Problem:
Business Central Financial reports print in landscape out-of-the-box. This is not what most users want for the financial reporting package. The expectation for a simple Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement would be to print portrait. There may be another way to do this, but here is the way that I help my customers print their RDL Financial Reports as portrait while maintaining the option to also print landscape.
Solution:
Create a new RDL layout
Find Report Layouts and go to Report ID 25 – Financial Reports. Select this report then Export Layout action.
Using MS Report Builder, open the exported report layout. Click in the blank space of the page that opens to open Report Properties. Do NOT click in the white area of the report itself.
Find Page Size In the Properties that open in the right of the page. Expand the options and change the page size to meet the requirements of Portrait in US – 8.5in and 11in.
Before:
After:
Save the layout file. You will be importing this file to create a new report layout in BC.
Create a new report layout in BC
In Report Layouts in BC, create a new layout for Report ID 25 (Financial Report) selecting RDLC as Format Option.
From the new report layout, select Replace Layout action from the menu.
Drag or select the layout file saved with the changes for portrait page size/format.
Printing the report as portrait
Test your new layout by going to Balance Sheet or any other financial report. Select Report Layout of Portrait Financial Report and print or preview your report.
The portrait layout can be selected for any report designed using Financial Reports with Columns and Row Definitions, for example the Income Statement.
To print reports in landscape, you can select the layout originally included with BC.
Summary
Users can print financial reports in landscape or portrait with just a little bit of setup and training. Another example of what might be considered The Righter Way to work in Business Central.
