Ad-Hoc Reporting with Power BI in Business Central
UG Expert Jason Chance demonstrates how to use Power BI with Business Central data and conduct ad-hoc reporting.
Key Takeaways
- Sales app and BC data: The out-of-the-box sales app that Microsoft built for users. “You download it, connect it to your environment, it refreshes the data, and you can start using these Power BI reports right away,” Jason explains. It’s important to note that this data is not live BC data and only refreshes on the schedule set by the user.
- Using the Explore feature: This enables users to create a new report that answers a specific business question without having to make a request to IT. Clicking the Explore button opens a new window, giving users the ability to build a matrix. Jason provides an example to walk through this.
- Validate before publishing: As you’re building out your Power BI infrastructure and reporting needs, he highlights that “building these little ad-hoc exploration reports is a great way to get started before you add something officially to your Power BI reports that you’re publishing to your entire organization.” It’s a good way to explore and validate the data before you put it out there for everyone to see.
- Analyze in Excel: By selecting the option to analyze in Excel, users can download the file and review it directly in Excel. Jason shows how this works and when this option can be useful.
