Business Central with Power BI: Why Reporting Integration Matters (and How to Do It) Updated November 2025Your business data is (or should be) the driving force behind decision-making, process improvement, productivity, innovation, and growth. It should go without saying that you need to consistently look at how you’re leveraging data to capitalize on market opportunities, steer operational efficiency, and provide more value to your customers. Business Central with Power BI can give you the ability to run and distribute governed dashboards, embed visuals directly in Role Centers, and share insights across Teams and Excel to help achieve data-driven decision making. The catch: success with Power BI hinges on clean, organized data models and an accessible setup for everyday users that doesn’t grind business management to a halt every time you need a new dashboard, KPI, or change. When Microsoft launched Power BI in 2015, most organizations thought it was the full-stop answer to getting insightful information from all their operational data through visually stunning dashboards that unveil trends and opportunities. And while Power BI certainly is an incredible analytics tool, it was quick to expose its challenges and limitations to everyday users. As experienced Microsoft Dynamics reporting and business intelligence (BI) veterans, we’ve seen firsthand the value Power BI can bring to an organization and support its growth when all conditions are perfect. In this article, we’ll review what you can do with Power BI out of the box, how to connect Business Central to Power BI, and how you can skip the heavy technical lifting through reporting tool integration so your team can build and share dashboards in minutes, not weeks. What is Power BI and What Can it Do with Business Central? At its core, Power BI is a unified, scalable platform for self-service business intelligence (BI) and analytics. It’s used by tens of thousands of organizations across the world to process complex data sets so business leaders and contributors can explore, collaborate, and share insights. Many companies experience significant lifts from leveraging the meaningful view and intake of data that Power BI delivers, like where revenue is increasing or decreasing, where there are cost saving or productivity improvement opportunities. Power BI isn’t exclusive to Business Central, it can be used with data from any number of ERPs, CRMs, productivity applications, or point systems. But as a part of the Microsoft Stack, Business Central comes with a native Power BI integration that enables you to: Embed dashboards and visuals inside Business Central. Publish, share and schedule refreshed dashboards through and collaborate in Teams. Blend ERP data with CRM, payroll, e-commerce, and more to answer cross-functional questions. With these capabilities, organizations running Business Central can move beyond static reports and disconnected data to create a single, connected view of performance, all without leaving the Microsoft ecosystem. Curious how Power BI differs from Analysis Mode in Business Central? Read: Understanding Analysis Mode in Microsoft Dynamics Business Central. How to Connect Business Central with Power BI Connecting Business Central to Power BI is relatively straightforward, but your outcomes hinge on a few fundamentals: permissions, licensing, and how you choose to retrieve and transfer data (the latter we’ll focus on more in this article). Most users get started by using the native Dynamics 365 Business Central connector in Power BI Desktop, which authenticates to your tenant, lists available environments and companies, and exposes Microsoft’s API pages and queries (as well as any published web services). Steps to Do This: Open Power BI Desktop, select Get Data, Online Services, and Dynamics 365 Business Central. Sign in with your organizational account, then pick the environment and company. Choose the API pages and queries (or any published web services) you need, then click Load or Transform Data. This exposes all your core financial, sales, purchasing, inventory, warehousing, and custom extension data. From there, if you resign to using only native tools, you must shape, organize, and model this Business Central data in Power Query, which uses its own language for data transformation known as M. Here, you’ll build relationships, set data types, and define keys. If you need more advanced modeling options, such as creating measures, calculated columns, or row-level security, then you will need to use DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) within your Power BI data model. Limitations of Power BI with Business Central Although there are a ton of reporting and BI solutions to choose from today, Power BI is still considered among the fastest growing, and most popular, analytics and data visualization platforms on the market. When a business runs on the Microsoft technology stack, it’s a natural fit to maintain productivity, collaboration, and visibility across your operations. But not everyone can capitalize on Power BI’s potential value overnight. At Cosmos, we have had endless conversations