How do you make sense of all the numbers flying around a business — sales, inventory, expenses — without getting lost? That's the problem Reporting and Business Intelligence (BI) solves for Microsoft Dynamics 365 users. For the MB-920 exam, you need to understand the difference between looking at a live dashboard of today's data (reports) and analysing historical trends to plan next month (BI), and how Finance and Operations apps deliver both without needing a spreadsheet wizard on staff.
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A simple way to picture Reporting and Business Intelligence
A busy bakery kitchen, flour dust in the air and the warm smell of bread. The head baker stands by a large whiteboard that tracks every order from the moment it comes in until it leaves the shop. This whiteboard is the bakery's 'reporting and business intelligence' system.
Each sticky note on the board represents an order detail — a customer's name, the type of loaf, the quantity, the special instructions for gluten-free flour, and a deadline. The baker updates the board constantly: when dough is mixed, when it's proved, when it's baked, when it's wrapped. That's the 'operational reporting' part — seeing what's happening right now.
But the baker also uses a different tool: a small notebook where she records, at the end of every week, which pastries sold most, which ingredients ran out fastest, and which breads had the most complaints. That notebook is 'business intelligence'. It doesn't tell her what is happening this minute, but it shows patterns over time — for example, that sourdough sales always spike on Fridays after the local farmer's market. She uses this history to decide how much flour to order next week and whether to add a new cinnamon-raisin loaf to the menu. Without the whiteboard, she'd miss orders. Without the notebook, she'd waste ingredients and miss opportunities. Together, they turn raw data into smarter decisions.
That is precisely what reporting and business intelligence do for a company using Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations apps: they turn daily transaction data into real-time status updates and long-term strategic insights.
In any business, data pours in from every direction: sales orders, purchase invoices, warehouse stock movements, employee timesheets. Without a system, this data sits in different silos — a spreadsheet here, an email chain there, a notebook on a manager's desk. Reporting and Business Intelligence (BI) are the tools that gather all that scattered data, clean it up, and present it so people can make decisions. Think of reporting as the 'what happened' and BI as the 'what should we do about it'.
Let's define the terms first:
Report: A structured presentation of data, usually centred on a specific question. For example, a 'Sales by Customer' report shows which customers bought how much, in a table or chart. It's typically run on a schedule or on demand.
Dashboard: A visual display of key metrics — the most important numbers — updated in real time or near real time. Think of it as the speedometer and fuel gauge of a car, showing you the current state at a glance.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI): A specific, measurable value that shows how effectively a company is achieving a key business objective. 'Revenue per employee' or 'percentage of on-time deliveries' are common KPIs.
Business Intelligence (BI): The broader process of analysing historical and current data to spot trends, predict outcomes, and guide strategy. BI often uses data visualisation tools (like Microsoft's Power BI) to create interactive charts and maps that executives can explore.
Now, how does this work inside Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations apps (often called 'F&O')?
Finance and Operations apps come with built-in workspaces. Each workspace is like a personalised home page for a specific role — for example, the 'Sales Manager' workspace or the 'Warehouse Worker' workspace. These workspaces contain tiles, KPIs, and links to the most relevant reports for that role. So when a sales manager logs in, they immediately see their top-priority KPIs (like 'Total sales this month' and 'New customers added') without having to run a single report.
For deeper analysis, F&O integrates tightly with Microsoft Power BI. Power BI is a separate Microsoft tool — a BI platform — that can pull data from F&O (and many other sources) and create rich, interactive dashboards. An IT manager or business analyst can build a Power BI report that slices sales data by region, product category, and salesperson, all with clickable filters. Users don't need to know SQL or coding to explore the data; they just point and click.
There are also embedded Power BI reports inside F&O itself. That means some of the charts and graphs you see in a workspace were built using Power BI but appear directly inside the F&O interface, so you don't have to switch between applications.
Another important capability is built-in analytical workspaces. These are preconfigured workspaces that come with the software and don't require custom development. For instance, the 'Budget control' workspace gives finance managers a real-time view of budget consumption against actual spending, with colour-coded alerts when a department is close to exceeding its budget.
Finally, there is the option to use Financial reporting (sometimes called 'Management Reporter'). This is a specialised tool for creating formal financial statements — profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow — in a format that meets accounting standards. It pulls data from the general ledger and allows complex formatting, like multi-column comparisons of actual vs budget for multiple periods.
