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Analyzing sustainability entries with financial reports

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The financial reports feature gives you insights into the financial data shown on your chart of accounts (COA). You can set up financial reports to analyze figures in general ledger (G/L) accounts, and compare general ledger entries with budget entries. But you can also analyze statistical and sustainability data with the same feature, and even combine all three types of data.

Prerequisites for financial reporting

Setting up financial reports requires an understanding of the structure of the data you want to analyze. There are some key concepts that you likely need to pay attention to before you design your financial reports:

  1. Related to the chart of accounts:

    1. Map G/L posting accounts to G/L account categories.
    2. Design how you use dimensions.
    3. Set up G/L budgets.

  2. Related to sustainability:

    1. Set up your sustainability accounts.
    2. Set up your carbon fees and CO2e in the Emission Fees.
    3. Design how you use dimensions.

  3. Related to the statistical accounts:

    1. Set up your statistical accounts.
    2. Design how you use dimensions.

Note

Financial reports doesn't work directly with CO2, CH4, or N2O emissions. Instead, it uses the CO2 equivalent model and that means you must first configure CO2e (carbon-dioxide equivalent) on the Emission Fees page.

Note

More details about using financial reports with financial data and chart of accounts can be found at Prepare financial reporting with financial data and account categories.

Create a new financial report

To quickly create your own financial reports, start by copying an existing one, as described in step 3 here:

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 1. icon, enter Financial Reports, and then choose the related link.
  2. On the Financial Reports page, choose the New action to create a new financial report name.
  3. Fill in the report short name in Name field (you can't change the name later) and enter a Description.
  4. Choose a row definition and a column definition.
  5. Choose the Edit Report Definition action to access more properties on the financial report.
  6. On the Options FastTab, you can edit the report description, change the row and column definitions, and define how to show dates. Dates can be a Day/Week/Month/Quarter/Year hierarchy, or use accounting periods. To learn more, go to Comparing accounting periods using period formulas.
  7. On the Dimensions FastTab, you can define dimension filters for the report.
  8. You can preview the report in the area below the Dimensions FastTab.

If you want to analyze your sustainability or statistical data, you can achieve this by setting up the Row Definition.

To create or edit a row definition, follow these steps:

  1. On the Financial Reports page, select the relevant financial report, and then choose the Edit Row Definition action.
  2. Fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.

Note

The Row No. field shows the first 10 characters of an identifier, such as an account number. If you add elements with identifiers that start with the same 10 characters, you'll have duplicates in the Row No. field. If needed, you can manually edit the identifiers after you insert the elements. The full identifiers are displayed in the Totaling field.

Note

You can combine all Totaling Types, that is, Posting accounts, Sust. Accounts, and Statistical Account.

Note

Row definitions aren't versioned. When you change a row definition, the old version is replaced and your changes will be saved to the database.

Analyzing sustainability data

  1. Enter the Row No. to identify your row and add Description as a text that will appear on the financial report line.

  2. In the Totaling Type column, choose the Sust. Accounts option.

  3. In the Totaling field, choose one or more sustainability accounts using all applicable filters.

  4. In the Amount Type choose one of the options:

    1. Choose CO2e if you want to report CO2 equivalent value from the CO2e Emission field in the Sustainability Ledger Entries.
    2. Choose Carbon Fee if you want to report financial equivalent (carbon fee) from the Carbon Fee field on the Sustainability Ledger Entries.

  5. If you choose Formula as a Totaling Type, you can use mathematical formulas in the Totaling column.

Analyzing statistical data

  1. Enter the Row No. to identify your row and add Description as a text that will appear on the financial report line.
  2. In the Totaling Type column, choose the Statistical Accounts option.
  3. In the Totaling field, choose one or more sustainability accounts using all applicable filters.
  4. If you choose Formula as a Totaling Type, you can use mathematical formulas in the Totaling column.

See also

Sustainability Management Overview
Sustainability reports and analytics in Business Central
Sustainability API
Prepare financial reporting
Row definitions in Financial Reporting
Column definitions in Financial Reporting
Financial management
Work with Business Central

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