How to Create a P&L by Department in Business Central Financial Reports (Global Dimension)

Need your P&L split by department, side by side? You can build it once in Financial Reports (called Account Schedules in older versions) and run it every month. No Excel work, no developer.

Quick answer: Create a financial report with a row definition that lists your P&L accounts and a column definition with one column per department. In each column, enter the department code in Department Code Totaling. The field is hidden by default, so add it with Personalize.

Global dimensions only. This method works for Global Dimension 1 and 2. You can check yours in General Ledger Setup > Dimensions. Other dimensions need an analysis view, which this post doesn't cover.

Step 1: Create the financial report

1. Search for Financial Reports and choose New.
2. Enter a Name and Description, for example PNL DEPT and PNL by Department (Dimension).
3. Select a Row Definition (for example, your Income Statement) and a Column Definition. To start a new one, create it first on the Row Definitions or Column Definitions page.
4. Use the Definitions menu to open Edit Row Definition or Edit Column Definition.

Step 2: Set up or maintain the row definition

Rows are your P&L lines. Each line pulls one account, a range of accounts, or a total of other lines.

To add a line, click ⋮ on the line below where you want it, then choose New Line. The new line is inserted above it. Fill in the fields as follows:

Field	What to enter
Row No.	Your own reference, e.g. P0001. Total lines use it to add up other lines.
Description	The text shown on the report.
Totaling Type	Posting Accounts for account lines. Formula for total lines.
Totaling	Accounts: one account 6910, a range 6410..6810, or a list 7405|7995. Formula: row numbers, e.g. P0001..P0008.
Row Type	Net Change for P&L lines.
Show Opposite Sign	Tick on income lines, including the income total line, so income shows as a positive number.
Show	If Any Column Not Zero hides lines with no amounts. Use Yes for headings and totals.

Tips:

• Want one row per account? On the Insert tab, choose Insert G/L Accounts and pick your accounts. Business Central fills in the Totaling for you.
• A row definition can be shared by several reports, and any change affects all of them. Click Where-Used before you change it.

Step 3: Add Department Code Totaling to the column definition

This field is hidden by default. You only need to add it once:

1. Open Edit Column Definition.
2. Click the Settings (gear) icon, then Personalize.
3. Click + Field, then drag Department Code Totaling onto the lines.
4. Click Done.

Note: The field is named after your global dimension, so yours may be different. Your other global dimension has its own field (here, Customergroup Code Totaling). Ignore Dimension 3 Totaling and Dimension 4 Totaling; those only work with an analysis view.

Step 4: Create one column per department

Column No.	Column Header	Column Type	Department Code Totaling	Formula
A	ADMIN	Net Change	ADM
B	SALES	Net Change	SALES
C	PRODUCTION	Net Change	PROD
D	MARKETING	Net Change	MARKETING
T	GRAND TOTAL	Formula	(leave blank)	A+B+C+D

• Department Code Totaling takes the department code, not the name (ADM, not ADMIN). To combine departments in one column, use a list such as ADM|SALES.
• Net Change shows the amount for the period you run the report for. Use Year to Date if you want YTD.
• For the total column, enter the Column Nos. in the Formula field, not in Department Code Totaling.

Tip: check that nothing is missing. A+B+C+D only adds up the departments you listed. Entries posted without a department, or to a department you didn't list, are left out. Add one more column with Column Type Net Change and Department Code Totaling left blank. It should equal GRAND TOTAL.

Step 5: Run the report

On the Financial Reports page, select your report and choose View Financial Report. Set the Date Filter to the period you want. Each department now has its own column. Use Export to Excel or Print/PDF to share it.

Need a quick one-off instead, with no setup? See how to build a simple P&L by dimension using Analysis mode.

Have a question, or a different layout in mind? Drop a comment below.