A report definition is a report component, also called a building block, which uses a row definition, a column definition, and an optional reporting tree definition to create a report. In addition, the report definition provides additional options and settings for customising a report.

Create a report definition

After you define row and column definitions, you need to combine them in a report definition. At this point, you will also define additional aspects of the definitions, such as the detail level and report date, and then you can save and generate a report.

Management Reporter offers the following levels of detail reporting: Financial, Account Only, Financial & Account, Transaction Only, or Financial, Account, & Transaction. However, depending on how data is stored in the Microsoft Dynamics ERP system, transaction details might not be available in reports.

  1. In Report Designer, on the Filemenu, click New, and then select Report Definition.

  2. Indicate or select the appropriate information in the Report, Output and Distribution, Headers and Footers, and Settingstabs. For more information about these tabs, see Contents of a report definition .

Contents of a report definition

The following table describes the tabs in a report definition and how the information is used.

Tab

Description

Report

Create a report, configure a report, or modify an existing report.

For more information, see Select report components in a report definition .

Output and Distribution

Change the report output type and destination.

For more information, see Report generation .

Headers and Footers

Define and format the report headers and footers. For example, you can add text or images to the header or footer. Management Reporter supports .bmp, .jpg, and .png files for images. In addition, you can add autotext code to insert other information, such as a company name, a report name, or page number.

For more information, see Headers and footers in report definitions

Settings

Specify formatting and rounding amounts, format detail reports, format reporting trees, generate an exception report, specify currency conversion, and subtotal and filter account details.

For more information, see Change report settings in a report definition .

See Also