In summary, the ecosystem has three layers: (1) live operational data visible in F&O workspaces and embedded reports, (2) ad-hoc analysis and beautiful interactive dashboards via Power BI, and (3) formal, regulated financial statements via Financial reporting. Each serves a different purpose but all draw from the same core data in F&O, ensuring that everyone in the business is working from one version of the truth.
Identify the question
Before creating any report or dashboard, determine what business question needs answering. For example, 'Which product category had the highest sales growth last quarter?' This step ensures the report is relevant and focused.
Choose the right tool
Select the appropriate reporting tool based on the need. For a quick operational check (like stock levels), use the built-in workspace. For interactive historical analysis, use Power BI. For formal financial statements, use Financial reporting. Choosing the wrong tool can frustrate users and produce incorrect outputs.
Access or build the data source
The data must be available to the tool. For workspaces and Financial reporting, the data comes directly from the F&O database. For Power BI, you connect to the F&O data via a connector or a data gateway. This step often involves IT to ensure permissions are correct and data refreshes are scheduled.
Configure the report structure
In F&O workspaces, this means pinning the right KPIs and tiles. In Power BI, it means dragging fields onto the canvas to build charts, slicers, and tables. In Financial reporting, you define rows (account groups), columns (periods), and a reporting tree (organisational units). Each tool has its own configuration interface.
Set permissions and sharing
Reports should only be visible to authorised users. In F&O, workspace visibility is controlled by security roles. In Power BI, you share dashboards to specific users or groups via the Power BI Service. Financial reporting outputs are often secured at the legal-entity level. This step prevents sensitive data from reaching the wrong people.
Review, test, and deliver
Run the report with sample data to verify it shows the correct numbers. Check that KPIs are updating on the correct schedule. Provide training to end users — just sending a link is not enough. Once validated, the report goes live, and you schedule ongoing maintenance (refreshing data sources, updating filters).
Imagine you are the IT support lead at 'GreenLeaf Furniture', a mid-sized company that manufactures and sells office chairs, desks, and storage units. They have recently deployed Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations apps. You are the person who helps staff use the reporting and BI features day-to-day.
Your first real task comes from the production floor manager, Priya. She tells you, 'I need to see, right now, how many unfinished wooden desk legs are sitting in inventory. If we have fewer than 200, we need to stop the assembly line and order more wood.' You show her the 'Inventory and warehouse management' workspace. There is a tile labelled 'Current on-hand inventory' with a number — 312 legs. She is relieved. That is a live operational report.
A week later, the sales director, Marc, asks you for help. He says, 'I want to know which of my salespeople sold the most desks last quarter, and how that compares to the same quarter last year, but the built-in workspace only shows current month.' You guide him to the embedded Power BI report called 'Sales performance over time' that lives inside the 'Sales manager' workspace. He clicks it, sees a bar chart that displays precisely what he needs, and can filter by date range and salesperson. You didn't need to write a single query.
Three months later, the CEO requests an impromptu meeting with her leadership team. She wants to understand why the profit margin on office chairs has dropped from 35% to 28% over the last two quarters. You export a financial report from Financial reporting that shows a detailed profit and loss statement for the chair product line, broken down by material cost, labour, and overhead. The COO notices that the 'steel' component cost has spiked. This insight, visible because of the flexible report formatting and multi-period comparison, drives a decision to renegotiate the steel supplier contract.
On a routine Monday, you receive an email from the warehouse supervisor: 'The floor team keeps asking me the same questions about stock levels. Can you make it automatic?' You set up a scheduled report — a simple 'Daily inventory count by location' — which runs every morning at 7 AM and is emailed to a distribution list of warehouse leads. That is an example of managing report subscriptions in F&O.
Finally, the head of HR wants a dashboard showing employee turnover rate, average tenure, and training completion per department. You connect Power BI to the F&O data (using the Dynamics 365 connector) and build a simple three-tile dashboard. Once it's published to the Power BI service, you embed a link directly into the 'Human resources' workspace in F&O. The HR director now has her own BI tool without needing to switch screens.
Your role as an IT professional is not to build all reports from scratch. The exam tests that you know which tool is best for which need: real-time check in the workspace, historical analysis in Power BI, regulated financial statements in Financial reporting. You also need to know that users can personalise their own workspaces by adding or removing tiles, but configuring system-wide reports is typically done by a system administrator or a functional consultant.
