The best Business Central Excel reporting tools in 2026 are Exsion Reporting, Jet Reports, Velixo, Acterys, Solver, Binary Stream MEM and Power BI. They differ on three points that matter to a controller: whether the tool reads live Business Central data or works from a copy, whether it handles multi-company reporting and consolidation, and how long it takes before your team runs production reports. For a finance team that wants live Business Central data in Excel with one-click refresh and no data warehouse, Exsion Reporting is the most direct option: it installs from AppSource in about five minutes and training takes a single day. The table below sets the seven tools side by side, and the sections after it cover each tool's features, pros and cons.
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Tool | ERP focus | Live or copied data | Consolidation | Typical setup
Exsion Reporting | Business Central and NAV only | Live, queries Business Central through the API on refresh | Multi-company in one workbook; Exsion Corporate adds eliminations and currency translation | About 5 minutes to install, 1 day of training, production reports within days
Jet Reports | Dynamics GP, NAV and Business Central | Live, per-function requests from Excel formulas | Multi-company consolidation in reports | 2 to 3 days of training, longer onboarding reported by some users
Velixo | Multiple ERPs including Business Central | Live through the Business Central API, budget writeback | Multi-company reporting | 2 to 3 days of training
Acterys | Business Central plus other sources, Power BI centric | Data loaded into its planning platform, presented in Power BI | Multi-source consolidation with audit trails | 1 to 2 weeks
Solver | Business Central plus other sources | Copied into Solver's cloud platform | Multi-source consolidation | 1 to 2 weeks with QuickStart templates
Binary Stream MEM | Business Central extension | Inside Business Central, no export | Intercompany automation and consolidated reporting across entities | Varies by scope, needs Business Central implementation expertise
Power BI | Any source | Scheduled refresh of a data model | Not a consolidation tool | 2 to 4 weeks, DAX and Power Query skills
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If you are a financial controller or finance manager running Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you know the challenge. Your ERP holds all the data you need, but getting it into Excel for analysis, consolidation and reporting takes more time than it should. Business Central's own export to Excel gives you a snapshot; the tools below give you a working connection. Whether you manage a single entity or consolidate across dozens of companies, there is a solution here for you.
Selecting the right reporting tool means understanding what finance teams need day to day. We evaluated each solution against the criteria that matter most when your CFO asks for numbers and the auditors are waiting.
Exsion Reporting connects your Business Central data directly to Excel through the API, so you build reports that refresh with a single click. No exports, no copied data, no version control headaches; you work with live numbers in the spreadsheet environment you already know. There is no data warehouse, no Azure SQL replica, no VM, no gateway and no Power BI licence involved.
What makes Exsion stand out is its focus on the 80% of daily reporting needs that enterprise BI platforms overcomplicate. Controllers create profit and loss statements, balance sheets and cash flow reports without writing code or waiting for IT. The tool inherits Business Central's user permissions, so your security model stays intact. Any table is available, including extension tables and flowfields, and 700,000 G/L Entry rows load in under five seconds.
For organizations running multiple Business Central companies, Exsion handles multi-company reporting directly in the workbook: tick the companies in the grid and the result gets a company column, across entities, currencies and environments. Groups that need intercompany eliminations and currency translation add Exsion Corporate; N+P Group reports across 45 entities this way, and AASK saved over 20 hours per month.
Exsion Reporting features
Pros
Cons
Jet Reports from insightsoftware connects Dynamics ERPs to Excel for financial reporting. The tool uses Excel formulas and includes a library of report templates that finance teams can customize. According to insightsoftware, users report saving hours weekly on automated management reports. The platform includes Reports Center for scheduling and distributing reports, so board packs can generate and email on a recurring cadence.
Jet Reports features
Pros
Cons
A detailed side-by-side is in Jet Reports alternative for Business Central: Exsion vs Jet.
Velixo positions itself as an Excel reporting and budgeting platform for Business Central with embedded AI. The tool connects to Business Central's API for live data access and includes Velixo Intelligence, which answers questions about your financial data within the spreadsheet. According to Velixo's documentation, the platform supports bidirectional data flow, allowing users to push budgets back to Business Central from Excel. The solution runs entirely in the Microsoft 365 environment, inheriting permissions from your existing Microsoft Entra ID setup. Velixo supports several ERPs and is particularly strong in construction.
Velixo features
Pros
Cons
Acterys approaches Business Central reporting from the Power BI direction, adding planning, budgeting and consolidation on top of Microsoft's visualization platform. The tool connects to Business Central and other data sources, then presents results through Power BI dashboards, with Excel serving as an input mechanism for planning data. According to Acterys, the platform automates data loading and validation during financial close. Organizations already invested in Power BI may find Acterys extends their dashboards with writeback and planning features.
