Traditional business intelligence platforms have historically focused on visualization-charts, KPIs, and trend lines that describe what has already happened. Power BI excels at this, enabling users to explore data interactively and monitor performance at scale. However, modern business users expect more than visuals. They need clarity, reasoning, and guidance on what actions to take next. This marks the shift from dashboards toward true decision intelligence. Business Challenges Most organizations face a similar challenge. Dashboards answer what happened but rarely explain why it happened. Business users depend on analysts to interpret insights, which slows down decision-making and creates bottlenecks. At the same time, data is fragmented across CRM systems, ERP platforms, project tools, and external APIs. Bringing this data together is difficult, and forming a single, trusted view becomes increasingly complex as data volumes grow. Why Visualization Alone Is Not Enough Even with powerful visualization tools, interpretation remains manual. KPIs lack business context, anomalies are not automatically explained, and insights rely heavily on tribal knowledge. This creates a gap between data availability and decision confidence. Introducing Agent Bricks Agent Bricks is introduced to close this gap. It acts as an AI orchestration and reasoning layer that consumes curated analytical data and applies large language model-based reasoning. Instead of presenting raw numbers, Agent Bricks generates contextual insights, explanations, and recommendations aligned to business scenarios. Importantly, it enhances Power BI rather than replacing it. High-Level Architecture From an architecture standpoint, data flows from enterprise systems such as CRM, ERP, project management tools, and APIs. Azure Logic Apps manage ingestion, Azure Databricks handles analytics and modeling, Agent Bricks performs AI reasoning, and Power BI remains the consumption layer. To conclude, dashboards remain a critical foundation for analytics, but they are no longer enough to support modern decision-making. As data complexity and business expectations grow, organizations need systems that can interpret data, explain outcomes, and guide actions. Agent Bricks enables this shift by introducing AI-driven reasoning on top of existing Power BI investments. By bridging the gap between analytics and decision-making, it helps organizations move from passive reporting to proactive, insight-led execution. This marks the first step in the evolution from dashboards to true decision intelligence. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

In an ideal Dynamics 365 (Dataverse) project, plugin source code lives safely in a version-controlled repository, flows cleanly through Azure DevOps pipelines, and is always recoverable. In reality, many of us inherit environments where that discipline didn’t exist. I recently worked with a customer where: This created a common but uncomfortable challenge in the Dynamics 365 world:How do you maintain, debug, or enhance plugins when the source code is lost? Rewriting everything from scratch was risky and time-consuming. Guessing behavior based on runtime results wasn’t reliable. Fortunately, Dynamics 365 and the .NET ecosystem give us a practical and effective alternative. Using XrmToolBox and JetBrains dotPeek, it is possible to recover readable C# plugin code directly from the deployed assembly. (Though the C# Class code recovered won’t be 100% exact, as the variable names would be different and generic; it is only suitable for close logic, structure & functional recovery) The Practical Solution The approach consists of two main steps: This does not magically restore comments or original formatting, but it does give a working, understandable code that closely reflects the original plugin logic. Tools Used Step 1: Extract the Plugin Assembly from Dataverse 1. Connect to the Environment 2. Load the Assembly Recovery Tool 3. Download the DLL At this point, you have successfully recovered the compiled plugin assembly exactly as it exists in the environment. Step 2: Decompile the DLL Using JetBrains dotPeek 1. Open dotPeek 2. Explore the Decompiled Code dotPeek will: One can now browse through: This is usually more than enough to understand how the plugin works. 3. Export to a Visual Studio Project (Optional but Recommended) One of dotPeek’s most powerful features is Export to Project: This gives you a proper .csproj with class files that you can open, build, and extend. Possibilities with the Recovered Code Once you have the decompiled C# code, several options open up: 1. Rebuild the Plugin Assembly 2. Re-register the Plugin 3. Maintain or Enhance Functionality Important Considerations Key Takeaway Losing plugin source code does not mean losing control of your Dynamics 365 solution. With XrmToolBox’s Assembly Recovery Tool and JetBrains dotPeek, you can: There are chances while working in Dynamics 365 technologies, that a developer might face this situation. Knowing this technique can save days-or weeks-of effort and give your customer confidence that their system remains fully supportable. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

