Create Reports from Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) allows you to create branded reports with data visualizations to share with your clients. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Dynamics 365 Business Central data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Dynamics 365 Business Central and build reports from Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Looker Studio.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Dynamics 365 Business Central, allowing you to easily build reports from live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Looker Studio — without replicating the data. As you build visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Dynamics 365 Business Central, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

Connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central in Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Dynamics 365 Business Central" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

   To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must provide the User and AccessKey properties.

   To obtain the User and AccessKey values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the User and AccessKey connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

   To connect to data, specify OrganizationUrl. If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the Company to indicate which company you would like to connect to. Company does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Dynamics 365 Business Central Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Looker Studio to create a new Dynamics 365 Business Central data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect Cloud Connector.
2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account.
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
4. In the CData Connect Cloud Connector in Looker Studio select a Connection (e.g. D365BusinessCentral1) and click Next
5. Select a Table (e.g. Accounts) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue
6. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
7. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
8. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.

Live Access to Dynamics 365 Business Central Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Dynamics 365 Business Central data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.