DEVELOPMENT TIPS , EXCEL , HOW TO , JET REPORTS , OFFICE

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Creating Report in Jet Using NL, NF,

NP & GL & Excel Formulas
September 26, 2015Ashwini Tripathi

Dear friends today I will discuss report “General Ledger Budget to Actual by Period” and
demonstrate the usage of NP & GL Functions.

This report will contain all the Functions, Commands we discussed till now and usage of NP &
NL Functions.

You can refer my earlier posts for more detailed information which will help you understanding
this report better, for your convenience I am providing link to previous posts which may help you
understanding the terms being used in this report.

Using Jet Report NL Function

Using Jet Report NF Function

Using NL( Lookup ) in Jet Reports Part-1

Using NL( Lookup ) in Jet Reports Part-2

Using NL( Lookup ) in Jet Reports Part-3

Using NP Function in Jet Reports

Using GL Function in Jet Reports

Let’s start with creating Option Page before we start with report creation:

If you see in above sheet few filters are defined for the report, most of them are normal and
Lookup which we have already discussed in previous report and posts.

Please be sure ‘=’ have been removed from formulas for presentation purpose, make sure you add
them when use in your report.

Here new thing which we see is in E3 Cell:

=NP(“DateFilter”,StartDate,EndDate)

Here NP function creates a filter variable date filter which takes the StartDate & EndDate to create
filter in Navision format like 01/01/2015..31/12/2015, which can be used in other Jet Functions as
an parameter.

Option denotes these value will be asked from user when report is executed.

Lookup provides List of Values for selection to the user.

All text in A Column & Row 1 are the keywords or reserved words of the Jet Reports.

All text B3..B8 are Text or Option Heading which will be displayed in Option form when report is
executed.
All text C3..C8 are the default Values for the options, remember (*) means no filters applied or
include all. Don’t Forget to define Name of the cells in Name box, you will find this in the Left of
the Formula Bar. The name I am using in my report defined below, this will help us using these
user friendly name as filter in our Functions.

Cell Name
C3 StartDate
C4 EndDate
C5 GLAccountNo
C6 BudgetName
C7 PeriodType
C8 BlankZero
E3 DateFilter

Let’s Start our Report Design, Insert one more sheet for report format design.

Our design will be as follows, we will discuss the formula used in these columns later below in
this post.

The Jet Formulas we are using in above sheet is as below:

 Cell Formula
I3 =NL(,”Company Information”,”Name”)
J4 =PeriodType
J5 =NP(“DateFilter”,StartDate,EndDate)
J6 =NP(“Eval”,”=Today()”)
K8 =NL(“Columns=5”,NP(“Dates”,StartDate,EndDate,PeriodType))
K9 =NL(,NP(“Dates”,K8,”30/12/2050″,PeriodType,TRUE))
C12 =IF(AND(Heading=FALSE,BlankZero=”Yes”,MIN(K12:Q12)=0,MAX(K12:Q12)=0),”Hide”,”S
how”)
D12 =NL(“Rows”,”G/L Account”,,”No.”,GLAccountNo,”Date Filter”,DateFilter)
E12 =NF($D12,”Account Type”)
F12 =OR(AccountType=”Heading”,AccountType=”Begin-Total”)
G12 =NF($D12,”Indentation”)
H12 =IF(E12=”Posting”,NF(D12,”No.”),IF(OR(E12=”Total”,E12=”End-
Total”),NF(D12,”Totaling”),”0″))
I12 =REPT(” “,G12*5) & NF($D12,$I$11)
K12 =GL(“Budget”,$H12,ColumnStartDate,ColumnEndDate,,,,,,,BudgetName)
L12 =GL(“Balance”,$H12,ColumnStartDate,ColumnEndDate)

We can mix and match Excel formulas too to achieve data we require in our report especially any
calculation of values from other cell values. You may find many of them is being used in this
report too. You can apply formatting of Excel for better presentation of your reports. Sometime
cell references to help in repeating the value to the cells and making available to access to
upcoming cells when report is executed.

In Cell C1 [Hide+?] denotes this column will be used to get decision at run time like if we want to
hide or show the respective row. As this value will not be available at design time, but when report
is executed some rows we want to hide from the output of the report to user. Anything we are sure
and know well in advance that this row need to be Hide we can key [Hide] in column A of that
Row.

See in Cell C12 formula:

[=IF(AND(Heading=FALSE,BlankZero=”Yes”,MIN(K12:Q
12)=0,MAX(K12:Q12)=0),”Hide”,”Show”)]

Here decision is taken either we need to Show/Hide this row from output depending upon the test
value. This value will be only available when data is retrieved and presented in Report, at design
time we cannot predict what will be the value in these column and what will be the result of our
test.
If we want to Hide any Row we Key [Hide] in A Column of that Row, Similarly if we want to
Hide any Column we Key [Hide] in Row 1 of that Column.

Column L8 & L9 simply copy Value of K8 & K9 Respectively. K10 =K8 here too value is copied.

Rest All Values are Simple text used for Heading in Report Output.

[=REPT] this is Excel Formula Repeats text a given

number of times. Use REPT to fill a cell with a number of
instances of a text string.

Syntax: REPT(text, number_times)

The Cell M12 usage simple Excel Formula [=K12-L12].

The Cell N12 also usage simple Excel Formula [=IF(K12=0,””,ROUND((M12/K12),2))]

On executing the Report I fill below Filters:

Applying above Filters the Output of report from my Standard Navision 2015 Report I get below
Output:
 Due to size limit I have reduced the zoom of the excel so that the exact
report output in full can be shown.

Remain tuned for more information.

I will come up with more details in my upcoming posts.

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Tagged 2015, Creating, Dynamics, Excel, Formulas, GL, in, Jet, Microsoft, MS,
Nav, Navision, NF, NL, NP, Report, Using3 Comments
DEVELOPMENT TIPS , EXCEL , HOW TO , JET REPORTS , OFFICE
INTEGRATION , REPORT

Using Jet Report NF Function

September 22, 2015Ashwini Tripathi

In my previous post I have explained usage of NL Function, if not seen please check this Link.

The NL function works great if you want a single field from a record, but if you want to retrieve
more than one field from the same record, retyping all the filters for each field can be tedious.

The NF function is a shortcut that will return the value of a field in a record. One or more NF
functions can be used with a single NL function that has the NL field parameter left blank.
Similarly we can enter Formula in other cells:

The output of Above Report will be as below:

You need to press Report or Refresh Button on the Ribbon to view the output of the Report.

If we see in above output column D is not having any valid information for reporting point of view
so we can Hide them. Also Colum Headings will add more meaning full information. Let’s do
some Formatting to the Report too.

To Return to Designer mode you need to press Design button on Ribbon.

The First Row & First Column is reserved for Jet Commands, so don’t use for your data purpose.

The A1 cell is auto populated when you run the Report First time.

The Hide in D1 instructs Jet to Hide this column at Report run.

E3 to G3 I have added the Column Heading for my Data. You can use any Formula or Formatting
Supported in Excel.

E5 to G…. is the data area which retrieves the value from database using the Jet Functions.
Let’s See the output of above Report. Press Report or Refresh Button to view the output of the
Report or execute the Report.

The Report & Refresh button is having different purpose:

Report: Retrieves data from catch, help full in testing report while Designing.

Refresh: Retrieves fresh data from the database, you will get updated data if any between earlier
run.

If you closely monitor the Report you will find that the First Row/Column [1] and Column D is
hidden from Report output.

If there is no primary key in the table, Jet Reports will give an error message if you leave the Field
parameter of the NL blank so you can try leaving the Field blank, then fill in a list of field names
if necessary.