Jet Analytics for Business Central: What UK Finance Teams Need to Know

Jet Analytics is insightsoftware's analytics product for Microsoft Dynamics, including Business Central. For UK finance teams that need more than standard Business Central reporting, but do not want to build and maintain their own data model, it fills a well-defined gap.

This guide explains what Jet Analytics is today, how it differs from Jet Reports, who it suits, and what to check before you commit.

Key PointJet Reports builds formatted reports from live data. Jet Analytics builds an analytical store with pre-built models. They solve different problems.

What Jet Analytics is

insightsoftware describes Jet Analytics as a cloud-based data integration platform that connects your Dynamics ERP to modern cloud storage. It delivers clean ERP data into Microsoft Fabric, Snowflake and Azure.

It ships with pre-built data models, which insightsoftware calls cubes, that already understand Dynamics' financial data structures. You then use the data in Power BI, Excel or other BI tools.

insightsoftware also offers Jet Analytics Classic, the SQL-based data warehouse, for teams that need an on-premises or air-gapped environment. Check which version you are being offered. If your data platform is Microsoft Fabric, the cloud version is the natural fit.

Jet Analytics versus Jet Reports

The two products share a publisher but solve different problems.

• Jet Reports connects live to Business Central and builds refreshable reports in Excel. A month-end P&L or a debtor ageing report is a typical use.
• Jet Analytics moves your data into a separate analytical store with pre-built models. It suits analysis across large volumes of history, several companies or many dimensions.

Many businesses run both. Our pages on Jet Reports and Jet Analytics set out how we use each.

Pro TipAsk which version you are being quoted for, the cloud platform or Jet Analytics Classic, and where the data will live.

Who Jet Analytics is for

Jet Analytics is worth evaluating when most of these are true:

• you run several Business Central companies and need group views across them;
• you want to analyse years of history without slowing your live system;
• you need analysis by several dimensions at once, such as department, product and region;
• nobody in the finance team has time to build and maintain a data model from scratch.

If your reporting is mostly formatted month-end packs, Jet Reports or Business Central's own reporting may be enough. Our multi-entity page covers group reporting more widely.

An illustrative example: group gross profit reporting

Picture a UK group with four trading companies on Business Central. Each month the finance director wants gross profit by company, product family and sales territory, against budget.

Without an analytical model, someone exports each company to Excel, maps items to product families by hand and rebuilds the pivot for every new question.

With a pre-built model, all four companies feed one store, the product family mapping is defined once and the budget sits alongside the actuals. A new cut, such as by salesperson, is a filter change rather than a rebuild. This is an illustration of the use case, not a client result.

Watch OutAn analytics model needs an owner after go-live. Agree who maintains it before you buy, not after the first Business Central update.

What to check before you commit

• Which version fits your environment: the cloud platform or Jet Analytics Classic.
• Where your data will live, for example Fabric, Snowflake or Azure, and who owns that platform.
• How your Business Central customisations, such as extra dimensions or fields, will appear in the model.
• Who maintains the model after go-live, and how it is updated when Business Central changes.
• How your team will use the output, for example in Power BI or Excel.

For an independent view of finance technology choices, the ICAEW technology resources are a useful reference.

Next steps

Amplio is an insightsoftware partner and a UK Business Central consultancy. We can assess whether Jet Analytics fits your Business Central setup and run a trial on your own data.

A good place to start is our free Business Central review.