Since NAV 2018, Excel reports have been available in the accountant’s Role Center. But what data is actually used as a basis here? Is it possible to adapt or extend these reports?
Problem
However, since this is an output directly in Excel and you can no longer view the data set for reports since the introduction of the web client, I would like to take the opportunity to look behind the scenes of the Excel reports.
Procedure
I took a quick look at AL and found out that the Excel reports are created based on web services, so I opened the Web Services page and found the following entries:
Now I tried to go to one of the specified pages, but to no avail. None of the pages can be accessed via the application search. So again I just had the way back to AL to see why. Again, I couldn’t find the pages under the specified object names. So I tried to access one of the pages directly from the URL:
This worked and the trialBalance page was opened. With the key combination Ctrl+Alt+F1 I called the Page Instection:
Here I found some useful information. The base page is of type API, so it is not actually used to be displayed in the client. The base table is the “Trial Balance Entity Buffer” table and this is a temporary table.
I therefore assume that the table will be filled at run time, and I would like to take a look at AL, which data are used here.
When I open the page and scroll to the OnOpenPage trigger, I can find the following code:
I looked at this for all pages and found that the codeunit “Graph Mgt – Report” is always called. As a small help, I enter a table here, which indicates the numbers and names of the pages and the base table of the data. If the base table is the Account Schedule table, I have specified the field in the General Ledger Setup that specifies which account schedule is used.
| Name in the menu | Page No. | Page Name | Base | Field in the FiBu setup |
| Cash Flow Statement | 5493 | Cash Flow Statement Entity | Account schedule | Acc. Sched. for Cash Flow Stmt |
| Retained Earnings Statement | 5497 | Retained Earnings Entity | Account schedule | Acc. Sched. for Retained Earn. |
| Aged Accounts Receivable | 5499 | Aged AR Entity | Customer entries | |
| Aged Accounts Payable | 5500 | Aged AP Entity | Vendor entries | |
| Balance Sheet | 5501 | Balance Sheet Entity | Account Schmema | Acc. Sched. for Balance Sheet |
| Trial Balance | 5502 | Trial Balance Entity | Ledger accounts | |
| Income Statement | 5503 | Income Statement Entity | Account schedule | Acc. Sched. for Income Stmt. |
Extensions
Now, as a programmer, the last question is whether I can also expand these reports. Here I keep the answer short: unfortunately, no. This is because API pages cannot be extended.
My conclusion
Without the help of a programmer, it is hardly possible to find out exactly which data the individual Excel reports access. I therefore hope that this blog entry will help consultants get more clarity here.