Statistical Accounts in Business Central for Non-Transactional Data

Dynamics 365 Business Central is designed to handle financial data as an ERP system. However, over time, businesses often find the need to track certain types of information that are not financial in nature and can be used for reporting, analysis, or simply for reference.

Some examples include employee headcount, office square footage, or the number of customers with overdue payments. While this data is important, it doesn’t make sense to track it through dimensions or charts of accounts.

This is where Statistical Accounts in Business Central become useful to track non-financial information that supports day-to-day operations but doesn’t affect the general ledger and can still be used in Financial Reports.

For example, you might want to measure revenue or expenses based on how many people are in a department. In this case, the “headcount” would be tracked using a statistical account and later, this data can be used for reporting and analysis inside Business Central.

Use Cases of Statistical Accounts

CSR or ESG Reporting

Business Central Statistical accounts can be used to track details like the number of beneficiaries, trees planted, training sessions held, or volunteer hours by employees. This data will help businesses make CSR reporting more measurable, reliable, and easy to audit at later stages.

Branch-Wise Electricity Unit Consumption

Tracking only the electricity cost isn’t enough, especially when businesses have multiple branches or production plants. With statistical accounts, users can log the number of units (kWh) used. This helps businesses analyze usage patterns, allocate power costs more accurately, and manage energy budgets.

Bank Guarantee / Letter of Credit Tracking

Many businesses, especially in construction, manufacturing, and exports, regularly issue Bank Guarantees (BGs) or Letters of Credit (LCs). Tracking them manually or in Excel can be time-consuming and unreliable. With Statistical Accounts in Business Central, businesses can track the number of active BGs or LCs, their values, issue dates, and expiry dates using dimensions or custom fields.

Litigation Tracking

Legal disputes be it tax or commercial are part of doing business, but many businesses fail to track them systematically and in these Statistical Accounts can be useful.

Inspection Visits (Fire, Factory, others)

Statistical Accounts can help track inspections from government agencies, whether for fire safety, compliance, or factory licensing.

Example to track Branch-Wise Electricity Unit Consumption

Firstly, user need to create Statistical Account and to do this user need to access Statistical Accounts as depicted below.

After opening the Statistical Accounts page, click on the New button and fill in the details as shown below.

User can also assign dimensions to statistical accounts. Additionally, you can make a dimension like "Department" mandatory for all Registers to that account.

To enter data in Statistical Accounts, navigate to the Statistical Account Journal as shown below, fill in the details, and click Register to post the entry.

Users can also view Statistical Account Detailed Entries and Balances to review registered entries, as shown below.

Conclusion

Statistical accounts in Business Central are a convenient way to track non-financial data. They can be used in Financial Reports and other functionalities, making them valuable for both reporting and internal analysis.

By adding this layer of insight, statistical accounts help businesses make more informed decisions within the Business Central environment - without maintaining data outside of Business Central.