Reporting Intelligence vs Exsion Reporting for Business Central (2026)

By Thomas Werkhoven, CEO of Exsion365, registered accountant, previously group controller and CFO.

Your Jet Reports renewal is coming up and your account manager has mentioned Reporting Intelligence. The Jet Reports product page calls it "the next evolution of Jet Reports" for Business Central Cloud customers, the installer now identifies its publisher as Lineos, and nobody has told you in plain terms what changes in the way a report reaches your worksheet. This post compares Reporting Intelligence with Exsion Reporting for a Business Central team, using what each vendor publishes, and says so where the record runs out.

The short answer

Reporting Intelligence is insightsoftware's cloud reporting layer, launched on 16 June 2026 on top of Jet Reports and Spreadsheet Server and now sold under the Lineos brand. It adds live KPI monitoring, threshold alerts and AI-generated insights to Excel reporting across several ERP families.

Exsion Reporting is an Excel add-in built for Business Central only, which reads Business Central directly, pulls data in sets rather than one request per cell, writes the whole query definition into the workbook, and installs from AppSource in about five minutes with a 30-day trial and a published price list.

If you want alerting and AI commentary over several ERPs and you are comfortable with a quote-based purchase, Reporting Intelligence is the product built for that. If you run Business Central alone and your problem is report speed, shared reports nobody else can change, the worksheet row limit or an opaque renewal, the direct add-in is the better fit.

What each product actually is

Reporting Intelligence

insightsoftware launched Reporting Intelligence in June 2026 as a cloud reporting solution built on the Jet Reports and Spreadsheet Server foundation. Its product page describes it as "AI-Powered Reporting Your ERP Data With Automated Insights" that "surfaces what needs attention before your team has to go looking." The Jet Reports product page is more specific about who it is for: "Companies running on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud can experience the next evolution of Jet Reports. Reporting Intelligence adds live KPI monitoring, threshold-based alerts, and AI-generated insights, so your team spends less time building reports and more time acting on them."

Three capability names appear on the product page. Automated Alerts is rule-based threshold monitoring: "Set rules once and let Reporting Intelligence watch your KPIs. Trigger alerts the moment thresholds are crossed." Autonomous Insights is described as pattern and anomaly detection without configuration, and AI Data Assist summarises trends and anomalies. The page lists an Excel Desktop Add-in and an Excel Online Add-in in its packages.

Since 16 September 2026 the finance products sit under Lineos, one of three brands insightsoftware launched that day, and "Lineos AI" is named on the page as the technology behind the AI features. We covered that renaming in detail in what the Jet Reports rename changes for Business Central.

Exsion Reporting

Exsion Reporting is an Excel add-in for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and nothing else. It works against Business Central online and on-premises, and reads through OData web services. You install it from AppSource, add a connection in Excel, sign in with your Business Central account, and build a query in a grid that sits in the workbook: which table, which companies, which fields, which filters per field, which joins, and how each flowfield is calculated.

The add-in requests the data as a set rather than one call per cell, so a 700,000 row query over G/L Entry (table 17) returns in under five seconds in our own tests, and Excel stays responsive while it runs. A query can be sent straight into the PivotTable data model instead of onto a worksheet, which is how a Business Central dataset can exceed Excel's limit of 1,048,576 rows per sheet. Permissions come from Business Central itself, so a user sees in Excel exactly what they can see in the client.

Architecture: a cloud layer on top of Jet, or a direct add-in

This is the difference that matters most, and it is also where the public record is thinnest.

Jet Reports reaches Business Central Cloud through web services. insightsoftware's own documentation for creating a Business Central Public Cloud data source tells you to install the "insightsoftware Reporting for Business Central" extension from AppSource first, then configure the instance for OData v4, noting that "Microsoft announced changes in Business Central 2021 release wave 2 (version 19.0) that SOAP has been superseded by OData V4." It confirms that "Multi-Factor authentication is natively supported with the Business Central (Public Cloud Web Services) Data Source in the Jet Excel Add-in," and documents service-to-service authentication using Microsoft Entra application credentials. That page does not state whether data is cached locally or retrieved in real time, whether copies are stored, or what refresh intervals apply.