The MB-920 exam tests your recognition of reporting and BI capabilities, not your ability to build them. You will not be asked to write a DAX formula or configure a Power BI dataset. Instead, the exam wants you to identify which tool fits which scenario. Expect about 5-8 questions on this topic area, mixed with case studies and single-best-answer questions.
Here are the specific concepts Microsoft loves to test:
Workspace vs Dashboard: A workspace is a page in F&O that contains tiles, KPIs, and lists for a specific job role. A dashboard (often a Power BI dashboard) is a collection of visualisations from one or more datasets, usually hosted in the Power BI service. They often ask: 'Which tool would a warehouse manager use to see today's inventory?' The answer is the workspace in F&O.
Embedded Power BI vs Power BI Service: Embedded reports appear directly inside F&O without switching apps. The Power BI Service is a standalone web portal for sharing dashboards and datasets across the organisation. A common trap question: 'An executive wants a mobile-friendly dashboard shared with all regional directors. Which tool?' The answer is Power BI Service (with a mobile app).
Financial reporting (Management Reporter) structure: It uses building blocks — rows, columns, reporting trees (organisational hierarchies) — assembled into report definitions. They might ask: 'A CFO needs a legally compliant profit and loss statement for the parent company and two subsidiaries. Which tool and which building blocks?' Answer: Financial reporting, using a row definition for the P&L lines, a column definition for current/previous periods, and a reporting tree for the parent and subsidiaries.
KPI display: KPIs in F&O workspaces can display actual values, targets, and trend arrows. The exam may ask what a green or red indicator means — typically green means the KPI is within the target range.
Data sources for reports: The main report data comes from the F&O database (transactional data). But Power BI can also blend in data from Excel, other Microsoft apps (like Dynamics 365 Sales), or external sources (like a third-party CRM). A trap question might say: 'A report must combine warehouse stock from F&O with weather data from an API. Which tool?' The correct answer is Power BI (not Financial reporting), because only Power BI can mash up diverse data sources.
Common traps the exam sets: - 'Report' might be confused with 'Inquiry'. In F&O, an inquiry is a simple list of records (like 'All sales orders'), while a report is a formatted output (like a PDF or screen display). The exam may ask: 'To view a list of all open sales orders with the ability to drill into a specific order, use...' That is an inquiry, not a report. - They might pretend Power BI is the only reporting tool, ignoring Financial reporting for legal financial statements. Remember, Power BI does not generate GAAP-compliant financial statements — Financial reporting does. - They may use the phrase 'self-service BI' to refer to Power BI. This means business users can create their own reports without IT help. The exam expects you to know that Power BI is the self-service tool in the Dynamics ecosystem.
Key definitions to memorise for the exam:
Workspace: Role-specific landing page in F&O.
KPI: A quantifiable measure of performance.
Financial reporting: Tool for formal accounting reports.
Power BI: Microsoft's self-service analytics service.
Embedded report: A Power BI report shown inside F&O.
Analytical workspace: A prebuilt workspace that provides analytical views (not transactional).
A workspace is a role-specific page in Dynamics 365 F&O that shows real-time KPIs and tiles for daily operations.
Power BI is the self-service business intelligence tool used for interactive dashboards and historical trend analysis across multiple data sources.
Financial reporting (Management Reporter) is the tool for creating legally compliant financial statements like profit and loss and balance sheets.
Embedded Power BI reports appear directly inside F&O workspaces, so users never have to leave the application to see rich visualisations.
Inquiries are simple lists of transactional records, while reports are formatted outputs — the exam tests the difference often.
KPIs in workspaces use colour indicators (green, yellow, red) to show performance relative to a target, updated from live data.
You can schedule reports in F&O to be automatically generated and emailed to specific users at defined intervals.
The data in F&O comes from a single shared database, ensuring that all reports and dashboards reflect the same 'single version of the truth'.
These come up on the exam all the time. Here's how to tell them apart.
Workspace
Located inside Dynamics 365 F&O application
Shows live transactional data (near real-time)
Preconfigured by the system for a specific job role
Dashboard (Power BI)
Hosted in the Power BI Service (web or mobile)
Usually shows historical aggregated data (refreshed on schedule)
Created and customised by users or analysts for broader audiences
Power BI
Used for interactive visual analytics and ad-hoc exploration
Can combine data from multiple sources (Excel, CRM, etc.)
