In Power BI Desktop app and when we edit the report on Power BI workspace, page tab visible at bottom, but when we publish the report on to the Power BI Service then it is visible on left side. We can change the Tab Position in the Power BI web as well, to do that we can follow below steps. 1.Go to report setting 2.Enable the option of Pages Pane enable the button and save the changes. And when we open the report tabs will be visible at the bottom. Hope this helps!

Introduction: To modify the layouts you can remove the fields, tables, or change the position fields. There is an option to extend the Table and Page but to make changes in the existing report there is no extension yet but there is a way you can change the layout of the report. Steps to achieve the goal: Search for Report Layout selection. Select the Report ID which you want to modify. Go to Process ->Custom Layout.  Make a copy of the layout file to do that select new action it will ask you to insert RDLC or WORD according to it will create a file. Then go to layout action in Custom Layout Page->Export layout. Make changes in that file again. Import new modified layout using Import layout action. Make sure to update the layout. Import layout will only import your file you need to update as well. And then go to the Report layout selection page choose the selected layout of the report to be Custom Layout and select your modified report file in the Custom layout description. You can test your new report by Reports-> Run Report. Conclusion: Thus we saw how we can change the layout of existing reports using Report Layout Selection. Thank you very much for reading my work. Hope you enjoyed the blog!

Introduction: There are some needs where the client wants to add fields in the standard business central report. You cannot make changes in the Standard Business central report. We can change the layout of standard reports by using a custom layout that is present in Report Layout Selection. Steps to achieve the goal: 1. Go to Visual Studio Code -> Download the AL Object Designer Extension I want to modify Sales Credit Memo and I will make a copy of the standard report from the AL Object designer. Create a new report and paste the standard report code. Change the Report ID and Name and add a field that you want to be present in the Standard report. Build and Publish the code in business central. Go to Report layouts selection->Custom layouts download the original layout of the standard report and import it to the new report which you created -> Update Layout. Download the report layout from the new report. Change the layout according to your needs add the new fields which you want to be in the standard business central report. After adding the fields in the new report layout. Import the layout file and Update it. And use your customized report. Conclusion: Thus we saw how we can add fields in a standard business central report by using the AL Object Designer extension. Thank you very much for reading my work. Hope you enjoyed the article!

Introduction: There is a need where you want to replace your customized report with the standard business central report. In which the customized report is a copy of the standard report along with new fields added. So how can you avoid to show two reports with same caption one is your customized report other is standard Business central report. Steps to achieve the goal: In my example, I want to add a field in the Vendor Payment Receipt field. I copied the standard report code. Once you have updated the Layout and add the field publish the code you will be able to see two reports of Vendor Payment Receipt. So in order, that client doesn’t use the old report we can use the Report Management Codeunit. Publish the code and open the report you will be redirected to your Customized Report. Conclusion: Thus we saw how we can replace the Standard report with our own Customized Report using the Report Management Codeunit. Thank you very much for reading my work. Hope you enjoyed the article!