about Power BI with Business Central users that typically start along the lines of, “We tried using it but didn’t get very far” or “We have a license but don’t have the technical expertise to set it up properly.” This issue isn’t just arriving in our atmosphere either, it’s widely prevalent. According to one product design study, 46% of over 1 million Power BI launches dropped off at the “Get Data” step because it was too complicated to get meaningful, usable data loaded and ready to use. The problem is not the tool itself; the challenge is with people and data. In fact, there’s a very relevant quote we came across in a recent Forbes article on data literacy where the President and CEO of Tableau says, “Not everyone can speak the language of data, so you need to make data speak the language of everyone else. Putting data in context is the key to making it accessible.” So, while Power BI is a highly sophisticated analytics tool, the difficulties with effectively using it with Business Central most often arise in these four areas: Complex Native Data Modeling Power BI allows you to connect to all your data, but it’s useless if that data is not findable, organized, or formatted correctly for use in Power BI. It’s unrealistic to expect an average business user to effectively or efficiently link tables and fields and de-normalize a dataset in Power Query or create calculated measures with DAX programming language. Business Central’s dimensions require careful joins and an inconsistent approach across different users’ data modeling approaches can lead to “correct but different” numbers across reports. Furthermore, multi-company and entity reporting especially emphasizes data modeling obstacles and challenges, introducing entity keys, currency, and calendar differences that must be carefully standardized in your model. All this lends directly to the next challenge with native Power BI. Not Business User Friendly As mentioned above, you need clean, organized data to create a Power BI dashboard and use its self-service data visualization features. We’ve already established data organization with Power BI and is outside the average business user’s skillset. As a result, leaders and teams have no autonomy and must rely on technical experts whenever they want to create or modify a dashboard. Security and Governance Row-level security isn’t automatic; you must implement it in Power BI if different users should see and access different pieces of Business Central data, and your ERP permission settings alone won’t enforce this in your dataset. Moreover, there is little-to-no built-in governance on how data is accessed via Power BI, linked, or modeled, resulting in inconsistent and variable results. Performance at Scale Power BI can experience query issues when processing large entry tables, wide queries, or massive rows (20,000+), which can make refreshes significantly lag. This not only slows down your ability to run daily, weekly, or monthly reports, but it also interferes with other programs (like Excel) that are subsequently running in the background. It’s also worth noting that Power BI’s speed on any data is directly impacted by how the data modeling (see point 1) is done, which introduces as many performance factors and variables as there are technical resources to perform these tasks. The good news is that there are data management and reporting solutions available specifically designed to remove these obstacles and make Power BI immediately usable for everyone. If you want to avoid reinventing the model, keep refreshes fast, and ensure accurate, consistent numbers across users, pair Power BI with Cosmos. You’ll immediately start with governed, reusable models (including dimensions) that are optimized for performance and ready to extend across CRM and other sources. How to Make Power BI More Usable with Business Central: Introducing Cosmos The Microsoft Channel of Business Central solution delivery partners have long been frustrated with the lack of adoption around Power BI due to the limitations outlined above. While creating dashboards in Power BI is incredibly intuitive, wrangling the required data is a whole different story. That’s the entire reason we created the Cosmos Power BI Integration API. Our two-way integration with Power BI provides all the functionality Business Central users need to access governed data securely, effortlessly build and share dashboards from anywhere, and create a truly data-driven culture. On one side of the integration, Cosmos uses a powerful data engine to cleanse and organize your data, including proper dimension, table, and field linking, and prepare it for easy Power BI and dashboard creation. We built an OData layer with a custom API for Power BI that allows you to hook Power BI up directly to your Cosmos data model, providing fully optimized and instantly accessible data that can expand and customize without technical expertise. On the other side, this feature also directly integrates into Cosmos, which means you can access all your Power BI reports, workspaces, and dashboards directly inside Cosmos, right next to your Excel-based financial