Output is flexible, with charts, maps, and cross-filtering
Financial Reporting (Management Reporter)
Used for formal, regulatory accounting statements
Pulls data only from the F&O general ledger
Output follows a fixed row/column structure (P&L, Balance Sheet)
KPI (in a workspace)
Visual tile showing one metric with a colour indicator
Updates automatically from live data
Intended for at-a-glance situational awareness
Report (e.g., a printed or scheduled report)
Structured document (table, chart) with multiple data points
Often generated on demand or on a schedule (e.g., daily email)
Used for detailed analysis, audit trails, or distribution
Inquiry (list page)
Interactive list of records (e.g., all open sales orders)
Allows drill-down into individual records
No formatting; just raw data on screen
Formal Report
Formatted, paginated output (PDF, Word, Excel)
Not interactive once generated — it's a snapshot
Used for external distribution or archiving
Mistake
All reporting in Dynamics 365 F&O is done exclusively through Power BI.
Correct
Power BI is one of several tools. The software also includes built-in workspaces with KPIs and tiles, Financial reporting for legal financial statements, and basic operational inquiries — all of which are separate from Power BI.
Power BI is heavily marketed as Microsoft's BI solution, so beginners assume it replaces all other reporting. The reality is that F&O has its own rich built-in reporting that works without Power BI, and Power BI is an optional layer for advanced analytics.
Mistake
A workspace and a dashboard are the same thing.
Correct
A workspace is a page inside F&O that contains role-specific tiles, lists, and KPIs. A dashboard is a visual collection of charts and metrics, usually created in Power BI, that can be displayed in a web browser or mobile app. They serve different purposes and exist in different locations.
Both terms are used to describe a screen that shows summaries of data. The exam intentionally blurs the line to test if candidates know the specific platform each belongs to.
Mistake
You must be a programmer or a data scientist to use Power BI with Dynamics 365.
Correct
Power BI is designed as a self-service tool. Business analysts and power users with no coding background can create powerful reports using drag-and-drop and natural language queries (Q&A). You only need IT help for more complex tasks like setting up data gateways or configuring security.
The word 'intelligence' sounds complicated, and many beginners assume it requires a computer science degree. Microsoft's design philosophy for Power BI is exactly the opposite: to democratise data access.
Mistake
Financial reporting (Management Reporter) is just an older version of Power BI, so it will be phased out soon.
Correct
Financial reporting is a specialised tool for formal accounting statements that must comply with regulations like GAAP or IFRS. Power BI cannot replace it because it lacks the required row/column/reporting tree structure and the ability to post to a legal entity's ledger. Microsoft continues to support and develop both tools.
Many learners see that Power BI is newer and more visually appealing, so they assume it makes older tools obsolete. But in regulated finance, compliance and precision matter more than flashy visuals.
Mistake
Reports in F&O are always real-time, showing data as it happens.
Correct
Some reports and KPIs in workspaces are near real-time (updated every few minutes), but many analytical reports and Power BI dashboards rely on pre-calculated aggregates that are refreshed on a schedule — often daily. The refresh frequency depends on how the report is set up.
The speed of modern software leads people to believe everything is live. In practice, heavy analytical processing is batched to avoid slowing down the transactional system.
Reveal each answer, then mark whether you got it right. Score 60%+ to unlock the next chapter.
A workspace is a page inside F&O for a specific role (like 'Warehouse Manager') that shows tiles, lists, and KPIs from live transactional data. A dashboard is typically a Power BI visual containing multiple charts and metrics, hosted in the Power BI Service or embedded in a workspace.
No, Power BI is a self-service tool that you can use with drag-and-drop actions and natural language queries. Business analysts commonly build reports without writing code. However, some advanced scenarios require DAX formulas or IT support for data gateways.
No. Financial reporting is required for generating legal, compliant financial statements like P&L and balance sheet, because it uses a row/column/reporting tree structure tailored for accounting standards. Power BI lacks these features and cannot produce GAAP- or IFRS-compliant reports.
Workspace KPIs and tiles update near real-time (usually every few minutes). Analytical workspaces and Power BI dashboards update on a scheduled refresh — often daily — depending on how the dataset is configured in the Power BI service or F&O data management.
A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a visual metric displayed in a workspace tile that shows a specific performance measure (like 'Total Sales Today'), often with a colour indicator (green/yellow/red) to show if it's meeting a target.
Yes, users can personalise their own workspaces by adding, removing, or rearranging tiles to suit their preferences. For creating more complex reports with Power BI, they can use the self-service Power BI tool, but they may need IT to configure the data source connection first.
You've finished Reporting and Business Intelligence. Continue through the MB-920 study guide to build a complete picture of the exam.
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