---
id: post/aardvarklabs-blog/1824
type: post
title: Step-by-Step Guide to Excel Reporting in Business Central
summary: Excel reporting in Business Central allows developers to create data-driven reports that users can easily customize with pivot tables and charts. The post demonstrates building a customer activity report and uploading the customized layout back to Business Central so updates appear automatically in future runs.
tier: community
language: en
tags:
  - excel reporting
  - report design
  - data visualization
  - al development
  - custom layouts
system: reporting
review:
  state: reviewed
  by: opus
  at: "2026-10-08T02:00:27.979Z"
  flags: []
generated:
  at: "2026-10-08T01:26:53.141Z"
  pipeline: 0.2.0
  prompts:
    extract-post: 1
  input_hash: f7adf273d40ebfd152626187d802ebfbc85f3b0f13523312839d4e2986f52eea
evidence:
  - kind: blog
    url: https://aardvarklabs.blog/2025/07/18/step-by-step-guide-to-excel-reporting-in-business-central/
    title: Step-by-Step Guide to Excel Reporting in Business Central
    date: "2025-07-18"
    commit: null
    t: null
    quote: null
  - kind: blog
    url: https://aardvarklabs.blog/2025/07/18/step-by-step-guide-to-excel-reporting-in-business-central/
    title: Step-by-Step Guide to Excel Reporting in Business Central
    date: "2025-07-18"
    commit: null
    t: null
    quote: Microsoft Excel Reports are the easiest for end users to modify, and one of the easiest data sets to create.
links:
  learn: []
  objects: []
  features: []
  topics: []
  localizations: []
  videos: []
  posts: []
  guidelines: []
post_id: "1824"
source_id: aardvarklabs-blog
source_name: Aardvark Labs
url: https://aardvarklabs.blog/2025/07/18/step-by-step-guide-to-excel-reporting-in-business-central/
published_at: "2025-07-18T12:00:00.000Z"
author: Marcel Chabot
full_text: false
words: 1066
quotes:
  - text: Microsoft Excel Reports are the easiest for end users to modify, and one of the easiest data sets to create.
    why_it_matters: Explains why Excel is a good choice for accessible, user-friendly reporting in Business Central
code_objects_mentioned:
  - report ARD_CustomerActivity
systems:
  - reporting
  - development
versions_mentioned: []
preview:
  embeddable: true
  frame_url: https://aardvarklabs.blog/2025/07/18/step-by-step-guide-to-excel-reporting-in-business-central/embed/
  image: https://aardvarklabs.blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/bff3e729-2d7c-44dd-aeec-4b6f85693ab9.jpeg
  image_alt: null
  image_w: 1024
  image_h: 1024
  site_name: Aardvark Labs
  favicon: https://aardvarklabs.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/design-1.png?w=32
  probed_at: "2026-10-07T11:51:53.169Z"
---

# Step-by-Step Guide to Excel Reporting in Business Central

[Read the post](https://aardvarklabs.blog/2025/07/18/step-by-step-guide-to-excel-reporting-in-business-central/) · Aardvark Labs (Marcel Chabot) · 2025-07-18 · 1066 words · tier community · reviewed (checked by Opus)

> Excel reporting in Business Central allows developers to create data-driven reports that users can easily customize with pivot tables and charts. The post demonstrates building a customer activity report and uploading the customized layout back to Business Central so updates appear automatically in future runs.

## Key points

- Excel reports use a dataset with nested dataitems and dataitemlink to structure data hierarchically
- RequestFilterFields at the dataitem level prompt users for filter parameters at runtime
- Excel layouts can be customized with pivot tables and charts, then uploaded back to Business Central as the default layout
- Business Central updates the data tabs while preserving custom tabs created by users

## Quotes

- "Microsoft Excel Reports are the easiest for end users to modify, and one of the easiest data sets to create." (Explains why Excel is a good choice for accessible, user-friendly reporting in Business Central)

## AL objects mentioned

As named in the post. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named.

- report "ARD_CustomerActivity"

Not found in BC28-30: report "ARD_CustomerActivity".

## Context

- Features: Excel reports, Report layouts, RequestFilterFields, DataItemTableView, Pivot tables, Report customization, Custom worksheets, Automatic data updates

Source: Aardvark Labs, community blog. Summary, key points and quotes are derived (CONTENT-NOTICE.md); read the original for the full text.