How to generate customer ledger reports in Business Central with Analysis Mode

In this video, we dive into the powerful Analysis Mode available in Dynamics 365 Business Central. We showcase just how straightforward it is to generate customer ledger reports tailored to your specific needs. This feature enables businesses to leverage pivot mode and intuitive drag-and-drop functions, making reporting faster and more flexible than traditional methods.

See it live in our free webinar series on Monday 2 December 2024 @ 11am AEST and Friday 6 December @ 11am AEST.

Key features of Analysis Mode in Business Central:

Business Central’s Analysis Mode offers a highly interactive way to build, view, and customise reports. Here’s how it stands out:

• Pivot Mode for Tailored Analysis: With pivot mode, users can organise data dynamically. By simply dragging and dropping, you can adjust row groups, column labels, and values. In this example, we create a customer ledger segmented by organisation size—large, medium, and small—allowing for easy comparisons and insights at a glance.
• Intuitive Drag-and-Drop Functionality: Forget complex, time-consuming setups. Business Central’s drag-and-drop approach enables you to instantly reshape the data by adjusting variables without needing extensive customisation.
• Customisable Grouping Options: You can group customer data based on any parameter relevant to your analysis, whether by size, region, or category. The demo illustrates grouping by organisation size, but the tool adapts to any criteria you need, providing insights tailored to your business requirements.

Report creation in Business Central vs. Dynamics GP

While Dynamics GP provides robust reporting tools, replicating the same customer ledger report as shown in Business Central’s Analysis Mode typically involves multiple manual steps and additional tools. Here’s how Business Central enhances the process:

1. In-Built Pivot Functionality: Unlike Business Central’s Analysis Mode, Dynamics GP doesn’t offer an in-system pivot table for instant data manipulation. To achieve similar flexibility in GP, users often need to export data to external tools like Excel or create a custom report using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), which requires additional setup and technical knowledge.
2. Drag-and-Drop Simplicity: Business Central’s drag-and-drop approach to organising row groups, column labels, and values makes it straightforward to tailor reports on the fly. In GP, report customisation generally requires setting up views in SmartList, or even using SmartList Builder (an additional module), to define the data structure for export or further manipulation in Excel—adding several steps compared to Business Central’s streamlined interface.
3. Real-Time Customisation: Business Central’s pivot mode allows for real-time adjustments directly within the interface, enabling users to interactively change parameters and view immediate results. Dynamics GP lacks this level of interactivity; adjustments often require returning to the data source, making manual updates, or re-exporting the data for further analysis.
4. Data Preparation Efficiency: Customising reports in Dynamics GP frequently involves deeper familiarity with data structures and table relationships, which can slow down the setup process. Business Central’s Analysis Mode, by contrast, is designed to be user-friendly and efficient, allowing even non-technical users to quickly adjust report layouts and groupings without specialised knowledge.

By integrating pivot capabilities and real-time customisation, Business Central empowers users to generate and refine customer ledger reports with minimal effort, contrasting with the more manual, multi-step approach often necessary in Dynamics GP.

Thinking of migrating from Dynamics GP to Business Central? Attend our free upcoming webinars.

In our first session of our “Dynamics GP to Business Central” webinar series, discover how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers the scalability, enhanced reporting, and advanced features you need in 2024, like Analysis Mode. Join us as our experts guide you through Business Central’s powerful capabilities that redefine financial management and reporting.

Free webinar on Monday 2 December 2024 @ 11am AEST

By simplifying the report generation process, Business Central’s Analysis Mode empowers users to perform insightful, customised analysis swiftly and efficiently. For organisations upgrading from Dynamics GP, this feature alone can save significant time and provide a smoother reporting experience.

For further assistance, contact us or request a personalised demo.