and operational reports. And it’s not just inside Cosmos. You can also have Cosmos-fueled Power BI dashboards published inside Business Central, Teams, CRM, and more. Remember some of the limitations of Power BI that we reviewed before? Well, here’s how the Cosmos Power BI Integration feature can help you resolve those issues immediately: Remove the Complexities of Power BI Deployment Cosmos was designed to simplify the process of importing, cleaning, and organizing your Business Central data with just a few clicks. That means your users can start easily creating accurate reports based on pre-optimized data immediately out-of-the-box, without worrying about the underlying data structure. Become Truly Self-Sufficient with Your Analytics With Cosmos’ new Power BI integration, your users don’t need to learn M, DAX, or SQL development languages or wait for a technical expert to build or modify a dashboard. Every user in your company can access the data they need from one unified environment. With clean data at their fingertips, they can take advantage of Power BI’s user-friendly platform and instantly create accurate reports from day one. Quickly Visualize Your Data Inside of Cosmos and Power BI Our two-way integration with Power BI offers the best of both worlds. Your users can now leverage pre-optimized Cosmos data from within Power BI to quickly create dashboards and instantly access them in the Cosmos Portal (along with all of your other pertinent reports) with the push of a button. Run Unlimited Simultaneous Dashboards Cosmos is a cloud reporting application accessible from anywhere, on any device. Thanks to the unified platform and computing power of Microsoft Azure, you can run Cosmos reports and dashboards 48 times faster than other Excel-based reporting solutions. That means your Power BI dashboards run at lightning speed and refresh simultaneously without locking up Excel or slowing down your performance. Eliminate Siloed Models and Conflicting MetricsWith native Power BI, different authors can create different versions of metrics, like “gross margin” for example, lending to inconsistent results and ultimately, unhelpful data for collaboration and accuracy. Cosmos standardizes and governs definitions so absolutely every dashboard and output tells the same story. Accelerate Refreshes and Remove Timeout ErrorsCosmos optimizes the structure, linking, and pipeline of data so refreshes complete reliably and reports stay snappy. Large tables, inefficient queries, and gateways are no longer a threat to performance and won’t put a drag on getting the data you need now. Seamlessly Scaling Beyond Business Central DataWhen you are ready to join Business Central data with CRM, a payroll application, an e-commerce platform, or any other SQL based data source, Cosmos effortlessly integrates with additional databases and makes multi-source reporting an easy routine instead of a rebuild. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF CLOUD REPORTING Comparing Power BI Native to Cosmos Integration for Business Central RequirementBC + Power BI (native)BC + Power BI + CosmosData modeling and joinsUses Power Query (M), DAX, or SQL language models. Manual, complex, time-consuming across modules.Pre-modeled, governed Business Central data ready for reporting.Performance at scaleCan slow with large datasets, complex measures, or inefficient queries.Optimized data pipeline for exceptionally fast refresh and query speed.Governance and trustDependent on each author’s skill and approach.Centralized governance with consistent, audited metrics.Time-to-dashboardTypically days or weeks, sometimes running into months depending on complexity.Minutes or hours with reusable, centralized models.Cross-system dataExtra effort to unify.Built-in pathways and functionality to easily combine Business Central, extension data, CRM, and other SQL data sources. Get the Most Out of Your Power BI Investment with Cosmos If your goal is fast, trustworthy reporting and analytics, Cosmos gives Power BI the solid footing it needs: a governed, Business-Central data model ready to customize and expand with no code, seamless access to integrating additional SQL data sources like CRM, cleaner relationships, uniform results, and predictable refreshes. You can still build and share in Power BI, Cosmos simply removes the modeling drag, keeps definitions consistent, and helps your team build, use, and share dashboards sooner. Want to see the workflow end-to-end? Watch the on-demand, 30-minute demo below. You’ll see how Cosmos streamlines the “Business Central with Power BI” setup and lets finance and operations move from data to decisions without all the technical detours. In 30 minutes, you’ll see how to: Connect Power BI to governed Cosmos models and start building right away. Create role-based dashboards quickly without heavy M coding, DAX development, or difficult table and field joins. Publish to the Power BI Service, schedule refreshes, and share through Teams and Excel. Embed visuals in Business Central Role Centers and open dashboards inside the Cosmos Portal. WATCH THE COSMOS POWER BI INTEGRATION IN ACTION Watch the