Forms and reports in SAP Business One: documents in your layout, figures on demand
Invoices, quotations and delivery notes in your own layout, reports straight from the system. SAP Business One comes with SAP Crystal Reports, queries and, on SAP HANA, its own analytics tools.
Where the standard becomes laborious, init consulting AG adds Coresuite Designer AI. In a consultation we work out which tool fits your documents and reports.
Forms and reports in SAP Business One: which tools there are
Forms are the documents SAP Business One outputs – quotation, order confirmation, delivery note, invoice. Reports are analyses of the data in the system, from a simple list to a KPI cockpit.
For document templates and formatted reports, SAP Business One uses SAP Crystal Reports. Templates are imported in the Report and Layout Manager and can be set as the default for individual users or business partners. Lists and analyses without an elaborate layout are built with the Query Wizard and the Query Generator. When the system runs on SAP HANA, Excel Report, Interactive Analysis and dashboards complete the reporting.
Companies that want to maintain document templates without Crystal Reports skills add Coresuite Designer AI from the Coresuite Country Package. Which combination makes sense for your company is something we clarify in a consultation.
- Core system
- SAP Business One
- Document templates in the standard
- SAP Crystal Reports, Print Layout Designer
- Template management
- Report and Layout Manager
- Lists and queries
- Query Wizard, Query Generator, Query Manager
- Analytics on SAP HANA
- Excel Report, Interactive Analysis, dashboards, KPIs
- Extension for documents
- Coresuite Designer AI (Coresystems AG)
- Database
- SAP HANA or Microsoft SQL Server
- Deployment
- Cloud or on-premise
- Partner status
- SAP Gold Partner since 2006
All statements with sources: fact page on forms and reports in SAP Business One (in German)
Where documents and reports cost time every day
We hear these patterns often when talking to companies. They are no proof that things are like this at your company – but they are a good checkpoint.
New bank details on the invoice turn into a project
Nobody in-house can change the invoice layout. Every adjustment to the logo, footer or payment terms goes through a ticket – and waits.
The monthly report is built in Excel
Sales, open items and inventory values are exported, copied and merged by hand. By the time the report is finished, the figures are already out of date.
Every department works with its own list
Sales, purchasing and accounting pull the same KPI from different exports. The meeting then debates the figure instead of the decision.
Layouts cannot be taken along
Templates built directly in the system stay there. With a new company database, a test database or a system change, the work starts all over again.
Documents and reports with the built-in tools of SAP Business One
The following tools are part of SAP Business One. Which one is right for a task depends on whether you need a printed document, a list or an analysis.
Document templates with SAP Crystal Reports
Quotation, order, delivery note and invoice are designed in SAP Crystal Reports and imported into SAP Business One. Crystal Reports is also the tool for complex, fully formatted reports.
Report and Layout Manager
This is where templates are imported and managed. A layout becomes the default for all or selected users and can be tied to specific business partners – for example a separate invoice layout for a key account.
Print Layout Designer
The older layout editor works directly in the system. Its templates stay in the system in which they were created. For new templates we therefore use Crystal Reports.
Query Wizard and Query Generator
The Query Wizard guides you step by step to a query and suits users without SQL experience. With the Query Generator, the query is built on a single screen – faster if basic SQL knowledge is available.
Query Manager
Saved queries are stored as user queries, sorted into categories, in the Query Manager. Each department finds its lists again instead of rebuilding them every time.
Formatted searches and alerts
A query can fill a field in a document automatically – as a user-defined value. Queries can also drive your own alerts and approval procedures for conditions the predefined alerts do not cover.
The descriptions follow SAP SE training material on SAP Business One and an article in the SAP Community. Individual sources are listed on the fact page (in German).
ERP reporting without exports: analytics in the version for SAP HANA
If SAP Business One runs on SAP HANA, additional analytics tools are available. They access the views of the semantic layer – models of the operational data held in the database.
Reports and ad hoc analyses
For questions a fixed list cannot answer
- Excel Report: create reports based on the semantic layer, in real time
- Interactive Analysis: ad hoc analyses on the same views
Dashboards and KPIs
For an ongoing view of where the company stands
- Pervasive dashboards: built from a predefined query or a calculation view
- Advanced dashboards: with several pages
- Key performance indicators (KPIs): show one metric that tells you the status at any time
This requires the version of SAP Business One for SAP HANA; the analytics features are initialised per company database. What a move from Microsoft SQL Server to SAP HANA involves is described on the SAP HANA page.
Which tool for which task?
A first allocation. The final decision depends on your documents, the database and who is going to maintain the templates in future.
| Task | Tool | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice or quotation in your own layout | SAP Crystal Reports or Coresuite Designer AI | Standard or add-on product |
| Separate layout for one customer | Report and Layout Manager, link to the business partner | Standard |
| List of open orders | Query Wizard or Query Generator | Standard |
| Fill a document field automatically | Formatted search | Standard |
| Flag a condition | User-defined alert | Standard |
| Formatted report with groups and totals | SAP Crystal Reports | Standard |
| Ad hoc analysis | Interactive Analysis | Version for SAP HANA |
| KPIs in a cockpit | Dashboards and KPIs | Version for SAP HANA |
Coresuite Designer AI: document templates for SAP Business One in the browser
Coresuite Designer AI is the current version of Coresuite Designer and part of the Coresuite Country Package by Coresystems AG. Templates are created in the browser – optionally from a description in plain language.
