Business Central with Power BI: Take Your Reporting to the Next Level
One of the biggest struggles we hear from clients running on-premises ERP systems like Dynamics GP is issues with reporting.
The data is there, but turning it into insights means they must export it to Excel, build manual reports, or use multiple tools to answer different business questions. As the business landscape becomes more complex and technology continues to evolve, this disjointed approach is no longer feasible.
In this video and blog, Microsoft Principal Program Manager and Stoneridge's go-to expert, Kennie Nybo Pontoppidan, walks through how Business Central, Microsoft's cloud-based ERP solution, combines built-in reports, interactive financial tools, self-service analysis, and Power BI dashboards to help users access the information they need, in the format they prefer.
Reporting Designed for Every Role
Business Central recognizes that different users consume information differently:
- Operational staff need detailed, task‑focused reports.
- Managers rely on summarized data and ad hoc analysis.
- Executives want KPIs, dashboards, and high‑level financial views.
Instead of forcing everyone into a single reporting experience, Business Central provides multiple ways to analyze information. This flexibility creates a reporting environment that adapts to how organizations work.
A Modern Reporting Experience for Dynamics GP Users
If you move from Dynamics GP, you will immediately notice how Business Central simplifies reporting. Instead of juggling tools or exporting data repeatedly, reporting is built directly into the ERP, then extended through Power BI when you need more interactive dashboards.
Financial Reporting Enhancements
Microsoft continues to invest heavily in Business Central’s financial reporting, which will pay huge dividends in streamlining workflows for your finance team.
The financial reporting overview is now more visual, making reports easier to browse and manage. Each report includes a description so users can quickly understand its purpose. This small improvement becomes significant as report libraries grow.
Report Lifecycle Management
Business Central now supports report statuses such as Draft and Active, allowing authors to refine reports before releasing them. This prevents unfinished reports from appearing to end users and improves consistency across the reporting library.
Logical Report Categorization
Organizations can categorize reports into groups such as:
- Balance Sheet
- Income Statement
- Month-End
- Departmental
- Custom categories
Users can filter by category to quickly find what they need instead of scrolling through long lists.
Better Visibility into Report Activity
Users can see when a report was last run, whether it’s ready for use, and how it’s categorized. These incremental improvements create a more organized, manageable reporting environment. This is especially valuable for GP users accustomed to traditional report lists.
Dimension Perspectives: Multidimensional Reporting Made Simple
One of the most impactful additions to Business Central is Dimension Perspectives, which allows a single report to automatically generate separate views for each selected dimension value.
One Report, Multiple Views
Organizations can tag transactions with dimensions such as departments, business units, or customer groups. Dimension Perspectives build on this by producing multiple reports from one execution. Some examples include:
- A company-wide balance sheet
- A balance sheet for Administration
- A balance sheet for Sales
- Additional reports for every department
Instead of rerunning reports with different filters, Business Central does the work automatically.
Excel Integration
When exporting to Excel, Business Central creates a workbook with a consolidated report and individual worksheets for each dimension value. This eliminates the need for multiple exports and keeps reporting organized.
Reusable Perspectives
Organizations define a perspective once and reuse it across multiple reports, reducing repetitive setup and improving consistency.
Combine Multiple Dimensions
Users can analyze financial data across combinations such as:
- Department + Customer Group
- Sales + Large Customers
- Administration + Medium Customers
Business Central automatically generates all combinations, saving your finance team significant time.
Report Scheduling and Audit Logs
Creating reports is only part of the process. Many organizations also need automation and visibility. Business Central’s scheduling and audit log features address both.
Automate Recurring Reporting
Finance teams can schedule reports to run automatically and distribute them without manual effort. Reports can:
- Run on recurring intervals
- Generate PDF or Excel versions
- Deliver to a Business Central inbox
- Email individuals or distribution groups
This frees teams from repetitive tasks and lets them focus on reviewing results.
Detailed Audit Logs
In Business Central, audit logs show:
- Who ran a report
- When it was executed
- Whether it was viewed or exported
- Whether it was generated by a schedule
This supports governance, auditing, and better understanding of report usage.