Dynamics 365 model-driven apps are excellent at storing business data, but not every piece of information belongs in Dataverse. A common design folly is using Dataverse fields to store temporary UI state-things like selected views, filters, or user navigation preferences. While this works technically, it introduces unnecessary performance overhead and can create incorrect behavior in multi-user environments. In this blog, I’ll focus on browser-level retention of CRM UI data using “sessionStorage“, using subgrid view retention as a practical example for a technology consulting and cybersecurity services firm based in Houston, Texas, USA, specializing in modern digital transformation and enterprise security solutions. The Real Problem: UI State vs Business Data Let’s separate concerns clearly: Type Example Where it should live Business data Status, owner, amounts Dataverse UI state Selected view, filter, scroll position Browser Subgrid views fall squarely into the UI state category. Scenario: Subgrid View Resetting on Navigation Users reported the following behavior: This breaks user workflow, especially for records that users revisit frequently. Possible Solution: Persisting UI State in Dataverse (Original Approach) This would attempt to fix it by storing the selected subgrid view GUID in a Dataverse field on the parent record. How It Works Why this might look reasonable The Hidden Problems 1] Slower Form Execution 2] Data Model Pollution 3] Incorrect Multi-User Behavior 4] Scalability Issues In short, Dataverse was doing work it should never have been asked to do. Workaround to this Approach: Keep UI State in the Browser for that session, But practically: The selected subgrid view belongs to the user’s session, not the record. Once that boundary is respected, the solution becomes much cleaner. Practical Solution: Browser Session Storage (Improved Approach) Instead of persisting view selection in Dataverse, we store it locally in the browser using sessionStorage. sessionStorage is part of the Web Storage API, which provides a way to store key-value pairs in a web browser. Unlike localStorage, which persists data even after the browser is closed, sessionStorage is designed to store data only for the duration of a single session. This means that the data is available as long as the tab or window is open, and it is cleared when the tab or window is closed. Why Session Storage? How the Improved Solution Works 1. Store the View Locally on Subgrid Change 2. Restore the View on Form/Grid Load This ensures that when the user revisits the form, the subgrid opens exactly where they left off. Why This Approach Is Superior 1] Faster Execution 2] Correct User Experience 3] Clean Architecture 4] Zero Backend Impact When to Use Browser-Level Retention Use this pattern when: Examples: To conclude, not all data deserves to live in Dataverse. When you store UI state in the browser instead of the database, you gain: Subgrid view retention is just one example-but the principle applies broadly across Dynamics 365 customizations. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

Business Central is its ability to integrate with other systems through APIs, allowing developers to retrieve and manipulate data programmatically. However, when dealing with large datasets or complex queries, retrieving only the relevant information efficiently becomes crucial. This is where API filtering comes in, and source table views can play a vital role in optimizing these operations. In this blog, we’ll explore how to implement API filtering using source table views within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. We’ll cover the benefits, best practices, and a step-by-step guide to making the most out of your API integrations. We’ll take one example, instead of fetching all sales orders, you might want to retrieve only those created within the last month or orders from a specific customer. Business Central APIs allow you to apply filters using OData queries, but in more complex scenarios, leveraging source table views can simplify the process and improve performance. What Are Source Table Views in Business Central? In Business Central, source table views are virtual tables created from SQL queries that extract and present data from one or more underlying tables. Views allow you to define complex data relationships and filters at the database level, which can then be consumed by your APIs. Advantage using Source Table View First, we have to create custom API using AL in Visual Studio Code Steps to achieve the goal: Using SourceTableView helps you to filter the data in your API itself without using filter work in your postman. Create an API page and added Source table View property where I have added filters only Sales order and Approved Orders data should be shown whenever this API is used. To conclude, API filtering using source table views in Business Central is a powerful way to optimize data retrieval and improve the performance of your integrations. By centralizing your filtering logic within the database, you can reduce the complexity of your APIs, improve security, and ensure consistent data access across your applications. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

