If you're a financial controller or finance manager running Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you already 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. Exsion365 makes this connection direct and instant, giving finance teams the real-time Business Central Excel reporting they need.
This guide breaks down seven tools that connect Business Central to Excel for financial reporting. You'll learn what each tool does well, where it fits, and which one gives you the fastest path from raw ERP data to polished financial reports. Whether you manage a single entity or consolidate across dozens of companies, there's a solution here for you.
Selecting the right reporting tool means understanding what finance teams actually need day to day. We evaluated each solution against criteria that matter most when your CFO asks for numbers and the auditors are waiting.
Exsion365 connects your Business Central data directly to Excel, letting you build reports that refresh with a single click. This is the reporting experience finance professionals have been asking for: no exports, no copied data, no version control headaches. You work with live numbers in the spreadsheet environment you already know.
What makes Exsion365 stand out is its focus on the 80% of daily reporting needs that enterprise BI platforms overcomplicate. Financial controllers can create profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow reports without writing code or waiting for IT. The tool respects Business Central's user permissions, so your security model stays intact.
For organizations running multiple Business Central companies, Exsion365 handles consolidation directly in your workbook. Pull data from different entities, currencies, and environments into a single report. When month-end close arrives, you're not scrambling to merge spreadsheets from different sources.
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Jet Reports from insightsoftware connects Dynamics ERPs to Excel for financial reporting. The tool uses familiar 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 automatically. Finance directors can set board packs to generate and email on a recurring cadence without manual intervention.
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Velixo positions itself as an Excel reporting and budgeting platform for Business Central with embedded AI capabilities. The tool connects to Business Central's API for live data access and includes a feature called Velixo Intelligence that 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.
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Acterys approaches Business Central reporting from the Power BI direction, adding planning, budgeting, and consolidation capabilities 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 processes.
Organizations already invested in Power BI may find Acterys extends their existing dashboards with writeback and planning features.
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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.
Finance teams design reports in Solver's Excel add-in, with the cloud platform handling data consolidation and storage.
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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 all business units from within the ERP environment. 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 directly in Business Central rather than as a separate Excel tool.
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Power BI is Microsoft's visualization and analytics platform that connects to Business Central for dashboard creation and data exploration. The tool excels at creating visual presentations of financial data that can be shared across the organization. While Power BI includes Excel export capabilities, it's primarily designed for interactive dashboards rather than structured financial report generation.
Many organizations use Power BI alongside dedicated Excel reporting tools, with Power BI handling executive dashboards and Excel managing detailed financial statements.
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| Tool | Native Excel Interface | One-Click Refresh | Training Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exsion365 | ✓ | ✓ | 1 day |
| Jet Reports | ✓ | ✓ | 2-3 days |
| Velixo | ✓ | ✓ | 2-3 days |
| Acterys | ✗ | ✓ | 1-2 weeks |
| Solver | ✓ | ✓ | 1-2 weeks |
| Binary Stream MEM | ✗ | ✗ | Varies by scope |
| Power BI | ✗ | ✗ | 2-4 weeks |
The right reporting tool depends on how your finance team works today and what's slowing you down. Start by identifying your biggest time drain: Is it extracting data from Business Central? Consolidating multiple companies? Formatting reports for different audiences?
For controllers who spend hours pulling exports and reconciling spreadsheets, a direct Excel connection with one-click refresh eliminates that bottleneck immediately. Tools like Exsion365 address this specific pain point without requiring you to change how you build reports.
If you're consolidating data across many entities, make sure your chosen tool handles multi-company reporting natively. Some solutions require you to build separate connections for each company and manually combine the results. Others pull from multiple entities in a single formula.
Month-end close typically involves pulling trial balances, running variance analyses, preparing financial statements, and answering questions from management and auditors. Each of these tasks requires current data from Business Central, and the traditional approach means exporting, copying, and reconciling at every step.
A connected Excel reporting tool changes this workflow fundamentally. Exsion365 lets you refresh your entire reporting package with one click, pulling the latest posted transactions into every workbook. When the CFO asks why a number changed, you click refresh again and see the current state immediately.
The time savings compound across the close cycle. Controllers who previously spent days on data gathering can redirect that time to analysis and strategic insights. Management gets answers faster, auditors get cleaner documentation, and the finance team finishes the close with fewer late nights.
Exsion365 delivers exactly what Business Central finance teams need: live ERP data in Excel, refreshed instantly, with multi-company consolidation built in. There's no data warehouse to maintain, no new interface to learn, and no dependency on IT for routine report changes.
The tool focuses on the reporting workflows controllers actually perform every day. Build your profit and loss statement once, then refresh it for any period with a single click. Consolidate 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, Exsion365 gets your finance team to productive reporting faster than alternatives that require extensive setup. When you're ready to stop wrestling with data exports and start analyzing your business, reach out to the Exsion365 team to see how the tool works with your Business Central environment.
Business Central includes built-in financial reports, but they're limited to two global dimensions and don't offer the flexibility finance teams need for custom analysis. Excel add-in tools like Exsion365 connect directly to your ERP data and let you build any report structure using familiar spreadsheet formulas. You get real-time data with the formatting control that auditors and executives expect.
Yes. Tools designed for multi-company reporting, including Exsion365, let you pull data from multiple Business Central entities into a single workbook. You can report across different companies, currencies, and even separate environments without maintaining duplicate formulas or manually merging spreadsheets.
Implementation time varies significantly by tool. Exsion365 typically gets finance teams running production reports within days, since the Excel-native interface requires minimal training. More complex platforms that include data warehouses or extensive planning features may require weeks or months of setup and configuration.
The best Excel reporting tools enable self-service report creation. With Exsion365, financial controllers build and modify reports independently using Excel skills they already have. You don't need to submit IT tickets for routine changes or hire consultants every time management requests a new analysis.
If your finance team primarily needs to pull Business Central data into Excel and refresh reports quickly, a focused tool like Exsion365 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. Match the tool to your actual workflows rather than buying features you won't use.