Extending Business Central with Power Platform

Three independent one-day modules, built around a takeaway decision framework, designed so you can buy the full programme or any single day.

Three days total, delivered as three independent one-day modules.
Virtual instructor-led, with hands-on labs throughout.
Deliverables per module: slides, labs on a Business Central sample environment, templates, and full recording.

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£500 per learner per module. Book all three modules together and save 15% — £1,275 per learner for the full programme (you save £225).

Turn your Business Central consultants into multi-workload practitioners

Your clients no longer buy ERP in isolation. They expect their Business Central partner to deliver reporting, automation, and tailored apps in the same conversation. This programme gives your consultants the hands-on skills and the decision frameworks to extend every Business Central engagement with Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Apps, without losing Business Central as the source of truth.

Three independent one-day modules, built around a takeaway decision framework, designed so you can buy the full programme or any single day.

Who This is for

- Business Central functional and technical consultants who want to broaden their delivery into Power Platform.
- Practice leads who need their team to cross-sell reporting, automation, and app-extension work into existing Business Central accounts.

Prerequisites

- MB-800 certification or equivalent Business Central delivery experience.
- PL-900 (Power Platform Fundamentals) or equivalent foundational knowledge of Power Platform.

What Your Team Will Gain

- Confidence to scope and deliver Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Apps work inside any Business Central engagement.
- A clear decision framework for where business logic should live: AL code, classic workflow, cloud flows, Dataverse, virtual tables, or an external store.
- Working hands-on experience with a Business Central sample environment, not slideware.
- Reusable templates your team can lift into client projects from day one.
- A shared vocabulary across your Business Central and Power Platform practitioners, reducing handover friction.

How to buy it

Take the three modules as a discounted bundle, or buy any module individually. The most popular single-module purchase is Module 1 (Power BI for Business Central reporting).

£500 per learner per module. Book all three modules together and save 15% — £1,275 per learner for the full programme (you save £225).

Module	Stand-alone?	Price per learner
Reporting on Business Central with Power BI	Yes	£500
Orchestrating Business Central processes with Power Automate	Yes	£500
Extending Business Central with Power Apps	Yes	£500
All three modules (15% bundle discount)		£1,275 (save £225)

Format and Logistics

- Three days total, delivered as three independent one-day modules.
- Virtual instructor-led, with hands-on labs throughout.
- Deliverables per module: slides, labs on a Business Central sample environment, templates, and full recording.

Agenda

Module 1: Reporting on Business Central with Power BI (1 day)

- Business Central data access patterns

Standard API v2.0, custom API pages and queries, OData v4, published queries, Analysis Views, and the choice between Synapse Link for Dataverse and Microsoft Fabric Link for Business Central. When to use which, and where each breaks at scale.

- Authentication and connectivity

OAuth 2.0, service principals, application users, environment variables, on-premises data gateway scenarios for hybrid Business Central estates, and the licensing implications for each connection type.

- Advanced Power Query for Business Central

Parameterised queries, query folding against Business Central APIs, paging and throttling-aware patterns, and merging Business Central data with non-Business Central sources.

- Business Central modelling challenges

Fiscal calendars, dimensions as real star-schema dimensions, inventory snapshot patterns, G/L fact design, multi-company consolidation, and handling master-data changes over time.

- DAX patterns for Business Central

Actuals versus budgets, period comparatives, running balances, year-over-year with fiscal calendars, and dimension-aware measures.

- Publishing, embedding and sharing

Business Central embedded reports versus Power BI Service reports, Power BI in Role Centres, refresh behaviour, and licence implications (free, Pro, PPU, embedded).

- Performance, refresh and governance in a Business Central context

Incremental refresh against Business Central APIs, capacity sizing, Business Central security carry-over to Power BI, sensitivity labels, and response compression.

- Wrap: decision-framework walk-through and Q&A

Module 2: Orchestrating Business Central processes with Power Automate (1 day)

- Business Central triggers and actions in Power Automate

The Business Central connector at depth: record triggers, business-event triggers (V3), unbound actions, and running flows with record context versus standalone. Current authentication limits of the connector (no service principal or managed identity) and when to fall back to the generic OData connector.

- Business Central classic workflow versus Power Automate

When to keep Business Central workflows, when to replace them, when to federate. Hybrid patterns and handover considerations.

- Approval scenarios

Purchase, sales, journal and document approvals, including multi-tier, conditional and delegated routes. Teams-based approvals and mobile approvals.

- Master-data synchronisation

Vendors, items, customers across Business Central and external systems. Delta patterns, reconciliation, conflict resolution, and idempotent flow design.

- Event-driven integration and async patterns

Business events versus record triggers, webhook reliability and duplicate handling, $batch calls, background sessions (StartSession) and the 202-Accepted pattern for sub-second API responses.

- Error handling, monitoring and governance

Retry policies for Business Central throttling (6,000 requests per 5 minutes, 5 concurrent OData requests, 10-minute operation timeout), run-after configuration, error mailboxes, DLP implications for the Business Central connector, and Centre of Excellence basics.

