Power BI Apps for Business Central: Features, Benefits and Requirements

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central ships several Power BI template apps that let you build executive dashboards without writing a single DAX formula. These apps connect to Business Central via APIs and expose ready‑made reports for finance, sales, inventory, and other areas. This article explores what the apps can do, who they help, and the requirements for using them

What are the Business Central Power BI apps?

Microsoft publishes a set of Power BI apps specifically for Business Central. Each app consists of two parts:

• Connector (AL) app – contains APIs, setup pages, and embed pages; it is pre‑installed in Business Central.
• Power BI template app – includes a semantic model and Power BI reports, downloaded from Microsoft AppSource.

You must install and configure both parts to get the reports working. When installed, the app appears under Apps in your Power BI workspace.

These apps work with any Business Central online environment and are designed to give you a quick view of your data using standard KPIs and visuals. You can click a tile on a dashboard to drill into the underlying report, apply your own filters, add more fields and pin customized views back to the dashboard.

Available functional areas

As of the 2024/2025 release waves, Microsoft offers Power BI apps for the following functional areas:

• Finance
• Inventory
• Inventory Valuation
• Manufacturing
• Projects
• Purchasing
• Sales
• Subscription Billing
• Sustainability

Each app is free to install, but users must have a paid Power BI licence.

Key reports and KPIs for finance and sales

Finance app

The Finance app provides a suite of reports that help executives monitor overall financial performance and dive into detailed ledgers. Notable reports include:

• Financial Overview – a snapshot of revenue, profitability and financial stability.
• Income Statement by Month – compares income statement accounts across months.
• Balance Sheet by Month – trends assets and liabilities over time.
• Budget Comparison – compares budgets to actuals and highlights variances.
• Liquidity KPIs – tracks current ratio, quick ratio and cash ratio
• Profitability – analyses gross and net profits and margins.
• Liabilities, EBITDA, Average Collection Period, Aged Receivables/Payables, and detailed General Ledger/Customer/Vendor entries.

Sales app

The Sales app focuses on analysing sales activities, trends and profitability. Important reports include:

• Sales Overview – high‑level analysis of sales quantities and amounts from posted and unposted documents.
• Daily Sales – a heat‑map showing sales by weekday to identify patterns.
• Moving Average / Moving Annual Total – smooths out spikes and shows trends across months or years.
• Period‑Over‑Period Growth and Month‑To‑Date – compares current period to prior periods.
• Sales by Item / Customer / Salesperson / Location / Project – breaks down sales metrics (amount, quantity, cost, gross profit and margin) by different dimensions.
• Actual vs Budget, Opportunity Overview, Sales Quote Overview, Return Order Overview and Sales Demographics.
• Key Sales Influencers and Sales Decomposition – uses AI‑driven decomposition and key influencers to explain drivers of sales performance.

These reports provide insights into performance drivers, forecasting, opportunity management and variance analysis.

What the apps help you achieve

Rapid insights without modelling

The template apps offer plug‑and‑play dashboards. You don’t need to build a data model or design visuals; just connect to your Business Central company and start exploring. Each report is interactive: click a tile to drill down, apply filters or add extra fields. You can also refresh data manually or on a schedule.

Standardised KPIs across companies

Since the apps use Microsoft’s standard API endpoints, the same metrics and visuals are available across different companies and environments. This consistency is valuable for partners and multi‑company groups who need comparable KPIs.

Suitable for quick wins and early adoption

The apps are ideal for new Business Central customers or smaller organisations that need immediate insights before investing in a full data warehouse. By leveraging built‑in reports, teams can start making data‑driven decisions while planning longer‑term analytics strategies.

Embedded in Business Central

Power BI reports can be embedded directly into Business Central Role Centers and pages. Users can view dashboards without leaving their ERP environment, and role‑based navigation links surface relevant reports.

Requirements and prerequisites

Business Central environment

• Online environment – you must have a Business Central online environment to use the template apps. (On‑premises deployments require additional configuration beyond the scope of this blog.)
• Web services and API permissions – users need permission to the tables and published web services used by the apps. The Finance, Sales and CRM apps rely on specific web services (e.g., PowerBIFinance, Sales Opportunities) which must be published in the Web Services page.

Power BI licensing

• Power BI Pro licence required – each user who installs, refreshes or accesses the reports must have a Power BI Pro licence. Alternatively, your organisation can use Power BI or Microsoft Fabric Premium capacity.
• Power BI Free is not sufficient – the Power BI apps are free to install, but they require a paid licence.

User permissions

Ensure that the user accounts in Business Central have permission to access the data exposed by the app’s APIs. Without sufficient permission, the reports will show errors or incomplete data.

Installing and connecting the apps

Follow these steps to install and connect a template app:

1. Sign in to Power BI. Go to powerbi.microsoft.com and sign in using your work account.
2. Find the app. In Power BI, select Apps → Get apps and search for “Dynamics 365 Business Central”.
3. Install the app. Choose the app you want (Finance, Sales, etc.), select Get it now and then Install. The template app will appear under Apps in your workspace.
4. Connect to your company. Open the installed app, select Connect and fill in the Company Name (exact company name) and Environment (e.g., Production). Sign in when prompted.
5. Publish and schedule. The first refresh will populate the dashboard. You can refresh manually or set a scheduled refresh.

When the standard apps fall short

The pre‑built apps have limitations you should be aware of:

• Data volume and performance – since the apps use OData/API endpoints, large datasets may refresh slowly. They aren’t ideal for high‑volume scenarios or multi‑company consolidation. For larger datasets, Microsoft recommends a data warehouse or Microsoft Fabric.
• Custom fields and extensions – custom AL fields, tables and extensions do not automatically appear. You must publish custom API pages and then extend the semantic model manually.
• Per‑company – each template app works with a single company; if you have multiple companies you need to install and configure separate apps for each.

When your reporting requirements grow beyond the scope of the template apps—such as advanced forecasting, manufacturing costing or consolidation across companies—consider building a custom Power BI model on top of Business Central’s APIs or using a data lake and star schema.

Conclusion

Microsoft’s Power BI apps for Business Central are a powerful way to get started with analytics. They offer fast deployment, standardised KPIs and deep dives into finance and sales performance. However, they come with prerequisites: a Business Central online environment, published web services and a Power BI Pro licence. They are perfect for quick wins and early adoption but may not scale for complex requirements. By understanding their features and limitations, you can decide whether the template apps are sufficient or if you should invest in a custom data model.