Some consider the standard library of reports provided in the NAV product distribution from Microsoft to be relatively simple in design and limited in its features. Others feel that the provided reports satisfy most needs because they are simple, but flexible. Their basic structure is easy to use. They are made much more powerful and flexible by taking advantage of NAV's filtering and SIFT capabilities. There is no doubt that the existing library can be used as foundations for many of the special reports that customers require to match their own specific business management needs.

The fact is that NAV's standard reports are basic. In order to obtain more complex or more sophisticated reports, we must use features that are part of the product or feed processed data to external reporting tools such as Excel. Through creative use of these features, many different types of complex report logic may be implemented.

First, we will review different types of reports and the components that make up reports. We'll look in detail at the triggers, properties, and controls that make up NAV report data processing. Visual Studio Community Edition is the tool for our report layout work. Alternatively, the SQL Server Report Builder can be used if enabled as described in Chapter 1, Introduction to NAV 2017.

We'll create our reports in this book with Visual Studio Community Edition. We'll modify a report or two using the C/SIDE Report Designer. We'll examine the data flow of a standard report and the concept of reports used for processing only (with no printed or displayed output). In addition, we'll take a look at the Microsoft Word Report Layout design capability.