Power BI for Business Central
Microsoft gave you four free Power BI apps. They don’t know how your business is put together.
Business Central now ships Finance, Sales, Supply Chain, and Subscription Billing dashboards at no extra license cost. They run on standard BC tables and standard groupings — not your dimensions, not your fiscal calendar, not the fields your partner added. We make Power BI fit your business, and prove the numbers tie back to Business Central. Fixed price, and you own what we build.
Free, no pitch. We’ll tell you what the built-in apps already cover for you, what breaks against your setup, and what a build would actually involve. If the free app does the job, we say so — at no charge.
In Dynamics NAV and Business Central — where the data model is.
Dashboard totals tied back to Business Central before sign-off.
Quoted in writing within one business day. No hourly meter.
If a built-in BC app already covers it, we point you there.
What Business Central already gives you for free.
If you’re on a current version of Business Central, you already have Power BI in the box. Start there — genuinely. Here’s the honest line between what it hands you and where the work starts.
What you already get, free
- Four ready-made apps — Finance, Sales, Supply Chain, and Subscription Billing — at no extra license cost
- Dashboards embedded inside Business Central, so you see Power BI next to the records it came from
- Central management of which apps are deployed, from one page in BC
- Reports that can span multiple companies for group-level roll-ups
- Solid standard KPIs, as long as your business runs on standard BC fields
Where it stops
- Your dimensions — the built-in apps slice by BC’s standard fields, not your departments, cost centers, projects, or territories
- Your fiscal calendar — a 4-4-5, a 52/53-week year, or any year-end that isn’t December
- Your customizations — fields your partner or an ISV added aren’t in the shipped data model, so they aren’t in the dashboard
- Reconciliation — nobody has proved the dashboard total agrees with the GL, and that gap only surfaces when someone senior asks
- Access — a dashboard your team can’t open isn’t reporting. Viewing shared Power BI content needs a paid license or a capacity behind it
So the honest version isn’t that the free apps are bad. They’re good, and where they fit you should just use them. It’s that they were built for a generic company, and the gap between generic and yours is exactly the part finance won’t sign off on.
Get a free fit reviewSound familiar?
The apps got switched on. Then the questions started. Here’s what teams actually run into once a generic dashboard meets a real business:
“We turned it on, and nobody uses it.”
It slices the way Microsoft assumed you work. Nobody manages the business by those groupings, so nobody opens it twice.
“The dashboard says one number, the GL says another.”
Different filters, different date logic, different treatment of adjustments. Until somebody reconciles it, the dashboard loses every argument.
“It won’t break out by our departments.”
Your dimensions are how you actually run the place. If they aren’t in the model, no amount of slicing gets you there.
“Our year doesn’t start in January.”
A 4-4-5 or a 52/53-week calendar quietly breaks every period comparison in a dashboard built on calendar months.
“Half the fields we need aren’t in there.”
The fields your partner or an ISV added live in an extension. The shipped data model never sees them.
“Only two people can actually open it.”
Nobody costed the viewer licenses. The report exists, and the people who need it are still asking for a PDF.
If any of these is your reporting today, the fit review is where we start: we sort out what the free apps already handle for you, and what genuinely needs building.
Get a free fit reviewThree ways in.
Start with the free fit review. From there, build one dashboard or the whole estate — same fixed-price, reconciled approach, and you own the result either way.
Power BI Fit ReviewFree
Send us what you’re running today — the built-in apps, an existing dashboard, or nothing at all — plus how your team actually reports. We come back with one page: what the free apps already cover for you, where they break against your dimensions and calendar, what’s missing, and what a build would involve. You leave with a plan and a fixed price before you commit a dollar.
- Honest read on what the built-in BC apps already do for you
- The specific gaps — dimensions, fiscal calendar, extension fields, licensing
- A fixed-price plan for only what’s worth building
Dashboard Build
One dashboard, built for how your business is actually structured — your dimensions, your fiscal calendar, your entities, the fields your standard model doesn’t know about. We reconcile it against Business Central before you see it, so the totals hold up when someone senior asks. Fixed price, and you get the file.
- Built on your dimensions, calendar, and entity structure
- Reconciled to Business Central before sign-off
- You own the report and the data model, with documentation
Reporting Estate Build
Several dashboards on one shared data model, so finance, sales, and operations stop arguing about whose number is right. We model once, build the views each team needs, reconcile them together, and hand over the whole thing documented. Runs on a fixed-price scope, not an open-ended engagement.
- One shared model behind every dashboard — one version of the number
- Views built per team, reconciled as a set
- Fixed-price scope, delivered documented and yours to keep
What you’ll actually spend.
Two separate costs, and most people only find out about the second one after the dashboard is built. Here’s both, up front.
- Our scoping — free
- The fit review costs nothing. About an hour of your time, one page back from us. There’s no version of this where you pay to find out where you stand, and no charge to be told a free built-in app already covers you.
- Our build work — fixed price, in writing
- A fixed one-time price per scope, not a retainer and not an hourly meter. We scope this as a development engagement the way a partner would; the difference is the fixed price, the timeline, and that you own the result. You get the whole number in writing within one business day of the fit review, before any work starts.
- Microsoft licensing — per user
- For a handful of viewers, Power BI Pro runs $14 per user per month and Premium Per User $24. If your team is already on Microsoft 365 E5, Pro is included — worth checking before you buy anything.
- Microsoft licensing — capacity
- Once you’re sharing widely, a Fabric capacity starting at $262 per month removes the per-viewer licence for people who only consume reports. Whoever publishes still needs a Pro or PPU licence.
We work out which of those two licensing routes is cheaper at your headcount during the free fit review — before you commit to anything, and before we quote. Nobody should discover the cost of letting their team open the dashboard after it’s been built.
