Bramvia — Business Central Experts
Moving to Business Central SaaS means losing direct database access. Every report and integration reading SQL tables must be rebuilt on APIs, OData or Dataverse Virtual Tables. Here's the practical migration path.
This catches more migrations off guard than any other technical detail. In Business Central SaaS, there is no direct access to the underlying database. Microsoft manages it, and you cannot connect SQL Server Management Studio, run queries against the tables, or point an ODBC connection at it.
To be precise about it: this isn't a feature being phased out. SaaS never had it — it's an architectural decision tied to how Microsoft secures and manages the platform. What changes is your situation, the day you move from on-premise.
What breaks
Anything that reads the database directly:
- Power BI reports built on a SQL connection
- Access databases and Excel files pulling via ODBC
- Custom integrations with other systems querying tables directly
- Scheduled SQL jobs, stored procedures and triggers
- Third-party tools connecting at the database layer
In a long-running NAV installation, this is usually more things than anyone remembers. Inventorying them is genuinely part of the migration.
What you use instead
APIs. Business Central exposes standard REST APIs covering most common entities. No complex coding — you identify the endpoint and the fields. Custom APIs can be built in AL for anything not covered.
OData web services. Pages and queries can be exposed as OData feeds, which Power BI and Excel consume directly. This is usually the shortest path for reporting that previously ran on SQL.
Query objects. AL query objects retrieve records across tables into a single dataset and can perform calculations. They can be exposed as APIs, and they're the right tool when a report needs joined data.
Dataverse Virtual Tables. Business Central data appears in Dataverse as tables without being copied. Data stays in Business Central as the single source of truth, while Power Apps, Power Pages and Power Automate work with it live. The trade-off is performance — every request goes through the API, subject to throttling — and some Dataverse-specific features aren't fully supported.
For heavier analytical workloads, data synchronisation into Dataverse is the alternative: better performance and offline availability, at the cost of duplication and sync management.
This is an improvement, not just a constraint
Direct SQL access was always fragile. Table structures change between versions, and reports built on them break silently after upgrades. Anyone who has debugged a report reading a modified table knows the pattern.
API-based access is versioned and contracted. It survives upgrades. The discipline the cloud forces on you is discipline you should have had.
How to plan for it
Inventory every direct database connection before you migrate — this is the step people skip. Then decide per item: rebuild on an API, replace with a standard report, or retire because nobody actually uses it. In our experience a meaningful share falls into that last category.
We'll map your integrations as part of a migration assessment.
FAQ
Can I read the database in Business Central online? No — not even read-only. Everything goes through APIs, OData or events.
What replaces my SQL-based reports? API queries and OData with incremental refresh in Power BI, plus the four included Power BI apps.
Already on Business Central? If you're reading this because nobody has told you what each release brings, which agents you could switch on or why your Power BI is still empty, you don't need a migration: changing partner is a 30-day handover, not a project. We start with a free assessment of your environment and tell you what you're paying for and not using.
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