Work with Power BI reports in Business Central

In this article, you learn some of the basics about working with reports. This includes viewing Power BI reports inside Business Central (including scorecards and dashboards), and editing Power BI reports that use Business Central as a data source. The article discusses some aspects that will help you get started as a Business Central user. For general guidelines and instructions about using Power BI, see Power BI documentation for consumers.

Overview

Power BI reports give you insight into your Business Central. Various pages in Business Central include a Power BI reports part that can display Power BI reports. The role center is a typical page where you'll see a Power BI reports part. Some list pages, like Items, also include a Power BI part.

Business Central works together with the Power BI service. Reports for displaying in Business Central are stored in a Power BI service. In Business Central, you can switch the report displayed in the Power BI part to any Power BI report available in your Power BI service. The first time you sign into Business Central, and until you connect to a Power BI service, parts will be empty, as shown here:

Get started

Note

Business Central online is already set up to integrate with Power BI.

Sign up Power BI

Before you can use Power BI with Business Central, you'll need to 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.

Once you have a Power BI account, you can sign in at https://powerbi.microsoft.com/.

The Power BI service hosts all the reports available to you. To see a report in your personal workspace, select My Workspace > Reports. Then just select the report that you want to view. If you have access to one or more shared Power BI workspaces, you can also see reports in those workspaces.

With Business Central online, you'll automatically have a set of default reports on your workspace. If you want to create your own reports, you can use Power BI Desktop to create reports, and then publish them to your workspace. For more information, see Getting Started Building Reports in Power BI Desktop to Display Dynamics 365 Business Central Data.

Note

It was possible to get the data from various companies in a single report with OData web services. But since Business Central 2021 release wave 2, only ODataV4 is supported, which doesn't export data from multiple companies. The $expand function in Power BI that you might think to be an alternative way to create a multi-company report, can't be used either. It will create a column with the company name but won't populate it with the company data after a refresh.

Connect to Power BI - one time only

When you first sign into Business Central, you'll probably see an empty Power BI part (as shown in the previous figure) on various pages. The first thing to do is to connect to your Power BI account. Once connected, you can see reports. You only have to do this step once.

1. Select the Get Started with Power BI link in the Power BI Reports part.

2. The Set Up Power BI Reports in Business Central assisted setup starts. Select Next to continue.

3. On the Check your Power BI License page. Do one of the following steps:

   • If you haven't yet signed up for Power BI, select the Go to Power BI homepage. Sign up for an account, then come back to Business Central and finish the setup.

   • If you already have a license, select Next.

4. In the next page, Business Central will now upload a demo report to Power BI. This step will take a few minutes, so it's done in the background. To complete the setup, select Next, then Finish.

The connection process starts. During the process, Business Central communicates with the Power BI service to determine if you have a valid Power BI account and license. Once your license is verified, the default Power BI report displays on the page. If there a report isn't shown, you can select a report from the part.

Tip

With Business Central online, this step will automatically upload default Power BI reports used in Business Central to your Power BI workspace.

Work with Power BI reports

Get the latest data

Each Power BI report is based on a dataset that gets data from the Business Central sources. You want to make sure that the data in your Power BI reports is up to date with the data in Business Central. This concept is referred to as refreshing. Depending on how your organization has set up Power BI, refreshing might not happen automatically. There are two ways to refresh data: manually or by scheduling a refresh. Manual refreshing is done on-demand, as needed. Scheduled refreshing lets you refresh automatically at defined time intervals.

Refresh manually

From Power BI online, in the navigation pane, under Datasets, select More options (...) next to the dataset, then select Refresh now.

Schedule a refresh

From Power BI online, in the navigation pane, under Datasets, select More options (...) next to the dataset, then select Schedule refresh. Fill in the information under the Schedule refresh section, and select Apply.

For more information, see Configure scheduled refresh

Show reports on list pages

Dynamics 365 Business Central includes a Power BI FactBox on several key list pages. This FactBox provides extra insight into the data in the list. As you move between rows in the list, the report is updated and filtered for the selected entry.

To learn how to create reports for list pages, see Creating Power BI Reports for Displaying List Data in Business Central.

Tip

If you don't see the Power BI FactBox, it might be hidden on your workspace by personalization. Select the icon, and then select Personalize action. For more information, see Personalize Your Workspace.

Or if you have an older version of Business Central, go to the action bar, select Actions > Display > Show/Hide Power BI Reports.

Switch reports

A Power BI part on a page can display any Power BI report that's available to you. To switch to view another report, choose the Select Report action from the drop-down command list at the top of the part.

