Reporting Shouldn’t Be This Hard: Rethinking What’s Possible in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Finance teams are ready for more than static reports and manual workarounds. They want reporting that’s intuitive, real time, and built for modern decision-making. 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central delivers on its promise as a powerful ERP, but when it comes to turning data into insight, too much still feels stuck in the past. Finance teams wrestle with rigid report structures, outdated tools, and Analysis Views that add steps instead of removing them. True dimensional reporting is often delayed, and “real time” data isn’t always real. In an era defined by real-time data and automation, that is no longer good enough. Finance leaders are raising expectations, and the next generation of reporting must rise to meet them. 

When Reporting Falls Short

Finance teams know the challenges well: 

Reporting that’s hard to build and harder to maintain

Business Central’s financial report writer shows its age. Building reports means wrestling with static row and column definitions, hardcoded structures, and manual layouts that break as the business evolves. Even simple changes require too much technical effort, and reports rarely adapt automatically to new accounts, dimensions, or entities.

Reports that don’t meet modern needs

Even once built, standard reports fall short. True dimensional reporting often depends on creating separate Analysis Views and syncing data into them, which adds steps and can cause performance issues if run too often. That means “real time” reporting isn’t always real time, and many teams still export to Excel for the flexibility they need.

Excel without real power

“Edit in Excel” is helpful for bulk updates, but it isn’t a true reporting workspace. Drill-down is limited, formulas can’t be reused effectively, and flexibility for presentation is lacking.

Manual friction in data entry

Uploading budgets or journals often relies on rigid templates and strict formatting. Even small mistakes can create rework and slow down planning cycles.

Complexity that grows with multiple companies

As organizations expand, consolidation becomes harder to manage. Separate consolidation companies, manual eliminations, and restricted drill-down make every close more time-consuming and error-prone.

What Modern Finance Leaders Want 

Forward-looking finance leaders are raising expectations. They want their teams spending less time moving and reformatting data and more time interpreting it. They expect timely insights and flexible processes that adapt as the business grows. 

Reporting that’s powerful and easy

Finance shouldn’t need specialized expertise just to build a P&L. Teams want tools that let them design, adapt, and maintain reports without coding or rebuilding structures whenever the business changes.

Real-time visibility with drill-down

Leaders want reporting that refreshes directly from live data and allows them to move from top-level summaries to transaction-level detail in seconds.

Excel as a strategic workspace

Excel remains where finance thinks, models, and communicates. Teams want to work in Excel without sacrificing a live connection to Business Central data, not export and rebuild everything every month.

Data that moves both ways

It is no longer enough to pull data out for analysis. Finance teams want to act from the same place they analyze, posting journals, submitting budgets, and updating records without switching contexts or rekeying data.

Consolidation and distribution that scale

Growing organizations need real-time rollups, easy eliminations, and secure, automated ways to deliver insights across email, Teams, and other collaboration tools while maintaining proper governance and permissions.

A New Standard for Business Central Reporting 

The message is clear: finance teams need more than static reports and manual workarounds. Business Central provides a strong transactional foundation, but the future of finance demands reporting that is dynamic, intuitive, and deeply connected to how teams operate today. 

Organizations that meet that standard will close faster, deliver insights sooner, and enable better decisions. Those that continue relying on the same old methods risk slowing themselves down just when agility matters most.