Analysis mode is a new type of view for any list page, available from Business Central 2023 wave 1. This mode on list pages enables users to analyze and pivot data directly in the client. Let’s explore what is available and how it can be used.
The feature is disabled by default, so if you want to try it, you have to enable it in “Feature Management“.
Once enabled, a new switch button “Analyze” will be shown on every list page (you can not limit which pages will have this functionality available for now…).
When you switch the page mode to analyze, the whole page will look a bit different:
The page still shows data in the list form. However, all actions are hidden, and the page itself is more “interactive”.
You can create different views using (1), move/resize/hide and add columns, set grouping & pivotal setup (2) or apply filters to the whole view (3).
Analyze data
When you open column setting (2), you will see a list of all available fields (you can add/remove the field by unselecting it) and also the row groups & column aggregation section. The “Row Groups” section allows similar to standard Excel Pivot tables to group rows by common value (I used aggregation by the “Assembly BOM” field).
The “Aggregation Values” section allows specifying which (and how) columns should be aggregated. You can use any of the following aggregation methods:
- Average
- Count
- First, Last
- Max, Min
- Sum
You can also switch the analyze view to the “Pivot mode“. In this mode, the behaviour is more similar to the Excel pivotal tables. Also, a new “Column Labels” section is shown where you can define table columns.
In the picture below, you can see an example of a pivotal table where lines are grouped by “Vendor No.” and “Item Description“, columns are grouped by the “Base UoM” and “Assembly BOM” fields, and values are minimal “Unit Price” and maximal “Unit Cost“.
The “Analysis Filters” tab allows to define which records should be available in the analysis view. You can select/unselect values or set a filter that should be applied to the entries you want to see.
