Microsoft gives D365 Finance and Operations teams two analytics paths, plus a hybrid between them. Business performance analytics (BPA) is a dimensional model Microsoft builds and serves as Power BI reports inside the application. Link to Microsoft Fabric makes your F&O tables available in your own OneLake, and everything after that is yours to build. The hybrid links BPA’s tables into your Fabric workspace. This guide compares the three on coverage, history, freshness, customization, security, and cost, and gives rules for choosing. For a comparison of Metrixs with BPA, see Metrixs vs Business performance analytics.
The two Microsoft paths, and the hybrid between them
- Business performance analytics. BPA extracts F&O data through virtual entities mapped to its own business intelligence (BI) entities into a Dataverse-managed data lake, transforms it with Spark into a dimensional model, and loads it into a Power BI workspace inside BPA’s managed solution. It is included with the Dynamics 365 Finance and Finance Premium licenses; Team Members and Operations – Activity users get read-only access, and the October 2026 Licensing Guide does not list it under Supply Chain Management.
- Link to Fabric. Your selected F&O tables appear in a lakehouse in your own Fabric workspace as shortcuts to a Delta copy that Dataverse keeps in its own storage. The model, measures, security, and reports are yours to build; see what Link to Fabric leaves you to build.
- The hybrid. From BPA’s administration, Link with Microsoft Fabric creates shortcuts from BPA’s tables into a Fabric workspace in the same region, where you can join them with your own data.
What Business performance analytics models, by value chain
| Value chain | What it models | Microsoft reports |
|---|---|---|
| Record to report | General ledger and budget | Balance sheet, Budget vs actual, Financial performance, GL dimension details, GL transaction details, Profit and loss |
| Procure to pay | Purchase orders, product receipts, vendor invoices, and payments | Purchase orders, Vendor aging, Vendor invoices, Vendor payments, Vendor transaction details |
| Order to cash (turned on through a Microsoft Support request) | Sales orders, invoices, payments and matching, packing slips, picking lists, service orders, returns, deferral schedules, bank statements, and the bank register | Sales aging, Sales transaction details |
| Acquire to dispose (added in version 2.7, February 2026) | Fixed asset acquisition, use, and disposal | No Microsoft report listed yet |
Beyond the picking lists and packing slips in Order to cash, Microsoft documents no BPA model for inventory value or on-hand, production, project accounting, or warehouse operations, although the BPA overview lists supply chain and project operations among its use cases. Its own extensibility guidance uses inventory transactions as an example of data that needs a new fact table. Microsoft reports in BPA cannot be edited; you duplicate them into custom reports.
Where each path stops
| BPA in the application | BPA linked into your Fabric | Build on Link to Fabric | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data coverage | Four value chains, fixed by Microsoft | The same BPA tables, read-only, joined with anything else in your workspace | The F&O tables you select |
| History | The most recent eight quarters | The same BPA tables; Microsoft does not say whether they hold more than eight quarters | As far back as the live F&O tables, plus archived general ledger years (see the Link to Fabric guide for the relink caveat) |
| Freshness | Two refreshes a day, at 12:00 AM and 12:00 PM UTC; Microsoft says the full pipeline can take four to five hours or more | BPA’s refresh schedule | Up to an hour per Microsoft Learn; under 15 minutes in most observed cases with low-latency sync, per Microsoft’s Fabric blog; plus your own build |
| Custom F&O fields | No: BPA’s business intelligence entities cannot be customized | Only by joining F&O tables from Link to Fabric | Yes |
| Security | BPA roles and dimension groups; data access is off by default | Yours to build in Fabric; Microsoft documents BPA’s roles and dimension groups only for the BPA app | Yours to build in Fabric |
| Capacity and cost | Included with the Finance license; uses Dataverse storage for its managed lake | Plus your Fabric capacity in the same region, and Dataverse storage for any F&O tables you add through Link to Fabric | Fabric capacity, Dataverse storage for the copy, and the build effort |
| Region and language | Not available in France; English (US) only | The same | Fabric and Dataverse region rules |
BPA’s dimension security filters rows through dimension groups (up to five value ranges) and applies only to facts that reference a secured dimension, because BPA has one dataset. Since version 2.3, rows in facts that reference no secured dimension are hidden by default. Microsoft’s pages disagree on how many dimensions you can select for security, citing five, eight, and nine, so test it before you design around it.
Stretching BPA without leaving it
- Custom reports. Build custom Power BI or Excel reports in the app. The Excel add-in runs on desktop Windows only, and Microsoft warns that data copied outside the PivotTable can bypass BPA’s access controls.
- Custom measures (preview, BPA 2.7 and later). Download the semantic model, add DAX measures in Power BI Desktop or Tabular Editor, export them as TMDL files, and upload them to BPA. Microsoft warns that changing tables or columns, rather than only adding measures, can break reports.
- Back up before you uninstall. Custom reports survive a reinstall only if a manual or automatic backup exists (the automatic one runs after 24 hours), BPA’s configuration solution stays installed, and you reinstall in the same environment; restoring to another environment is not supported.
The hybrid: BPA inside your Fabric workspace
- Link with Microsoft Fabric creates managed shortcuts from BPA’s tables into a workspace in the same region. You cannot update or delete BPA’s tables from Fabric, and you must not delete the shortcuts.
- When a BPA update adds tables or columns, run Refresh Fabric tables and check the reports and flows built on them. Unlinking removes the lakehouse and its SQL analytics endpoint.
- To extend the model, download BPA’s semantic model, point it at the lakehouse’s SQL analytics endpoint, publish it to a workspace on Fabric capacity, and add your own sources and measures there.
- BPA’s roles and dimension groups are documented for the BPA app. Microsoft’s Fabric page says only that you can secure the data in the workspace before you share it, so the Fabric security design is yours.
