Visualize Live Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Power BI (via CData Connect AI)

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 Dynamics 365 Business Central data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to use CData Connect to create a live connection to Dynamics 365 Business Central, connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central data from Power BI and then create reports on Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Power BI.

Configure Dynamics 365 Business Central Connectivity for Power BI

Connectivity to Dynamics 365 Business Central from Power BI is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Dynamics 365 Business Central data from Power BI, we start by creating and configuring a Dynamics 365 Business Central connection.

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

2. Select "Dynamics 365 Business Central" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

   To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must select an AuthScheme and provide the required properties (OAuth by default).

   All Methods

   Specify the . If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the to indicate which company you would like to connect to. does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

   Access Key

   To authenticate with an Access Key, set AuthScheme to "AccessKey" and provide the and properties.

   To obtain the and values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the and connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

   If you wish to authenticate through other methods, refer to the Help documentation.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Dynamics 365 Business Central Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central data from Power BI.

Query Dynamics 365 Business Central Tables

Follow the steps below to build a query to pull Dynamics 365 Business Central data into the report:

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 Dynamics 365 Business Central data from Power BI

Create Dynamics 365 Business Central Data Visualizations

After connecting to the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize along with the chart type.

Click Refresh to synchronize your report with any changes to the data.

Live Access to Dynamics 365 Business Central Data from Data Applications

With CData Connect AI you have a direct connection to Dynamics 365 Business Central data from Power BI. You can import more data, create new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including Dynamics 365 Business Central) directly from your on-premise BI, reporting, ETL and other data applications, visit the CData Connect AI page and start a free trial.