Import Acumatica Data into the Power BI Service for Visualizations

Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get access to Acumatica data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Acumatica in CData Connect AI, publish a dataset from Power BI Desktop to the Power BI Service and then create reports on Acumatica data in the Power BI service.

Configure Acumatica Connectivity for Power BI Service

Connectivity to Acumatica from Power BI Service is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Acumatica data from Power BI Service, we start by creating and configuring a Acumatica connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Acumatica" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Acumatica.

   Set the following connection properties to connect to Acumatica:

   • User: Set this to your username.
   • Password: Set this to your password.
   • Company: Set this to your company.
   • Url: Set this to your Acumatica URL, in the format http://{Acumatica ERP instance URL}/entity/{Endpoint name}/{Endpoint version}/.
     For example: https://acumatica.com/entity/Default/17.200.001/

   See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Acumatica Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Acumatica data from the Power BI service.

Publish a Dataset from Power BI Desktop

Once you connect to Acumatica in Connect AI, you can create a dataset in Power BI desktop and publish the dataset to the Power BI service.

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> Online Services -> CData Connect AI and click "Connect"
2. Click "Sign in" and authenticate with your CData Connect AI account 👁 Authenticating with Connect AI
   
3. After signing in, click "Connect" 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
   
4. Select tables in the Navigator dialog 👁 The available tables. (Salesforce tables are shown)
   
5. Click Load to establish the connection to your Acumatica data from Power BI
6. Define any relationships between the selected entities on the Relationships tab.
7. Click Publish (from the Home menu) and select a Workspace.

Build Reports and Dashboards on Acumatica Data in the Power BI Service

Now that you have published a dataset to the Power BI service, you can create new reports and dashboards based on the published data:

1. Log in to PowerBI.com.
2. Click Workspaces and select a workspace.
3. Click Create and select Report.
4. Select the published dataset for the report. 👁 Select a dataset
   
5. Choose fields and visualizations to add to your report. 👁 Visualizing Acumatica data in the Power BI service
   

Live Access to Acumatica Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Acumatica data from the Power BI service. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Acumatica data.

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.