Why You Should Use Jet Reports with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly Dynamics NAV)

Editor's note: Several industry changes have happened since this article was first published. 

Firstly, Jet Reports Inc. rebranded itself as Jet Global Data Technologies in October 2018. To find out more about the change, read our blogpost here. 

In April of the same year, Microsoft announced they'd be moving Dynamics NAV to the Cloud and re-branding it as Dynamics 365 Business Central. To find out more about what that change means, read our blogpost here.

All references to these products have been updated to reflect this.

When you choose an ERP software like Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly Microsoft Dynamics NAV), you usually do so for reasons like:

• Reduce costs improve revenue and mitigate risk
• Generate timely, accurate reports to make smarter business decisions
• Streamline complicated data processes so you can get the visibility you need

And generally, Business Central does all that (and more). But if you want access to even richer business insights, Jet Reports can help you take Business Central further by turning complex data into clear reports and dashboards within Excel’s interface.

Download the Jet Reports Brochure here.

Jet Reports is a reporting and BI solution certified by and developed with Microsoft. The easy-to-use extension seamlessly integrates with Excel, so you’ll be able to pull out all the data you need in no time and collate it in a nicely presentable format.

It’s quick and easy to set up, and because it works within Excel’s familiar interface, your team will be able to pick it up quickly and start using Jet Reports for your business.

Jet Reports Benefits for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly Dynamics NAV)

Jet Reports offers a wide range of benefits in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: 

Eliminate Errors and Never Second Guess Again

• Pulls data directly into Excel, so you feel confident you're getting the right data and workbook
• No tedious exporting or copy and pasting
• Begin using and building reports immediately in a collaboration and publishing platform
• Accurate governed data which everyone can rely on

Maximise ROI with Rapid Time-to-value

• Get pre-built cubes and data warehouse dashboards, with extensive report and dashboard template library
• Build and share dashboards within minutes, to gain valuable business insight from day one
• Low cost of ownership, with a customisation platform that is 5x faster than manual coding
• Complete Data Warehouse Automation
• Built specifically for Microsoft Dynamics and easily connects to Microsoft SQL database

Designed for Business Users

• View data inside Excel or Microsoft Power BI for analytics in a familiar environment
• Access dashboards and reports any time, anywhere on the web or from a mobile device
• Eliminate need to understand complicated underlying data structure

Cut Reporting Time and Costs

• No hard-coding or programming skills required
• Reports seamlessly update with ERP upgrades
• Drill-down on the numbers directly from Excel

With Jet Reports, your management team can view key performance metrics across all areas of your company in real-time, and track consolidated profit and loss by division.

In addition, you will get to access a detailed profit-and-loss ledger (with real-time updates) daily, monthly or quarterly. You can also stay on top of accounts receivable KPIs in terms of days outstanding, past collection performance and more. Running financial reports from your general ledger and distribute them on a daily, weekly or monthly basis can’t get any easier.

Your sales team will also benefit from the easily build product sheets that allow the company to extract current pricings and specifications, and instantly update and release important changes. They can even customise a sales dashboard using PowerPivot to help track monthly sales, and budget projections for future sales.

With so much to benefit from, it’s no wonder over 10,000 companies around the world have adopted Jet Reports with Business Central for their financial and sales reporting functions.

Three Examples of Jet Reports Tools

Not convinced yet? Here are some tools within Jet Professional and Jet Enterprise that will help lead you down the quickest path to reporting success:

1. The Report Wizard

The Report Wizard is a structured report interface enables you to create a customized report from a single table in your database.

Here’s how it works:

• The Report Wizard prompts you with a series of questions
• Simply provide the answers to those questions
• Ta-da! Your report is generated

This tool also automatically groups your reports in a few clicks. You can do this by adding subtotals and grand totals to your report. You can take it further by segmenting information by grouping data through variables such as customer names, salesperson etc.

2. The Jet Browser

Another useful tool in Jet Reports is the Jet Browser. It gives a holistic overview of what’s in your database, and you can quickly create summary reports or detail lists. For report designers, this is a real easy-to-use interface that allows quick advanced searching. You can also use the intuitive drag-and-drop functionality to build reports on your own.

3. The Table Builder

Many Jet Reports users love this tool. Think of it as a ‘strong man’ which takes on the heavy burden of building reports, and allows you to easily play around with PivotTables, PivotCharts, and Slicers.

You create Excel reports that bridge the gap between multiple table fields. For instance, you can link tables together to combine information from an item table and an item ledger entry table. From there, you can add hard-coded and/or changeable filters for further analyses.

Summary

With Jet Reports for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can easily streamline your company’s core functions such as finance and sales, and simplify complex processes in a heartbeat. For more information on how Jet Reports can help you, give us a call or contact us here.

This article Why You Should Use Jet Reports with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (formerly Dynamics NAV) was first published on AFON.