Deploy Business Central dashboards in Power BI

  • 10 minutes

Getting insights into your Business Central data is simple with the Business Central apps for Power BI. Power BI retrieves your data and then builds out-of-the-box dashboards and reports based on that data.

Each app includes several reports that you can drill into for data, including the following features:

  • Choose any visual on the dashboard to bring up one of the underlying reports.

  • Filter the report or add fields that you want to monitor.

  • Pin a customized view to the dashboard to continue tracking. You can refresh data manually, and you can set up a refresh schedule. For more information, see Configuring scheduled refresh.

The apps are designed to work with data from any company in Business Central. When you install the Power BI app, you specify one or more parameters to connect to your Business Central.

Note

You can also build your own reports and dashboards in Power BI based on your Business Central data. For more information, see Building Power BI reports for displaying Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

Power BI apps require permissions to the tables where data is retrieved and the web services used to retrieve data. Here's a list that shows which of
the web services are required for each Power BI app:

  • Business Central – CRM

  • Sales Opportunities

  • Excel Template View Company Information

  • Power BI Report Labels

  • Business Central – Finance

  • PowerBIFinance

  • Excel Template View Company Information

  • Power BI Report Labels

  • Business Central – Sales

  • Item Sales by Customer

  • Sales Dashboard

  • Excel Template View Company Information

  • Power BI Report Labels

An easy way to find the web services is to search for web services in Business Central. In the Web Services page, make sure that the Publish field is selected for the web services listed above. For more information, see Publishing a Web Service.

Get ready

Sign up for the Power BI service. If you haven't already signed up, go to https://powerbi.microsoft.com. When you sign up, use your work email address and password.

Install a Business Central app in Power BI

  1. Open your browser, go to https://powerbi.microsoft.com, and sign in to your account.

  2. Select Apps on the navigation pane. The Apps page appears.

  3. On the Apps page, select Get apps from the upper right corner of the page. The Power BI apps page opens, where you can browse for the apps that are available for Business Central.

You can also access the Power BI Report from Business Central. Navigate to the Power BI Reports section and choose Select reports on your Home page. Choose either Services or My Organization from Get Reports. The Organization gallery in Power BI or Microsoft AppSource opens, displaying only apps related to Business Central.

  1. In the Search box, enter Dynamics 365 Business Central.

  2. Select an app that you want to use, select Get it now, and then Install.

When the app completes the install process, the app is available from Apps on the navigation menu in Power BI.

Connect the Business Central app to your data

  1. Under Apps, select the Business Central app, then Connect.

  2. When prompted, fill in the Company Name and Environment fields with information about the Business Central instance that you want to connect to.

    • For Company Name, make sure to use the full name, not the display name. You can find the company name in the Companies page in Business Central.

    • For Environment, if you haven't created multiple environments, enter Production.

  3. Select Next.

  4. Select Sign-in.

  5. When prompted, enter the user name and password you use to sign in to Business Central.

  6. Once connected, a dashboard and reports are added to your Power BI workspace. When completed, select any of the tiles that show data from your Business Central company.

Some more things you can do once you're connected to Business Central data include: