Small and medium business | Business Central, N...

Replacement for ReportDistributionManagement.SendDocumentReport in recent Business Central

(7) Share

Report

Posted on by TAHER_El_Mehdi

1,981

Hi everyone,

I’m working on upgrading some legacy NAV code to the latest versions of Dynamics 365 Business Central, and I ran into an issue related to document distribution.

In older versions, we used the following internal procedure from Codeunit 452 – “Report Distribution Management”:

[Scope('Internal')]

procedure SendDocumentReport(

var TempDocumentSendingProfile: Record "Document Sending Profile" temporary;

PostedDocumentVariant: Variant)

This procedure handled printing, emailing, saving to disk, and electronic document sending based on the Document Sending Profile.

In newer Business Central versions, this method no longer exists.

However, I still found legacy/custom code calling it like this:

ReportDistributionManagement.SendDocumentReport(

TempDocumentSendingProfile,

SalesShipHeader

);

My question What is the modern equivalent of `SendDocumentReport` in recent Business Central versions?

Any guidance, documentation links, or real-world examples would be much appreciated 🙏

Thanks!

Categories:

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Dynamics 365 Business Central migration

I have the same question (0)

All responses (5)

Answers (0)

Sort by

Suggested answer

NAV_with_Narang 2,384 Moderator on at

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi There,

If you still haven't been able to get a response it's likely you should reach out to Microsoft Support if you think the issue is product related. Have a nice day!

Thanks

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

OussamaSabbouh 17,676 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like (3)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hello,
there isn’t really a clean one-line replacement for ReportDistributionManagement.SendDocumentReport(...) in modern BC, and the big clue is that the old method was [Scope('Internal')], so it was never meant to be consumed by custom code; in current BC the recommended approach is to refactor based on what you actually need to do: use Document Sending Profiles for the standard user flow like Post and Send / Send by Email, use the modern email setup / document email functionality for emailing PDFs, use normal Report.SaveAs... / report APIs for saving output, and use the newer E-Document framework if you need electronic document sending. So for your upgrade, don’t look for an exact SendDocumentReport equivalent; split the legacy call into the specific channel you need, or reuse the standard posted document send actions where possible.

Regards,
Oussama Sabbouh

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Assisted by AI

Saif Ali Sabri 2,691 Moderator on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!
There is no direct one-line replacement for
ReportDistributionManagement.SendDocumentReport in modern Business Central. The method was always marked [Scope('Internal')] and removed in newer versions. Instead, you now need to refactor based on the specific distribution scenario: use Document Sending Profiles for standard flows, modern email APIs for sending PDFs, Report.SaveAs… methods for saving output, and the E-Document framework for electronic document exchange.
🔑 Modern Alternatives to SendDocumentReport

Document Sending Profiles

Still the main user-facing mechanism for “Post and Send” or “Send by Email.”

Configurable per customer/vendor for print, email, disk, or electronic sending.

Email Functionality

Use the built-in email setup in BC for sending reports as PDF attachments.

Supports SMTP, Exchange, and modern OAuth-based connections.

Report.SaveAs Methods

Report.SaveAsPdf, Report.SaveAsWord, Report.SaveAsExcel, etc.

Ideal for programmatically saving report output to disk or streams.

E-Document Framework

Introduced for structured electronic document exchange (e.g., PEPPOL).

Replace custom “electronic sending” logic with standardized framework.

📌 Practical Guidance

Refactor legacy calls: Instead of calling SendDocumentReport, break down the requirement:

If you need printing/emailing → call the relevant Document Sending Profile actions.

If you need saving to disk → use Report.SaveAs… methods.

If you need electronic sending → adopt the E-Document framework.

Avoid internal methods: The removal signals that Microsoft doesn’t want custom code relying on internal-only procedures.

Event-driven extensibility: Use ReportManagement events like OnAfterSubstituteReport if you need to override or redirect reports.

⚠️ Risks & Considerations

Legacy code breaks: Any direct call to SendDocumentReport will fail in modern BC.

Migration effort: You must analyze each usage and replace it with the appropriate modern API.

Compliance: For electronic documents, using the E-Document framework ensures compliance with EU/PEPPOL standards.

Maintainability: Refactoring to supported APIs makes upgrades smoother and avoids breaking changes in future releases.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Grigorios Mavrogeorgis 2,544 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi,

the method is not really gone, the whole sending logic got refactored, so SendDocumentReport with that signature was deprecated and the work moved to the Document Sending Profile codeunit itself. Instead of calling Report Distribution Management directly, you now go through the Document Sending Profile, it has a Send method that takes the document record and handles printing, email, disk and electronic the same way the old procedure did, just driven from the profile.
So for a posted sales shipment your modern path is, get the Document Sending Profile for that customer, or the default, then call its Send passing the shipment header, and it routes everything based on the profile setup. Same outcome, the profile decides the channels, you do not orchestrate them by hand anymore.

One thing to watch on recent versions, a lot of the service related distribution also got split into separate Serv. codeunits, so if your legacy code touched service docs too check those moved as well. From what I seen the cleanest upgrade is drop the direct codeunit 452 call and lean on the profile's own Send.

Glad to help - follow up if anything is unclear.
► If this solved it, marking it verified helps others too.
Regards,
Grigorios Mavrogeorgis
Business Central Consultant & AL Developer
Work: Gmsoft Limited
Blog: insidebusinesscentral
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/gregorymavrogeorgis

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Gerardo Rentería Ga... 27,280 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi

Which version of nav? Is it standard or was it custom code within that CU?

Best

GR

Was this reply helpful? Yes No