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Connecting Microsoft Dynamics 365 with Power BI

by Chad Losee

Use Power BI with Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Creating and sharing Power BI reports are a powerful new way to work with Microsoft Dynamics 365 data. As a tightly coupled cloud service, Power BI works with Microsoft Dynamics 365 to provide data analytics and highly informative, actionable, and interactive data visualizations.

As discussed in a previous blog, the easiest way to get started using Power BI with Microsoft Dynamics 365 is to use the freely available Content Packs. Microsoft Power BI has a desktop application for when more advanced and customizable data analytics are required.

Getting Started

If you would like to deploy Power BI tiles, reports, and dashboards to Microsoft Dynamics 365, first allow Power BI within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 instance.

To allow Power BI within CRM

  1. Login to your Dynamics 365 instance. In this example we will be enabling within Dynamics CRM.
  2. Navigate to: Settings | Administration | System Settings | Reporting tab and click Yes under Set whether users can embed Power BI Tiles / Allow Power BI tile embedding.

Connect Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online with Power BI

Before connecting Power BI and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online you will need to gather some information from your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online instance.

  1. Log into your CRM instance.
  2. Navigate to: Settings | Customization | Developer Resources
  3. At the right side of the page are two sections one for Organization Service and one for Discovery Service. The Instance Web API Service Root URL on the top left is used to connect Power BI.

Connect Power BI to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Note: Connecting to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online presently can only be achieved using Power BI Desktop and then published to Power BI Online.

  1. Open the Power BI Desktop application.
  2. Create a new Power BI Report or open an existing Power BI Report to which you would like to integrate your Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online data.
  3. From the ribbon bar, navigate to: Home | Get Data | More
  4. Search or scroll to find Dynamics CRM Online and click Select.

5. Copy the Instance Web API Service Root URL into the URL box and click OK.

a) The API URL will come in the form: https://OrganizationName.api.crm.dynamics.com/api/data/1

6. In the Access an OData feed screen, select Organizational Account on the left then click Sign in button, enter your credentials, and sign in. Once signed in you will be returned to the Access OData Feed screen. Now click Connect.

a) Note: If you are already signed in, simply click

b) Note: Connecting may take several minutes as it creates the data set within Power BI Desktop.

7. The Navigator window will now be available to select which Dynamics 365 tables you would like to use to build your data model.

Publish your report to the Power BI service

Once the data schema is available, you can now create powerful reports and data sets. Data from other systems may be integrated with the Dynamics 365 data to allow reporting across your Enterprise applications and data sets. Whether you choose to create reports or simply build the data model for Power BI users, you are now ready to publish your report and data sets for organizational sharing and access from anywhere on most any device. On the Power BI Desktop main page Home tab ribbon, click Publish. It is as simple as that.