- To report on something BPA does not carry, such as a custom vendor field, bring the F&O table in through Link to Fabric and join it to BPA’s tables in your own model.
Building on Link to Fabric yourself
Building gives you the tables you choose, all the history in F&O, and freshness close to the sync, at the cost of doing the modeling yourself: decoding dimensions and enums, separating closing periods, rebuilding security, and testing the numbers against F&O. The Link to Fabric guide lists that work in order. Plan for four skill sets: a Fabric administrator, a data engineer, a Power BI modeler, and an F&O functional lead who knows the posting setup. The cost drivers are Fabric capacity in the same geography as your Dataverse environment, Dataverse storage for the copy (Microsoft’s example: syncing 500 GB could add about 100 GB), and Power BI licenses for viewers below F64, covered in the Power BI Premium retirement guide. If you also run BPA, Microsoft’s Fabric link FAQ says the tables its add-ins need cannot be removed from your Fabric link selection.
What’s coming, and how sure it is
- Microsoft’s 2026 release plan, now archived, lists managed extensibility of BPA’s data models (placeholder fields, empty star schemas, and conforming to Fabric sources) and support for multiple languages for September 2026, without marking either as released.
- Microsoft’s MCP FAQ, dated January 2026, says hourly refresh is in development, and Microsoft’s BPA troubleshooting page says the twice-a-day limit will be removed in the future.
- The BPA FAQ, dated December 2025, says Microsoft plans to move to Direct Lake, which would lift the eight-quarter limit, by the end of the year, without naming the year. The BPA overview, updated July 2026, still states eight quarters.
- Published release notes stop at version 2.7, from February 2026. Check the installed version in your environment before you plan around a feature.
Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 ERP Analytics MCP server queries BPA’s model, so it shares BPA’s coverage and refresh; see the Dynamics 365 ERP analytics MCP.
Which path fits
- BPA on its own fits when your questions sit in the four value chains, you need no custom F&O fields or data outside BPA’s model, eight quarters and two refreshes a day are enough, and you work in English outside France.
- BPA linked into Fabric fits when BPA’s model covers most of what you need, you want to join a few extra F&O tables or other data, and you are ready to own security in Fabric.
- Building on Link to Fabric fits when you need any of these: inventory, production, or project data; more than eight quarters of history; data within the hour; custom fields; or F&O logic BPA does not model.
Where Metrixs fits
A packaged model in your own Fabric sits between using BPA as Microsoft ships it and building from scratch. Metrixs runs in your own Microsoft Fabric environment on Link to Fabric or Azure Synapse Link and adds its data model and 150+ pre-built Power BI reports, with 1,200+ metrics and 250+ KPIs, across modules that include inventory, production, and project operations. On the Standard plan, reports use Direct Lake and refresh every 15 to 30 minutes, depending on data volume, the number of reports, and Fabric capacity. See Microsoft Fabric for D365 F&O, or request a demo and see if you qualify for a free 6-month trial.
FAQs
1. Is Business performance analytics generally available?
Yes. Microsoft’s release plan shows the Record to report, Procure to pay, and Order to cash models generally available since October 30, 2024, and the setup page says BPA is generally available in public cloud, although some pages and the app name still carry a preview label.
2. Does Business performance analytics need Microsoft Fabric?
No. BPA runs on Microsoft-managed Power BI Embedded capacity inside the application and is included with the Dynamics 365 Finance license. You need your own Fabric or Power BI Premium capacity only if you link BPA’s tables into a Fabric workspace.
3. Can I add a custom F&O field to BPA?
Not in BPA’s managed model today. BPA reads F&O through its business intelligence entities, which cannot be customized. To report on a custom field, bring the F&O table in through Link to Fabric and join it to BPA’s tables in your own Fabric model. Microsoft’s archived 2026 release plan lists placeholder fields for September 2026, without marking them released.
4. Does BPA cover inventory, manufacturing, or projects?
Not today. BPA documents four value chains: Record to report, Procure to pay, Order to cash, and Acquire to dispose. Microsoft documents no BPA model for inventory value, production, project accounting, or warehouse operations.
5. Can BPA and Link to Fabric run together?
Yes. Microsoft’s Fabric link FAQ says Microsoft add-ins such as BPA use the same pipeline to export data from Dataverse, and the tables they need cannot be removed from your Fabric link selection. Plan Dataverse storage for both. BPA runs its own transforms and does not use your Link to Fabric lakehouse as its source.
Sources
All pages below were checked on October 19, 2026.
- Business performance analytics home page
- Prerequisites for installing Business performance analytics
- Reports in Business performance analytics
- Business performance analytics release notes
- Business performance analytics FAQ
- Business performance analytics troubleshooting
- Set up security in Business performance analytics
- Add custom measures to Business performance analytics (preview)
- Extend Business performance analytics in Microsoft Fabric
- Connect Business performance analytics data to Microsoft Fabric
- Access Business performance analytics
- ERP analytics MCP FAQ
- TechTalk: Business performance analytics overview
- Dynamics 365 Finance 2024 release wave 2 planned features
- Dynamics 365 Finance 2026 release wave 1 planned features
- Dynamics 365 Licensing Guide, October 2026
- Configure your environment and link to Microsoft Fabric
- Microsoft Fabric link FAQ
- Microsoft Fabric Updates blog: what’s new for Dataverse Fabric link, July 2026
- Transition from legacy data integration services to Fabric link
Senior functional consultant for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, certified in MB-330, MB-300, and MB-920, and a Six Sigma Green Belt. Experience covers end-to-end F&O implementations and close work with end users, plus Azure DevOps and Power Platform. Specializes in the Crowe Metals Accelerator (CMA) for the metals industry, including cross-docking, pricing, production, and advanced warehouse management.
