Install Power BI apps for Business Central
APPLIES TO: Generally available in Business Central 2024 release wave 2 (version 25.1).
This article describes how to install Power BI apps for Business Central. The apps are specific to each functional area of Business Central. The apps include:
- APIs for reading data.
- Power BI semantic models and reports.
- Pages that embed the Power BI reports in Business Central.
- Navigation links on Role Centers and in the Role Explorer.
Prerequisites
To install Power BI apps for Business Central, you must have:
An environment in Business Central online (it comes ready to integrate with Power BI.)
Entitlements/permissions in Power BI to:
- Install template apps from AppSource.
- Use shared workspaces.
The prerequisites for Power BI can be met with a Power BI PRO license for the following users:
- The user who installs the Power BI template app.
- The user who refreshes the data.
- Each user who accesses the reports.
An alternative to using Power BI PRO licenses is to use Power BI or Microsoft Fabric Premium capacity.
To learn more, go to Get started with Power BI reports in Business Central.
Installing a Power BI app
Power BI apps are available for the following functional areas in Business Central:
- Finance (14 reports)
- Sales (11 reports)
- Purchasing (12 reports)
- Inventory (11 reports)
- Inventory Valuation (3 reports)
- Projects (7 reports)
- Manufacturing (11 reports)
Each app consists of two parts:
- A connector (AL) app that contains APIs, setup pages, and embed pages. Connectors are preinstalled with Business Central.
- A Power BI template app that contains a Power BI semantic model and Power BI reports.
You must install and configure both apps for the Power BI reports to work.
Installing the connector (AL) app
The connector apps are preinstalled with Business Central.
Installing a Power BI template app
Template apps are available to install from Microsoft AppSource. To install or update one or more of the template apps, go to one of the install links in the following table and select Get it now.
| To get the template app for... | Use this install link |
|---|---|
| Finance | https://aka.ms/bc-pbi-finance-app |
| Sales | https://aka.ms/bc-pbi-sales-app |
| Purchasing | https://aka.ms/bc-pbi-purchase-app |
| Inventory | https://aka.ms/bc-pbi-inventory-app |
| Inventory Valuation | https://aka.ms/bc-pbi-inventory-valuation-app |
| Manufacturing | https://aka.ms/bc-pbi-manufacturing-valuation-app |
| Projects | https://aka.ms/bc-pbi-projects-valuation-app |
Sign in to Microsoft AppSource using your Power BI account credentials. Follow the instructions to install the app in Power BI.
After you install it, the Business Central Power BI app appears under Apps in Power BI, and there's a workspace with the same name that you can use to configure the app.
When you install the Power BI template app in your Power BI subscription, you must choose a workspace for the Power BI semantic model and reports. We recommend that you use one workspace for each app because it's easier to set up functional boundaries with access controls for users and user groups.
The Power BI apps currently work per company in Business Central. If you have multiple companies in your Business Central environment, you must install and set up a Power BI template app for each company.
Important
To install a Power BI template app, you need a Power BI PRO license.
Run the Connect to Power BI assisted setup guide
After you install your Power BI apps, you can configure them to suit your business:
- Get help with the set-up process by using the Connect to Power BI assisted setup guide.
- Set up things yourself on the Power BI Connector Setup page.
The assisted setup guide helps you configure the following components:
Configure the calendar type
Choose the type of calendar the year boundaries apply to.
- Fiscal: A 12-month calendar that begins in any month and ends 12 months after.
- Standard: A 12-month calendar that begins on January 1 and ends on December 31.
- Weekly: A calendar that supports 445, 454, or 544 week groupings. The first and last day of the year might not correspond to a first and last day of a month, respectively.
Important
By default, all Power BI reports are configured to use Fiscal Calendar date fields and Fiscal Time Intelligence measures.
Specify the UTC offset
The UTC offset defines the UTC time zone in the Power BI date table.
The UTC offset allows your Power BI semantic model to accurately calculate what the current day is in respect to your geographical location. This setting is necessary because your Power BI apps might be hosted in a data center located in a different region.
UTC offsets are based on Business Central time zones.
Set up a date table range
The Starting Date and Ending Date fields are set automatically based on your accounting periods in Business Central. Based on these dates, Power BI generates a series of continuous dates for your date table.
Note
If your budgets extend past the last date in your Account Period table, you must manually set the ending date to accommodate the extended range.
Specify work days
You can define the days of the week you consider as work days. The default setting is Monday to Friday.
Map embedded reports
To enable the embedded report pages in Business Central, you must set up links to the Power BI apps in the Power BI service.
- For each functional area in Business Central, select the ellipsis to open the Select Power BI Workspace page.
- Select the workspace where you store the corresponding Power BI app.
- Select the Power BI report (app) you want to map.
Connect the Power BI semantic models to Business Central
Do this part of the configuration in the semantic models in your Power BI service.
Each semantic model requires two parameters:
- Environment (holds the environment name)
- Company (holds the company name. The company parameter is case sensitive. )
You can find these values in the connection details of the assisted setup guide or on the Power BI Connector Setup page.
Get the latest data (refresh the semantic model)
Each Power BI app is based on a semantic model (also known as a dataset) that gets data from Business Central APIs. Make sure that the data in your Power BI reports is up to date with the data in Business Central. This concept is referred to as refreshing the model. Depending on your Power BI setup, refreshing might not happen automatically. You can refresh data manually, or by scheduling a refresh. You can do a manual refresh at any time. A scheduled refresh lets you refresh data automatically at defined time intervals.
To learn more, go to Refresh Power BI semantic models.
Permissions
In Business Central, the user account you use to refresh the semantic model in Power BI must have Read permissions to the tables in the model. These tables are currently documented in the KPI article for the app. For example, for the Power BI Sales app, these are the Business Central tables that the user needs Read permissions for: KPIs and measures in the Power BI Sales app
In the Power BI service, we recommend that you add multiple admins for each Power BI app workspace. Grant Read permissions to users who should be able to view report pages in an app.
For the embedded pages in Business Central, there are permission sets for each Power BI app. If you need to exclude read access to all or some of these pages, you can exclude the permission set (or permission on individual pages) for the users.
Governance of Power BI workspaces
Consider having the template app workspaces highly governed and not used directly for the embedded experience. To learn more, go to Workspace governance level.
Instead, consider having a single workspace per company that you use for the embed experience. In this workspace, keep copies or custom versions of the template reports. This helps mitigate the problem of losing report customizations when you upgrade the template app workspace. To learn more about how to copy a report to another workspace, go to Copy reports from other workspaces.
Updating a Power BI app
The Business Central Power BI apps are available as template app on AppSource. When a new version of a template app becomes available, we notify you in two ways:
- An update banner displays in the Power BI service informing you that a new version is available.
- A notification displays in Power BI's notification pane.
When you update a template app, it's important that you're aware of your options and how they might overwrite earlier changes to the reports. You can choose to:
- Update the workspace and the app.
- Update workspace content only, without updating the app.
- Install another copy of the app in a new workspace.
To learn more, go to Install, share, and update template apps in your organization.
Related information
Power BI apps by functional area
Introduction to Business Central and Power BI
Work with Power BI reports