In this post, I will talk about the importance of the Cash Position Report for any Professional Services Organization.  The Cash Position is your current and forecasted ‘Cash in Hand’. The importance of having Cash in your bank account cannot be emphasized enough. It is important to understand the difference between Cash Flow and Cash in Hand as they are not the same. An organization can have a solid cash flow (which is revenue tied up in Receivables), but without money in the bank, it cannot operate. Let me go into this further as it’s the foundation of our conversation here.  For any Professional Services organization, anywhere from 60 to 80% of the Monthly expenses are tied to Employee salaries. Paying salaries on time, every month is key to the organization’s credibility. Salaries need to happen on time, month after month, irrespective of your cash flow. They require cash on hand. In addition, any business planning, from HR Activities (a team lunch, an offsite meet) to Investing in the organization’s growth (new areas of business, developing expertise) also requires cash on hand.  One more topic that I need to mention is the current pandemic. Many Projects are delayed, cancelled or on hold. From a business standpoint, this kind of unforeseen event can put a tremendous strain on its ability to continue operations. But while the current pandemic is an extreme scenario, businesses constantly face challenges as we operate on a global level (2004 Tsunami, 2008 Financial Meltdown are some recently examples). Cash on Hand can mean the difference between survival and going out of business.  So we see that Cash on Hand is a Key Metric and hence should be reviewed regularly, ideally during a scheduled Management meeting on a recurring basis. At CloudFronts, we do this review every Monday morning. Our two and a half hour Monday morning Management meetings are literally run by numbers. Some of the Key Reports we review are Project Overview Report, Team Billable & Non-Billable Allocation Report, Support Metrics, Sales Pipeline, Outstanding Accounts Receivable Report, Forecasted AR Report, Cash Position Report. Each one of these is a PowerBI Report embedded into our Microsoft Teams Leadership Team Group.  So what is the Cash Position Report? I will start with a simple equation and then delve into the details –   Cash Position = Cash + AR – AP + Projected AR Now let’s walk through each of the Items in there and how we get that data – Cash on Hand – This is what is in your Bank Account when you run this Report (our report is updated every Monday morning before our weekly Management Meeting). We manually enter this data into the Report.  AR – AR is your Accounts Receivable which includes all Customer Invoices that are due this month and have not yet been paid. This includes overdue invoices carried forward from the previous month as well. If an Invoice is Paid, then it goes into Cash on Hand. Our AR data comes from Dynamics 365 PSA Contract Invoicing Schedule for both Fixed Bid and Time & Materials Projects. Our Contract Invoicing Schedule is the Single source of truth for all our Project Services Invoicing.  AP – AP is all Payables this month, including Salaries. It comes from our Accounting System which is currently QuickBooks Online.  Projected AR – Projected Accounts Receivable are any Invoices that we will generate this month and that will be due this month. This data also becomes from our Contract Invoicing Schedule. For Fixed Bid, this is based on the Contract Billing Milestones and for Time & Materials, this data comes from the Team Member Allocations.  At the top of the Report, you will see that the report is month wise. Hence as you move into the future months, you have less visibility into AR data, but rely on your Projected AR data. As you move into a month, the Projected AR starts becoming AR, which then becomes cash on hand and typically by the end of the month, Projected AR should be zero.  This Report gives the Management Team a clear visibility of the company’s Cash Position over a period of time. For us, we are looking at six months into the future, but organizations can easily set this up for longer periods. By reviewing it regularly, in a scheduled meeting, you ensure there are no surprises and you have time to react well in advance.  The benefits of such a report are further amplified when you consider its impact on our behaviour. During the pandemic, our No.1 priority has been to ensure we are a stable organization with the ability to operate through this pandemic. This report can give you that stability and allow you to stay productive and impact your team with a positive state of mind.  If you are keen on understanding more about our Internal Systems that keep us running and growing, our Internal Systems page is a wonderful resource – https://www.cloudfronts.com/our-internal-systems/ CloudFronts is one of the leading Microsoft Partners globally on implementing Professional Services Automation on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Platform. You can reach me on LinkedIn for any questions/queries or email me at ashah@cloudfronts.com

Introduction: There are plenty of different custom visuals available outside of Power BI that can be used by anyone to develop some powerful visuals for free. These visuals can be downloaded from the Power BI AppSource marketplace and added in your reports. All of these visuals have also be approved by Microsoft. Steps to Download a Custom Visual: Following are the steps to download and use a Power BI Custom Visual in Power BI Desktop: Open the AppSource and select Power BI Visuals For this demonstration, I will be downloading the Dial Gauge which is a custom visual developed by CloudFronts Select on Get it now(You will have to log in with your Microsoft email id) . A pbiviz file will be downloaded. Open your Power BI Desktop and select on the ellipses in Visualizations. Click on import from file and open the pbiviz file you just downloaded. The visual should be visible with your other visuals now To get a little more familiar with the report, you can download the sample report available with the visual on AppSource. This will download a pbix report. The sample report would look something like this. I hope this blog helps you get started with Power BI Custom Visuals. Do check out our Custom Visual DialGauge as well!

Problem: There is no in-built function in SSRS where we can count the number of Saturdays and Sundays between any two dates in SSRS. This is a needed function for scenarios where we only need to get a count of working days.’ Solution: Following is a formula that can be used for getting an accurate count of weekends. = (((DateDiff (DateInterval.Day, DateAdd(DateInterval.Day,7-WeekDay(Parameters!startDate.Value),Parameters!startDate.Value), DateAdd(DateInterval.Day,7-WeekDay(Parameters!endDate.Value),Parameters!endDate.Value).AddDays(1)) + 1)/ 7)*2) + iif(weekday(Parameters!endDate.Value)=7,1,0) + iif(weekday(Parameters!startDate.Value)=1,1,0) -1 Here instead of Parameters!startDate.Value and Parameters!endDate.Value, you can use any other Start Date or End Date.

