Writing Reporting Services Reports
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Microsoft CRM comes with many pre-made reports that not only display relevant business data but also can be used as a starting point to develop custom reports. By downloading and modifying an existing standard report, your custom reports follow the established Microsoft CRM style specifications from the start and require reduced effort to develop.
This section discusses the information and techniques that can be used in writing Microsoft CRM specific reports. You can find a report style guide in the Microsoft CRM SDK download, available on the Web at https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/aa937755.aspx. By following the specifications outlined in the style guide, your reports can have a similar look to the standard reports that ship with Microsoft CRM.
The following table is a roadmap to the process of writing Microsoft CRM reports. Each task in the table has corresponding links to related sections. Because report writing is an iterative process, you may need to repeat some of these tasks as the report evolves.
| Task | Related Information |
| 1. Develop a report concept or specification based on what business information is to be displayed. | |
| 2. Copy (and rename) an existing Microsoft CRM report or create a new report. | Writing Reporting Services Reports |
| 3. Create basic report parameters. | Using Parameters |
| 4. Create datasets that contain Microsoft CRM data obtained from the filtered views. Review the report specification and make adjustments and additions to the datasets. Enable pre-filtering on the primary tables. | Filtered Views |
| 5. Define the basic layout of the report including headers and footers. | Report Style Guide (see Additional Information below) |
| 6. Add additional report items as required based on the report specification. | Report Navigation |
| 7. Preview the report in Visual Studio .NET and resolve any reporting errors. | Testing and Troubleshooting |
| 8. Deploy the report to the reporting server through Microsoft CRM. | Publishing a Report |
| 9. Test run the deployed report to verify its operation. |
You can also find more information about working with reports in the Customizing Reports section of the Administrator's Guide, which is available in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM online Help.
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