If you’ve spent any time in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you already know it offers a lot of reporting power. Sometimes, that’s exactly the problem. Between the number of tools available and how deep each one goes, it can be hard to know where to start—or which option actually makes the most sense for your team.
Let’s break down some practical ways to think about BC reporting, especially if you’re coming from Dynamics GP or trying to make reporting easier (not harder) for your users.
Many organizations moving to Business Central are coming from Dynamics GP, and while BC is its logical successor, reporting works differently enough to catch people off guard.
In GP, long chart-of-accounts strings and tools like Management Reporter made it possible to build highly complex reporting trees. Business Central takes a more modern approach: fewer GL accounts and use of dimensions with two global dimensions at the core.
That shift is great for flexibility—but it can be frustrating at first. We often see teams trying to replicate their GP reports exactly in BC, only to spend way too much time tweaking, fixing, and reworking reports that just don’t translate cleanly. Instead of fighting the system, this is where it pays to explore BC’s other reporting options.
Sometimes, the easiest answer is also the most familiar one.
Business Central makes it surprisingly simple to export reports to Excel layouts. Yes, the initial export may look a little rough—but for many users, especially those on the finance side, Excel feels like home.
Once your data is in Excel, the options open up:
When you’re done, you can upload the layout back into BC with your changes intact.
One feature worth getting comfortable with is reverse lookup. It lets you see where a specific value appears across reports—or figure out who changed something when a report suddenly looks “off.” This alone can save hours of troubleshooting.
If your team prefers flexibility and already works heavily in Excel, this approach can be a huge time-saver.
If you miss the ability to slice data more ways than BC’s two global dimensions allow, Analysis Views are your friend.
Analysis Views let you introduce up to four additional dimensions, either inside existing reports or as their own data source. This opens the door to reporting by things like salesperson, region, item group, or warehouse—details that are especially valuable for sales-driven or inventory-heavy organizations.
Setting one up is straightforward:
From there, the report is fully customizable and even supports pivot-style analysis for more advanced users.
If you’re not using Copilot yet, you’re missing one of Business Central’s biggest advantages.
Copilot allows you to ask questions in plain language—think “Show me overdue balances” or “Add a column for remaining budget”—and get immediate answers directly from your data. It’s available throughout much of BC and gets smarter the more your team uses it.
Copilot also powers tools like Ask Learn, where you can interact with BC Help articles by asking questions or requesting summaries instead of reading long documentation.
This is one of those features that isn’t just about reporting—it’s about helping users get answers faster and spend less time searching or guessing. And as AI continues to evolve, teams that embrace it now will be far better positioned down the road.
For organizations that want serious visualization and analytics, Power BI is the gold standard.
Built for modern ERP systems like Business Central, Power BI pulls live data directly from BC and lets you build rich dashboards and interactive reports. You can start with out-of-the-box dashboards or build custom reports tailored to your business.
With a Pro license (or included via E5), users can create, edit, and share reports across the organization. There’s also a free desktop version that allows report creation without publishing, which works well for analysts or power users.
Yes, Power BI can feel intimidating at first—but the assisted setup tools help ensure everything is connected correctly and pulling real data, not samples. Once it’s up and running, it’s an incredibly powerful way to turn raw data into insights.
Business Central was built for flexibility, growth, and innovation—and that mindset extends to reporting. Whether your team prefers the comfort of Excel, the depth of Analysis Views, the speed of Copilot, or the visual punch of Power BI, there’s an option that fits how your people actually work.
The key is choosing the right tool for the right audience—and not assuming there’s only one “correct” way to report.
If you take the time to explore these options and train your team along the way, BC reporting becomes less of a frustration and more of a competitive advantage—and that’s exactly how modern ERP should work.
Want some help assessing your best options? Talk to an expert today!