Issue: If you are trying to preview a FetchXML report in SSRS and you are a facing an issue due to a Sign-In Failure, then the reason for that most probable is due to the reason that you are trying to connect to CRM v9. When we try to connect to a v9 environment using report authoring extensions, the connection fails without any proper error and loops back to organization selection screen or login screen. If you would try to preview the same report in a v8.x environment then you would be able to preview it successfully. Reason: The main reason for this issue is that v9 only uses Transport Layer Security(TLS) 1.2 and TLS 1.0 & 1.1 connections whereas the previous CRM versions still support all TLS connections. Solution: The first solution would be to update your Business Intelligence Development Studio(BIDS) to the latest version. Please use the link below:  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=56973 The second solution is to make a few changes in your regedit For systems running on .NET Framework 3.5 on x64-based systems: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\v2.0.50727 Create a DWORD key Name: SchUseStrongCrypto Value: 1 For systems running on .NET Framework 4.5 or later on x64-based systems: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework\ v4.0.30319 Create a DWORD key Name: SchUseStrongCrypto Value: 1 Restart your PC Note: Please take a backup of your regedit before editing it. Regedit used incorrectly can cause serious problems in your operating system. For x32-based systems do not add the \Wow6432Node in the HKEY paths mentioned. Your Report should preview fine now!

Introduction: In this blog we will explore some of the new features added to Power BI. Power BI has upgraded its Q&A Experience in its latest April release. It has simplified and simultaneously improved the natural language recognition process which is one of Power BI’s most powerful tools for Query Processing! Some of Q&A Explorers cool new Features: You can now add a simple image, shape or button which on being click can launch a Q&A Explorer! You just need to toggle the Q&A option on under Action for the particular image/shape/button. Adding a Q&A button can look something like this. On clicking on this newly created Q&A Explorer a dialog appears where the user can ask questions to generate dynamic visuals. To learn more about this feature you can view my previous blog on Natural Language Processing over here. You can add suggested questions which will show on the left side of the dialog when a user clicks on the Q&A button. When you click on Save and close these newly added Suggested Questions will get saved to this specific Q&A button. The Q&A Explorer can also return whole reports now when you search specific keywords. You can do this by going to a particular report and turning it’s Q&A Feature on in Page Information. Searching these keywords in the Q&A Explorer will return this particular report. Optionally, if you have page level filters then you can set Require single selection On for a particular filter. This filter will then be shown in the Dialog while searching for the queried report. Conclusion: These are some of the latest features added to Power BI’s arsenal. Q&A Explorer is an underused tool but if used correctly it can improve your interactive experience with your reports tremendously.

Introduction: Azure Machine Learning Studio is an amazing tool that lets us create efficient ML experiments with simple drag and drop features. We can predict anything from Flight Predictions to Churn Analysis. But what if we want to represent this predicted data a more visually appealing format? Well it is possible to do this by representing your predictions on Power BI! Pre-Requisites: Basic Understanding of Azure Machine Learning Studio. Basic Understanding of Power BI. A Blob Container created on Azure Storage.   Steps: Create your Azure Machine Learning Experiment on Azure Machine Learning Studio. Convert your Training Experiment to a Predictive Experiment and Deploy it as a Web Service. We will create a Console application in Visual Studio and copy paste the code inside Batch Execution. For automation we can create automated data pipelines but for now we will just use a simple Console application. Remove the existing code from the Console Application and copy paste the Batch Execution code. Install the necessary Nuget Packages and also update the following parameters. – BaseURL will be the same. – Storage Account Name, Storage Account Key and Storage Container Name will be parameters that can be found in your Azure Blob Storage which was created. – Api Key can be found in the Web Experiment Page in Azure Machine Learning Studio. – The input path is the path where you have saved your input csvfile for Batch Execution. Your Input csv file should have all the features which you have used to train your experiment After you run your Console application a new output1results.csv file should get generated in your Blob Container. The output results should include the labels which your experiment generates in it’s output. It should include the Scored Labels and Scored Probabilities labels as well. Now you can get your data using Azure Blob Storage as your source in Power BI and use the columns in the output1result.csv file to generate your ML Predicted Reports. The Report can look something like this. I hope this blog helps you to combine Azure Machine Learning Studio and Power BI to create a powerful predictive solution.