For Reporting Intelligence specifically, insightsoftware's product page does not say whether the service is hosted in its own cloud, whether it holds a copy of your ERP data, or where that data physically resides. The one statement bearing on it concerns the AI features, which the page says "only run on data you've explicitly shared, based on subsets from your worksheet." That is a useful and fairly specific commitment about the AI layer. It is not an architecture statement about the reporting service, and we are not going to turn it into one. If you are evaluating Reporting Intelligence, this is the first question to put in writing to your account manager, along with the region the service runs in and whether a data processing agreement is available.

Exsion's path is shorter to describe because there is less of it. The add-in calls Business Central directly from Excel over OData web services, as the signed in user. There is no reporting database, no Azure SQL replica, no gateway, no scheduled overnight load and no second copy of your ledger to secure. That is the same argument we made in live Business Central data in Excel with no warehouse, and it applies equally here.

Side by side

The table below compares the two on what a Business Central buyer actually has to decide between. Entries marked as not published mean insightsoftware does not state it on the pages reviewed on 21 September 2026.

[[TABLE_START]]

Criterion | Reporting Intelligence (Lineos, insightsoftware) | Exsion Reporting

What it is | Cloud reporting layer launched 16 June 2026 on the Jet Reports and Spreadsheet Server foundation | Excel add-in connecting directly to Business Central

ERPs named | Business Central (Cloud), Oracle Cloud ERP, NetSuite, Infor FSM and M3; on-premises ERP support planned for Q4 2026 | Business Central only, cloud and on-premises

Excel surface | Excel Desktop Add-in and Excel Online Add-in listed in the packages | Excel desktop add-in

Data path | Not published for Reporting Intelligence; Jet's Business Central data source uses the AppSource extension and OData v4 web services | Direct OData calls from the workbook, data in sets rather than per cell

Where the data rests | Not published; AI features stated to run only on subsets from your worksheet that you explicitly share | In the workbook, on the worksheet or in the PivotTable data model

Report logic | In the workbook as Jet functions in the add-in lineage; Design Mode and Report Mode remain distinct in Jet Reports | In a readable query grid inside the workbook that any licensed recipient can change and refresh

Large datasets | Not published | Direct to the PivotTable data model, past the 1,048,576 row worksheet limit; 25 million rows loaded in one pivot

KPI alerts and AI | Automated Alerts, Autonomous Insights, AI Data Assist, branded Lineos AI | No KPI alerting and no AI insight layer

Permissions | Not detailed beyond Office Online sharing; Jet licence roles apply, and 26.3.0 maps Reporting Intelligence admin and power user roles to a viewer licence | Inherited from Business Central; no second security model

Consolidation | Not part of this product; other portfolio products cover close and consolidation | Exsion Corporate for eliminations, multi-currency and group reporting

Install and trial | Not published; no trial mentioned on the product page | AppSource install in about five minutes, 30-day trial

Pricing | Three packages named, Essential, Professional and Upgrade for existing Spreadsheet Server and Jet Reports customers; no prices published, links lead to pricing request forms | Published price list

[[TABLE_END]]

Live data and refresh

Both products put Business Central numbers in Excel and both describe the result as live. The published detail differs. Exsion refreshes by re-running the query against Business Central, so what you see is what the ledger holds at that moment, and the only thing standing between the two is your network.

Reporting Intelligence describes live KPI monitoring and threshold alerts, which implies the service is watching something continuously rather than only when a controller presses refresh, but insightsoftware does not publish what it watches, how often, or whether that requires the data to sit in its cloud between refreshes. Ask for that in the demo, on one of your own reports, and ask what happens to an alert when a posting is reversed.

AI features, and where Exsion has nothing to offer

We will be direct about this one, because a comparison that only flatters the author is worthless. Reporting Intelligence has an AI and alerting layer and Exsion Reporting does not. If a monthly report pack lands on your desk and you want a service to tell you, without being asked, that gross margin in one company moved four points against trend, Reporting Intelligence is built for that and Exsion is not.

