Row definitions in Financial Reporting

Row definitions in financial reports provide a place for calculations that can't be made directly in the chart of accounts. For example, you can create subtotals for groups of accounts and then include that total in other totals. You can also calculate intermediate steps that aren't shown in the final report.

Create or edit a 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. Choose the Insert G/L Accounts, Insert CF Accounts, and Insert Cost Types actions to create a row for each financial element you want to analyze. For example, you might have one row for current assets and another row for fixed assets. For inspiration, explore the financial reports in the CRONUS demonstration company.

   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

   The columns you define on each line in the row definition represent columns three and up on the Financial Report page. The first two columns, Row No. and Description, are fixed.

3. To format the rows, choose the Bold, Italic, Underline, and Double Underline checkboxes. To learn more about formatting, go to Format your financial reporting.

Built-in row definitions

Business Central provides sample row definitions that can help you quickly get started setting up finance reports that suit your needs.

Note

The sample finance reports in Business Central aren't ready to use out of the box. Depending on how you set up your G/L accounts, dimensions, G/L account categories, and budgets, adjust the sample row and column definitions and the finance reports that use them to match your setup.

Format your financial reporting

On the Row Definition page, you can format your row definitions to provide visual cues that make it easier to find key information quickly. For example, lines that calculate totals often use bold font.

Note

Some of the formatting options don't carry over to reports when you use the Export to Excel action. If you often export reports to Excel, you might just use the tools that Excel provides rather than row definitions.

Use G/L account categories to change the layout of your financial statements

You can use G/L account categories to change the layout of your financial statements. For example, after you set up your account categories on the G/L Account Categories page, you can choose the Generate Financial Reports action and update the underlying financial reports for the core financial reports. The next time you run one of these reports, such as the Balance Statement report, new totals, and subentries are added.

Another benefit of using G/L account categories over the raw G/L accounts in your row definitions is that a change in your chart of accounts structure doesn't affect your financial reports.

Note

The top-level account categories, such as the Liabilities node, are fixed and you can't add your own. However, you can delete and add account categories at lower levels and define how the related financial report appears in reports.

You should create and structure your own lower-level G/L account categories from scratch, in a hierarchy if needed, rather than try to rearrange the existing ones. For example, you can restructure the Liabilities node to contain a new Equity node followed by the Current Liabilities and Long Term Liabilities nodes. Learn more at Mapping general ledger accounts to account categories.

Best practices for working with row definitions

Row definitions aren't versioned. When you change a row definition, the old version is replaced when your change saves to the database. The following list contains some best practices for working with row definitions:

• If you add row definitions, choose a good code and fill in the description field with a meaningful text while you still know what you use the row definition for. This information helps your coworkers (and your future self) to work with financial reporting and perhaps changing the row definition.
• Before you change a row definition, consider taking a copy of it as a backup, just in case your change doesn't work as expected. You can either just copy the definition (give it a good name), or export it. To learn more, go to Import or export row definitions.
• If you need a fresh copy of a definition that Business Central provides, an easy way to get one is to create a new company that only contains setup data. Then, export the definition and import it in the company where the definition needs a refresh.

Import or export financial reporting row definitions

You can import and export financial row definitions as RapidStart configuration packages. For example, configuration packages are useful for sharing information with other companies. The package is created in a .rapidstart file, which compresses the contents.

Note

When you import financial reporting row definitions, existing records with the same names as those you are importing are replaced with the new definitions. The configuration package for a report definition won't overwrite any existing row or column definitions that are used in the report definition.

To import or export financial report row definitions, follow these steps:

1. Choose the icon, enter Row Definitions, then choose the related link.
2. Choose the row definition, then choose the Import Row Definition or Export Row Definition action, depending on what you want to do.

See also

Column definitions in financial reporting
Prepare financial reporting
Financial Business Intelligence
Finance
Setting Up Finance
Work with Business Central

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