Want the price before you talk to anyone?
Send the report you can't get built. You get a written, fixed-price quote back — no call, no sales sequence, no pressure to ever get on the phone.
- A real fixed price in writing, not a "starts at" range.
- No call required and no sales follow-up you can’t leave.
- If a standard BC report already does it, we say so. $0.
Rather just talk it through? Book the free 30-min call instead.
How it works.
From a generic dashboard nobody opens to numbers your team actually reports on — no surprises.
- 01
Free fit review
Tell us what you’re running and how your team reports. We look at what the built-in Business Central apps already cover for you, and where they stop — dimensions, fiscal calendar, extension fields, licensing.
- 02
Scope and fixed price
Within one business day: exactly what we’ll build, what’s not included, the timeline, and one fixed price — not a range. You see the whole plan before you commit.
- 03
Connect
We set up read-only access to Business Central, or start from a sample export if you’d rather validate the design first. The clock starts here and you get your delivery date in writing.
- 04
Build, then reconcile
We model your data properly, build the dashboard, then tie the numbers back to Business Central before you ever see it. One review checkpoint to confirm it’s right, one revision round to tighten it.
- 05
Handover — it’s yours
The report file, the data model, and plain documentation: how it works, how to refresh it, how to change it yourself later. You own it outright.
Why bring us in for this.
Most Power BI work goes wrong in the data model, not the visuals. That’s a Business Central problem before it’s a BI problem.
- 01
We start with what’s free
The first thing we do is check whether a built-in Business Central app already covers you. If it does, we tell you and there’s nothing to pay. We’d rather have the honest conversation than sell you a rebuild of something Microsoft gave you.
- 02
We reconcile it
A dashboard is worth nothing if the total loses an argument with the GL. We tie the numbers back to Business Central and show you the reconciliation before sign-off. Not “looks right” — proof.
- 03
We know the BC side, not just the BI side
Most Power BI work goes wrong in the data model, not the visuals — where the ledger entries live, how dimensions post, what an extension changed. That’s 14+ years of Dynamics NAV and Business Central, applied to the hard half of the job.
- 04
Built on your dimensions and your calendar
Your departments, cost centers, projects, and entities. A 4-4-5 or 52/53-week year if that’s how you close. Not a generic model you have to bend to fit how the business actually runs.
- 05
Straight about licensing
Before you commit, we tell you what it costs to let your people actually open the thing — per-user versus capacity — and which one is cheaper at your headcount. Nobody should find that out after the build.
- 06
You own it
You get the report file, the data model, and plain documentation: how it works, how to refresh it, how to change it later. No retainer, no per-seat fee to us, no lock-in.
Power BI questions.
Business Central already includes Power BI apps now. Why would we pay for anything?
Often you shouldn’t. The four apps that ship with Business Central — Finance, Sales, Supply Chain, and Subscription Billing — are free with your existing licensing and they’re good at what they cover. Our first job is telling you whether they cover you. Where teams hit a wall is when the business doesn’t match the standard model: reporting by your own dimensions, a fiscal calendar that isn’t calendar months, fields added by a partner or ISV that the shipped model can’t see, or numbers that need to reconcile to the GL before finance will use them. That’s what a build is for. The fit review is free precisely so you can find out which side of that line you’re on.
Do you customize the built-in apps, or start from scratch?
Whichever costs you less. Sometimes the built-in app is the right foundation and the work is extending the data model and adding the views you’re missing. Sometimes your structure is different enough that a purpose-built model is faster and cheaper than bending a generic one. We tell you which on the fit review, with the reasoning, before you commit.
What does a build cost?
It’s a fixed one-time price per scope — not a retainer and not an hourly meter. We scope this as a development engagement, the way a partner would; the difference is the fixed price, the timeline, and that you own the result. The fit review is free, so nobody pays to find out where they land. From there you get a fixed price in writing within one business day. The exact number depends on the scope — one dashboard on clean data is a very different job from a shared model feeding several teams — but you’ll always see the whole price before any work starts.
What Power BI licenses do we need?
It depends on how many people need to open the report. Power BI Pro is $14 per user per month and Premium Per User is $24, which is fine for a handful of viewers. Once you’re sharing widely, a Fabric capacity — starting at $262 per month for the entry tier — removes the per-viewer licence for people consuming reports, though whoever publishes still needs a Pro or PPU licence. We work out which is cheaper at your headcount during the free fit review, so this isn’t a surprise after the build.
Do you need access to our Business Central environment?
Eventually, yes — read-only is enough for most work. We can also start from a sample export if you’d rather validate the design and the numbers before granting access.
What about Copilot in Power BI — doesn’t AI do this now?
Copilot is genuinely useful, and it needs two things you have to supply. It runs on paid Fabric capacity, and it’s only as good as the data model underneath it. Ask it a question against a messy or generic model and you get a confident answer that’s wrong, which is worse than no answer. Modeling your data correctly is the part that makes Copilot — or any BI tool — worth having. That’s the part we do.
How is this different from Jet Reports, Solver, or a similar tool?
Those are products you subscribe to, and for teams who want a packaged reporting layer they’re a reasonable answer. This is a build you own outright, on the Power BI licensing you likely already have, with no additional subscription to us. Different trade-off: you pay once instead of monthly, and you keep the model.
Do we own what you build?
Yes. The report file, the data model, and the documentation are yours. Run it, change it, hand it to someone else later. No retainer, no lock-in, and nothing stops working if you never speak to us again.
We’re still on Dynamics NAV, not Business Central. Can you help?
Yes, though the reports are usually the first problem to solve. NAV 2016 is already out of support and NAV 2017 follows on January 11, 2027. Start at our NAV to Business Central reports page — the report audit there is also free.