When you’re working in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, one of the most powerful tools at your disposal for financial and operational insights is dimension reporting. These aren’t just technical features buried deep in the system—they’re critical to helping your business make smarter, faster decisions. 

Dimensions let you tag transactions and master data with meaningful business attributes—like department, territory, or line of business—so you can break down performance in ways that matter to your organization. Best of all, you get detailed insights without creating a messy, bloated chart of accounts. 

Here is a basic example of how you can add Dimensions in Popdock’s Query Builder:

But how do they work in practice? What are their limitations? And how can you overcome some of D365 Business Central’s reporting challenges using tools like Popdock? Let’s let the expert break it all down. 

Meet the Expert: Rod O’Connor, Jack of All Trades at eOne Solutions 

When it comes to making sense of Dynamics 365 Business Central’s reporting tools—especially dimensions—Rod O’Connor is the guy with the answers. With deep expertise and a no-nonsense approach, Rod breaks down the complexities of financial reporting and shows you how to get the insights you need, faster.  

What are dimensions in Dynamics 365 Business Central, and why are they important?  

ROC: Dimensions in D365 Business Central are used to assign attributes to master data and transactional data.  These attributes can then be used to segment data for reporting purposes.  Dimensions allow you to get detailed reporting on specific areas of the business without having to create a complex chart of accounts. 

Can you provide an example? 

ROC: A dimension could be created, for example, that tracks line of business.  You could assign the Line of Business dimension to all your products.  This would automatically assign any transactions against that item to its line of business.  This would allow you to create reporting – a monthly sales report for example – at the line of business level. 

Are there different types of dimensions, if so, how are these different types used? Is one better than the other? 

ROC: There are two main classifications of dimension in D365 Business Central, Global Dimensions and Shortcut dimensions.   

Two dimensions can be classified as Global Dimensions in D365 Business Central.  Global Dimension values are saved in every table in D365 Business Central and are therefore considered the easiest to report on using standard D365 Business Central reporting.   

Six dimensions can be classified as shortcut dimensions.  Shortcut dimensions appear on several pages in D365 Business Central, but the values are stored in a separate table and join back to the master or transaction record based on a Dimension Set ID.  These dimensions show up less often in standard D365 Business Central reporting options. 

With that said, users can set up an unlimited number of dimensions in D365 Business Central.  Dimensions outside of the global and shortcut dimensions are the most difficult to report on using standard D365 Business Central reporting options without creating a customization.   

What challenges do users face when trying to generate reporting using dimensions?  

ROC: While it’s easy to create and assign dimensions, getting Dimensionalized reporting out of D365 Business Central can be difficult.   Account schedules will allow you to filter for a single dimension value at a time, but there is no ability to compare values within a dimension side by side.   

In cases where all of the global and shortcut dimensions are on a page, the user is able to enter Analysis mode.  In this mode, users can create lists and pivot reports which would allow you to see dimensions side by side over time.  However, analysis mode itself has several limitations.  Users can’t add any columns that are not on the page, they can’t add calculated fields, they can’t share the analysis they’ve created with other users, and as with everything in D365 Business Central, only the data that lives in the D365 Business Central company you are currently logged into can be included. 

What challenges are solved by using dimensions?  

ROC: Using dimensions allows you to segment your reporting based on your needs.  Transactions can be analyzed by department, division, line of business, territory, warehouse, or any other factor that matters to the user. 

Reporting Challenges 

What are the limitations in Dynamics 365 Business Central’s dimension reporting?  

ROC: While some reports in D365 Business Central – including Financial Reports (formerly Account Schedules) – can be filtered by dimension value, none allow Dimensions to be added as a column without customization.  Also, those filters only work for dimension value per report.  Basically, there is no way to compare across dimension values built into D365 Business Central reporting. 

How do businesses typically work around limitations in Dynamics 365 Business Central’s dimension reporting?  

ROC: D365 Business Central users generally need to log into external systems to get dimensional reporting.  This could be a financial reporting tool or a data warehouse. 

Popdock & Dimensions 

How can Popdock simplify reporting with dimensions in Dynamics Business Central? 

ROC: Popdock is a reporting tool that can be embedded on any page in D365 Business Central and it allows users to ask questions of their data in real time. In the case of D365 Business Central based lists, dimensions can be added as rows, columns, or filters.  This means that without leaving D365 Business Central, users are able to query any D365 Business Central list and include all of the dimensions as required for the reporting need. 

What types of reports can you create using dimensions in Popdock? 

ROC: There are a few ways that Popdock can help meet user reporting needs.    

First, Popdock is primarily a list-based reporting solution which allows users to analyze data at the detailed level. In this style of report, not only can users include dimensions as part of the list, but they can also use Dimensions to sort, group, and/or filter the list. 

Next, there is a type of custom list in Popdock called a Summary list.  This allows users to aggregate data based on any fields in a list and then get summary level values on any field – values like first, last, minimum, maximum, average, and sum.  Again, dimensions could be used as a group by filter on this type of list. 

Another custom report in Popdock is called a Matrix report.  A matrix report is more of a traditional analysis reporting style.  With a Matrix report, you could have actual dimension values as rows or columns and again could filter and/or group on dimensions as well. 

Lastly, Popdock has a feature called API Endpoints. API Endpoints allow you to expose any Popdock list via REST API to any application that can consume a REST API. This means that you could send any of the lists I mentioned above to tools like PowerBI or Tableau to get rich visualizations at the dimension level without writing a lick of code. 

Use Cases & Practical Applications 

What are some real-world scenarios where dimensions reporting has been improved using Popdock? 

ROC: As I mentioned earlier, there really isn’t a way to get dimensional reporting in Business Central directly without customization.  Using Popdock you can add a report to any window that includes dimensions without writing any code.  This means that in every scenario where you need to analyze data using dimensions inside of Business Central Popdock will be the easiest, most elegant solution. 

To learn more about Powerful Dimension Reporting in Dynamics 365 Business Central for Any Use Case | eOne Solutions sign up for the upcoming webinar.  

Ready to talk to a consultant contact us to learn more.