Financial Reporting Overview in Dynamics 365

Aug 26, 2024

Dynamic 365 Tech Talk: Financial Reporting in Dynamics 365 Finance

Moderator: Janice
Presenters: Severin Bach (R&D Solution Architect), Ginny Wong (Senior Program Manager), Christopher Biesman (Senior Software Engineer)
Recording Available: On Tech Talks Community Dynamics Page within five business days

Agenda

  1. Introduction to Financial Reporting
  2. Setup and Navigation
  3. Data Mart Overview (Christopher)
  4. LCS and Troubleshooting Insights (Severin)

Introduction to Financial Reporting

  • Use Case:
    • Financial accountants need to create reports for monthly closing.
    • Financial Reporting aids in consolidated financial reports, management reporting packages, and reporting by subsidiary.
  • Features of Financial Reporting:
    • Create, maintain, deploy, and view financial statements.
    • Dimension support: Account segments or dimensions readily available.
    • Focus on General Ledger transactions (not including sub-ledger transactions).

Components of Financial Reporting

  1. Report Designer

    • Combines building blocks to define a report.
    • Allows ad-hoc or scheduled report generation.

  2. Building Blocks

    • Row Definition: Defines the values in each line item, can include calculations.
    • Column Definition: Describes the columns (period definitions, account numbers).
    • Reporting Tree Definition: Hierarchy for organizational reporting (e.g., holding company and subsidiaries).

Security

  • Access Privileges:
    • Set roles for maintaining financial reports, generating reports, and viewing reports.
    • Possible to restrict access to specific reporting units (e.g., cost centers, business units).

Demonstration of Financial Reporting

  • Navigating in F&O:
    • Access financial reporting in the General Ledger or Budgeting modules.
  • Setup:
    • Ensure financial dimensions needed in reports are selected (to optimize performance).
  • Creating Reports:
    • Use the designer tool to create report definitions.
  • Report Generation:
    • Generate reports manually or through scheduling.
    • Reports can be exported to Excel with formulas intact.

Performance Considerations

  • Slow Report Issues:
    • Large reports with many dimensions and attributes can slow down performance.
    • Considerations for historical currency translations and tree designs affecting performance.

Data Mart Overview (Christopher)

  • Architecture:
    • Application Service: Interactive and responds to requests.
    • Process Service: Non-interactive, processes jobs for report generation.
  • Data Sync:
    • Incremental loads for performance; can reset the Data Mart if out of sync.

LCS and Troubleshooting

  • Regular environment downtimes for maintenance to deploy updates and fixes.
  • Utilize LCS for cumulative updates to resolve issues.

Q&A Session Highlights

  • Power BI Integration: Microsoft has a Power BI embedded solution but Financial Reporting remains a separate tool.
  • Consolidation Reports: Reference consolidated companies in financial reporting for all-up consolidation.
  • Exchange Rates: Defined at the main account level in Financial Reporting.
  • Drill Down Feature: Allows users to explore transaction details within reports.

Feedback

  • Participants are encouraged to fill out a survey for feedback on the session and future topics.