Reporting and Power BI analysis

  • 10 minutes

SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is the primary reporting platform for Dynamics AX 2012. The default, predefined reports that are provided with Dynamics AX run on the SSRS platform. However, on-premises reporting is not only limited to SSRS reporting.

Several reporting capabilities that you might use with Dynamics AX 2012 are:

  • SSRS reports
  • Financial reports using Management reporter
  • SSRS and Power BI reports on replicated database
  • Improvised SQL queries directly on the database or embedded in Microsoft Excel
  • Power BI reports using a tabular data model

Before you decide how to build your reporting in finance and operations apps, consider how your reports are used. Ask yourself questions, such as:

  • Does the report need to be printed on paper?
  • Does the report need to be submitted to a government agency at year-end?

Make sure that you understand your reporting needs when upgrading so that you can make informed decisions.

The three types of reporting models that might be used with Dynamics AX 2012 reporting can be described in three stages.

Diagram showing the three stages representing the three types of reporting models.

  • Stage 1 - Shows a reporting scenario where the entire reporting design is built around the production database. Stage one is a simpler scenario with little volume and a more simplified architecture. AOS is the Axapta Object Server in the diagram above.
  • Stage 2 - Shows database replication from AX database (AXDB). In this stage, you might bring in other data sources, run the Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) process, and curate your own data model that is optimized for reporting. Finally, in Stage 2, you will use tools, such as Power BI, Excel, SQL Server Reporting Services, to build and serve reports to users.
  • Stage 3 - Includes complex requirements and large volume. In Stage 3, you might use a data warehouse that gets populated from replicated database and ETL processes. You might also use a tabular data model or cubes with SSRS and then use Power BI, Excel, or SSRS to serve reports to users.

For each of these stages, you need to be able to transform the needs and uses into a cloud solution.