Streamline your ER configurations with the Advanced Formula Editor in D365 Finance

Improve your Electronic Reporting configurations with the Advanced Formula Editor

Are you looking to improve your experience with configuring Electronic Reporting (ER) expressions in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance? If so, you might want to consider using the advanced Electronic Reporting formula editor.

This browser-based editor, powered by the Monaco editor, comes with a range of useful features that can help streamline the process of configuring ER expressions. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at some of the most commonly used features of the advanced editor and show you how to activate it in your instance of Dynamics 365 Finance.

Here are some of the key features of the advanced Electronic Reporting formula editor that you may find useful:

• Code autoformatting
• IntelliSense
• Code completion
• Code navigation
• Code structuring
• Find and replace

Just note that these cool features which will be discussed work with some of the most popular web browsers out there!

• Chrome
• Edge
• Firefox
• Opera
• Safari

Activating the advanced formula editor

Here are the steps to activate the advanced formula editor in your instance of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance:
 

1. Go to Organization administration > Electronic reporting > Configurations.
2. On the Configurations page, on the Action Pane, on the Configurations tab, in the Advanced settings group, select User parameters.
3. 3. In the User parameters dialog box, in the Execution tracing section, set the Enable advanced formula editor parameter to Yes.

Please just be aware that this parameter is user-specific and company-specific.
With version 10.0.19, you can control what ER formula editor is offered by default. Here are the steps to enable the advanced formula editor for all users and companies of the current Finance instance:

1. Open the Feature management workspace.
2. Find and select the feature Set the ER advanced formula editor as the default one for all users in the list, and then select Enable now.
3. Go to Organization administration > Electronic reporting > Configurations.
4. On the Configurations page, on the Action Pane, on the Configurations tab, in the Advanced settings group, select User parameters.
5. In the User parameters dialog box, find the Disable advanced formula editor parameter and verify that it is set to No.

Code autoformatting

Now we are on code formatting. We know this can be a headache when you have multiple rows oof complex code. So now the indentation of a new entered line will be automatic based on the indentation of the previous row. You can select lines and change their indentation by typing Tab or Shift+Tab.

Autoformatting makes your life easier by keeping the entire expression well formatted so in the future maintenance is made simpler.

IntelliSense

Sounds cool right? Well yes it is. The editor helps you write expressions faster by providing auto word completions. When you start adding new text, the editor offers options of functions supported in ER that contain the characters you have entered. You can also trigger this in any space by pressing Ctrl+Space

Code Completion

The editor also has some neat tricks to save time for code completion. So, what does it do?

Well, when inserting a closing bracket when an opening bracket is entered, it keeps the cursor inside the brackets. Additionally, when Inserting the second quotation symbol when the first one is entered, it keeps the cursor inside the quotations and lastly it also (You guessed it “keeps the cursor inside the quotations”) when inserting the second double quotation symbol when the first one is entered.

When you point to the typed bracket, the second bracket of this pair is automatically highlighted to show the construct that they support.

Code navigation

As the saying goes, “It’s all about navigation” (this is made up). But do you know what isn’t made up? Microsoft’s neat ER navigation tricks. You can now locate required symbols or lines in your expression by entering the command using the command palette or the context menu.

For example, to jump to a line then press Ctrl+G and enter a value and hit enter or press F1, type G, select the line, enter a value, and hit enter.

Code Structuring

Microsoft has also added automatic structuring for the code of some functions, for example IF or CASE. The cool thing is, you can expand or collapse any of the folding regions in the code. This way, you can focus on the specific part of the expression that you need to work on and ignore the rest. It’s a great way to make your workflow more efficient and less overwhelming!

Find and replace

Ready to go on a text hunt? It’s super easy to find specific text in your expression using the advanced Electronic Reporting formula editor.

First, select the text you want to find. Then, you have a few options to choose from:

For a speedy search, press Ctrl+F and then F3 to find the next occurrence of the text, or press Shift+F3 to find the previous one.

Feeling curious? Press F1, type F, and select the option you need to find the selected text.

If you need to replace any of the text, no problem! Again, select the text you want to replace and:

Press Ctrl+H. Enter the alternative text and choose to replace either the selected text or all occurrences of this text in the current expression.

Want to do it the fun way? Press F1, type R, and select the replacement option to replace either the selected text or all occurrences of it in the current expression.

If you want to change all occurrences of the text in one go, select the text and:

Press Ctrl+F2 and enter the alternative text. Boom! It’s changed in all occurrences.

Or if you prefer, press F1, type C, and select the option to change the selected text. Then enter the alternative text and enjoy the change.

There you have it! With these tips and tricks, finding and replacing text in your expression will be a breeze. Happy hunting!

Data Sources and functions pasting

You can easily add data sources and functions to your expression in just a few clicks!

To add a data source, simply select “Add data source”. This will paste the currently selected data source from the left panel into your expression. Easy peasy!

Similarly, you can select “Add function” to paste the currently selected function from the right panel into your expression. With the ER formula editor, the function or data source will be added to the end of your expression. But with the advanced editor, you can paste it anywhere you want by using your cursor to specify the location. How awesome is that?!

So go ahead, give it a try and see how it can save you time and make your workflow smoother. Get ready to impress your colleagues with your newfound formula editor skills!