As a consultant who works with many international companies, I usually support their US subsidiaries running the US localization of Business Central. Over time, you become familiar with the reporting tools in that environment. You know which reports auditors rely on, and you know exactly where to find the Trial Balance Detail/Summary that shows beginning balance, debits, credits, and ending balance in a clean printable format.
Then you step into a non-US tenant of one of your international clients running the W1 localization and discover that the report you have always used does not exist.
Not removed.
Not deprecated recently.
It simply was never part of that localization at all.
And that alone can break a familiar reporting workflow.
The International Twist
In US and Canadian tenants, Report 10021 Trial Balance Detail/Summary still appears today, even in Business Central version 27. It lives inside the US localization layer, so it feels like part of the standard product. Because of that, many US and CA-based consultants and finance teams assume it must exist everywhere, including myself.
Move into a W1 environment, such as the Bahamas, and the situation immediately changes:
- The W1 localization does not include Report 10021.
- The reporting set reflects only the modern AL footprint.
- No summary style trial balance report is available out of the box.
This leads to a perfectly normal but surprising reality:
- A US tenant: yes, the report exists.
- A W1 tenant: it never existed here.
- Both are correct.
These differences come entirely from Microsoft’s localization strategy, not from configuration or tenant age.
This is why a workflow that works flawlessly for US subsidiaries does not translate directly when you support the parent company or other international entities.
Will the Report Disappear from US Tenants?
While Report 10021 remains available in the US localization today, it is not part of Microsoft’s global reporting strategy. Its absence from W1 and other international localizations shows that it is not considered a core, universal financial report. Microsoft has been steadily modernizing and consolidating financial reporting around the Financial Reports engine, and although no removal timeline has been announced for the US version, it is safer to assume that long-term reliance on it is not recommended. The Financial Report approach ensures a consistent experience across all regions and aligns with where Microsoft continues to invest.
The Problem
Regardless of region, auditors expect the same thing:
A clean printed trial balance with:
- Beginning balance
- Debit
- Credit
- Ending balance
In organizations with multiple legal entities, especially international groups, these entities are often separated using a Company dimension. That means the trial balance must be:
- dimension filterable
- printable
- clean
- and free of G/L entry detail
But across localizations, the standard reports do not consistently meet that need.
- US/CA: Report 10021 exists
- W1: no summary trial balance report at all
- Trial Balance: shows only net change and ending balance
- Detail Trial Balance: always prints entry detail
So the answer is not to chase region specific reports. The answer is to use Business Central’s Financial Reports, which work consistently in every localization.
The Solution
How Financial Reports Work
Financial Reports are built from two reusable building blocks:
Row Definition
Defines which accounts appear on the report. For a Trial Balance, this typically means:
- All posting G/L accounts
- Row type: Net Change
- “Show When Any Column Not Zero” enabled to keep the output clean
Column Definition
Defines what figures appear for each account. For a Trial Balance Summary, this includes:
- Beginning Balance
- Debit Amount
- Credit Amount
- Ending Balance
Rows and columns are modular. Once created, you can reuse them in any Financial Report.
A Financial Report record is where you tie the row and column definitions together, give the report a name, and make it runnable.
Step 1: Build the Row Definition
Create a row definition that includes all posting G/L accounts.
Recommended settings:
- Row Type: Net Change
- Include: All posting accounts needed in the trial balance
- Show When Any Column Not Zero: Yes
Optional: Add totals or headings if you want subtotals by account range.
Step 2: Build the Column Definition
Create a column definition with four columns:
- Beginning Balance
- Balance as of the day before the Starting Date
- Debit Amount
- Activity debited during the selected date range
- Credit Amount
- Activity credited during the selected date range
- Ending Balance
- Balance on the Ending Date
This layout recreates the traditional Trial Balance Summary.
Step 3: Create the Financial Report and Assign Definitions
- Go to Financial Reports.
- Create a new Financial Report.
- Give it a clear name, such as:
- Trial Balance Summary
- Assign your Row Definition.
- Assign your Column Definition.
- Give your Financial Report an explanatory Internal Description.
This step is what turns your row and column definitions into a usable, runnable report.
If you want a deeper understanding of why Business Central’s native Financial Reports are the preferred long-term reporting approach, I explain this in more detail here:
Why Choose Business Central’s Native Financial Reporting
Running the Trial Balance Summary
Step 4: Choose the Period
On the Run Financial Report page:
- Enter a Starting Date.
- Enter an Ending Date.
Business Central then calculates:
- Beginning Balance = balance on the day before the Starting Date
- Debit and Credit = activity between the Starting and Ending Dates
- Ending Balance = balance on the Ending Date
This produces a true period-based Trial Balance that aligns with audit expectations.
Step 5: Apply the Company Dimension Filter
If each legal entity has a unique Company dimension value:
- Use the Dimension Filters section.
- Enter the Company dimension value for the entity you want to report on.
This produces a clean, entity specific Trial Balance without switching companies.
Step 6: Print the Report
Preview the report, confirm the output, then print or export to PDF.
The final report includes:
- Beginning balance
- Debit
- Credit
- Ending balance
- Fully dimension filtered
And it works the same in the US, Canada, W1 environments like the Bahamas, and any other localization.
A Note About Longevity
Even if Report 10021 continues to exist in the US localization for several more versions, building your Trial Balance process around Financial Reports gives you a future proof structure. The world is becoming smaller, and more organizations operate across borders or support subsidiaries in multiple countries. As a result, finance teams and consultants increasingly work inside tenants that use different localizations. Financial Reports provide a consistent, globally reliable format that works in any region, regardless of whether a legacy report is available. This ensures your trial balance process holds up whether you are working in a US subsidiary, a European headquarters, or a Caribbean operating company.
Why This Works
Microsoft’s direction for Business Central reporting continues to emphasize consistency, global alignment, and modern data structures. This is a theme frequently shared by leaders like Kennie Pontoppidan, whose updates help clarify why legacy regional reports remain available in some localizations while the long-term investment is in Financial Reports and other unified reporting tools.
Financial Reports behave the same in every Business Central localization. They give you:
- a localization independent solution
- flexibility
- reusable definitions
- a globally consistent format
Once built, your Trial Balance Financial Report becomes a template you can use across all tenants, regardless of country version.
It is the modern replacement for the US/CA Trial Balance Detail/Summary — and it works everywhere.
Created as part of Sharing the Righter Way, this article combines my Business Central experience with AI supported research and drafting. AI helps me explore options and accelerate analysis, while every conclusion and recommendation reflects my own professional judgment.
