Episode 520: Reports, Dashboards, and Scorecards: A Complete Guide to Reporting in Business Central

Overview

The episode is a conversation with guest Steven Henders. It starts with training for Business Central: case-based learning, starting training in the analysis or fit-gap phase, a mix of learning methods, and a fixed-fee continuous learning subscription.

The second half covers reporting. It begins with choosing a tool from the requirements, then analysis mode on list pages, Excel export with Copilot, and Power BI data models, query APIs, embedding, dashboards and scorecards. It ends with report layouts: RDLC, Word and Excel, the Word add-in under development, and the move of standard reports away from RDLC.

Key points

• Choose a reporting tool from the requirements first; the speaker says the tool matters less than understanding what is needed.
• Analysis mode on list pages lets key users and end users build aggregated views and drill down without Power BI, but users need to be shown how to use it. From Business Central 2026 wave 1, developers can include analysis views in extensions.
• Power BI dashboards show data as it currently is in the data model. Scheduled refresh frequency (once, 8 or 48 times per day) depends on the license.
• For Power BI data, the speaker prefers query APIs over page APIs because queries can pre-aggregate data. With a property set, query APIs can be found via Tell Me and opened in analysis mode.
• Power BI scorecards take scheduled snapshots of metrics to track them over time, for example vendor and customer scorecards, with conditional formatting against targets. Reports, dashboards and scorecards can be embedded in Business Central.
• RDLC’s latest official version dates from 2016, with little official support since. Microsoft is moving standard out-of-box reports to Word or Excel layouts starting in version 27 and continuing in 28. The speaker expects US check reports to stay RDLC.
• Word layouts are easier to create than RDLC but are weaker on conditional visibility and formatting. A Word add-in from Microsoft is gaining functionality (for example blank zero) to close that gap.

Features

A status with a roadmap link comes from the Microsoft 365 roadmap feature this part of the video covers (matched by Haiku; links Opus dropped are not used); other statuses need a status word in the video itself.

AL objects mentioned

As heard in the captions. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named.

• other “report objects” at 6:56
• other “RDL layouts” at 6:56
• report “RDLC reports” at 23:58
• other “report object” at 23:58
• other “analysis views on list pages” at 24:35
• table 32 “Item Ledger Entry” at 33:08

Not found in BC28-30: report “RDLC reports”.

Quotes

• 6:56 “it’s been uh PowerBI and also all of the new bells and whistles that we almost see in the in the product quite a”
• 7:58 “business central they announced uh during the keynotes at the conferences that business central I think is over 55,000 implementations now”
• 9:51 “training isn’t only about um transferring knowledge and skills but also making it really applicable in in the real world”
• 10:31 “more than 50% assignments within also the solution and help of the instructor of support afterwards”
• 13:02 “it’s part of the the project the project plan but usually it comes right before or right after the the go live”

Disclaimers in the video

• 28:43 preview: develop analysis views or or modes that you can uh include in extensions that you develop which is almost like …
• 45:37 subject-to-change: RDLC has no official support since 2016 and is being phased out
• 47:10 coming-later: Word addin will get more functionality including conditional visibility and conditional formatting
• 48:01 coming-later: RDLC will be obsoleted at some point
• 48:25 coming-later: Out-of-box reports in version 27-28 are being moved to Word and Excel layouts instead of RDLC

Presenters (as heard): Chris, Brad, Steven Henders, Stephen, Bernie, Steven.