Business Central Insights Administration and Maintenance Guide

This guide covers the routine tasks involved in keeping Business Central Insights healthy after implementation: installing and upgrading, keeping data refreshing, managing who can access the reports, and knowing when to contact eKnowtion.

It is written for the person or team responsible for administering Business Central Insights in your organization. Most of these tasks are managed by your own team. eKnowtion provides the product, the release notes and support whenever something is unclear or not working as expected.

Quick links

The most important pages for administrators:

Responsibilities at a glance

Your organization administers Business Central Insights day to day; eKnowtion provides the product, the documentation and support.

Area	Your organization	eKnowtion
Installation	Installs the Insights Connector and the Power BI apps, once per app, following our guides	Provides the installation guides and helps if you get stuck
Data refresh account	Creates one Business Central account for data refresh and assigns its permissions	Provides the permission instructions
Scheduled data refresh	Configures automatic refresh, checks refresh history, fixes credential issues	Investigates refresh errors you cannot resolve
Users, access and licensing	Shares the Power BI app, manages Power BI licenses and user access, reviews access when staff change	Provides the sharing instructions
Product updates	Reviews release notes and update emails, plans and installs upgrades at a convenient time	Publishes release notes, sends product update emails, helps with upgrades on request
Product issues	Reports connector, data or report issues with error details and screenshots	Investigates and resolves them
Data security	Controls the Power BI environment and all the data in it	Has no access to your data

Initial setup

Four one-time tasks get Business Central Insights running: install the apps, set up the data refresh account, schedule automatic refresh, and share the reports.

1. Install Business Central Insights

Install Business Central Insights once, following the installation guide: Install Business Central Insights

Business Central Insights has two parts: the Insights Connector, which is installed in Business Central, and the Power BI apps, which are installed in your Power BI environment.

Each Power BI app is installed into one workspace, which holds one semantic model. That workspace is the single source of truth for your whole organization.

Only the administrator installs the app. Individual users should not install their own copy or create additional workspaces.
Everyone accesses the reports through the shared Power BI app, so all users see the same data, refreshed on the same schedule.
If an app has been installed more than once, consolidate on one workspace so that data is refreshed and maintained in one place.

2. Set up the Business Central account used for data refresh

Power BI needs one Business Central account to read data during each refresh. Set up a single account for this purpose and assign it the required permissions in Business Central: Assign permissions in Business Central

This is the only account that needs Business Central permissions for Business Central Insights. Report users do not need any Business Central permissions.
We recommend a dedicated account that is not tied to an individual employee, so that data refresh does not stop when someone leaves or changes their password.
Use this account when you connect the Power BI app to Business Central and when you configure scheduled refresh.
Keep the account active and licensed in Business Central. If its password changes, or the account is disabled or loses permissions, scheduled refresh fails until the credentials in Power BI are updated.

3. Schedule automatic data refresh

Scheduled refresh keeps the reports up to date without manual work. Configure it in Power BI as soon as the app is installed and connected to your data: Schedule automatic data refresh

Refresh runs on the schedule you choose and signs in to Business Central with the account from step 2.
Turn on refresh failure notifications in the scheduled refresh settings, so Power BI emails you when a refresh fails.
After the first few scheduled runs, check the refresh history to confirm they completed successfully. Ongoing monitoring is described under Ongoing maintenance below.

4. Share the reports and manage access

Share the Power BI app with the people who need the reports: Share the Power BI app

Report users need only two things:

A Power BI Pro license
Access to the Power BI app, which you grant when you share it

They do not need a Business Central license or any Business Central permissions. Data is read from Business Central by the refresh account from step 2; users only view the results in Power BI.

Your organization manages Power BI licenses and app access. Review access whenever employees join, change roles or leave (see Ongoing maintenance below).

Ongoing maintenance

Three routine tasks keep Business Central Insights healthy after setup: monitoring data refresh, reviewing access, and keeping the product up to date.

Monitor data refresh and handle refresh failures

Check the Power BI refresh history periodically to confirm that scheduled refreshes complete successfully. Refresh failure notifications (see setup step 3) mean you do not have to check every day.

