Document layouts and report design in Business Central

Customer-facing documents — invoices, quotes, statements, packing slips, order confirmations, purchase orders — are usually the first thing a Business Central implementation needs to brand and tune. Microsoft makes this accessible: most documents use Word-based layouts that non-developers can edit, with the older RDLC layouts still supported for legacy and complex needs.

Report and document objects. Each printable document is a Business Central report object — a metadata-defined dataset (the report's variables and structure) paired with one or more layouts that visualise the data. Out of the box, each common report has both an RDLC and a Word layout available; users pick which is active for their company.

Word layouts. The modern path. A Word layout is a .docx file containing the report layout — fonts, logos, colours, headers, footers, table structure — with content controls for the data fields. Editing it requires no developer; a marketing or finance team member opens it in Word, adjusts the design, saves, and uploads to Business Central. Multiple Word layouts per report are supported, so an invoice can have Standard, Pro Forma, and Service variants.

RDLC layouts. The older path, edited in Microsoft Report Builder or Visual Studio. More powerful for complex tabular content, charts, and conditional rendering — but requires technical skill and access to design tools. Most customers leave Microsoft's RDLC layouts as a fallback and do their customisations in Word.

Per-customer layouts. A specific customer can be assigned a custom report layout via the Document Layouts page on the customer card. The same logic supports per-vendor layouts. Useful when a major customer demands a specific format or language.

Per-language layouts. Each layout can be attached to a language code, so a customer with language code = SV gets the Swedish invoice layout automatically when their invoice is printed; a customer with language code = DE gets the German one. The translation file underneath the report provides translated labels.

PDF generation. Posted documents are emailed or stored as PDF by default. The PDF is generated server-side from the layout. Inline attachments (the customer's PO, a delivery note) can be merged into the PDF at sending time using Email Body Layouts in conjunction with the document layout.

Email body layouts. A separate Word template defines the body of the email that sends the document — different from the attached PDF. So an invoice email can have a friendly Word-templated message body with the formal invoice PDF attached.

Reporting (analytical). For analytical reports (sales by salesperson, inventory ageing, P&L), the path increasingly favours Power BI over RDLC. Word-based document layouts are for transactional documents; analytical reports live in Power BI for interactivity and modern design.

Limits.

• Word layouts don't support some complex tabular calculations that RDLC can handle; for those, RDLC remains the fallback.
• Very heavy graphics (multi-column billing summary with charts) push against Word's design ceiling.
• HTML email body composition has constraints; complex HTML often renders inconsistently across mail clients.

Operational tip. Build a small library of standard email body layouts (transactional, payment reminder, statement) and keep them under version control alongside the AL extensions.