Enabling Your Business Data for Power BI

Getting insights into your Business Central content packs. Power BI retrieves your data and then builds an out-of-the-box dashboard and reports based on that data.

You must have a valid account with Dynamics 365 and with Power BI. Also, you must download Power BI Desktop if you wish to create your own Power BI reports. Power BI content packs require permissions to the tables where data is retrieved from. More details on the requirements are described below.

Microsoft has published the following content packs:

App	Description
Microsoft Business Central	Provides a dashboard with key financial data over time, such as earnings versus expenses, operating margin, and cash cycle.
Microsoft Business Central - CRM	Provides a dashboard with key data about sales opportunities and contacts.
Microsoft Business Central - Sales	Provides a dashboard with key data about sales and inventory.

Using the Dashboards

Each content pack provides reports that you can drill into:

Choose any visual on the dashboard to bring up one of the underlying reports.
Filter the report or add fields that you want to monitor.
Pin this customized view to the dashboard to continue tracking.
You can refresh data manually, and you can set up a refresh schedule. For more information, see Configuring scheduled refresh.

The content packs are preconfigured to work with data from the demonstration company that you get when you sign up for Business Central. When you install the apps in Power BI, and you connect to your own data, some reports may not work because they rely on data that your company does not have. In those cases, you can simply remove that report from your dashboard.

[!NOTE]
You can also build your own reports and dashboards in Power BI based on your Business Central data. For more information, see Connecting Your Business Data to Power BI.

How to Connect

Select Get Data at the bottom of the left navigation pane.

You may also get starting from within Dynamics 365 Business Edition. From the role center, navigate to Report Selection in the Power BI Role Center part. Select either Service or My Organization from the ribbon. When either of these actions are selected, you will be taken to either the Organization gallery in Power BI or to the services library in Power BI, which will also be filtered to only display content packs related to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

In the Services box, select Get. This will open a window with the AppSource and Apps for Power BI apps.
Select Apps from the Apps for Power BI apps tab, choose the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central content pack that you want to use, and then select Get it now.
When prompted, enter the name of your company in Dynamics 365 Business Central instance.
Once connected, a dashboard, report and dataset will automatically be loaded into your Power BI workspace. When completed, the tiles will update with data from your Dynamics 365 Business Central company.

What Now?

Try asking a question in the Q&A box at the top of the dashboard.
Change the tiles in the dashboard.
Select a tile to open the underlying report.
While your dataset will be scheduled to refreshed daily, you can change the refresh schedule or try refreshing it on demand using Refresh Now.

System Requirements

To import your Dynamics 365 Business Central data into Power BI, you need to have permissions to the web services used to retrieve data. The web services required for each content pack include:

Role Center Reports

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – CRM

Sales Opportunities
Excel Template View Company
Power BI Report Labels

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – Finance

PowerBIFinance
Excel Template View Company
Power BI Report Labels

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – Jobs

Job List
Job Planning Lines
Job Task Lines
Power BI Report Labels
Excel Template View Company

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central - Sales

Sales Dashboard
Excel Template View Company
Power BI Report Labels

List Page Reports

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – Customers List

Item Sales by Customer
Power BI Item Purchase List
Power BI Item Sales List
Sales Dashboard
Power BI Customer List
ExcelTemplateViewCompany
Power BI Report Labels

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central - General Ledger Entries List

Power BI GL Amount List
Power BI GL Budgeted Amount
ExcelTemplateViewCompany
Power BI Report Labels

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – Items List

Item Sales by Customer
Power BI Item Purchase List
Power BI Item Sales List
Sales Dashboard
ExcelTemplateViewCompany
Power BI Report Labels

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – Jobs List

Power BI Jobs List
ExcelTemplateViewCompany
Power BI Report Labels

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – Purchase Invoices List

Power BI Purchase List
ExcelTemplateViewCompany
Power BI Report Labels

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – Sales Orders List

Power BI Sales List
ExcelTemplateViewCompany
Power BI Report Labels

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central – Vendors List

Power BI Item Purchase List
Power BI Item Sales List
Power BI Vendor List
ExcelTemplateViewCompany
Power BI Report Labels

Web Services

An easy way to find the web services is to search for web services in Dynamics 365 Business Central. In the list make sure the Publish box is marked for the web services listed above.

Troubleshooting

The Power BI dashboard relies on the published web services that are listed above, and it will show data from the demonstration company or your own company if you import data from your current finance solution. However, if something goes wrong, this section provides a workaround for the most typical issues.

Incorrect Company Name

A common mistake is to enter the company display name instead of the company name. To find the company name search for Companies. Then use the Name field when entering your company name.

Incorrect User Name and Password

The user name and password used to connect will be the same as what is used to connect to your Microsoft Office 365 account.

The content packs also require that you have a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central account, you will receive an error message.

The Key Didn't Match Any Rows in the Table

If you enter a non-valid company name during the connection process, you may get the error message "The key didn't match any rows in the table". Provide the correct company name and try connecting again.