Jet Reports Alternative for Business Central: Exsion vs Jet (2026)

Your month-end pack runs in Jet Reports, it takes twenty minutes and Excel is unusable while it does. The design version lives on one colleague's laptop. The renewal quote from InsightSoftware arrived last week and it went up again. That is usually the moment a controller types "Jet Reports alternative for Business Central" into a search bar, so let us answer the question properly.

The short answer: who should switch, and who should not

If you run Business Central and your Jet Reports pain is speed, sharing, row limits or cost, Exsion Reporting is the most direct Jet Reports alternative for Business Central: an Excel add-in that pulls live data straight from the Business Central API in sets rather than single cells, writes the full query definition into the workbook so any colleague can read and change it, loads results direct to a PivotTable past the 1,048,576-row worksheet limit, and installs from AppSource in about five minutes.

If your organisation runs several ERPs alongside Business Central, or your Jet setup works and nobody is complaining, stay where you are. A reporting migration you do not need is a bad use of a finance team's time. Everything below is the evidence for that answer.

What Jet Reports is, and why teams start looking elsewhere

Jet Reports is an Excel add-in owned by InsightSoftware, which also owns Spreadsheet Server, Hubble and Longview. It has been in the Dynamics NAV and Business Central market for a long time, and many controllers learned reporting on it. Reports are built from worksheet functions: NL returns lists, tables or rows, NF returns a field value from a record, and GL returns a general ledger balance. The Table Builder inserts an NL("Table") function for you.

What Jet does well

Jet's strength is that it lets a finance user pull tables from Business Central and join them inside Excel without writing SQL. A finance director we spoke to recently, with 20 years on Jet and 22 on NAV and Business Central, put it plainly: "The reason I'm a big Jet user is because I can create tables that join tables. Other reporting doesn't really allow that." That is a fair point, and any alternative has to match it. Jet also has a large installed base, a partner ecosystem that knows the product, and a scheduler for distributing report packs.

Why teams look for an alternative

The reasons customers give when they start evaluating alternatives are consistent. The first is cost: reviews of Jet Reports regularly mention licence pricing and the way it scales with designers. The second is complexity, and the third follows from it: dependence on a consultant or a single in-house expert for anything beyond a simple list.

The fourth reason is structural. Jet's own documentation distinguishes Design Mode (where licensed Designers create and edit) from Report Mode (the run output). Changes made in Report Mode are lost when the report is run again, and Design Mode results are described in Jet's documentation as optimized for speed and not guaranteed to reflect the results of all queries. In practice, what most colleagues receive is the run output. A controller in a recent session described it exactly: "Brian builds a report, saves it and shares it with me. If I want to change it and he hasn't shared the table behind it, I can't." Without a Designer licence and the design version, the recipient can read the numbers but cannot change the logic.

The fifth reason is how the report executes. Jet functions on the sheet each generate their own requests to Business Central. Jet's own "Improve Report Performance" guidance says that NL(First) calls need a database request per call, that NL for Rows or Columns must scan the whole table for unique values, and it recommends using NF() on cached record keys, reordering filters, and avoiding off-sheet references and volatile functions. That guidance is sound, but it also tells you why a report with thousands of functions is slow and why tuning it becomes a specialist skill.

Jet Reports vs Exsion Reporting: side-by-side

The table below compares the two on the criteria that matter to a controller. Jet entries are drawn from Jet's own documentation and from what customers tell us; where we are not certain, we say so.

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Criterion | Jet Reports | Exsion Reporting

Architecture | Excel add-in; functions on the sheet send requests to Business Central | Excel add-in connecting directly to the Business Central API; no warehouse, no Azure SQL replica, no gateway, no scheduled load

Where the report logic lives | In NL, NF and GL functions; design version separate from run output (Design Mode vs Report Mode) | In a plain readable grid written into the workbook: table, companies, fields, filters, joins, flowfield calculations

Sharing and editing by colleagues | Report Viewers see the run output; editing needs a Designer licence and the design version | Shared workbook carries the full definition; licensed recipients edit in place, unlicensed recipients read it

Large datasets | Rows land on the worksheet in the usual workflow | Download direct to PivotTable data model; 25 million Business Central rows loaded into one pivot

Speed | Per-function requests; Jet's guidance covers tuning NL and NF calls | Pulls sets; 700,000 G/L Entry rows in under five seconds; a 20-minute Jet report ran in about 20 seconds in a recent demo

Excel responsiveness during a run | Customers report Excel locking up while reports run | Excel stays responsive during a refresh

Joins | Supported through NL functions and Table Builder | Add a table, accept or change the proposed key; inner, outer, inner top 1, not exists

Drill down | Available | Show Details opens Business Central filtered to the exact account and date range the cell used; pivot double-click shows underlying rows