If a refresh fails:

Read the error message first. A single temporary failure usually needs no action; repeated failures should be investigated. If you are not sure where to find the error details, follow Find refresh error details.
If the error says your credentials are invalid, follow Fix invalid credentials.
If the cause is not clear or you cannot resolve it, send the refresh error details to eKnowtion so our team can investigate.

Review users and access

Keep report access aligned with who needs it. Review access whenever:

New employees join the organization
Employees change roles
Employees leave the organization
Reporting responsibilities change

Periodically confirm that:

Everyone who needs the reports has access to the Power BI app and a Power BI Pro license
Users who no longer need access have been removed
The Business Central refresh account is still active, licensed and correctly permissioned
Workspace and app permissions have not been changed unintentionally

Review product updates and plan upgrades

Business Central Insights is updated periodically with improvements, fixes and new functionality. Release notes for every update are published in the Release Notes Hub.

When a new version is released, we also email our customers a product update describing the new version and any actions required. If you administer Business Central Insights and are not receiving these emails, contact us so we can add you. You do not need to check for updates yourself if you receive them; the Release Notes Hub is there whenever you want to confirm the latest version or review previous releases.

Do I need to upgrade immediately?

No. When a new version of the Insights Connector or a Power BI app is released, your existing version continues to operate. Plan the upgrade for a time that suits your organization. If a release requires urgent action or contains an important compatibility change, we say so clearly in the release notes and the product update email.

How to upgrade

Read the release notes so you know what has changed and whether the release is relevant to your environment.
Follow the upgrade instructions: Upgrade Business Central Insights
After the upgrade, confirm that scheduled refresh still completes successfully.

An upgrade updates your existing workspace. Do not install the new version as a separate app or workspace; there should still be one workspace and one semantic model per app.

If you would like help with an upgrade, or you are unsure whether a release applies to you, contact eKnowtion.

Maintenance checklist

A short summary of the tasks above and when to do them.

After installation (once)

Refresh account created in Business Central with the required permissions
Scheduled refresh configured and the first runs verified in refresh history
Refresh failure notifications turned on
Power BI app shared with the users who need it

Regularly (for example, monthly)

Check refresh history for failed refreshes
Confirm scheduled refresh is still enabled
Confirm the refresh account is still active, licensed and permissioned

When a release is published

Read the release notes
Decide when to upgrade and follow the upgrade instructions
Confirm scheduled refresh completes after the upgrade

When people or systems change

Update app access when employees join, change roles or leave
After changes to your Business Central environment or Microsoft 365 accounts, confirm the next scheduled refresh completes

Data security

Your data stays entirely within your Power BI environment, under your complete control. eKnowtion does not have access to any of our customers' data. Our role is solely to provide the app, which is installed directly in your Power BI environment.

Business Central Insights is built exclusively with Power BI and Business Central. It does not incorporate any external components, so everything is secured by standard Microsoft security.
Data moves only between your Business Central environment and your Power BI environment, through the Business Central API.
Business Central data is read by the single refresh account you set up, with the permissions you assign to it.
Who can see the reports is controlled entirely by your organization through Power BI app access, workspace permissions and licenses.

For more on the underlying Microsoft security model:

Power BI security (Microsoft Learn)
Business Central API overview (Microsoft Learn)

When to contact eKnowtion

Contact our team whenever something is unclear or not working as expected, including when:

The Insights Connector is not operating as expected
Data is not refreshing and the cause is unclear after checking the error details
Data in a report appears incorrect or incomplete
You encounter an error during an upgrade, or are unsure how to upgrade the Insights Connector or a Power BI app
A report or feature is not behaving as expected
You have questions about a new release, or whether it applies to your environment
You have made, or are planning, significant changes to your Business Central environment and need guidance
You are unsure whether an issue is related to Business Central Insights, Business Central or Power BI
You administer Business Central Insights but are not receiving our product update emails

What to include in your request

The more detail you send, the faster we can investigate:

For refresh issues: the full refresh error details from Power BI (how to find them)
For other issues: screenshots, the exact error message, and the affected report, page and Business Central environment
Anything that changed recently, such as an upgrade, an environment change or a permission change