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title: Report creator
summary: Report creator covers building Power BI reports on Business Central data. It answers questions about creating reports in Power BI Desktop with the connector, APIs and OData web services, and about preparing reports to show in Power BI FactBoxes on list pages.
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# Report creator

> Report creator covers building Power BI reports on Business Central data. It answers questions about creating reports in Power BI Desktop with the connector, APIs and OData web services, and about preparing reports to show in Power BI FactBoxes on list pages.

Path: [Integration](../../../integration.md) > [Integrating with Microsoft Power Platform](../../integrating-with-microsoft-power-platfor.md) > [Integrating with Microsoft Power BI](../integrating-with-microsoft-power-bi.md) > Report creator · tier official · system reporting · narrative reviewed (checked by Opus)

## Overview

This section is for people who author Power BI reports that use Business Central data. It has two pages. One covers building reports in Power BI Desktop. The other covers making a report display correctly inside Business Central.

The Desktop page explains how to connect to Business Central through the Power BI Desktop connector, using APIs or OData web services. It also covers advanced query options, custom Power Query functions, cross-company reporting and a read-only replica, and publishing reports so the organization can share them.

The second page focuses on reports shown in the Power BI FactBox on list pages. It covers naming conventions, sizing, and filtering, including filtering by primary key. Start with the Desktop page to build the report, then use the display page to prepare it for FactBox use.

## Key points

- Power BI Desktop connects to Business Central data through its connector, using APIs or OData web services.
- Advanced query options and custom Power Query functions are available when building reports.
- Cross-company reporting and a read-only replica are covered for Power BI Desktop reports.
- Reports are published from Power BI Desktop so they can be shared across the organization.
- Custom reports for Business Central list pages are shown in Power BI FactBox controls.
- FactBox reports need proper naming conventions and sizing.
- Report filtering for FactBox display includes filtering by primary key.
- Report publishing is part of preparing a custom report for display in Business Central.

## Learn pages

- [Building reports in Power BI Desktop to display Business Central data](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/across-how-use-financials-data-source-powerbi): Learn how to make your data a Power BI source and build insightful business reports.
- [Display custom Power BI reports](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/across-how-use-powerbi-reports-factbox): Use the Power BI FactBox to display interactive Power BI reports and gain deeper insights into data on key list pages.

Source: Microsoft Learn (CC BY 4.0). Descriptions are Learn's own.