Report Layout Designer Overview
The Report Layout Designer (branded +Reports) lets you design print-perfect report layouts directly inside Business Central — no RDLC, no Word documents, no external tools. This page introduces the feature and explains how it fits into Business Central's reporting.
What the Report Layout Designer Is
The Report Layout Designer is a visual, canvas-based layout editor built into Simple Object Designer. Instead of exporting a Word or RDLC layout and editing it in an external program, you design the layout on a canvas inside Business Central:
- Draw text, data fields, lines, boxes, images, charts, and QR codes at exact millimeter positions
- Bind elements to the report's dataset columns
- Configure grouping, sorting, and running totals
- Preview and test print with live data without leaving the designer
- Optionally let the built-in AI assistant (the Report Builder Agent) build or restyle the layout for you
How It Works
Layout Format
Layouts created with the designer are stored as standard Business Central custom report layouts (Tenant Report Layouts with layout format "Custom"). The design itself — sections, drawing elements, page settings, fonts, and images — is stored by Simple Object Designer and can be exported to and imported from a self-contained JSON file.
Because the layout is a normal tenant report layout, it appears in Business Central's standard layout selection for the report. Users pick it the same way they pick any Word or RDLC layout.
PDF Rendering
When a report runs with one of your designed layouts, Simple Object Designer renders the output as a PDF using its own built-in PDF engine. The engine supports:
- Embedded TrueType/OpenType fonts (font uploads accept .ttf files)
- JPEG and PNG images
- SVG graphics and QR codes
- Charts (column, bar, line, area, pie, donut)
- Hyperlinks
- PDF encryption and print/copy permissions
No external tools, services, or add-ins are involved — the PDF is produced entirely inside Business Central.
Reports That Do Not Use Your Layout
If a report runs with a layout that was not created by the designer (for example a Word or RDLC layout), Business Central's default rendering is used as usual. The designer only takes over for its own layouts.
When to Use It
| Situation | Recommended Approach |
|---|---|
| You want pixel-precise document layouts without external tools | Report Layout Designer |
| You want AI help designing or restyling layouts | Report Layout Designer with the Report Builder Agent |
| You need a consistent look across many documents | Report Layout Designer with Report Sets |
| You already maintain Word layouts and only need to add a field | Word layouts |
| You need Excel-based analysis output | Excel layouts |
Accessing the Report Layout Designer
From the Simple Object Designer main menu:
- Open the Report Layouts group
- Choose Report Layouts to open the layout list, or Report Layout Sets to work with report sets
You can also search for "Simple Object Designer Report Layouts" in Tell Me.
The Welcome Page
The first time you open the layout list, a welcome page introduces the feature and its three-step workflow:
- Choose New and pick a report
- Open Edit Report and design on the canvas — or ask the AI to do it
- Use Test Print to see the result with live data
You can reopen this page any time with the Welcome action on the layout list.
Main Building Blocks
| Component | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Report Layout list | Hub for creating, editing, importing/exporting, and test printing layouts |
| Report Layout Designer | Shows the layout's sections (bands) and their settings |
| Visual layout editor | Canvas where you draw and position elements within a section |
| Full Page Canvas | Page-sized background layer for watermarks, borders, and stationery |
| Report Builder Agent | AI chat assistant that designs and edits layouts on request |
| Report Sets | Named collections of reports sharing one visual style, fonts, and images |
Licensing
The Report Layout Designer (+Reports) is licensed separately from the core Simple Object Designer:
- Sandbox environments (cloud) — always available for design and testing
- Free trial — 90 days of free production use for existing Simple Object Designer customers, starting when you first open the feature. This applies to customers holding the non-+Reports version of SOD: during the trial, +Reports works in production without the separate licence.
- Production use after the trial — requires a valid +Reports license key from Hougaard
How existing customers get a production +Reports licence: contact Hougaard sales at sales@hougaard.com to arrange a license swap that adds +Reports to your current SOD license. Sandbox use and the 90-day production trial require no swap.
What the Designer Does Not Do
SOD cannot create new reports. This is worth stating plainly, because customers sometimes buy SOD expecting a report-building tool.
What SOD does is:
- Extend existing reports with new fields in the dataset
- Design layouts for existing reports
There is no facility for authoring a report object from scratch. When you need something like a custom information sheet, choose an existing report that uses the right data item, add your fields to its dataset, and build a custom layout for it. See Add Fields to Reports.
Prerequisites
- Simple Object Designer installed and set up
- To use the AI assistant: an AI provider configured in the Simple Object Designer setup (see Report Builder Agent)
- The report you want to design for must be "learned" once so the designer knows its data items and columns — the designer prompts you to do this automatically (see Creating and Managing Layouts)