Power Platform for Business Central — Power Apps, Automate, BI
Business Central does the heavy lifting on transactions and the GL. Where it falls short is on the bespoke workflow your finance or operations team is currently doing in Excel — the approval routing, the dashboard, the field app the warehouse staff actually want to use. That's where Power Platform earns its keep.
Power Apps
Custom apps for the BC users who don't want the full BC client. Common patterns we build:
- Mobile-first warehouse apps — barcode scanning, bin transfers, cycle counts, posting back to BC inventory in real time.
- Approval and review apps — purchase requisition routing, expense approval, journal review, with status visible to the requestor.
- Field-service apps — engineer apps that pull jobs from BC, capture time and parts, and post completion back to the project.
- Dashboards for non-finance users — read-only Power Apps showing project status, inventory levels, or AR ageing without exposing BC.
Power Automate
The glue between BC and the rest of your stack. Examples:
- POS-to-GL nightly summary posting
- Bank statement ingest and pre-match into BC's bank reconciliation
- WMS → BC inventory sync (real-time or scheduled)
- Invoice generation from project milestones
- Document delivery with branded email and open tracking — see our Branded Document Delivery extension
Power BI
Pre-built and bespoke Power BI dashboards on the BC GL. Standard datasets for AR ageing, cash position, project P&L, and consolidated group reporting; bespoke datasets for whatever your FD looks at every week. We typically build the dataset and report once, then your team owns the iteration.
Build vs extend — when each fits
Power Platform is the right answer when the workflow is yours and yours alone. If the workflow is something every BC user has — like UK MTD VAT submission — it should be a published AL extension, not a Power App. We'll tell you which is which during scoping.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need separate Power BI licences for our users?
Yes — Power BI Pro (or Premium per User) is licensed separately from BC. Read-only consumers of a Power BI report inside Teams may not need a paid licence depending on the workspace tier; we’ll size this during scoping.
What’s the difference between Power Apps and a custom AL extension?
Power Apps sits beside BC and talks to it via API; a custom AL extension lives inside BC. Power Apps is right when the workflow is yours alone and the UI needs to be different. Custom AL is right when the logic belongs in BC’s transaction tables.
How long does a Power Platform engagement take?
2–8 weeks depending on whether it’s a single Power App, a Power Automate flow set, or a connected Power BI dashboard pack. We commit to a fixed go-live date in the SOW.
Do we need Premium Power Platform connectors?
Only if you connect to non-Microsoft systems or use the on-premises data gateway. The standard licence covers BC, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams and Dataverse. We’ll flag any Premium connector requirement before you commit.
Can you take over a Power Platform build that’s already in flight?
Yes. Two-week discovery, gap document, fixed-fee plan to land it. We do this regularly when an internal build has stalled.
What ongoing support is available?
Same retainer tiers as our other engagements (PAYG / Lite / Plus). Power Platform builds do tend to need lighter support than BC because the surface area is smaller.