In complex business processes, like calculating commissions or validating data across multiple records, applying the same logic repeatedly in a Power Automate flow can quickly become inefficient and difficult to maintain. A more scalable approach is to encapsulate the logic in a Dataverse plugin, expose it as a bound action, and then call this action from a flow. This method centralizes business rules, reduces redundancy, and improves maintainability. In this post, we’ll walk through the steps to implement this approach and examine its advantages over applying the same logic directly within a flow for each individual record. We’ll illustrate this with a practical example from a Houston-based technology consulting and cybersecurity services firm that specializes in modern digital transformation and enterprise security solutions. Flow Diagram Step 1: Create the PluginThe first step is to write a plugin that contains the logic you want to apply to each record. Example: DuplicateCommissionsCounter Step 2: Expose the Plugin as a Bound ActionInstead of running plugin logic manually for each record, you can register it as a bound action in Dataverse. Procedure: E.g. 2. Attach your plugin to this action. Outcome: This exposes your plugin logic as a reusable, callable bound action. Any process or flow can now invoke it for a specific invoice record. Step 3: Use Power Automate to Call the Bound ActionOnce the plugin is exposed, you can loop through multiple records in a flow and call the action. Procedure in Power Automate: This approach ensures that all complex logic resides in the plugin, while the flow orchestrates which records need processing. Advantages Over Logic Directly in the Flow To conclude, exposing plugins as bound actions is a robust, maintainable way to apply complex logic across multiple records in Dataverse. It allows Power Automate flows to focus on orchestration rather than logic execution, leading to cleaner, faster, and easier-to-manage solutions. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

Managing secure operations in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (D365FO) is crucial for enterprise-level environments. While working in a Dev environment, I recently encountered an issue while posting the packing slip for a Sales Order. After troubleshooting, I identified the problem was related to expired SSL certificates in a cloud-hosted environment. SSL certificates in D365FO environments remain valid for one year. To maintain security and avoid disruptions, it’s necessary to renew these certificates regularly-a process called credential rotation, managed via the Lifecycle Services (LCS) portal. In this blog, I’ll guide you step-by-step on how to resolve this issue through SSL certificate rotation. Why SSL Certificate Rotation is Important When deploying Dynamics 365 Finance Operations as a cloud-hosted environment, SSL certificates are used to encrypt data and ensure secure communication between servers. Expired certificates can disrupt functionality. Regular rotation of credentials is a best practice to maintain smooth operations and robust cybersecurity. Step-by-Step Process to Rotate SSL Certificates in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations Here’s how you can resolve the issue and renew SSL certificates in your environment: Step 1: Log into the LCS Environment Step 2: Navigate to the Implementation Project Step 3: Initiate Credential Rotation Step 4: Rotate SSL Secrets Certificates Step 5: Wait for the Process to Complete Step 6: Verify the Deployment Status To conclude, regularly rotating SSL certificates not only resolves operational issues but also ensures compliance with enterprise-level cybersecurity practices. By following the above steps, you can maintain the security and functionality of your Dynamics 365 Finance Operations cloud-hosted environments. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