Multi-company | Supported | Select companies in the grid; result includes a company column; works across environments too

Install time | Typically partner-led | About five minutes, timed in demos: AppSource, add-in download, connection, sign in

Trial and pricing transparency | Quote-based sales process | 30-day trial; licence key arrives by email within about a minute; public pricing page

Consolidation | Not part of Jet Reports; separate InsightSoftware products | Exsion Corporate: eliminations, multi-currency, group reporting

Scheduling | Jet Scheduler | ExsionTime uploads a workbook to Business Central and runs it on a schedule

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Two honest notes on the table. Jet supports scheduling and has done so for years; ExsionTime does the same job but needs a machine to run on. And Jet's join capability is real. The difference is who can build and maintain the join, not whether it exists. Pricing for Exsion is on the pricing page, and consolidation is a separate product, Exsion Corporate.

Five reasons controllers move from Jet to Exsion

Each of the sections below is the summary of a longer post. If one of them describes your situation, follow the link; the detail is there.

1. The million-row ceiling disappears

Excel stops at 1,048,576 rows on a worksheet, as Microsoft's specification page confirms. A busy Business Central company can pass that in the G/L Entry table alone within a few years, and Value Entry or Item Ledger Entry get there faster in distribution and food. Exsion lets you send a query straight into the PivotTable data model with no rows on any worksheet. The data model is limited by memory rather than the worksheet, and Exsion has loaded 25 million Business Central rows into one pivot this way.

The file size difference is also worth knowing: a pivot-only workbook is typically 6 to 7 MB where the same data on a worksheet at one million rows runs 30 to 40 MB. Read the full post: Excel's row limit and Business Central reporting.

2. The report explains itself to whoever opens it

When a colleague opens an Exsion workbook, the grid is right there: which table, which companies, which fields, which filters per field, which joins, and how each flowfield is calculated. If they want a different date range, they change the filter and refresh. If they want an extra column, they add the field. Nothing lives in a separate design version that may or may not have been shared. This is the direct answer to "Brian built it and I can't change it." Read the full post: Your Business Central Excel report should explain itself.

3. Excel stays usable while the report runs

Two controllers at one firm told us Excel had been locking up for six months while their Jet reports ran in the background. The cause is per-function execution: a trial balance with 360 accounts across 12 periods is 4,320 cells, and if each is its own request, the sheet waits. Exsion pulls the set instead. One query returns every G/L entry in scope and Excel does the arithmetic locally; 700,000 rows from table 17 arrive in under five seconds and Excel remains responsive while they do.

Exsion also has 16 live financial functions (account balance, account name, customer balance, dimension name and others) that use Business Central's own filter syntax, so 01-01-26..31-03-26 for a quarter or 8* for a range of accounts works as it does in the client. We are open about the limit: live formulas start to slow around 40,000 to 50,000 calculations in one workbook, at which point that block belongs in a query. Read the full post: Why Jet Reports feels slow and Excel freezes.

4. Joins without a consultant

The finance director quoted earlier is right that joins are the test. In Exsion's query builder you add a second table, and Exsion proposes the join key, for example Cust. Ledger Entry "Customer No." to Customer "No." You accept it or change it, then double-click the fields you want from the second table. Inner, outer, inner top 1 and not exists joins are all available, and the join shows in blue in the grid so a reader can see it. Custom functions inside a query handle cases such as summing Amount from Detailed Cust. Ledg. Entry (table 379) with a date filter to build aging buckets. Read the full post: How to join Business Central tables in Excel.

5. Live data with no warehouse to maintain

Exsion reads the Business Central API directly. There is no data warehouse, no Azure SQL replica, no virtual machine, no gateway and no overnight load to check in the morning. Permissions come from Business Central itself, so a user sees in Excel exactly what they can see in the client and there is no second security model for IT to keep in step. Multi-currency needs no special module either: pull the CAD amount from the ledger and the daily rate from Currency Exchange Rate (table 330), then multiply in an ordinary Excel column. Read the full post: Live Business Central data in Excel without a data warehouse.

Migrating from Jet Reports: what the move actually involves

The question behind every alternative search is really "how much of my report library do I lose." Exsion's approach is to use AI to extract the list of tables and fields a Jet workbook touches and rebuild it as an Exsion grid. For teams coming from Jet Reports, the first report is built together free of charge, so you see the method on your own report rather than a demo file.

The practical sequence looks like this. Install from AppSource through Extension Management in Business Central, download the Excel add-in from the Exsion info page in Business Central, add a connection in Excel, paste the URL and sign in. The trial licence arrives by email within about a minute. Two steps may need an administrator: installing the add-in on a locked-down laptop, and first-time consent for the connection to Business Central.

