Copying Reports for Business Central in VS Code / AL can be a time consuming task. For example, if you want to extend the sales invoice “Standard Sales – Invoice” – 1306, you normally need to create a copy of this report first.

For this it is necessary to copy the .al code of the file. In addition to that, the layouts either have to be downloaded from the web client or they have to be tediously searched in the .app file and copied from there. To save you these unnecessary repetitive clicks, I built a new functionality into my VS Code Extension AL Navigator:

“AL Navigator: Create a new report”

The function extracts the report from the .app file and copies it to your workspace. If the extension finds a folder “report”, the files will be copied there, otherwise into the root folder of your workspace.

Pictures and videos are worth a thousand words, so check it out for yourself.

How to copy a report easily:

How to create a report extension with the layout of the source report:

Hope this saves you some time. Enjoy. I am always grateful for feedback.

You may also want to check out my blog post 9 Tips for Developing Reports in AL.