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Power BI integration component and architecture overview for Business Central| Microsoft Docs
Learn about the different aspects of Power BI integration with Business Central.
jswymer
jswymer
jswymer
overview
account schedule, analysis, reporting, financial report, business intelligence, KPI
04/26/2024
dynamics-365-business-central
bap-template

Power BI integration component and architecture overview

In this article, you'll learn about the different aspects of Power BI integration with [!INCLUDEprod_short] to help you understand its implementation and use.

Components

The following table describes the major components involved with Power BI integration.

Component Description
Power BI A cloud-based report hosting and management service.
Power BI Desktop An authoring tool for building reports and dashboards, and allows you to run reports. It's available as a free download on Microsoft Store and is installed locally.
[!INCLUDEprod_short] Online or on-premises solution with connectors exposed to Power BI and the ability to embed a Power BI part.

What's available from the start

The following table describes available features.

Feature [!INCLUDEprod_short] online or on-premises support
Power BI connectors Both. Different connectors for online and on-premises. Same connector used for Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service
Embedded experience for viewing a given report inside a FactBox in [!INCLUDEprod_short] Both. Requires configuration to display reports for on-premises.
Power BI report management from [!INCLUDEprod_short] Online
Default Power BI reports on role centers deployed to Power BI Online
Power BI Apps on Microsoft AppSource Online

Architecture

[!INCLUDEprod_short] integrates with Power BI through a connector using OData. The data source for Power BI reports is exposed as API pages and OData web services.

:::image type="content" source="./media/power-bi-architecture.svg" alt-text="Image alt text." lightbox="./media/power-bi-architecture.svg":::

Starting in February 2022, Power BI reports for [!INCLUDEprod_short] online are sourced from a secondary, read-only database replica. The database replica is part of the read scale-out capability in [!INCLUDEprod_short] online. This configuration frees up the main database for transactions, which enhances performance of the system. Connecting to the read-only database replica is an integral part of the Business Central online connector, and requires no extra setup on your part. All new reports will connect to the read-only database replica by default. Old reports will still use the main database. For more information, see Business Central 2021 Release Wave 2 Plan.

General Flow

The following diagram illustrates the basic workflow for users when connecting [!INCLUDEprod_short] to Power BI.

Power BI workflow for integration with Business Central.

  1. User signs up for a Power BI account.
  2. User connects to Power BI from [!INCLUDEprod_short].
  3. [!INCLUDEprod_short] verifies the license.
  4. [!INCLUDEprod_short] deploys default reports to the Power BI service. This step only happens for [!INCLUDEprod_short] online.
  5. [!INCLUDEprod_short] makes reports in Power BI available for selection in [!INCLUDEprod_short]. Default reports are automatically displayed in Power BI parts.
  6. User creates a report in Power BI Desktop.
  7. User publishes the report to the Power BI service. The reports are then available for selection in [!INCLUDEprod_short].

See Also

Business Central and Power BI
Power BI for consumers
The 'new look' of the Power BI service
Quickstart: Connect to data in Power BI Desktop
Power BI documentation
Business Intelligence
Getting Ready for Doing Business
Importing Business Data from Other Finance Systems
[Setting Up [!INCLUDEprod_short]](setup.md)
[Use [!INCLUDEprod_short] as a Power BI Data Source](across-how-use-financials-data-source-powerbi.md)
[Use [!INCLUDEprod_short] as a Power Apps Data Source](across-how-use-financials-data-source-powerapps.md)
[Use [!INCLUDEprod_short] in Power Automate](across-how-use-financials-data-source-flow.md)

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