Simple Object Designer Documentation
Index

Reports

The Reports inspection page lets you browse all reports in your Business Central environment and access report customization. This page explains how to use report inspection.

Accessing Reports Inspection

  1. Open Inspect and Customize Objects > Reports
  2. The Existing Reports page opens
  3. Browse all reports in the system

The Existing Reports Page

Columns

Column Description
Report No. Report object ID
Customized Indicator if report has customizations
Name Report name
Processing Only True if no output (batch job)
Usage Category Report category
Default Layout Word, RDLC, or Excel

Filtering

Filter to find specific reports:

  • By Report No.
  • By Name
  • By Usage Category
  • By Default Layout type

Use the Only Customized Objects toggle to restrict the list to reports that already have SOD customizations.

Report Types

Output Reports

Reports that generate visible output:

  • Documents (invoices, orders)
  • Listings (customer list, item list)
  • Analysis reports

Processing Only Reports

Reports that run processes without output:

  • Batch jobs
  • Calculations
  • Data processing

What You Can See

All System Reports

Reports from:

  • Base application
  • Installed extensions
  • Your SOD customizations

Customization Status

The "Customized" indicator shows:

  • Yes = Report has SOD customizations (added fields, caption changes)
  • No = Report is standard, no SOD changes

Report Customization

Accessing Customization

  1. Select a report in the list
  2. Click Customize Report action
  3. The Customize Report card opens

What You Can Customize

From the report customization card:

  • Add fields to dataset
  • Modify report caption
  • Configure calculated fields

Report Placements

The Report Placements section shows:

  • Fields added to the dataset
  • Data item assignments
  • Field properties

See Add Fields to Reports for details.

Removing Report Customization

To remove all SOD customizations from a report:

  1. Select the customized report
  2. Click Remove Customization
  3. Confirm the removal
  4. Publish to apply

This removes:

  • Added fields from dataset
  • Caption changes
  • Calculated fields

Note: Custom layouts must be updated separately.

Understanding Report Structure

Data Items

Data items are the tables in the report:

  • Primary data item (main records)
  • Related data items (joined tables)
  • Nested structure

Dataset vs Layout

Component What It Is
Dataset Data available to report
Layout Visual presentation

SOD modifies the dataset. Layouts must be updated separately to display new fields.

Common Tasks

Finding a Report

  1. Open Reports inspection
  2. Use filter for report name
  3. Or filter by Usage Category

Adding Fields to Reports

  1. Find the report
  2. Click Customize Report
  3. Add fields via Report Placements
  4. Publish
  5. Update layout to display new fields

Checking Customizations

  1. Filter to Customized = Yes
  2. Review the list
  3. Open each to see what's been modified

Report Layouts

Layout Types

Type Editor Best For
Word Microsoft Word Simple reports
RDLC Report Builder Complex reports
Excel Microsoft Excel Data analysis

Updating Layouts

After adding fields via SOD:

  1. Export the current layout
  2. Open in appropriate editor
  3. Add new fields to design
  4. Import updated layout

See Custom Report Layouts for details.

You can also design entirely new PDF layouts inside Business Central with SOD's own Report Layout Designer.

Use Cases

Before Adding Report Fields

  1. Find the report
  2. Note its data items
  3. Identify which data item matches your field's table
  4. Plan the field addition

Reviewing Report Customizations

  1. Filter to Customized = Yes
  2. See which reports are modified
  3. Review added fields

Report Discovery

Find reports using a specific table:

  1. Browse reports
  2. Look at data item information
  3. Match to your table

Limitations

What SOD Can Do

  • Add fields to dataset
  • Add calculated fields
  • Modify caption
  • Export and import Word layouts (via the Customize Report card)
  • Export and import RDLC layouts (via the Customize Report card)

What SOD Can't Do

  • Create new report objects. There is no way to author a new report or report ID. To surface custom fields, add them to an existing report's dataset and build a custom layout for that report — for item fields, pick an existing Item-based report.
  • Modify report logic in the report's AL triggers
  • Add new data items
  • Modify grouping
  • Add fields into a data item that runs on the Integer (virtual) table. When a report's line loop is built on an Integer data item instead of the real table, the custom field cannot be joined into that loop. This is common in reports that have already been heavily customized by a consulting partner, where the table-based line loop was replaced or supplemented by an Integer-driven one.
  • Add fields to the line data items of the legacy Microsoft 100xx document reports (report 10074 "Sales - Invoice", for example). Those reports print lines from an internal shadow-copied table that SOD's ReportExtension cannot extend. For custom line fields on sales invoice printouts, use the modern report 1306 instead.

See Add Fields to Reports for the detail on each of these, and Limitations for the broader boundary.

Layout Updates

Adding fields to the dataset doesn't automatically display them in a report layout. After publishing:

  1. Use Export Word Layout or Export RDLC Layout on the Customize Report card
  2. Edit the layout to reference the new dataset field
  3. Use Import Word Layout / Import RDLC Layout to bring the updated layout back in
  4. Publish so the updated layout ships with your extension