1. Use Filters: Filter lists by name patterns
  2. Copy Reports: Duplicate and modify existing reports
  3. Document Changes: Keep track of report modifications

Role Center Integration

Spreadsheet Role Center

The app ships a Spreadsheet Role Center with the profile Spreadsheet. Its navigation has the sections Spreadsheets, Spreadsheet Templates, Financial Reports and G/L Budgets, and its main part shows a spreadsheet of the user's choice with the part actions Select Spreadsheet, Open in Editor and Refresh. Assign the Spreadsheet profile to users who mainly work with spreadsheets and dashboards.

To set it up for yourself:

  1. Create and save a spreadsheet, or make sure you have access to a shared sheet.
  2. Open Settings → My Settings, select Spreadsheet in the Role field, and confirm. If the role is unavailable, ask your administrator to make the profile available to you.
  3. On the Role Center's spreadsheet part, open the part menu (…) and choose Select Spreadsheet. Pick a saved sheet from the list.
  4. Use the page tabs, slicers and Ctrl+click drill-down to explore the sheet. The Role Center presents it read-only.
  5. Choose Open in Editor from the part menu to work on the sheet; users with read-only sheet access open a preview instead. Choose Refresh from that menu to reload changes saved elsewhere.

The selected sheet is remembered for your user in the current company. Before you select one, or if the sheet is deleted or you lose access, the part shows No spreadsheet selected. Use Select Spreadsheet again to choose an accessible sheet. The part-menu Refresh reloads the saved document; a region badge's refresh button re-queries that region's cached data.

Administrators can add the app's pages to any role center through profile customization:

  • Advanced Spreadsheets and Reporting Print Jobs
  • Indicator Library
  • Financial Reports API List
  • Spreadsheets

Permissions and Visibility

Page Visibility

All pages and fields are always visible to users with the AFR_Hgd permission set. Licensing never hides anything; when the app is unlicensed the behaviour is disabled instead (indicators return 0, the Define Indicator page asks for registration, API calls error, API links are blank).

Pages Without Search Entry

Certain pages are intentionally not searchable:

  • Select Table (accessed through Define Indicator)
  • Select Field (accessed through Define Indicator)
  • Filters on Indicator (accessed through Indicator Library)
  • Select Indicator from Library (accessed through Define Indicator)

Troubleshooting Navigation

Page Not Found

If a page doesn't appear in search:

  • Verify the app is installed
  • Check user permissions
  • Some pages are opened only from other pages (see above)

Action Not Available

If an action is grayed out or missing:

  • Check user permissions
  • Verify license status
  • Ensure prerequisites are met

Features Missing

If expected features are missing:

  • Confirm the app version is current
  • Check for page personalization issues
  • Review permission set assignments