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Does Business Central Come with Power BI?

Cody Schneider•

Thinking about integrating Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with Power BI? You’re asking the right question. The short answer is yes, they are designed to work together, but Power BI isn’t just a feature already built into Business Central - it’s a powerful integration. This article will show you exactly how they connect, what licenses you need to make it happen, and how you can display powerful, real-time dashboards directly inside your Business Central workspace.

The Relationship Between Business Central and Power BI

Microsoft encourages a tight-knit ecosystem, and the connection between Business Central and Power BI is a perfect example. While they are separate products, Business Central comes with built-in capabilities that make integrating Power BI reports a seamless experience. You don't get a full, editable Power BI license with your Business Central subscription, but you do get the hooks and connectors needed to bring Power BI visuals to life with your financial and operational data.

This integration works in two primary ways:

  1. Embedding Power BI Reports: You can place interactive Power BI reports and dashboards directly within your Business Central workspaces, such as on your main Role Center page or on specific list pages.

  2. Using Business Central as a Data Source: You can use the Power BI Desktop app or the Power BI Service to pull real-time data from Business Central to build completely custom reports from the ground up.

The goal is to transform your raw Business Central data into actionable insights without ever having to leave your ERP system.

How Power BI Actually Connects with Business Central

Let's look at the three main ways you can see your Power BI reports light up with Business Central data. Understanding these will help you see the practical benefits of the integration.

1. Embedding Reports on Your Role Center

The most common and visually impressive integration is embedding a Power BI dashboard directly onto your homepage in Business Central, known as the Role Center. Instead of a static welcome screen, you can be greeted with live charts showing your key performance indicators (KPIs) every time you log in.

For example, a sales manager could have a dashboard displaying:

  • Total sales this quarter, compared to the last quarter.

  • A map visualization showing sales by region.

  • A bar chart of the top 10 best-selling items.

  • A list of the top 5 salespeople by revenue.

This information updates automatically, pulling directly from your live Business Central data. This feature lets you see the pulse of your business at a glance, replacing the need to run and export multiple manual reports.

2. Adding Contextual Reports to List Pages

This might be the most powerful feature of the integration. Business Central allows you to display a Power BI report in a "FactBox Pane" on list pages (like Customers, Vendors, or Sales Orders). The magic here is that the report in the pane is automatically filtered based on the record you select in the list.

Imagine this scenario:

  • You navigate to your Customers page in Business Central.

  • You create a contextual Power BI report showing a customer's lifetime value, recent orders, and outstanding balance.

  • When you click on "Customer A" in the list, the Power BI FactBox instantly updates to show visuals specifically for Customer A.

  • When you click on "Customer B," the same dashboard refreshes to display Customer B's data.

This turns your simple lists into dynamic analytical tools. Instead of digging through customer cards and ledgers, you get an immediate visual summary of each customer's history and status as you browse, speeding up decision-making and account reviews.

3. Analyzing Data in Power BI Desktop

While embedding reports is great for viewing data, creating those reports happens in Power BI. Business Central features a native connector that lets you easily and securely pull your data into Power BI Desktop (the free report-building application).

You can connect directly to your Business Central environment and choose from dozens of pre-configured data sources or even expose your own custom APIs. This allows you to combine Business Central data with information from other sources - like HubSpot, Salesforce, or Google Analytics - to create a complete picture of your business performance.

Want to see how your marketing campaign spending (from Google Ads) impacts your sales revenue (from Business Central)? Building the report in Power BI is how you get it done before embedding it back into Business Central for your team to see.

Decoding the Licenses: What You Actually Need

This is where things can get confusing. You have a Business Central license, but what about Power BI? Here's a clear breakdown of what you need for this integration to work.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central License

You need a standard user license for Business Central itself. This can be either an Essentials or Premium license. This grants you access to your Business Central environment and the data within it.

Power BI Licenses

Your needs here depend on your role - are you creating reports or just viewing them?

  • Power BI Free: A user with a Free Power BI license can view reports embedded within Business Central. The catch is that these reports must be stored in "My Workspace" in Power BI (for personal use) or in a workspace that resides on a Premium Capacity. Crucially, a user with a Free license cannot view a report shared by a user with a Pro license in a standard workspace. For solo users or small businesses where one person creates reports for their own use inside Business Central, the Free license is often sufficient to get started.

  • Power BI Pro: This is the workhorse license for most organizations. A Power BI Pro license is required to create and publish reports and to share them with other users. If you are building reports for your team or organization to view within Business Central, both you and everyone who needs to see the report will need a Power BI Pro license.

  • Power BI Premium (Per User or Per Capacity): This is the enterprise-grade solution. If your organization has Premium Capacity, users with a Free license can view reports that are published to a workspace on that capacity. The Premium Per User license offers most Premium features on an individual basis. For most small to mid-sized businesses, the conversation revolves around the Free vs. Pro licenses.

The takeaway: To view embedded reports you create for yourself, a Free license works. To build reports and share them with your team inside Business Central, everyone involved generally needs a Power BI Pro license.

Your First Steps: A Quick Guide to Connecting the Two

Ready to get started? Here’s a simplified path to embedding your first Power BI report inside Business Central.

  1. Sign Up for Power BI: Make sure you’ve signed up for Power BI using the same organization account you use for Business Central. Even a Free account will let you follow these first steps.

  2. Open Power BI Desktop: Download and install the free Power BI Desktop application on your computer.

  3. Get Your Data: In Power BI Desktop, go to Get Data > Online Services and search for Dynamics 365 Business Central. Sign in when prompted.

  4. Select Your Environment and Company: A navigator window will appear, letting you choose your Business Central environment and the specific company whose G/L data, financials, etc. you want to analyze. Browse the available tables (like company/salesOrder) and select the data you want to use.

  5. Build a Simple Report: Once the data loads, drag some fields onto the canvas. For example, drag 'customerName' and 'amount' to create a simple table. Then, click the stacked bar chart icon in the Visualizations pane to turn your table into a chart.

  6. Publish It: Once you're happy with your visual, click the Publish button on the Home ribbon. You'll be asked to save your file and then choose a destination workspace within the Power BI Service (for now, simply choose "My Workspace").

  7. Embed in Business Central: Log into Business Central. Go to your Role Center, find the Power BI reports section, click the actions menu, and choose Select Report. Your newly published report should appear in the list. Enable it, click OK, and it will now be displayed directly on your homepage.

And that’s it! You've just pulled live data from your ERP, visualized it, and embedded it back into your daily workspace.

Final Thoughts

So, while Power BI is not a bundled feature within Dynamics 365 Business Central, the platform comes fully equipped with the deep integrations needed to make them work together seamlessly. This lets you turn your ERP, which is a system of record, into a dynamic insights engine without having to jump between applications.

Connecting data sources shouldn't require a whole IT project. Often, the biggest headache in reporting isn't building the charts but simply getting all your data - from your ads platform, CRM, e-commerce store, and financial system - into one place. At Graphed, we simplified this by creating an AI-powered data analyst that connects to your key marketing and sales platforms in seconds. Instead of navigating connectors and APIs, you just ask questions in plain English, and Graphed instantly builds the dashboards and reports you need, helping you get to insights faster.