Designing templates
- create, edit and migrate templates in the browser
- a short description produces a complete template draft
- describe corrections in a sentence instead of searching the editor
Running templates
- one layout for all marketing documents
- standard layout and your own changes kept separate, updates overwrite nothing
- usable in the desktop client and the Web Client
Existing templates
- templates from the previous Coresuite Designer are converted to the new format
- print templates can be connected to document management via the B1ECM Coresuite Connector
Modules in the package
- Designer AI – document templates
- Enterprise Search
- Accounting
- Customize
- Framework – basis for your own add-ons
When Designer AI pays off
When document templates are changed frequently, several company databases or languages need to be maintained, or nobody in-house should have to work with Crystal Reports. If a template is set up once and rarely changed, the standard is often enough.
Coresuite Designer AI works in the cloud and requires an existing SAP Business One installation. Brochure: Coresuite Country Package – efficient projects with SAP Business One (PDF, in German). The brochure describes an earlier product version.
From the consultation to documents and reports you maintain yourself
init consulting AG provides consulting, implementation, training and support from one source.
Consultation
You show us the documents and reports that currently cause effort. We assess what the standard covers and where an extension would make sense.
Review of the current state
Which templates exist, who maintains them, which analyses are currently produced outside the system? This shows which templates are rebuilt and which are taken over.
Concept and quotation
You receive a quotation with effort and, where applicable, licences. The decision between Crystal Reports and Coresuite Designer AI is made here.
Implementation and testing
Templates, queries and analyses are set up and checked with real documents before they go live.
Training and operation
Training takes place at our head office in Kösching or remotely, including Coresuite Layout Designer. After that we remain your contact: ticket support, hotline, remote access and version upgrades.
What the tools do not do
We would rather answer these points here than in the first meeting.
Queries are not print templates
Query Wizard and Query Generator deliver lists. For complex, fully formatted reports and document templates, Crystal Reports is the intended tool.
The analytics tools need SAP HANA
Excel Report, Interactive Analysis and the dashboards belong to the version for SAP HANA. They are not available on Microsoft SQL Server.
Print Layout Designer templates stay in the system
Exporting them to other systems is not intended. If you want to exchange templates between company databases or test systems, build them in Crystal Reports or in Coresuite Designer AI.
Coresuite is an add-on product
The Coresuite Country Package is not part of the SAP Business One standard and has its own licence costs. Designer AI works in the cloud; this belongs in your data protection review.
Not a data warehouse
The tools analyse the data in SAP Business One. If you want to combine data from several systems and keep history over years, you need a separate BI solution.
An AI assistant does not replace a reporting tool
The AI assistant init-AI gives answers as a snapshot of the live system. Analyses across time series and versions remain the job of a reporting tool.
Terms used on this page
- Document template
- The layout SAP Business One uses to print or output a document such as a quotation, delivery note or invoice. Also called print layout or form.
- SAP Crystal Reports
- Reporting tool by SAP SE. In SAP Business One it handles document templates and reports with a fixed layout.
- Print Layout Designer
- The older layout editor built into SAP Business One.
- User query
- A saved query that users call up again via the Query Manager.
- Formatted search
- A query behind a field that suggests or enters the field value automatically.
What companies want to know about forms and reports in SAP Business One
Can we adjust our invoice and quotation layouts ourselves?
Yes, with the right tool. Templates in SAP Crystal Reports require some training; Coresuite Designer AI also accepts changes as a description in plain language. Who will maintain the templates in future is one of the first questions in the consultation.
Do we need Coresuite, or is Crystal Reports enough?
For documents that are set up once and rarely changed, Crystal Reports in the standard is often enough. Coresuite Designer AI pays off when templates are changed frequently, maintained for several company databases or edited without Crystal Reports skills. It is an add-on product with its own licence.
What is the difference between Crystal Reports and the Print Layout Designer?
The Print Layout Designer is the older editor and works directly in SAP Business One; its templates cannot be exported to another system. A Crystal Reports template, by contrast, is created outside SAP Business One, imported and can therefore also be used in a second company database. For reports with groups and totals, Crystal Reports is needed anyway.
Can we create our own reports in SAP Business One without programming?
Yes. With the Query Wizard, users without SQL skills click their way to the list they need. Saved queries are available to all authorised users in the Query Manager. For analyses across several dimensions, the version for SAP HANA offers Interactive Analysis.
Which analyses are only available with SAP HANA?
The analytics tools: Excel Report, Interactive Analysis and the dashboards with KPIs. Their data basis is only provided by the HANA database. Document templates with Crystal Reports and queries also work with Microsoft SQL Server.
Can existing templates be taken over?
That depends on where they come from. Templates from SAP Crystal Reports are imported, templates from the previous Coresuite Designer are converted to the new format by Designer AI. Templates from the Print Layout Designer or from another ERP system are usually rebuilt.
What does it cost to adjust a document?
That depends on the document: a new logo and a changed footer are something different from an invoice with additional fields, tiered prices and multilingual texts. We estimate the effort once we have seen the templates. The costs of SAP Business One itself are on the prices and costs page.
Who supports us after implementation?
The same team that implemented it. init consulting AG provides ticket support, a telephone hotline and remote access as well as ongoing maintenance and version upgrades. Go to support
Discuss your documents and reports with us
Bring a current invoice, your most important monthly report and the list of analyses that are currently produced in Excel. We show you what SAP Business One covers in the standard and where an extension reduces the effort.
Direct contact
- Phone
- +49 8456 2 78 04-0
- Head office
- Ruppertswies 14
85092 Kösching, Germany - Locations
- Ingolstadt · Munich · Regensburg · Remscheid · Hanover · Rheine · Limburg an der Lahn · Innsbruck · Vienna · Switzerland
