web
You’re offline. This is a read only version of the page.
close
Skip to main content

Announcements

No record found.

News and Announcements icon
Community site session details

Community site session details

Session Id :
Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Small and medium business | Business Central, N... / Business Central + Pow...
Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
Suggested Answer

Business Central + Power BI Integration for Real-Time Analytics – Best Practices & Challenges?

(6) ShareShare
ReportReport
Posted on by alivedean 40
Hello Experts,
We are currently exploring integration between Dynamics 365 Business Central and Power BI to enable real-time analytics and financial reporting.
I’d like to understand from those who have implemented this:
• What integration approach did you use (standard connector, APIs, or data warehouse)?
• Did you face performance or data refresh challenges?
• How did you manage real-time vs scheduled refresh scenarios?
• Any recommendations for data modeling or security setup?
Appreciate any insights, lessons learned, or best practices.
Categories:
Dynamics 365 Business Central
I have the same question (0)
  • Suggested answer
    Dhiren Nagar Profile Picture
    Dhiren Nagar 2,898 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    Hi,
     
    It is better to use Standard Business Central APIs to get limited data for any reports.
     
    If you want to do data warehousing better use BC2ADLS with Fabric for best performance.
     
    Usually the reports are refresh based on job queue instead of real-time.
     
     

    ✅ Tick the checkbox below to mark the answer as verified, if it helped resolve your question.

    Regards,
    Dhiren.
     
  • Suggested answer
    YUN ZHU Profile Picture
    YUN ZHU 99,324 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    Hi, hope the following can give you some hints
    Enabling Power BI integration with Business Central: Choosing whether to use API pages or OData web services
    More details: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/admin-powerbi-setup?wt.mc_id=DX-MVP-5004336#choosing-whether-to-use-api-pages-or-odata-web-services
     
     
    Thanks.
    ZHU
  • Suggested answer
    OussamaSabbouh Profile Picture
    OussamaSabbouh 13,323 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at
    Hello,
     
    Most projects use the standard Business Central Power BI connector (API-based), which reads from a read-only replica for better performance and minimal impact on BC, but it’s not truly real-time—data is refreshed on a schedule (typically every 15–60 minutes), while high-volume or near-real-time scenarios often use Azure Data Factory or a data warehouse; for best performance, use API pages (faster than web services), apply filters early to reduce data load, and model using core tables like G/L Entry and Value Entry, and manage security through BC permissions plus Power BI workspace/RLS, with refresh scheduled during off-peak hours.
     
    Regards,
    Oussama Sabbouh

Under review

Thank you for your reply! To ensure a great experience for everyone, your content is awaiting approval by our Community Managers. Please check back later.

Helpful resources

Quick Links

Introducing the 2026 Season 1 community Super Users

Congratulations to our 2026 Super Stars!

Meet the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Contact Center Champions

We are thrilled to have these Champions in our Community!

Congratulations to the March Top 10 Community Leaders

These are the community rock stars!

Leaderboard > Small and medium business | Business Central, NAV, RMS

#1
OussamaSabbouh Profile Picture

OussamaSabbouh 1,823 Super User 2026 Season 1

#2
YUN ZHU Profile Picture

YUN ZHU 1,011 Super User 2026 Season 1

#3
Khushbu Rajvi. Profile Picture

Khushbu Rajvi. 628 Super User 2026 Season 1

Last 30 days Overall leaderboard

Featured topics

Product updates

Dynamics 365 release plans