- Feature
- Design report headers and footers with Word add-in
- Availability
- Generally available (October 2026)
- Industry focus
- Accountancy and bookkeeping practices
Accountancy practices produce documents that must look professional and trustworthy: client invoices, statements, management reports and fee notes. Many also run Business Central for clients as an outsourced finance service. Every report needs a consistent header and footer with the right logo, company details and page numbers. Business Central 29.0 makes that much quicker to set up.
The industry challenge
A mid-sized practice might need:
- Client-facing documents with full contact details and regulatory information in the footer
- Internal reports with a simpler, cleaner header
- Consistent layouts across several companies, for the practice itself and for each outsourced client
Designing headers and footers in Word layouts used to mean building tables and fields by hand, then copying them between layouts. Small differences crept in: a missing registration number here, an old phone number there. For a profession built on precision, these details matter.
What Microsoft delivered in Business Central 29.0
According to Microsoft, the updated Word add-in includes header and footer document samples for designing header and footer layouts, suitable for both internal and external reports.
An MVP walk-through lists them. There are five header layouts: Default, Modern, Modern With Logo, Minimalist and Minimalist Centered. There are also five footer layouts, including a Default footer with company contact details in four columns and slimmer one-line options. Picking one replaces the existing header or footer on the first page and the pages that follow.
These header and footer layouts work with the new composable layout model, where reusable headers, footers and themes can be combined with report body layouts.
Where the value shows up
| Business area | Impact for an accountancy practice |
|---|---|
| Professional image | Consistent, polished headers and footers on every document |
| Compliance details | Registration and regulatory information shown reliably |
| Efficiency | Headers and footers built in minutes, not hours |
| Client services | Consistent documents across outsourced client companies |
| Internal vs external | Different styles for internal reports and client documents |
For practices that offer outsourced finance, consistency across clients is a mark of quality. It shows the same care in every engagement.
A worked scenario
Consider a practice with 40 staff that runs Business Central for itself and for 25 outsourced bookkeeping clients (an illustrative example). Each client wants professional invoices with its own logo and details.
Using the Word add-in, the practice's systems lead designs a standard external footer based on the Default sample, with contact details and registration numbers in four columns. She also designs a header based on Modern With Logo. For internal management reports, she uses the Minimalist header and footer. These become reusable header and footer layouts that can be applied across clients' document reports, so each client's invoices look professional while carrying their own company details.
Adoption considerations
- Separate internal from external. Decide which header and footer styles suit client-facing documents and which suit internal reports.
- Check regulatory details. Make sure company information such as registration numbers is complete in each company.
- Use composable layouts. Combine headers and footers with body layouts and themes for maximum reuse.
- Review on long reports. Check how headers and footers behave on multi-page documents.
- Standardize across clients. Offer a small set of approved header and footer styles for outsourced clients.
The bottom line
Accountancy practices are judged on precision and professionalism, and their documents are a visible part of that. Header and footer samples in the Business Central 29.0 Word add-in make it quick to create polished, consistent layouts for the practice and its clients. It's a modest feature with a clear payoff in image and efficiency.
If your practice wants more consistent documents across its own and client companies, it's worth exploring composable layouts with an experienced Business Central adviser.
Sources: Microsoft roadmap 573331 · Dynamics 365 Lab: Design themes, headers and footers with the updated Word add-in