demo, then book a 30-minute live walkthrough for your team. We’ll address your “Business Central with Power BI” use cases and show exactly where Cosmos saves time and prevents rework. For more information on Cosmos’ Power BI Integration, you can access detailed documentation in our Cosmos Knowledgebase. Using Power BI with Business Central and Cosmos FAQ What does Cosmos actually add to a Power BI workflow? Cosmos gives you a governed, ready-to-use Business-Central data model so you can immediately build dashboards from all your data without the need to learn Power Query language, SQL, or DAX code. The Cosmos data model is easily configurable and expandable, without coding, so that means everyday users can quickly and easily create dashboards with better performance and without the need to rely on technical resources. Do we still build visuals in Power BI Desktop when using Cosmos? Yes! Cosmos handles the data and governance; you design reports in Power BI Desktop and publish to the Power BI Service like normal. However, the Cosmos’ two-way Power BI integration also adds the benefit of being able to launch Power BI Desktop and access published dashboards directly from your Cosmos Portal, giving you a central hub for all your reporting and analytics. How do we connect Power BI to Cosmos data? To connect Power BI Desktop directly to your Cosmos data, start by installing Power BI Desktop from the Windows Store. Once installed, launch the application. Cosmos then makes it easy to create a Power BI connection file (*.pbids). Simply go to Reporting, Power BI and click New in the upper-right corner. This will download a file named cosmos_datasource.pbids, which you can open in Power BI. The connection to your Cosmos tenant will already be embedded. If prompted to sign in the first time, choose Organizational Account and log in using your organization’s Microsoft credentials. Visit our Power BI knowledgebase for more help and information. Can Power BI reports built on Cosmos data be embedded inside Business Central? Yes. Business Central supports embedded Power BI report in Role Centers and pages. Your Cosmos-backed dataset publishes to the Power BI Service, and you embed like any other report. (Admins can also control how embedded content is displayed and even show multiple tiles on Role Centers.) License rules still apply. What data can we report on through Cosmos into Power BI? Absolutely all your Business Central finance and operational data (G/L, dimensions, customers, vendors, items, sales/purchasing entries, etc.) plus extension data and any other SQL database sources you expose through Cosmos. How is Cosmos different from Microsoft’s “Power BI apps for Business Central”? Microsoft’s apps provide prebuilt semantic models and starter reports; they’re useful accelerators. But, Cosmos goes further by standardizing definitions across Business Central and other sources, enabling no-code management and customization, improving performance, and giving you governed, enterprise-ready data that scales. Many organizations use both: Cosmos for the model; Power BI for visuals; Business Central apps for quick role-based starters. How is Cosmos different from Microsoft’s “Power BI apps for Business Central”? Anthony Bonaduce Chief Revenue Officer About the Author Latest Posts Anthony Bonaduce brings nearly a decade of sales leadership expertise to the Microsoft Channel, where he has built lasting partnerships and driven significant growth for data analytics solutions. As co-founder of Cosmos Data Technologies, Anthony combines his passion for relationship building with deep industry knowledge gained through executive roles at Jet Reports (now insightsoftware) and Rand Group. Anthony’s business philosophy centers on exceptional customer service and transparent communication—principles he credits as the foundation of his success. His proudest achievement includes expanding Jet’s partner channel to unprecedented levels, earning him the trust of countless Microsoft partners and clients. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with concentrations in Finance and Marketing from the University of Oregon. When he’s not helping clients unlock their data potential, Anthony enjoys cheering on the Oregon Ducks, playing golf, and spending time with family and friends. How to Get Custom Business Central Inventory Reports in Minutes August 17, 2026 What is Cloud Reporting? Benefits, Tools, and How it Works August 7, 2026 Best Business Central Reporting Tools (2026): Compare Top 5 Excel-Based Options July 27, 2026 Cloud Reporting for Business Central: The Missing Step Between Spreadsheets and AI June 4, 2026 AI Won’t Help Your Ungoverned Data May 11, 2026 Fact Checked & Editorial Guidelines Our Fact Checking Process We prioritize accuracy and integrity in our content. Here's how we maintain high standards: Expert Review: All articles are reviewed by subject matter experts. Source Validation: Information is backed by credible, up-to-date sources. Transparency: We clearly cite references and disclose potential conflicts. Your trust is important. 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