Modifying Dynamics NAV Reports Keeps You Ahead of the Curve

Reports in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

One of the many benefits of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is it's reporting capability. From viewing lists as charts, to exporting to Excel and Power BI; there are a wide range of options available for improving productivity, simplifying processes and getting the most out of your day.

By far the most popular feature of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, however, are standard NAV Reports.

Accessing Dynamics NAV Code for report writing

These Reports are coded into NAV, to send Reports as requested or scheduled, and can have interactive elements built in to answer your specific needs. Many features such as printing quote and invoice documents are built on Reports as well (they are special reports with extra coding). However, with so many parts of NAV depending on Reports, small tweaks or major changes will require a Microsoft partner, which can prove costly and time consuming.

Why Can't You Edit Your Own NAV Reports?

Dynamics NAV is a complex piece of software that manages every area of your business on one system. It is structured and coded with its own development environment. Most business owners are not programmers, and will not have the time or resources to plough into learning the necessary technical skill set required to develop NAV systems. Although most customers have support contracts in place, these exclude the provision of support of development that has not been provided by the partner that they have the contract with.

Or, Can You?

That is not the end of the story, however. Many businesses have IT staff with strong technical knowledge, as well as thorough understanding of databases. For those of you who are familiar with the Dynamics NAV data structure, you have the ability to modify the various elements in a Report, removing the reliance on a third party to make minor tweaks.

If you can show this capability to your partner, providing a structured process is adhered to, they will very often come to a hybrid agreement that sees them offer you the necessary support required, while you make minor modifications to the Reports.

How Do You Start Modifying Reports in NAV?

There are lots of aspects to creating and modifying Reports in Dynamics NAV, such as setting page options and interactive sorting. The best way to start, in our opinion, is to get training from one of the best developers in the industry. Luckily, you are in the right place to find one of them! Our technical director is recognised for his work in developing NAV and even trains other NAV partners. Join him for training with our course “NAV Report Writing Basics Training”:

Introductory training on writing Reports for Dynamics NAV >

Jesse Lawrence

Jesse is our marketing manager, keeping an eye on the latest news in the market as well as having worked on the GDPR legislation.