Turn Audit Data Into Insights
Audit logs can be analyzed using Analysis Mode, allowing users to identify:
- Frequently used reports
- User-specific reporting patterns
- Trends over time
- Departmental reporting activity
Built‑in views like Last 30 Days and Year‑to‑Date make it easy to start analyzing without building new reports.
Power BI: Interactive Dashboards and Visual Insights
Business Central’s built‑in reports are strong, but many organizations need deeper analytics. Power BI complements Business Central by providing interactive dashboards, KPIs, and trend analysis.
Note: You can integrate Power BI with Dynamics GP; however, the combination with Business Central is much stronger, as both it and Power BI are cloud-based applications that work more effectively together and have similar data structures and built-in embedding.
Two Tools Working Together
Business Central excels at operational and financial reporting, while Power BI adds:
- Executive dashboards
- KPI monitoring
- Trend analysis
- Visualizations
- Large-scale data analysis
Together, they support everyone from frontline staff to executives.
Customer Retention Dashboards
New Power BI dashboards help organizations understand customer behavior, showing:
- Net new customers
- Returning customers
- Recovered customers
- Lost customers
- Retention history
This shifts the focus from “How much did we sell?” to deeper questions like:
- Are we retaining customers?
- Which customers have stopped buying?
- Are certain locations performing differently?
Interactive Exploration
Users can filter dashboards by customer, location, retention category, or other dimensions. Visualizations update instantly, enabling fast, self‑service analysis without IT involvement.
For GP users accustomed to static reports, this interactivity is a major upgrade.
Inventory and Sales Reporting Enhancements
Business Central also modernizes inventory and sales reporting.
ABC Inventory Analysis
Business Central automatically classifies inventory into A, B, and C categories based on sales contribution instead of item count. This helps you identify your most impactful products and make smarter purchasing decisions.
Power BI and Excel Options
ABC analysis is available in both Power BI and Excel, meaning you can analyze this data through interactive dashboards or printable summaries, detailed worksheets, PivotTables, and slicers. Users can also analyze inventory across additional dimensions for deeper insights.
Easier Report Customization
Many legacy inventory reports now support Word and Excel layouts. With Business Central and Power BI, your organization can now export the layout, customize it in Word or Excel, and then upload it back into Business Central with live updates.
This reduces reliance on specialized report development and makes customization more accessible.
Analysis Mode: Self-Service Reporting Inside Business Central
Analysis Mode lets users interact with data directly inside Business Central—grouping, filtering, summarizing, and reorganizing information without exporting to Excel.
Turn Reports Into Interactive Analysis
Users can:
- Group records by business fields
- Filter data to focus on specific areas
- Rearrange columns
- Save custom analysis views
- Share layouts with colleagues
This reduces the need for multiple report versions and supports consistent analysis across departments.
Reusable Views
Saved views help teams standardize how they review information. Developers can even package predefined views into extensions for faster onboarding.
Bridging Reports and Dashboards
Business Central’s reporting ecosystem includes:
- Built‑in operational and financial reports
- Analysis Mode for interactive, self‑service analysis
- Power BI for executive dashboards and visual trends
Users can move seamlessly between detailed reports, interactive analysis, and high‑level dashboards—all within a unified environment.
Modernize Your Reporting with Business Central and Power BI
For organizations still relying on Dynamics GP, improved reporting is one of the strongest reasons to consider moving to Business Central. With enhanced financial reporting, multidimensional analysis, automated scheduling, interactive dashboards, and Power BI integration, Business Central helps organizations turn data into meaningful insights.
Stoneridge Software has helped organizations across industries transition from on‑premises ERP systems to the cloud using a proven, tailored implementation approach. Whether you're evaluating Business Central or looking to understand how its reporting capabilities can support your business, our team can guide you through every step of the journey.
Get in touch today to learn more!
This blog is written in collaboration with Kennie Nybo Pontoppidan| Microsoft Principal Program Manager.
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