A look at Dynamics 365 ERP and ERP Analytics MCP Servers

-
Image
MCP Servers Arrive in Preview for Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Recently, Microsoft has introduced MCP servers in preview for Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain, marking a significant leap in the ERP ecosystem. This new capability means that organizations using Dynamics 365 can now leverage MCP servers to supercharge their interactions and analytics—all while maintaining the compliance and security standards expected from a modern cloud service. What Is an MCP Server? An MCP server is a specialized, cloud-managed platform designed to handle advanced analytics workloads for enterprise applications. By offloading data processing and analytical computations from the core operational databases, MCP servers enable faster, scalable, and more secure reporting and analysis. These servers are optimized for handling large datasets, real-time queries, and complex analytics scenarios, providing organizations with the agility to adapt to dynamic business needs. You can learn more abo...
Post a Comment

An easy way to create backgrounds for Power BI

-


Trying to make your Power BI reports look nice can sometimes be a struggle. 

  • Do you put a box around a visual? 
  • What about shading in the background? 
  • Maybe you want a header or some lines to break up the page. 

Well you can certainly create boxes, lines and shading all within Power BI, but they become objects that people might click on and they are hard to line up and keep from moving, so there must be a better way.

One feature in Power BI is the support for background images. When I first saw this option, I thought it was more for putting a watermark behind the report. However once I did some research and played with it, I discovered that I could really use it to create a great page layout. Now first thing to keep in mind, I am an accountant and not a graphic designer, so I need an easy way to create.the.backgrounds.

That is where another Power product comes in. No not PowerApps, but PowerPoint. Wait, PowerPoint is for creating slide shows, not graphics. What you may or may not know is any graphics on a slide can be saved as a picture. Lets take a look at how i create my backgrounds.

  1. Create a blank slide in PowerPoint.
  2. Create on box covering the entire slide. This becomes the base of the background.
  3. Set the line size and color on this box and add any shading if you want your entire Power BI report to have a colored background. 
  4. Add other boxes or shapes as place holders for your different visuals. For example, you may add a rectangle across the top for slicer, and for equal squares for the four charts you will have on the report. The number of shapes and sizes will vary depending on how your plan to layout your report. 
  5. Use PowerPoint'
    s functions for aligning and sizing the shapes. This way you can make sure everything is visually appealing.
  6. Once all of the boxes and shapes are created and laid out they way you want them, select all of the objects including the initial base box. Right click and choose to group all of the objects. 
  7. Select the grouped object and right click, choose save as picture. This will save the background you can use in Power BI desktop.  
  8. Go to your report in Power BI desktop. Under page background in the page format area, turn on page background and choose to being in the picture you saved in step 7. Make sure to choose Fit.


At this point you have your page background in place. Simply add your visualizations.

I hope you enjoy this tip. I have uploaded a few samples to OneDrive. They include both the sample backgrounds and the PowerPoint file so you can change colors and make other adjustments.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using Full Page Apps in Dynamics 365 Finance

-
Image
Have you ever wanted to put a website or a model-driven Power App in one of your existing Dynamics 365 Finance workspaces or forms?  You might already know you can create a new workspace with a website, but did you know you can add the website to an existing workspace? Here is an example of the Vendor invoice entry workspace with the Invoice Capture Power App embedded. Prior to using this feature, you need to turn on "Saved views support for workspaces" in feature management. Once this feature is enabled you can follow the following steps to add the Invoice Capture app or any model-driven Power App or website to an existing workspace. Open the vendor invoice entry workspace From Options - choose Personalize this page From personalize menu - select the 3 dots - and then Add an app Once that is selected (the screen goes gray) - click on the section header where you want to add the app (in my example I put it in Links) On the Add an app menu - choose Website Give it a name (my e...
Read more

RPA with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain

-
Image
Are you looking for ways to automate some of your routine accounting functions, like reconciling sub ledgers to the general ledger?   Microsoft has recently created some examples using Power Automate Desktop (think of it like Task Recording on steroids). It can not only automate steps through Dynamics 365, but it can also automate Excel and other applications. In one example from Microsoft they automate the AR to GL reconciliation: Automatic running of the AR aging and the customer/ledger reconciliation reports. Power Automate then extracts data from both reports in Excel and compares the balances. Power Automate then posts a Team message letting you know the subledger is in balance. Power Automate saves the reports with the date in the file name, so there is backup. Microsoft Directions & Example   I working with the example, I needed to make a couple of adjustments to the sample flow that was provided but I was able to get it to work. Here is a video of the flow r...
Read more

Copilot Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply

-
Image
Microsoft has recently released two Copilot applications to work with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain. These solutions are still in preview, so it should only be uses in sandbox environments to evaluate and learn how they will work with your organization. Prior to installing it is important to make sure your environment meets the requirements. Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain requires the latest hotfix on Dynamics 365 Finance version 10.0.34 (10.0.1591.107) and version 10.0.35 (10.0.1627.70) and later. In addition, the solutions rely on the Power Platform and Dataverse, so it is important to have the environments connected and user security set appropriately. For more details on the prerequisites and the installation instructions you can follow the Microsoft installation documents. Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Let's look at what these two copilots provide to users Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance C...
Read more