- ALM and handover

Solutions, environments, connection references, custom actions from AL (customaction keyword) that surface flows inside Business Central, and packaging flows for customer-tenant handover.

- Wrap: decision-framework walk-through and Q&A

Module 3: Extending Business Central with Power Apps (1 day)

- Dataverse versus Business Central: where should the data live?

The decision tree for master data, transactional data, reference data and process data, plus the virtual-tables-versus-data-synchronisation trade-off (real-time access versus offline, Fabric compatibility and performance).

- Virtual tables from Business Central into Dataverse

Setup through the MicrosoftBusinessCentralERPVE managed solution, supported operations, single-company scope, the 1,000-record query cap, schema-extension limits, negative-filter pitfalls, and delegation behaviour in canvas apps.

- Canvas apps calling Business Central

Field-user and shop-floor scenarios, choosing between the Business Central connector, virtual tables and direct OData, offline considerations, and licensing choices (Power Apps per user, per app, Business Central seeded rights).

- Model-driven apps and custom pages on Business Central-backed Dataverse

Using virtual tables in model-driven views, mixing with real Dataverse tables, UI trade-offs, and when to invest in a model-driven layer on top of Business Central.

- Security, permissions and data residency

Mapping Business Central permission sets to Dataverse security roles, application users, delegated access, row-level filtering, and audit implications (virtual tables do not support Dataverse audit).

- Warehouse, shop-floor and field patterns

Real partner-delivery archetypes: goods receipt, field sales, warehouse counts and inspections, with reference architectures.

- Licensing, deployment and ALM for Business Central-adjacent apps

Environment strategy, solution packaging with Business Central dependencies, managing virtual tables across dev/test/prod, and handover to Business Central customer tenants.

- Wrap: decision-framework walk-through and Q&A

Ready to Extend Your Business Central Practice?

Book a fifteen-minute scoping call with the 365 Talent Portal team. We will map the programme to your current delivery model, identify which module to lead with, and agree the first cohort date.

Book a Scoping Call

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I upskill my Business Central team on Power Platform?

Phase it. A partner-grade path splits the work into three focused one-day modules (Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps), delivered virtually with hands-on labs on a Business Central sample environment, so consultants gain real delivery skills without losing a full billable week. Most partners start with the Power BI day, which is the fastest to turn into new revenue inside existing Business Central accounts.

Do Business Central consultants need PL-900 before learning Power Platform?

Yes, PL-900 (Power Platform Fundamentals) is useful for consultants who are completely new to Power Platform. It can be taken as a separate warm-up before diving into the advanced course, to ensure that the fundamental concepts are acquired first.

How do I add Power BI reporting to a Business Central engagement?

The shortest route is the official Business Central connector or custom API pages for smaller estates, and Microsoft Fabric Link for Business Central at scale. Consultants need to model around Business Central fiscal calendars, dimensions, and G/L design, and learn DAX patterns tuned for Business Central data. That is exactly what the Power BI for Business Central module in our Extending Business Central with Power Platform programme covers, with lab-based exercises rather than slideware.

How do Microsoft partners cross-sell Power Platform into Business Central accounts?

The most repeatable sequence is Power BI first (reporting on Business Central data), Power Automate second (approvals, master-data sync, event-driven integration), and Power Apps third (field, warehouse, and shop-floor apps). A shared decision framework for where logic should live (AL, classic workflow, cloud flow, Dataverse, virtual tables, external store) keeps delivery consistent across consultants. Our programme packages that sequence and framework so practice leads can productise Power Platform on top of Business Central.

Power Apps or AL: where should Business Central logic live?

Core ERP logic belongs in AL. Surface-level UX, field scenarios, and Dataverse-adjacent workflows usually belong in Power Apps, either through virtual tables from the MicrosoftBusinessCentralERPVE solution or the Business Central connector. Canvas apps suit shop-floor and mobile use cases; model-driven apps suit data-heavy back-office processes. A clear decision tree prevents the common anti-pattern of duplicating Business Central logic into Dataverse, and it is a core output of the Power Apps module in the Extending Business Central with Power Platform programme.

Our Customers

“The content was really well structured, Sandra and Imogen were brilliant at explaining the tools and taking us through each tool step-by-step as we worked through our own tasks. If anything, I would love to spread the course out over a week to delve into each element – but that’s because I really enjoyed it! A fantastic course, high quality content and fun throughout!“

Susan Nilsson, Director of Communications

”Excellent Course. Whole course gave me a much better understanding of the tools and also confidence in how effective they are and how I can use in my day to day work.”

Director of Marketing

“365 Talent Portal have recently provided us with more great support. Sandra Koutzenko and Imogen DeVille delivered an AI 101 training course over two days at our London HQ office. The course was meticulously curated and flawlessly executed.”

Chief Technology Officer