Business Central and Dynamics 365 Sales in one report

Pipeline lives in Dataverse, invoices live in Business Central, and the two rarely meet in a report. How the Cosmos Dataverse connector puts them in one model, and what you have to match up first.

The short answer

Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service and Field Service run on Dataverse. Business Central does not. So the pipeline and the invoices sit in different databases, and the report that puts quoted revenue next to billed revenue is usually a spreadsheet somebody maintains by hand. The Cosmos Dataverse connector, available to Cosmos customers since December 2025, loads Dataverse data into the same governed model as Business Central, so Excel and Power BI can report across both without the join being done in a spreadsheet. The connector does the loading. You still have to make sure a customer in CRM is the same customer in the ledger, and that is where the work is. Hopton is a Cosmos partner for the UK and Ireland.

Why these two never meet

Business Central is Microsoft's ERP for the mid-market; it has its own database and its own customer, item and ledger tables. The customer engagement apps and Power Apps run on Dataverse, a separate platform with its own account, opportunity and case tables. Microsoft provides an integration that synchronises customers and a few other records between them, and plenty of businesses never switch it on. The result is that sales knows what was quoted, finance knows what was invoiced, and the board asks a question nobody can answer from one screen.

What the connector does

Cosmos loads selected Dataverse tables into its Azure-hosted data model next to the Business Central companies it already holds. Standard Dynamics 365 Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Marketing and Project Operations tables are covered, and so are custom tables from a Power App your business built. Once loaded they are reportable from the Excel add-in and from Power BI like any other part of the model, with the same scheduling and distribution. We covered the connector alongside the rest of the 2026 changes in what is new in Cosmos for Business Central.

What you can see once they are together

Pipeline against invoiced revenue by month, so the forecast is tested against what actually billed. Quoted margin against billed margin by deal, which tends to be an uncomfortable report the first time it runs. Win rate by the customers who went on to pay on time, rather than win rate alone. Open cases or service jobs against outstanding receivables, which is where a credit controller and a service manager finally talk. Project Operations cost against Business Central billing, for businesses that run projects. None of these are exotic. All of them are currently spreadsheets in most groups we meet.

What has to match first

The customer key

Dataverse accounts need to carry the Business Central customer number, or there needs to be a mapping table. If the standard Business Central to Dataverse integration is running, this is mostly done. If it is not, the implementation defines the mapping once, in the model, and from then on it is maintained in one place.

Products, people, dates and companies

Products and items, if quotes are at product level and you want quoted versus billed by product. Salespeople, so the person on the opportunity is the person on the invoice. Dates, so a deal closed in March and invoiced in April lands in the right periods for each question. And companies, if you run several Business Central companies and one CRM, so the opportunity is attributed to the entity that bills it.

Why the matching is the real project

The connector takes a few hours; agreeing with sales and finance what counts as the same customer can take weeks, and it is worth every one of them because the alternative is two departments each believing their own number.

Where this sits

For a business that wants the ready-made route, Cosmos with the Dataverse connector is the quickest way to get Business Central and CRM in one governed model. A business that wants to own the platform does the same join in Jet Analytics or a Fabric lakehouse, with more control and more build. The three routes to Business Central reporting sets out the choice, and we partner on all of them.

Working with Hopton

We implement Cosmos, set up the Dataverse connection, work through the key matching with your sales and finance teams, build the first cross-system reports and train your people, as part of a view of your whole data estate. A free audit of how Business Central and your CRM report today is the starting point. Details on our Cosmos partner page, or get in touch.

How do you report on Business Central and Dynamics 365 Sales together? Using the Cosmos Dataverse connector