Core Power BI Specialist with Business Central
The Core Power BI Specialist booster is a comprehensive, self-paced programme for Business Central professionals who want to build production-ready Power BI reporting solutions on top of Dynamics 365 Business Central data. Built around a realistic case story following Botelo and the consulting firm Solutize, this on-demand course takes you through the complete pipeline from exposing BC data via AL query objects and web services, through data modelling and DAX, to publishing dashboards and embedding reports directly in Business Central.
Every sprint delivers a working report, grounded in practical assignments with full solutions. Real-time support from a team of instructors is available throughout your learning journey. Whether you are a functional consultant, AL developer, or BI professional looking to connect Business Central and Power BI in a structured, scalable way, this booster gives you the skills to deliver reports your customers will actually use.
1. Getting Started
- About the platform and this course
- Technical requirements
- Case story: Solutize and Botelo
- Setting up a Business Central environment
- VS Code, AL extension, sandbox and first extension
2. Introduction to Power BI
- Building blocks of Power BI
- Power BI Desktop and the Power Query Editor
- The semantic model and data model
- Power BI languages: DAX, M and more
- Activating a Power BI trial
- Installing Power BI Desktop
3. Exposing Business Central Data
- How to identify the table behind a page
- Getting BC data into Power BI Desktop
- Setup Reporting Data wizard
- Creating AL query objects
- The DataAccessIntent property
- Filtering and aggregating query objects
- Publishing query objects as web services
- Publishing extensions to a sandbox
4. Connecting Power BI to Business Central
- Connecting Power BI Desktop to Business Central
- Importing and transforming data with Power Query
- Profiling and cleaning data
- Designing a semantic model with relationships
- Best practices in data model design
- Combining queries
5. Visualising Data in Power BI Desktop
- Best practices in visualisation
- Building the Item Availability report
- Building the Order Intake report
- Drillthrough in Power BI reports
- Building the Item Availability by Location report
6. DAX and Time Intelligence
- Introduction to DAX
- Five core DAX functions
- DAX filter expressions
- Common DAX mistakes to avoid
- Date dimensions and time analysis
- Running totals and grand totals
- DAX time intelligence functions
- Building the Sales History report
7. Power BI Service and BC Integration
- Publishing reports to the Power BI Service
- Scheduled refresh and gateway setup
- Row-level security
- Embedding reports in Business Central role centers
- Embedding reports in Business Central pages
8. Dashboards and Power BI Apps
- Introduction to dashboards
- Building an Items Overview dashboard
- Building a Sales dashboard
- Creating a Power BI app
9. Assessment and Certification
- Core Power BI Specialist exam
- Certificate and badge
This course is part of the following learning journeys:
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- More training for less budget
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Who is this course for?
Business Central consultants and AL developers who want to build Power BI reporting solutions on top of Dynamics 365 Business Central data. A basic understanding of Business Central and familiarity with VS Code and AL is beneficial; the onboarding module covers environment setup for those who need it.
What will you learn?
- How to expose Business Central data for Power BI using AL query objects, web services, and the Setup Reporting Data wizard.
- How to connect Power BI Desktop to Business Central, import data, and design scalable semantic models with relationships.
- How to write DAX formulas including time intelligence functions, running totals, grand totals, and filter expressions.
- How to build a date dimension and implement time analysis in Power BI reports based on Business Central sales data.
- How to publish reports to the Power BI Service, configure scheduled refresh, apply row-level security, and embed reports in Business Central role centers and pages.
- How to create Power BI dashboards and apps that bring together multiple reports into a single, shareable experience.