Although Microsoft marketing materials identify business intelligence (BI) and reporting as though it were a separate module within Business Central, it's difficult to physically identify it as such. Most of the components that are used for BI and reporting purposes are (appropriately) scattered throughout various application areas. In the words of one Microsoft document, business intelligence is a strategy, not a product. Functions within Business Central that support a BI strategy include the following:
- Standard reports: Distributed and ready to use by end users
- Account schedules and analysis reports: A specialized report writer for general ledger data
- Query, XMLport, and report designers: Developer tools to support the creation of a wide variety of report formats, charts, and XML and CSV files
- Analysis by dimensions: A capability embedded in many of the other tools
- Interfaces into Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office 365, including Excel-communications of data either into Business Central or out of Business Central
- RDLC report viewer: Provides the ability to present Business Central data in a variety of textual and graphic formats, including user interactive capabilities
- Interface capabilities such as Dotnet interoperability and web services: Technologies to support interfaces between Business Central and external software products
- Standard packages for Power BI: Integrated in the role center as well as dashboards