Microsoft Power BI

One source of truth. Decisions based on live data. From numbers spread across Excel files to dashboards that stop being debated and start being used.

From scattered spreadsheets to one set of numbers you can trust.

Power BI is not a reporting tool. It is the place where your data stops being scattered across spreadsheets and starts meaning something. At CURABIS the approach is consistently model-first: one set of definitions, one set of KPIs, one source of truth, and self-service for the people who need it.

The CEO

Management overview in 30 seconds. Revenue, contribution margin, liquidity and pipeline today, not next week. No Excel file sent around. No meeting just to get a status update.

The Warehouse Manager

Inventory value, turnover rate, available stock and reorder suggestions live from Business Central. Set alerts before stock runs out.

The Sales Manager

Pipeline, hit rate, revenue per sales rep and customer in one place. See what works and what does not. Without asking IT for yet another report.

What you get from Business Central from day one

CURABIS sets up the standard Business Central Power BI connector. You get dashboards covering:

  • Finance: P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, budget variance

  • Sales: revenue, top 10 customers, hit rate, open quotes

  • Purchasing: vendor performance, open orders, overdue invoices

  • Inventory: stock value, turnover rate, days on hand

  • Projects: in progress, budget vs. actual, resource utilisation

Model-first: what it means in practice

"What is our contribution margin?" sounds simple. But if Finance calculates it one way and Sales another, you have two truths and no ability to make decisions.

Model-first means: we define concepts and KPIs once in a shared data layer. Every team can then build their own reports on top of the same foundation, without duplicating logic or inventing their own formulas.

The result: one set of numbers you can trust.

Data from more than Business Central

Business Central is the foundation. But companies do not live in just one system. CURABIS connects Power BI to:

  • Dynamics 365 CRM: customer data, pipeline, activities

  • Webshop and Umbraco: conversion, behaviour, orders

  • Third-party systems: EDI, WMS, payroll

  • Excel and CSV: whatever is not in a system yet

Data pipelines are automated with Azure so the reports are current when you arrive in the morning. No manual refresh. No waiting.

Without Power BI: the typical situation

  • Finance sends one Excel file Friday afternoon

  • The sales manager has a different version from Thursday

  • IT pulls a third directly from BC

  • First item on the management meeting agenda: "Which numbers are right?"

  • 20-30 minutes spent aligning before the meeting can begin

  • The board report takes 2-3 days to compile

With Power BI and Curabis model-first

  • One dashboard, one set of definitions, one source of truth

  • KPIs available live, not Friday afternoon

  • The management meeting starts with decisions, not alignment

  • The board overview is ready in 30 seconds

  • New reports built by the business on top of the model

  • IT owns the model, the business uses it

Power BI, ODS and AI: the next generation of reporting

The standard BC connector to Power BI is a good starting point. But BC is loaded by direct BI queries, and you compete for capacity with the day-to-day operations.

With ODS as the data layer, Power BI data is fetched from ODS rather than directly from BC. Refreshes can run more frequently, the model can be extended with data from webshops and third parties, and BC's performance is unaffected by BI activity.

It also opens up AI-driven analysis: your own developers or AI assistants can query ODS directly and get answers based on live business data without waiting for an IT request. A concrete example: "Which customers have not ordered in the past 90 days?" can be answered in real time from ODS data.

Abakion and Fellowmind both offer Power BI setup for BC. Neither has an ODS data middleware layer. That is the difference between reporting on BC data and having an analytical foundation that scales independently of BC.

Success criterion

"When the numbers stop being debated and start being used as navigation, and the reports become quiet companions in day-to-day operations, we know it is working."

Excel is excellent for analysis, but poor for sharing and maintaining. When three people have three versions of the same file, nobody knows who is right. Power BI is where you share. Excel is still there if you want to dig into the details.

A semantic model is the central data layer in Power BI where we define what all concepts mean: what is revenue, what is contribution margin, what is an active customer. Without it, each department defines things on its own and you end up with four different answers to the same question. With the model, the answer is the same regardless of who asks or which report they use.

That is exactly what model-first solves. Because the foundation is correct, the business can build its own reports on top of it. IT owns the model. The business uses it. That is what keeps the cost of ownership down over time.

Power BI Pro costs approximately DKK 100 per user per month and gives access to share and publish reports. Power BI Premium Per User gives advanced features for approximately DKK 200 per user per month. The Business Central connector and standard reports require no additional licence.

Yes. Power BI has a built-in Q&A feature that lets users ask questions in natural language. In addition, ODS opens up direct AI access to your business data via SQL: an AI assistant like Claude or Microsoft Copilot can answer questions about margin, sales and inventory without anyone having to build a report manually.

Standard BC dashboards can be set up in under a week. A custom model with your own KPIs and data sources is realistic as a first version in 4-8 weeks.

Power BI supports row-level security: a sales manager sees their own team, the CEO sees everything. Permissions are managed centrally in the model and inherited from Azure Active Directory. You maintain no separate access lists.