How-ToFinance & Operations

How to Use Financial Reports in Business Central

A guide to the Financial Reports feature in Business Central, how to set up row and column definitions, create reports, apply dimension filters, and run P&L and balance sheet reports.

Stein Sæstad
10 min read

Financial Reports is the tool in Business Central for building custom financial statements. It replaced the older Account Schedules feature in recent versions of Business Central, though the underlying logic is largely the same. You define how rows are structured (which accounts or totals appear) and how columns are structured (which figures to show, actuals, budget, variance, prior year), then combine them into a report.

The feature is used for P&L statements, balance sheets, department reporting, and any other structured financial output you need beyond standard G/L reports.

Step 1: Access Financial Reports

  1. Search for Financial Reports using Alt + Q.
  2. The list shows all existing financial reports. You can open an existing one to review its structure or select New to create a new report from scratch.

Step 2: Understand the Structure

Each financial report has two main components:

Component Purpose
Row Definition Defines the rows, which G/L accounts, totals, formulas, or descriptions appear
Column Definition Defines the columns, which figures appear (net change, balance, budget, prior year, etc.)

A financial report is the combination of one row definition and one column definition. You can reuse the same row definition with different column definitions, for example, showing actuals only in one report and actuals vs budget in another.

Step 3: Create or Edit a Row Definition

  1. Search for Row Definitions using Alt + Q, or open an existing financial report and select the Row Definition link.
  2. Select New to create a new row definition, and give it a Name and Description.
  3. On the row definition lines, each line represents one row in the report. The key fields are:
Field Description
Row No. A reference code for the row (used in formulas)
Description The label shown in the report output
Totaling Type How the row is calculated: G/L Accounts, Total, Formula, Cost Type, etc.
Totaling The account range or formula (e.g., 4000..4999 or 10+20-30)
Show Controls whether the row always shows or only when non-zero
Bold Formats the row as bold in the output
  1. Add rows for each section of your report, revenue accounts, expense accounts, subtotals, and net totals.

Example Row Structure for a P&L

Row No. Description Totaling Type Totaling
10 Revenue G/L Accounts 4000..4999
20 Cost of Goods Sold G/L Accounts 5000..5999
30 Gross Profit Formula 10-20
40 Operating Expenses G/L Accounts 6000..6999
50 Operating Result Formula 30-40

Step 4: Create or Edit a Column Definition

  1. Search for Column Definitions using Alt + Q, or open a financial report and select the Column Definition link.
  2. Select New, and give it a Name and Description.
  3. On the column definition lines, each line defines one column in the report output:
Field Description
Column No. Reference code for the column
Column Header The label shown at the top of the column
Column Type Net Change, Balance at Date, Beginning Balance, Budget, Formula, etc.
Ledger Entry Type Entries, Budget Entries
Amount Type Net Amount, Debit Amount, Credit Amount
Formula Used when Column Type is Formula (e.g., B-A for variance)

Example Column Structure for Budget Comparison

Column No. Header Column Type Ledger Entry Type
A Actual Net Change Entries
B Budget Net Change Budget Entries
C Variance Formula , (Formula: A-B)

Step 5: Create a Financial Report

  1. On the Financial Reports page, select New.
  2. Enter a Name and Description.
  3. In the Row Definition Name field, select the row definition you created.
  4. In the Column Definition Name field, select the column definition.
  5. Save the record.

Step 6: Run the Report with Filters

  1. On the Financial Reports list, select your report and choose Edit Financial Report or View Financial Report.
  2. In the filter options, set:
    • Date Filter, the period you want to report on (e.g., 01/01/2025..12/31/2025)
    • G/L Budget Filter, select a budget name if your column definition includes budget columns
    • Dimension Filters, filter by department, cost center, or other dimension values to produce department-level reports
  3. Select Print or Preview to view the output.

Changes you make to filters while viewing a report are temporary. To change what every user sees when they open the report, use Edit Defaults. The options and filters saved on the financial report, such as the date filter and dimension filters, then become the starting point for all users. From version 29.0, default values are always on, because the Feature Management switch for them became mandatory.

Run Several Reports to One PDF

Starting with version 29.0 (2026 release wave 2), you can run several financial reports in one go from the Financial Reports list and get a single PDF back. This is useful for a month-end pack where the P&L, balance sheet, and department reports go to management as one file.

If you send the same pack every month, schedule it instead. See How to Schedule and Automate Reports in Business Central.

Find Which Reports Use a G/L Account

Before you rename, block, or restructure a G/L account, check which financial reports reference it. Version 29.0 lets you trace G/L account usage across row definitions, so you can see which reports would change if the account moves.

This is most useful when you reorganise the Chart of Accounts. Account ranges in Totaling such as 6000..6999 pick up new accounts automatically, but reports that list single accounts or use formulas need manual updates.

Change Log for Financial Reports

From version 29.0, changes to financial reports, row definitions, and column definitions are always logged. There is no setting to turn this off. If a P&L suddenly shows different figures, the log shows who changed the definition and when.

For general change tracking on other tables, see How to Use the Change Log in Business Central.

Common Use Cases

Report Type Row Definition Column Definition
Profit & Loss Income and expense accounts Monthly net change
Balance Sheet Asset, liability, equity accounts Balance at date
Department P&L Same P&L rows Actuals filtered by department dimension
Budget vs Actual P&L rows Actuals + Budget + Variance columns

Note on Account Schedules

If you are on an older version of Business Central, the same functionality appears under Account Schedules rather than Financial Reports. The structure, row definitions and column definitions, is identical. Microsoft renamed and reorganised the feature in Business Central 2022 Wave 1.

To set up the budget data used in budget comparison columns, see How to Set Up and Use Budgets in Business Central.