Zentriq Agent is live on Microsoft AppSourceInstall it free →Microsoft AppSourceInstall it free →
Get started free
ProductsAgentAP Invoice AutomationPunchOutMCP ConnectorResourcesDocsPricingBlogHow-to GuidesAI ChecklistUse CasesGlossaryFAQCustom DevelopmentAboutContactSign in
Reporting

Business Central reporting, without building a report

Ask for the profit and loss, the aged receivables or a quarter on quarter comparison, and read the answer. Live data from your own Business Central, with no model to maintain.

The numbers are already in Business Central. Getting them out is the part that costs time: a report someone has to define, a Power BI model someone has to maintain, or a ticket to your partner. This page is about a fourth option, asking the question in plain language and reading the answer.

Why one number turns into a project

Business Central stores everything, but every slightly specific question goes through a tool:

  • Financial Reporting, the built in row and column definition covers general ledger accounts, in a fixed layout and with no chart. Someone has to define it first.
  • Analysis views and analysis reports, useful for dimensions, but the output stays a grid inside BC and the setup is not obvious.
  • Excel, quick to produce and stale the moment it is exported. Next month, someone rebuilds it.
  • Power BI or the partner, a licence per user, a model to build and a refresh to schedule, or a ticket and a wait for a custom report.

None of that is wrong. It is simply a lot of setup for a question you wanted answered once, this morning.

A real exchange

Same data, no report to build. You type the question, the agent reads Business Central and picks the format that fits the answer.

You ask

How did the first quarter go?

The agent returns

Six KPI cards for the exact period: revenue, expenses, net profit, margin, receivables and payables.

You ask

Show me the P&L for February.

The agent returns

A profit and loss pulled from the general ledger, grouped by income, cost of goods sold and expenses, with net income at the bottom.

You ask

Show me the aged receivables.

The agent returns

Every customer with an open balance, split into four buckets, current, 1 to 30, 31 to 60 and over 60 days, with the total.

You ask

Compare the first quarter this year with the same quarter last year.

The agent returns

The two periods side by side, sales and purchases, the variance in percent and a grouped bar chart.

You ask

Sales trend over the last six months.

The agent returns

A line chart, one point per month, computed from posted customer ledger entries.

The figures come from your own ledger, computed at the moment you ask. There is no stored dataset and no nightly refresh, so an answer reflects what is posted in Business Central at that instant.

What this is, and what it is not

It is worth being precise about the scope.

What the agent does

  • It reads live, every answer is computed from the standard Business Central APIs at the moment you ask, not from a copy.
  • It stays inside your permissions, it signs in with your Microsoft account over OAuth 2.0 and inherits your BC permission sets, so it can never show more than you can already open in BC.
  • It formats the answer, KPI cards, bar, line and pie charts, ranked tables, and formatted statements such as a profit and loss, a balance sheet or a trial balance.
  • It goes where you are, in a side panel inside Business Central, in the browser, and on a phone.

What the agent is not

  • Not a data warehouse, Zentriq keeps no copy of your ledger and builds no model. A figure that is not posted in Business Central is a figure the agent cannot report on.
  • Not a replacement for Power BI, measures you define yourself, a free form layout and a dashboard twenty people open every morning stay Power BI territory.
  • No sources outside BC, it does not blend Business Central with a CRM, a payroll export or a spreadsheet. One system, read properly.
  • Per question, not per dashboard, each answer belongs to the person who asked. There is no shared board that refreshes on a schedule.

For a wider comparison of the options, including Financial Reporting, Excel, third party tools and Power BI, see Business Central reporting without Power BI.

How it works, in three steps

1

Install from AppSource

Open the Zentriq Agent listing on Microsoft AppSource and click Get it now. Pick the Business Central environment, a sandbox is a good place to start, and Microsoft deploys it. No manual upload.

2

Sign in with Microsoft

Authentication runs through Microsoft Entra ID with OAuth 2.0 delegated access. Nothing to configure, no credentials stored on our side, and your existing BC permission sets apply from the first question.

3

Ask

Write the question the way you would say it to a colleague. The agent picks the endpoints and filters, reads the entries, checks the arithmetic and returns the result as cards, a chart, a table or a statement.

Reporting is one of the nine domains the Zentriq Agent covers in Business Central. The same chat also handles purchasing, sales, finance, CRM, inventory, documents, dashboards and templates.

Who this is for

This page is written for the person who owns the numbers, not the person who builds the report:

  • A controller who needs the aged receivables before a payment run, without waiting for an export.
  • A finance manager who closes the month and wants the profit and loss and the trial balance in front of them while entries are still moving.
  • A CFO who asks one question in a meeting, this quarter against the same quarter last year, and wants the answer during the meeting.

Business Central reporting: FAQ

Can I get a P&L out of Business Central without Power BI?

Yes. Business Central ships Financial Reporting, formerly account schedules, for general ledger statements. Zentriq adds a second route: ask for the profit and loss for a period in plain language, the agent reads the general ledger, groups by account category and returns the statement. A balance sheet or a trial balance works the same way.

Does Zentriq replace Power BI?

No, and it is not meant to. Zentriq answers one off questions on live Business Central data with no model to build. Power BI remains the right tool for measures you define yourself, for a fixed dashboard a whole team opens every day, and for blending Business Central with sources outside it. Many companies keep both.

How current are the figures?

They are read at the moment you ask. There is no nightly refresh and no cached dataset, so an answer reflects what is posted in Business Central at that instant. The honest flip side: entries that are not posted yet, and master data nobody maintains, do not appear in the answer either.

Where is the data processed?

The agent reads your Business Central through the standard APIs using your own Microsoft sign in, and it inherits your BC permission sets. The Zentriq application, its data and the AI processing are hosted in the EU, in Frankfurt.

Related reading: Business Central reporting without Power BI, what the Zentriq Agent covers across the nine domains, and the plans and prices.

Ask your Business Central a question

The free plan includes 15 messages a month, no card. If you would rather see it on your own data first, we install the agent in your Business Central sandbox on a 15 minute call.

Get started freeBook a call