Then pick the report that hurts most (the slowest, or the one only Brian can change), have Exsion rebuild it with you, and run both side by side for a close. Most teams then rebuild their remaining reports in priority order over the 30-day trial rather than all at once, which is also a useful moment to retire reports nobody has opened in a year.

Recipients who do not have a licence can still open a pivot-only file, move the pivot, change filters and drill into detail; only refreshing needs a licence. The Formulas to Values command turns every Exsion formula into a static number so a file can go to an auditor or a bank as a plain spreadsheet.

If your group also consolidates in Excel today, that is a separate conversation about Exsion Corporate, and our guide on consolidating multiple companies in Business Central is the place to start.

When Jet Reports is still the right choice

Fairness matters here, and there are cases where staying on Jet is correct. If your company runs Business Central alongside another ERP that Jet also connects to, and you value one reporting layer across both, Exsion does not help because it is built for Business Central only. If you have invested heavily in Jet's scheduling and distribution and it runs without complaint, that investment is worth protecting.

If your reports are small, fast, built by the people who use them, and the licence cost fits the budget, there is no problem to solve. Change your reporting tool because of a specific pain, not because a page on the internet told you to.

Other alternatives worth knowing about

Two other names come up in this search. Cosmos is a newer US entrant that copies your Business Central data into a dedicated reporting database on Azure per tenant, promises setup in 30 minutes or less with a prebuilt data model, and offers Power BI report packs. That is a reasonable design; the trade-off is that you report on a copy rather than live data, refresh frequency is not published on the pages we reviewed, and there is no consolidation product or European presence.

Velixo is an Excel add-in for several ERPs including Acumatica, Sage Intacct and Business Central, with a particular strength in project and construction reporting; Business Central is one of the ERPs it supports rather than its sole focus. Our wider roundup of Business Central Excel reporting tools covers both in more depth.

An evaluation checklist for your next reporting tool

Put these questions to any vendor, including us, and ask for a demonstration rather than a slide.

1. Does it read Business Central live through the API, or from a copy? If a copy, how often does it refresh?

2. Can I pull any table, including extension tables and flowfields, and see how a flowfield is calculated?

3. Where does the report definition live, and can a colleague without the author's file change a filter?

4. What happens at one million rows?

5. How long does a 700,000-row G/L Entry query take, and can I keep working in Excel while it runs?

6. Can I join tables myself, and which join types are supported?

7. Does drill down open Business Central at the exact filtered record set the cell used?

8. Does it inherit Business Central permissions, or do I maintain a second security model?

9. How long does install take, is there a trial, and is pricing published?

10. If I have multiple companies or environments, what does group reporting and consolidation look like?

If you want to work through that list on your own reports, the Exsion Reporting product page explains the add-in in detail, the pricing page has the 30-day trial, and the AppSource listing is where the install starts. For the Business Central filter syntax used throughout Exsion's functions, Microsoft's reference on entering criteria in filters is worth bookmarking.

Frequently asked questions

[[FAQ_START]]

What is the best Jet Reports alternative for Business Central? | For teams that only run Business Central, Exsion Reporting is the most direct alternative. It is an Excel add-in that reads the Business Central API live, pulls data in sets rather than single-cell requests, writes the full query definition into the workbook, and installs from AppSource in about five minutes. Teams that run several ERPs may be better served by a multi-ERP tool.

Why is Jet Reports slow in Business Central? | Jet functions on a worksheet generate their own requests to Business Central, and Jet's own performance documentation notes that NL(First) calls need a database request per call and that NL for Rows or Columns scans the whole table for unique values. Reports with thousands of functions therefore wait on thousands of requests. Tuning helps, but it requires specialist knowledge.

Can I edit a Jet Reports report that a colleague shared with me? | Usually only if you have a Designer licence and the design version of the workbook. Jet separates Design Mode from Report Mode, and changes made in Report Mode are lost when the report is run again. Exsion writes the query grid into the workbook itself, so any licensed recipient can change a filter or add a field and refresh.

How do I migrate reports from Jet Reports to Exsion? | Exsion uses AI to extract the tables and fields a Jet workbook uses and rebuilds it as an Exsion grid. The first report is rebuilt together free of charge for teams coming from Jet. Most teams then move their remaining reports in priority order during the 30-day trial.

Does Exsion handle more than a million rows? | Yes. A query can be sent directly to the Excel PivotTable data model with no rows on a worksheet, which removes the 1,048,576-row limit. Exsion has loaded 25 million Business Central rows into a single pivot in this way, and the resulting file is typically 6 to 7 MB.

Does Exsion require a data warehouse or Power BI? | No. Exsion connects directly to the Business Central API, with no warehouse, Azure SQL replica, gateway or scheduled load, and it inherits Business Central user permissions. Power BI is not required, although the data Exsion pulls into Excel can be used alongside it if you already have it.

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