PowerBi Integration to Acumatica Dashboard

Hi @Michael Hansen  Please install the Power BI with Desktop application.

And, below is video, which will help you to understand that how to from Power BI tool to Acumatica.

Sorry, I should have been more descript. I’m trying to get a dashboard widget up and running. I can get OData to come in just fine. I just can’t get this data to come BACK into Acumatica using the widget who is asking for the Client ID and Secret.

Hi @Michael Hansen, Microsoft Power BI has updated their app registration link - please use this link https://app.powerbi.com/embedsetup. You’d want to copy your client ID and secret ID (from power bi app, after you set up) and plug it into your widget on acumatica. Hope this helps.

Thank you,

Kaavya

After registering using the wizard and then entering the Client ID and Client Secret in the Dashboard widget, nothing happens after clicking the Sign In button and allowing consent, and no dashboards are listed in the pull down that shows up below.  Is there something else required to allow the widget to have permission to see the reports that have been published?  The instructions don’t seem to give any info after the app is registered.

Added by moderator: This reply has been created with the help of AI

To integrate Power BI with Acumatica Dashboards, follow these general steps. If the issue arises during the login or setup process, ensure you are following the correct instructions for your version of Acumatica and Power BI.

1. Enable the Power BI Integration in Acumatica

• Open the Enable/Disable Features screen in Acumatica (CS100000).
• Enable the Power BI Integration feature under the Business Intelligence Tools section.
• Save and refresh the system.

2. Prepare the Acumatica Data Source

• Open the OData Integration screen in Acumatica (SM207060).
• Publish the data sources you want to use in Power BI (e.g., Generic Inquiries or predefined Acumatica data endpoints).
• Copy the OData URL provided by Acumatica at the top of the screen (it typically looks like https://your-acumatica-instance/OData).

3. Set Up Power BI Connection

• Open Power BI Desktop.
• Select Get Data > OData Feed.
• Paste the OData URL copied from Acumatica.
• Authenticate with your Acumatica credentials:
  • Basic Authentication: Use your Acumatica username and password.
  • If you are using OAuth, ensure that the settings are correctly configured in Acumatica.
• Select the published datasets you wish to use and load them into Power BI.

4. Build Your Power BI Report

• In Power BI Desktop:
  • Create visualizations based on the loaded data.
  • Apply filters, measures, and relationships as needed.

5. Publish the Power BI Report

• Publish the report to the Power BI Service:
  • Go to File > Publish > Power BI Service.
  • Choose your workspace.

6. Embed Power BI into Acumatica Dashboard

• In Power BI:

  • Open the report in Power BI Service.
  • Select the File menu and choose Embed > Publish to web or Embed in SharePoint Online.
  • Copy the embed URL.

• In Acumatica:

  • Open the Dashboards screen (SM208000).
  • Add a Widget of type HTML iFrame.
  • Paste the embed URL into the iFrame settings.
  • Save and refresh the dashboard.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Authentication Problems

• Ensure your Acumatica instance allows OData access for your user role.
• If using OAuth, confirm the authentication provider is set up in Acumatica.

Data Source Differences

• The data available through OData in Acumatica might differ based on the version or Generic Inquiry configurations.
• Verify that the data source you need is published and accessible through the OData URL.

Embed URL Issues

• Use the correct Power BI embed URL format for the iFrame.
• Verify the sharing settings of the Power BI report in the Power BI Service.

Thanks for the response.
 

I don’t see a Business Intelligence Tools option to enable in the Enable/Disable Features screen. 24R2?

Added by moderator: This reply has been created with the help of AI

In Acumatica 2024 R2 (24R2), the feature enabling process may differ slightly due to version-specific updates. If the Business Intelligence Tools option isn't visible in the Enable/Disable Features screen.

1. Verify Module Installation

   • Ensure the Power BI Integration or equivalent feature is included in your Acumatica license.
   • Navigate to System Management > Licensing > Activate License and verify if the required integration is listed as part of the activated features.

2. Search for Feature Names

   • Acumatica sometimes renames or reorganizes features in newer releases.
   • In the Enable/Disable Features screen, search for keywords like:
     • "OData" (e.g., OData Interface or Integration)
     • "Power BI"
     • "Business Intelligence"
   • If you find a relevant feature, enable it.

3. Enable Web Services (Required for OData)

   • The Power BI integration relies on the OData interface, which may require enabling the Web Services feature:
     • Go to Enable/Disable Features.
     • Look for Web Services or similar features and enable them.

4. Access OData Endpoint Directly

   • Even if the explicit Power BI Integration option is not visible, the underlying functionality may still be available:
     • Go to System Management > Integration > Configure OData Integration (SM207060).
     • Confirm that the OData endpoint is active and test access via a browser using your instance's OData URL (e.g., https://your-instance-url/OData).

5. Update Configuration for the Power BI Integration

   If the integration is installed but not fully configured:
   • Navigate to System Management > Integration and look for Power BI or OData-related configuration options.

24R1 here, I don’t have the ability to “Add a Widget of type HTML iFrame.”

I do not have the option to enable/disable anything that looks like PowerBi, OData, Business Intelligence, or Web Services. I do have a fully active Power Bi reporting setup using Odata. 

I also checked under licensing and do not see any of these options either. Does anyone know how to enable this for: 

Acumatica 2024 R1
Build 24.102.0053

I think these screens referenced above might be for older versions of Acumatica, as none of them are available in 24R2.  It seems that this might be configured in External Applications now according to the Help pages in the ERP.

For posterity, in my version, the best I can do is:

Widget Type = Embedded Page
Slap in the URL from Power BI (Open the report, File → Embed Report → Website or Portal → First link listed)
You will now be forced to SIGN IN to the widget.

This works a bit, but it’s hard to scale and since Acumatica’s UI has elements you can’t easily hide, it turns out super small and hard to read if you have numerical elements. Right now, I would suggest only using the Acumatica version if your graph is SUPER SIMPLE. Otherwise, I would keep redirecting your users to the Power BI Interface.
 

The embedded page option is an interesting work around if you are using a public facing BI report, but won’t work for secured private reports.  

Definitely seems like there needs to be some clearer updated documentation on PowerBI integration at this point for current versions of ERP.  They only get you so far in the process with what I’m finding.

Hi,

You can follow the steps:

1. Make sure you have a Power BI Pro or Premium account since embedding dashboards requires this. Go to the Power BI admin portal and check that embedding settings are enabled. You can check more here.

2. Open the desired dashboard in Power BI. Click File > Embed Report > Publish to Web (or use Secure Embed depending on your security requirements) and copy the generated embed link.

3. Add a widget using the HTML Frame option. Paste the Power BI and embed the link into the HTML Frame settings. Adjust the frame size as needed to display the dashboard properly. This should allow you to display your Power BI reports directly within Acumatica dashboards. You can find more information here.

Also, to move data to a data warehouse, I would recommend this ETL solution. We are actively using Skyvia for PowerBI dashboarding.

Hope it will be useful for you!

If you figure this one out let me know!

the base acumatica dashboards are primitive and not user friendly. No worries, Power BI is cheap and easy. Would love for someone to help troubleshoot 

We have Power BI charts and tables in our Acumatica dashboards using the Power BI Tile widget.   It is generally acceptable but updates are manual (working on how to automate daily updates) and the widgets don’t appear for every user every time the dashboard is loaded.   They can refresh and often times the Power BI widgets appear, but often times I need to go in as the admin in Design mode and resave the widget for it to appear for other users.   Widgets always appear for the admin user.   The majority of the users do not have the Power BI license but they aren’t supposed to need it to view the data.   Do others have issues with data not always displaying -- and any resolution?