Advanced Power BI Specialist in Business Central
The Advanced Power BI Specialist booster is a comprehensive, self-paced programme for Business Central professionals who want to build sophisticated, scalable Power BI solutions that go well beyond standard reporting. Built around a realistic case story with Solutize and Botelo, this on-demand course takes you through advanced API development, multi-company data models, Business Central dimensions, star schema design, multi-fact table patterns, and Power BI Dataflows.
Every sprint delivers a working, production-quality report grounded in practical assignments with full solutions. Real-time support from a team of instructors is available throughout your learning journey. If you have completed the Core Power BI Specialist booster and are ready to tackle the reporting challenges that separate good solutions from great ones, this booster gives you the architectural thinking and hands-on skills to build Power BI solutions that scale.
1. Getting Started
- About the platform and this course
- Technical requirements
- Case story: Solutize and Botelo
- Setting up a Business Central environment and sandbox
- Activating a Power BI trial and installing Power BI Desktop
- Data model fundamentals review
2. APIs as a Data Source
- What are APIs and what is Read Scale-Out?
- Available APIs in Business Central
- Queries vs pages for Power BI
- Normal queries vs API queries
- Using delegated admin accounts
- Building a Finance report with API queries
- Business Central report themes
- Embedding reports in Business Central pages
3. Multi-Company Data Models
- Creating companies in Business Central
- Parameters and dynamic parameters
- Creating a multi-company query
- Referencing, duplicating and filtering queries
- Building a multi-company data model
- Power BI report templates
- Loading, refreshing and performance
4. Dimensions in Business Central and Power BI
- What are dimensions in Business Central?
- Setting up dimensions in Business Central
- Importing dimensions in Power BI
- Splitting and filtering dimensions
- Query dependencies in Power BI
- Developing custom APIs for dimensions
- Recommendations for dimension design
5. Star Schema and Multi-Fact Data Models
- Document tables and the BC posting model
- Star schema design for BC data
- Bidirectional filtering
- The header and line pattern
- Working with multiple fact tables
- Understanding granularity
- Ledger entry types: item, customer and general ledger
6. Advanced DAX Patterns
- Fixing multi-fact table filter issues with DAX
- TreatAs to move filters
- Filtering using a table in the middle
- Allocating budget to match sales granularity
- Building a Sales versus Budget report
7. Power BI Dataflows
- What are Dataflows and why use them?
- Preparing queries for Dataflows
- Creating datasets in Dataflows
- Importing Dataflows in Power BI Desktop
- Consuming Dataflows in Excel
- Incremental refresh
8. Assessment and Certification
- Advanced Power BI Specialist exam
- Certificate and badge
This course is part of the following learning journeys:
- Business Central Consultant Learning Journey
- Business Central Developer Learning Journey
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- More training for less budget
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- Courses created by MCTs and MVPs
- Faster onboarding for new hires
- Guidance for all certifications
Who is this course for?
Business Central consultants, AL developers, and BI professionals who have completed the Core Power BI Specialist booster and want to build advanced, scalable Power BI reporting solutions on top of Dynamics 365 Business Central data. Solid familiarity with Power BI Desktop and AL development is assumed.
What will you learn?
- How to build and consume Business Central API queries in Power BI Desktop, including the difference between queries and pages and when to use each.
- How to design and implement multi-company Power BI data models using parameters, dynamic parameters, and Power BI templates.
- How to handle Business Central dimensions in Power BI, including importing, splitting, and applying recommendations for scalable dimension design.
- How to design star schema data models for Business Central document tables, apply bidirectional filtering, and work with multiple fact tables correctly.
- How to tackle advanced DAX patterns including TreatAs, granularity alignment, and fixing multi-fact table filter issues.
- How to implement Power BI Dataflows for Business Central data, including incremental refresh and consuming dataflows in both Power BI Desktop and Excel.