A job queue lets users set up and manage background tasks that run automatically. These tasks can be scheduled to run on a recurring schedule. For a long time, users had a common problem in Business Central when a job queue failed, there was no alert or warning. You’d only notice something was wrong when a regular task didn’t run for a few days. Some people tried to fix this by setting up another job queue to watch and restart failed ones.But that didn’t always work, especially if an update happened at the same time. Now, Microsoft has finally added a built-in way to get alerts when a job queue fails. You can get notified either inside Business Central or by using Business Events. In this blog, we’ll see the process of leveraging the Business Events to set up notifications on job queue statuses. Configuration Search for “Assisted Setup” in Business Central’s global search. Scroll down till “Set up Job Queue notifications”. Click on Next. Add the additional users who need to be notified when the job queue fails along with the job creator (if required). Choose whether you want the notification to be in-product or using Business Events (and Power Automate). I’m choosing Business Events this time and then Next. Click on Finish. Then search for Job Queue Entries and from that list page open the Job Queue Entry card. If you are using Power Automate for the first time, then it will ask you for your consent. As an Administrator, if you want to give the consent for all of the Users at once or revoke the consent for all the Users then you can do so via the Privacy Notice statuses page. Then, go back to the Job Queue Entry card and click on Power Automate again.This time, you’ll get the option to create an automated flow. In the pop up screen, you’ll get the template for a job queue entry failure notification flow. Once you click on it, it’ll ask you to sign into Business Central as well as the outlook account that’ll be used to send the emails (if different from the current user). In the next screen, you can add additional users that need to be copied on the notifications. Click on “Create Flow” and you are done! Ideally, the setup should have worked at this point—but it didn’t. After some digging, I found out that the Power Automate flow was missing some key pieces. One of the actions didn’t have the environment configured, and another action (GetUrlV3) isn’t even available in the current (v25) version of Business Central. I came across two forum thread (1) (2) about this issue, but they had no clear solution. So, as a workaround, I created a Web Service based on the Job Queue Entries Log page and used the GetRecord action in Power Automate to fetch the required data. It wasn’t too hard for me since I knew what to look for; but for a new user, this would’ve been very confusing. Also, I noticed something odd: the action that picks the email address of the person to notify was pulling it from the Contact Email field on the User Card, instead of using User Setup, which would’ve made more sense. Anyway, after all that, here’s what the final solution looks like! To conclude, setting up job queue failure alerts with Business Events is a helpful new feature in Business Central. It lets you know when background tasks fail, so you don’t have to keep checking them manually. But as we saw, the setup doesn’t always work perfectly. Some parts were missing, and a few things didn’t make sense like where it pulls the email from. If you’re familiar with Power Automate, you can fix these issues with a few extra steps. For someone new, though, it might be a bit confusing. Hopefully, Microsoft will improve the setup in future updates. Until then, this blog should help you get the alerts working without too much trouble. If you need further assistance or have specific questions about your ERP setup, feel free to reach out for personalized guidance. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfonts.com.

When you run a project-based business-like in construction, IT, consulting, or engineering-how you charge your customers matters just as much as what you deliver. If you’re using Dynamics 365 Project Operations, you’ll need to decide how to bill your projects. Microsoft gives you three main contract types: Let’s break down what each of these means, when to use them, and how Dynamics 365 helps manage them. 1. Fixed Price – One Total Amount What is it? The customer pays a fixed amount for the full project or part of it, no matter how many hours or resources you actually use. When to use: What Dynamics 365 helps you do: Be careful:  Think of this like constructing a house for a fixed price. You get paid in stages, not by the number of hours worked. 2. Time & Material – Pay as You Go What is it? The customer pays based on the hours your team works and the cost of materials used. When to use: What Dynamics 365 helps you do: Be careful: This is like a taxi ride-you pay based on how far you go and how long it takes. 3. Milestone Billing – Pay for Key Deliverables What is it? You agree on certain key points (milestones) in the project. When those are completed, the customer is billed. When to use: What Dynamics 365 helps you do: Be careful:  It’s like paying an architect after each part of a building design is done—not for every hour they work. To conclude, choosing the right contract type helps you: When your billing matches your work style, profits become more predictable—and projects run smoother. Need Help Deciding? If you’re not sure which billing model is best for your business-or how to set it up in Dynamics 365 Project Operations-we’re here to help. Feel free to reach out. You can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com.  Let’s find the right setup for your success.

