The grid control in many D365 Finance and Operations forms has been extended with new features in recent years and it’s good to know about these features.
The screenshot below from feature management shows the grid control features. Several have become mandatory in recent releases.
One of the most basic features of the grid is to add a footer that will show a row count. Find the ellipsis near the upper right corner of the grid. Then select Show footer.
The footer will show with the row count.
The newest feature is Extended grid aggregation capabilities which was added in Version 10.0.29 in October 2022. This feature added the capability to calculate an aggregate value for average, maximum, or minimum from a numeric column. The capability to calculate a sum or total had already been there.
For example, to find the maximum value in a column, find the column header and right-click. Then select View column totals > Maximum.
This capability to show an aggregate value can combine with data grouping. The Trial balance in the screenshot below has been sorted in the “BusinessUnit” column. From there, we highlight the column head and right-click. Then, select Group by this column. See screenshot.
The results of “Group by this column” show a Header row for each group. Any preexisting aggregate values (like Average, Maximum, Minimum, Sum) are applied at the group level.
Of course, you can export any grid to an Excel spreadsheet and analyze the data there. But, it can be helpful to do basic analysis right in the grid.
One more feature to highlight is the ability to freeze columns in a grid just like in a spreadsheet. This is helpful if you have too many columns to fit on your screen. Example: Inventory On-Hand List
Results look like this with Item number field being “frozen” on the left side of the grid.
