In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, sometimes you need to analyse information stored in tables in a way that’s not available as part of a standard report. This is often called “ad-hoc analysis.”
Shauna Langley, Dynamics 365 Business Central Pre-Sales Consultant at Sysco Software has put together a helpful demonstration of this new feature, covering off the pre-requisites and general overview of the feature.
The data analysis mode enables data analysis directly from the page, without having to run a report or switch another application like Excel. It provides an interactive and versatile way to calculate, summarise, and examine data.
Instead of running reports using different options and filters, you can add multiple tabs that represent different tasks or views on the data. Examples could be “My customers”, “Follow up items”, “Recently added vendors”, “Sales statistics”, or any other view you can imagine.
What are the Pre-Requisites?
If you’re using Business Central version 22, the data analysis mode is in preview. So, an admin must enable it before you can use it. To enable it, go to the Feature Management page and switch on Feature Update: Analysis mode, quickly analyse data directly in Business Central.
In version 23 and later, your account must be assigned the DATA ANALYSIS – EXEC permission set or include execute permission on the system object 9640 Allow Data Analysis mode.
As an admin, you can exclude these permissions on users who you don’t want to have access to the analysis mode.
How does it work?
The Data Analysis mode falls into two distinct areas: “Main” and “Data Manipulation”.
Main Area - Data, Summaries & Tabs
Data: The data area is where the rows and columns of the list page query are shown and data is summarised. The data area provides a versatile way to control of the layout of columns and a quick way to get a summary of the data.
Summaries: The summary bar is along the bottom of the page and displays statistics about the data in the list page or query. As you interact with columns whose values can be summed, like selecting multiple rows in a column that displays amounts, the data updates.
Tabs: The tabs area at the top lets you create different configurations (columns and analysis filters) on separate tabs, where you can manipulate data on the tabs independently of each other.
Data Manipulation
Columns: The Columns pane is used to summarise the data. Use the Columns pane to define which columns should be included in the analysis.
Analysis Filters: The Analysis filters pane lets you set further data filters on columns to limit the entries in the list. Set filters on columns to limit the entries in the list and subsequent sums to only those entries you’re interested in based on a criteria you define.
Pivot Mode
You can use pivot mode to analyse large amount of numerical data, subtotalling data by categories and subcategories. The pivot mode is like pivot tables in Microsoft Excel.
Sharing Data Analysis with Colleagues
After you’ve prepared an analysis on a tab, you can share it as a link with colleagues and others in your organisation directly from the client.
Only recipients that have permission to the company and the data can use the link.