The Power BI Reports Selection page shows a list of all the Power BI reports that you have access to. This list is retrieved from any of your own workspaces or workspaces that have been shared with you in the Power BI service. Select the Enable box for each report that you want to display on the page, and then choose OK. You'll return to the page, and the last report you enabled will appear. Using the drop-down command list, use the Previous and Next commands to navigate between reports.

Get more reports

If you don't see any reports on the Power BI Reports Selection page, or don't see the report you want, choose Get Reports. This action lets you look for reports from two locations: My Organization or from Services.

• Choose My Organization to go to the Power BI services. From here, you can view the reports within your organization that you've been given rights to view. You can then add them to your workspace.
• Choose Services to go to Microsoft AppSource where you can install Power BI apps.

Tip

If you have Power BI Desktop, you can also create new Power BI reports. Then, once those reports are published to your Power BI workspace, they will appear on the Power BI Reports Selection page.

Manage and modify reports

You can make changes to a report in the Power BI part. The changes that you make will then be published to the Power BI service. If the report is shared with other users, they'll also see the changes, unless you save the changes to a new report.

To modify a report, choose the Manage Report action from the drop-down command list in the Power BI part. Then start making changes. Once you finish making changes, select File > Save. If it's a shared report, and you don't want to make the change for all users, select Save As to avoid making this change for all users.

When you return to the role center, the updated report will appear. If you used Save As, you'll have to choose Select Report, and then enable the new report to see it.

Note

This capability is not available with Business Central on-premises.

Upload reports

Power BI Reports can be distributed among users as .pbix files. If you have any .pbix files, you can upload and share them with all users of Business Central. The reports are shared within each company in Business Central.

To upload a report, select the Upload Report action from the drop-down command list on the Power BI Reports part. Then, locate the .pbix file that defines the reports that you want to share. You can change the default name of the file.

After the report uploads to your Power BI workspace, it automatically uploads to other users' Power BI workspaces.

Note

Uploading a report through Business Central requires that you have SUPER user permissions in Business Central. You don't need any special permission to upload reports to your workspace through the Power BI service.

Upload reports from files

Power BI Reports can be distributed among users as .pbix files. If you have a .pbix file, you can upload the file to a workspace. To upload a report, do the following steps:

1. In your new workspace, select Get Data.

2. In the Files box, select Get.

3. Select Local File, navigate to where you saved the file, and select Open.

For more information, see Upload the report to the service.

Tip

If you're using Business Central online, you can also upload a report from within Business Central. For more information, see Work with Power BI Reports in Business Central - Upload Reports.

Share reports with others

Once a report is in your workspace, you can share it with others in your organization.

To share a report, in a list reports, or in an open report, select Share. In the Share report pane, enter the full email addresses for individuals or distribution groups you want to share with. Follow the instructions on screen to complete the sharing. For more information, see Share a dashboard or report.

Note

It is required that both you and the people you are sharing the report with have Power BI Pro license. Otherwise, the content must be in Premium capacity. For more information, see Ways to share your work in Power BI.

Fixing problems

However, if something goes wrong, this section provides a workaround for the most typical issues.

You don't have a Power BI account

A Power BI account hasn't been set up. To get a valid Power BI account, you must have a license, and you must have previously signed into Power BI to create a Power BI workspace.

Message: There are no enabled reports. Choose Select Report to see a list of reports that you can display.

This message appears if the default report failed to deploy to your Power BI workspace. Or it deployed but didn't refresh successfully. Navigate to the report in your Power BI workspace, select Dataset, Settings, and then manually update the credentials. Once the dataset successfully refreshes, navigate back to Business Central, and manually select the report from the Select Reports page.

You can't see a report on the Select Report page on a list page

It's probably because the report's name doesn't contain the name of the list page. Clear the filter to get a full list of Power BI reports available.

See also

Business Central and Power BI
Building Power BI Reports to Display Dynamics 365 Business Central Data
Power BI Integration Component and Architecture Overview for Business Central
Connect to Power BI from Business Central on-premises
Power BI for consumers
The 'new look' of the Power BI service
Quickstart: Connect to data in Power BI Desktop
Power BI documentation
Business Intelligence
Getting Ready for Doing Business
Importing Business Data from Other Finance Systems
Setting Up Business Central
Use Business Central as a Power BI Data Source
Use Business Central as a Power Apps Data Source
Use Business Central in Power Automate

Find free e-learning modules for Business Central here