Effective reporting in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (D365 Finance and Operations) plays an important role for businesses to analyze financial performance, obtain insights, and make well-informed choices. Dynamics 365 Finance helps organizations to generate financial, operational, and analytical reports with the help of its comprehensive reporting framework. This blog explains the best practices, available tools, and detailed instructions for creating reports in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.
Reporting Tools in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations
Within Dynamics 365 Finance, Microsoft provides a number of reporting tools, each with a distinct function:
• Financial Reporter: For structured reporting and financial statements.
• Power BI: For interactive dashboards and sophisticated analytics.
• SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) – For specialized operational reports, use SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).
• Electronic Reporting (ER) – For external reporting and regulatory compliance, electronic reporting, or ER, is utilized.
• Excel Integration – Exporting and analyzing data in Excel is made possible by Excel Integration.
Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Reporting Tools
Although there aren’t many disadvantages to reporting with D365’s features, you might want to take into account the following:
There aren’t many built-in customizing options. You have little control over the appearance of your reports, but you can select which fields are included in them and make minor changes to the way the data displays. You would need to manually write code to incorporate features like dynamic charts and animations, for instance.
Some users could have a severe learning curve. Let’s say that only a small number of your team members now generate reports. It could take some time to train all of the members of your operations and finance teams to create reports.
Nevertheless, the gains usually exceed the drawbacks. For example, you receive:
• A comprehensive reporting system that incorporates information from several aspects of your business and money.
• Reports are generated quickly, accurately, and automatically with minimal effort.
• Real-time insights as a result of the integration of data from live sources. For instance, you may quickly create a cash flow statement and it will immediately include the most recent sales and spending data if you have to attend a meeting in a few minutes.
Your company can transform its reporting into a full business intelligence asset with the aid of each of these advantages.
So, how do you begin?
Steps to Create Reports in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations
Dynamics 365 F&O provides customers with a straightforward, logical procedure, which makes preparing reports pretty easy. Here’s how the process typically operates, though the specific steps will differ depending on the kind of report you’re creating.
How to Create Reports
You may utilize D365’s Report Wizard while you learn how to generate reports in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. With the help of this tool, you may produce thorough reports in a matter of minutes or less. Here’s how to accomplish it:
• Go to Reports.
• To add a new report, select New.
• Select Report Wizard Report from the Report Type list once you’re in the Report: New Report dialog.
• Select the Report Wizard option.
• Select where you want to start, which could be either:
(a) Making a fresh report. You select Start a new report and click Next to accomplish this.
(b) Modifying an existing report or beginning with a copy of one that already exists.
Choose Start from an existing report if this is where you want to begin. Additionally, you must click Next after checking the box to overwrite the current report.
• Enter the report’s name and select the types of records you want to utilize. You should fill out the following fields with information in order to accomplish this:
(a) Name of report.
(b) Type of primary record. This instructs the wizard to incorporate information from this record type and its associated records into your report.
(c) Related record type. In order to pull data for your report, you must add a linked record type here.
• Select Next.
• To determine which records are included in your report, use a filter.
There are several methods to generate reports in Dynamics 365, even though the wizard’s workflow might be one of the simplest.
Here are a few choices:
- Make use of the Power BI interface. This allows you to include real-time data and may even give you more choice over the type of report you create.
- Make use of the Excel integration. You can export data into Excel and generate reports there since Dynamics 365 F&O connects with Excel.
- Write code in Visual Studio vs. Code or another program to personalize a report. No-code report-generation tools are not your only option. You can use a development environment to manually code your report for specific use scenarios.
- Make use of SSRS, or SQL Server Reporting Services. In Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, an SSRS report is generated in a server-based environment. This allows you to incorporate your findings into applications and make them easily accessible to users through a web browser. Additionally, Visual Studio gives you access to templates that you may modify and apply.
Example of How to Create a Report
Reports can be made in a variety of ways, and the method you choose will depend on the kind of report you’re writing. Using a sales order for which you have previously prepared an invoice, here is one method:
- Click the “Invoice” option from the menu at the top of your sales order window.
- In the dialog box beneath the menu, click the “Invoice” button.
- To see how your report will appear, select Original Preview from the Document selection.
After that, you receive a comprehensive preview of a report that includes all of the data from your sales order invoice, including your company’s address, your customer’s address, the price of each unit, the quantity of units, the percentage of discount, and other fields you specified in your invoice.
Now that you understand the basic steps for creating reports in Dynamics Finance and Operations, you’re prepared to help your business gain insights into your finances and operations.

Looking to streamline your reporting?
CodeIT 365 can help you optimize Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations reporting with expert solutions.
Contact us today!
Wrapping Up
Financial planning, compliance, and decision-making all depend on the ability to create reports in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. Organizations can produce precise and informative reports by utilizing tools like Financial Reporter, Power BI, SSRS, Electronic Reporting, and Excel Integration. Strategic corporate growth and effective data analysis are ensured by knowing which tool is best for each reporting requirement. Gaining proficiency in these Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations reporting strategies will enable companies to maximize efficiency and uphold compliance in a changing financial environment.