For growing businesses, while Power BI solutions are critical, development efficiency becomes equally important-without breaking the budget. As organizations scale their BI implementations, the need for advanced, free development tools increases, making smart tool selection essential to maintaining a competitive advantage Tool #1: DAX Studio – Your Free DAX Development Powerhouse What Makes DAX Studio Essential DAX Studio is one of the most critical free tools in any Power BI developer’s arsenal. It provides advanced DAX development and performance analysis capabilities that Power BI Desktop simply cannot match. Scenarios & Use Cases For a global oil & gas solutions provider with a presence in six countries, we used DAX Studio to analyze model size, reduce memory consumption, and optimize large datasets—preventing refresh failures in the Power BI Service. Tool #2: Tabular Editor 2 (Community Edition) – Free Model Management Tabular Editor 2 Community Edition provides model development capabilities that would cost thousands of dollars in other platforms-completely free. Key Use Cases We used Tabular Editor daily to efficiently manage measures, hide unused columns, standardize naming conventions, and apply best-practice model improvements across large datasets. This avoided repetitive manual work in Power BI Desktop for one of Europe’s largest laboratory equipment manufacturers. Tool #3: Power BI Helper (Community Edition) – Free Quality Analysis Power BI Helper Community Edition provides professional model analysis and documentation features that rival expensive enterprise tools. Key Use Cases For a Europe-based laboratory equipment manufacturer, we used Power BI Helper to scan reports and datasets for common issues-such as unused visuals, inactive relationships, missing descriptions, and inconsistent naming conventions-before promoting solutions to UAT and Production. Tool #4: Measure killer Measure Killer is a specialized tool designed to analyze Power BI models and identify unused or redundant DAX measures, helping improve model performance and maintainability. Key Use Cases For a technology consulting and cybersecurity services firm based in Houston, Texas (USA), specializing in modern digital transformation and enterprise security solutions, we used Measure Killer across Power BI engagements to quickly identify and remove unused measures and columns-ensuring optimized, maintainable models and improved report performance for enterprise clients. To conclude, I encourage you to start building your professional Power BI toolkit today-without any budget constraints. Identify your biggest daily frustration, whether it’s DAX debugging, measure management, or model optimization. Once you see how free tools can transform your workflow, you’ll naturally want to explore the complete toolkit. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations (D365 PO) is an end-to-end solution designed for project-based organizations that need to manage the entire project lifecycle-from sales and estimation to delivery, time tracking, costing, and billing. It unifies capabilities from Project Management, Sales, Resource Planning, Time Tracking, and Financials into a single platform. This article outlines the complete functional cycle of D365 Project Operations, demonstrating how it supports project-based service delivery efficiently.  Full Cycle of Project Operations in D365 1. Lead to Opportunity The journey begins when a potential customer expresses interest in a service. 2. Quoting & Estimation Once requirements are understood, a Project Quote is created: 3. Project Contract & Setup After customer acceptance, a Project Contract is created: 4. Project Planning Project Managers build out the work breakdown structure (WBS): 5. Resource Management Once project tasks are defined, resources are assigned: 6. Time & Expense Management Assigned resources start delivering work and logging effort: 7. Costing & Financial Tracking Behind the scenes, every time or expense entry is tracked for: 8. Invoicing & Revenue Recognition Based on approved time, expenses, or milestones: Integration Capabilities D365 PO integrates with: Reporting & Analytics Out-of-the-box dashboards include: Dynamics 365 Project Operations enables organizations to manage the full project lifecycle—from opportunity creation to revenue recognition—without fragmentation between systems or teams. Key takeaways: For project-based organizations, D365 Project Operations is not just a project management tool-it is an operational backbone for scalable, profitable service delivery. To conclude, Dynamics 365 Project Operations is most effective when viewed not as a standalone application, but as a connected operating model for project-based organizations. When implemented correctly, it bridges the traditional gaps between sales promises, delivery execution, and financial outcomes-turning projects into predictable, scalable business assets. We hope you found this blog useful, and if you would like to discuss anything, you can reach out to us at transform@cloudfronts.com