Acterys features
Pros
Cons
Solver describes itself as an extended financial planning and analysis (xFP&A) platform that connects to Business Central and other data sources. The tool consolidates information into a single cloud environment, then provides Excel-based report and budget form design through its add-in. According to Solver, the platform includes QuickStart integration technology for faster implementation with ready-to-use reports.
Solver features
Pros
Cons
Binary Stream's Multi-Entity Management (MEM) focuses on organizations running many legal entities in Business Central. The tool centralizes financial processes, automates intercompany transactions and provides consolidated reporting across business units from within the ERP. According to Binary Stream, customers report significant cost savings from managing entities in a single implementation rather than separate systems. MEM operates as an extension embedded in Business Central rather than as a separate Excel tool.
Binary Stream MEM features
Pros
Cons
Power BI is Microsoft's visualization and analytics platform that connects to Business Central for dashboards and data exploration. It excels at visual presentations of financial data that can be shared across the organization. While Power BI includes Excel export capabilities, it is primarily designed for interactive dashboards rather than structured financial report generation. Many organizations use Power BI alongside a dedicated Excel reporting tool, with Power BI handling executive dashboards and Excel managing detailed financial statements; the Power BI or Excel comparison explains when to use which.
Power BI features
Pros
Cons
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Tool | Native Excel interface | One-click refresh | Training time
Exsion Reporting | Yes | Yes | 1 day
Jet Reports | Yes | Yes | 2 to 3 days
Velixo | Yes | Yes | 2 to 3 days
Acterys | No | Yes | 1 to 2 weeks
Solver | Yes | Yes | 1 to 2 weeks
Binary Stream MEM | No | No | Varies by scope
Power BI | No | No | 2 to 4 weeks
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The right tool depends on how your finance team works today and what is slowing you down. Start by identifying your biggest time drain: extracting data from Business Central, consolidating multiple companies, or formatting reports for different audiences?
For controllers who spend hours pulling exports and reconciling spreadsheets, a direct Excel connection with one-click refresh removes that bottleneck immediately. Exsion addresses this specific pain point without changing how you build reports, and the guide to choosing a Business Central Excel reporting tool gives you an evaluation checklist.
If you consolidate data across many entities, make sure the tool handles multi-company reporting natively. Some solutions require a separate connection per company and manual merging; others pull from multiple entities in a single query.
Month-end close involves pulling trial balances, running variance analyses, preparing financial statements and answering questions from management and auditors. Each task needs current data from Business Central, and the traditional approach means exporting, copying and reconciling at every step.
A connected Excel reporting tool changes this fundamentally. Exsion lets you refresh the entire reporting package with one click, pulling the latest posted transactions from G/L Entry (table 17), Cust. Ledger Entry (table 21) and Vendor Ledger Entry (table 25) into every workbook. When the CFO asks why a number changed, you refresh again and see the current state immediately.
The time savings compound across the close. Controllers who spent days on data gathering redirect that time to analysis; management gets answers faster, auditors get cleaner documentation, and the finance team finishes the close with fewer late nights.
Exsion delivers what Business Central finance teams need: live ERP data in Excel, refreshed instantly, with multi-company reporting built in. There is no data warehouse to maintain, no new interface to learn and no dependency on IT for routine report changes.
The tool focuses on the workflows controllers perform every day. Build your profit and loss statement once, then refresh it for any period with a single click. Combine data across your Business Central companies without copying between workbooks. Respond to management questions in real time instead of promising answers tomorrow.
With implementation measured in days rather than months and training completed in a single session, Exsion gets your finance team to productive reporting faster than alternatives that require extensive setup. Start the 30-day trial from the pricing page or reach out to the Exsion team to see how the tool works with your Business Central environment.
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What is the difference between Business Central's native reporting and Excel add-in tools? | Business Central includes built-in financial reports, but they are limited to two global dimensions and do not offer the flexibility finance teams need for custom analysis. Excel add-in tools like Exsion connect directly to your ERP data and let you build any report structure with familiar spreadsheet formulas, with the formatting control that auditors and executives expect.
Can I consolidate multiple Business Central companies in one Excel report? | Yes. Tools designed for multi-company reporting, including Exsion, pull data from multiple Business Central entities into a single workbook across companies, currencies and even separate environments. For eliminations and currency translation, Exsion Corporate adds full consolidation.
How long does it take to implement a Business Central Excel reporting tool? | It varies significantly by tool. Exsion installs from AppSource in about five minutes and typically has finance teams running production reports within days, while platforms that include data warehouses or extensive planning features may need weeks or months of setup.
Do I need IT support to build reports with these tools? | The best Excel reporting tools enable self-service. With Exsion, controllers build and modify reports independently using Excel skills they already have, without IT tickets for routine changes or consultants for every new analysis.
Which tool is right for organizations with basic reporting needs? | If your team primarily needs to pull Business Central data into Excel and refresh reports quickly, a focused tool like Exsion offers the fastest path to value. Enterprise planning platforms and full BI suites add capabilities you may not need, along with complexity that slows adoption.
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