Preview Project Invoices Using Print Management in D365FO

You can print reports such as Project invoice using Print management when posting a sales order, or, when the document is already posted, from the invoice journal. What happens if there are multiple SSRS report designs (aka formats) for the same report? When printing using Print management, D365FO uses the format selected in the relevant Print management setup. On the other hand, when previewing a document Original or Copy from a journal, D365FO always uses the default SSRS report design, which is hardcoded in X++.

This might be misleading, because users expect the preview to be based on the report format configured in Print management. That’s why Docentric introduced the Print management preview feature.

Use case for Print management preview

Here is one scenario with Project invoices where the standard D365FO behavior can be annoying. Let's say that in your D365FO you manage a services line of business with several projects for different clients. Every project manager wants a specific report format to be used for his projects, or even wants a different format for each of his clients. To support this, a project manager overrides Print management setup for each of his clients and specifies which report format to use.

To make sure that everything on the printed project invoice will be correct, the project manager first previews the report. Standard D365FO will preview the invoice by using the default format of the Project invoice report, while the Print management preview functionality introduced by Docentric enables previewing of project invoices using the format selected in Print management.

Print management preview functionality is available also in Docentric Free Edition, so we will use SSRS designs for this article, but the same concept applies to Docentric designs as well.

Standard D365FO behavior

Let’s first demonstrate the standard D365FO behavior. To keep things as simple as possible, I will use the unmodified original SSRS design (PSAProjInvoice.Report), which is also the default format in my D365FO environment. I've also created a new custom design based on the default SSRS design with just a small change: the blue background of the document title right below the logo (DocPSAProjInvoiceExt.Report).

In the default Print management configuration, I've selected the standard, i.e. the default SSRS formatPSAProjInvoice.Report. In addition, I've defined a Print Management override on one of the customers, where I've selected the new custom SSRS format - DocPSAProjInvoiceExt.Report. Notice that I've also selected Docentric Screen as the target print destination for both the default and the override setup to make testing easier.

Let's now print a project invoice for the customer with the overridden Print management settings. Standard D365FO offers the following three options: Print (meaning: Print using Print management), View Copy, and View Original.

We will first Print (using Print management) a project invoice for this customer, to check whether the custom SSRS design set in the Print management override is picked. Positive!

But if we choose to preview Original or Copy of the same invoice, we see that the SSRS default design is used. Bummer. 🙁

Docentric Print management preview

Have you noticed the Print management preview menu item in the screenshots so far? By now, you've probably guessed that if you click it, the SSRS report design selected in Print management setup (i.e. new custom SSRS design with a blue title background) will be used for the preview.

 

It might come handy to get the information which SSRS report design is used when printing a report. You will get it in the infolog, if you turn the User options > Account > Docentric settings > Discover report technical name flag ON. In the example above, this info message confirms that the DocPSAProjInvoiceExt.Report format was used.

We enabled Print management preview for the following report journal forms:

  • Invoice journal (for both Sales invoice and Free text invoice reports)
  • Sales order confirmations
  • Project invoice
  • Purchase order confirmations
  • Sales quotation
  • Sales quotation confirmations
  • Packing slip journal
Print management preview prints reports to Docentric Screen using Print management for the format selection. This way you can check how your reports look like before printing them to the target print destination configured in Print management setup, e.g. before emailing them.

What about Docentric designs

If you are using Docentric Full Edition, then you know that Docentric also uses the concept of the default template, which you specify in Docentric report setup. This allows Docentric to follow the standard D365FO behavior of using the default design for previewing reports from journals. Everything I’ve described earlier in relation to Print management preview applies also to Docentric designs. As you know, when you select a Docentric design in the Print destination settings form, it will be used instead of the selected SSRS report design. Watch a quick video demonstration of the Docentric Print Management Preview feature in action! 🙂

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