What can you do with data in Dynamics 365 Business Central?
Well, filtering and sorting! These powerful features in Business Central’s user interface allow you to manipulate and organise data to meet your needs.
Let’s start with filtering. It’s like having a superpower to narrow down the data you’re looking for quickly. You can apply filters based on specific criteria, such as dates, amounts, or custom fields. This helps you focus on the most relevant information to your task or analysis.
Now, let’s talk about sorting. Sorting is like having a professional tool to arrange your data in a specific order. You can sort data in ascending or descending order based on various attributes, such as names, dates, or numbers. This makes it easier to identify patterns and trends or prioritise your tasks.
Filtering and sorting give you the flexibility and control to manipulate and view your data in a way that makes sense to you. It’s all about customising your view and getting the most out of Business Central’s user interface.
The answer is filtering, and sorting is a powerful feature in Business Central’s user interface that allows you to manipulate and organise data to meet your needs. Filtering helps narrow the data based on particular criteria while sorting enables you to arrange the data in a specific order.
Here’s a brief overview of how you can filter and sort data within Business Central:
Sorting
Sorting List Pages:
- Click on column headers to sort data in ascending or descending order.
- Choose the drop-down arrow in the column heading, then choose the Ascending or Descending action.
- You can also sort data using more advanced options or multi-column and sorting in some list pages.
Filtering
Filtering List Pages:
- Basic Filter: To apply basic filters, click the filter icon at the top right of a list page. You can filter by specific fields and values.
Filtering within Documents:
- When working on specific records or documents (like sales orders, purchase orders, etc.), you can often filter within the page using search boxes or drop-downs associated with fields.
- Use specific fields to define your filter criteria. For example, you might filter sales orders by a particular customer, a date range, or orders with a specific status (e.g., ‘Open,’ ‘Closed,’ ‘Invoiced’).
- After setting your criteria, apply the filter. The list of sales orders will update to display only those that match the specified conditions.
- Business Central allows you to save frequently used filters as Views, allowing you to access them easily without recreating the filter criteria each time.
Filter Totals
The “Filter Totals By” feature is a powerful tool that allows users to filter and customise the data they want to see within charts, lists, and summaries. This makes it easier to refine data and view specific subsets of information relevant to their current tasks or analysis.
Filter Criteria and Operators
In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, when applying filters to data in lists or reports, you can use various signs or symbols to specify the filter criteria. These signs or symbols help define the conditions for effectively filtering data.
- Equal Sign (=): Denotes an exact match. For instance, when filtering a text field, use “=” filters to match the specified text precisely.
- Not Equal Sign (<>): Represents “not equal to.” It filters records that do not match the specified value. For instance, if you use “<>” for a specific value, it filters out all records not equal to that value.
- Greater Than (>): Filters records where the specified field exceeds the value indicated—for example, filtering sales more significant than a certain amount.
- Greater Than or Equal To (>=): Filters records where the specified field is greater than or equal to the specified value.
- Less Than (<): Filters records where the specified field exceeds the indicated value.
- Less Than or Equal To (<=): Filters records where the specified field is either less than or equal to the specified value.
- Containing text (text): Filters text fields that contain the specified text within the provided asterisks (*). For instance, filtering for “apple” will find records that contain the word “apple” within a text field.
Sharing and Downloading
You can also share and download data from a list by copying the URL at the top of the screen or clicking the Share icon.
Using the Share Icon, a user has the following options:
Open in Excel: A user can open the list page in Excel.
Edit in Excel: Here, a user can export the data to Excel, edit it in Excel, and publish it back to Dynamics 365 Business Central.
Share to Teams: A user can share a link to the page with another user in Teams.
Copy Link: A user can copy the link to the page, including any filters, and share this with another user.
Check out our other blog “How to understand Dynamics 365 Business Central User Interface” for an overview.
If you’d like to learn more about Dynamics 365 Business Central, check out our page here, or if you’re interested in learning more, contact us.
Stay tuned for more insights and updates on our blog!