Where Exsion does put effort is the move itself: we rebuild your Jet reports as Exsion query grids for you, free of charge, and it is a quicker job than most teams expect, so the report library you have built over the years is not the thing standing between you and a decision.

What Exsion offers instead is that the report explains itself, which solves a different problem. An anomaly flagged by a service still has to be traced by a human, and the tracing is where finance teams lose their evenings. With the query grid in the workbook, the controller who receives the report can see which table, which filters and which joins produced the number, change a filter, refresh, and use Show Details to open Business Central at the exact filtered record set the cell used. We wrote that case up in your Business Central Excel report should explain itself. Decide which of the two problems is actually yours before you pay for either.

Sharing and permissions

In the Jet lineage, what a colleague can do with a report depends on the licence they hold. Design Mode and Report Mode are distinct, and editing the logic needs a designer licence and the design version of the workbook. The 26.3.0 release of 16 September 2026 added a wrinkle worth checking: Reporting Intelligence admin and power user roles are now mapped to a viewer licence in the Jet Excel add-in, so if colleagues were given those roles during a rollout, confirm they can still design reports before your next close. The Reporting Intelligence page does not detail sharing and permissions beyond noting that reports are sharable through Office Online.

Exsion uses the Business Central rights of the user. The query runs as whoever is signed in, so a colleague opening a shared workbook sees only the companies and records their own Business Central account allows, down to the security filters an administrator has set on a table. There is no separate security model to maintain, and no risk of a report showing someone numbers the client would not. Recipients without a licence can still open a pivot-only workbook, move the pivot and drill into detail; only refreshing needs a licence.

One ERP or several

Reporting Intelligence names Business Central (Cloud), Oracle Cloud ERP, NetSuite and Infor FSM and M3, with on-premises ERP support described as planned for Q4 2026. If your group runs Business Central in two subsidiaries and NetSuite in a third, one reporting layer across all of them has obvious value, and that is a real reason to look at it. It also means Business Central is one of four named platforms competing for roadmap attention, and that a controller reading the vendor's announcements will not always see their own ERP mentioned.

Exsion is built for Business Central and nothing else, which is a limitation if you run a mixed estate and an advantage if you do not. It is why Exsion can propose a join key between Cust. Ledger Entry and Customer without being told, read flowfields and extension tables, and 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 exactly as it does in the client. Microsoft's reference on entering criteria in filters is the same one your team already uses.

Install, trial and pricing transparency

Reporting Intelligence lists three packages, Essential, Professional and an Upgrade package for existing Spreadsheet Server and Jet Reports customers. No prices appear on the page, the links lead to pricing request forms, and no free trial is mentioned. That is a normal enterprise motion and plenty of finance teams buy that way. It does mean the comparison you make at renewal is between a number you know and a number you have to ask for, and that the Upgrade package deserves a line by line reading against what you pay for Jet today.

Exsion installs from AppSource through Extension Management in Business Central, you download the add-in from the Exsion page in Business Central, add a connection in Excel and sign in. It takes about five minutes when nothing is locked down, and two steps may need an administrator: installing the add-in on a managed laptop, and first-time consent for the connection. The trial runs 30 days and the licence key arrives by email within about a minute. Prices are on the pricing page, where you can read them without speaking to anyone.

Who should choose which

If you run several ERP families and want one alerting and reporting layer across them, Reporting Intelligence is the product designed for that job, and Exsion cannot do it.

If you want automated anomaly detection and threshold alerts over your finance data and you are willing to buy on a quote, Reporting Intelligence has the feature and Exsion does not.

If you run Business Central alone and your pain is speed, the row limit, or reports that only one colleague can change, a direct add-in addresses those three specifically, and you can test that claim on your own slowest report inside a 30-day trial without a sales conversation. Start with why Jet Reports feels slow and how to fix it.

If you are simply facing a renewal and want to know what you are renewing, do not decide on either product until you have the answers to four questions in writing: where the data rests and in which region, whether your existing workbooks run unchanged, what each licence role can and cannot do after the 26.3.0 role mapping, and the full price of the Upgrade package against your current Jet line items. Our Jet Reports alternative for Business Central guide works through the whole evaluation, including the cases where staying put is the right call, and our roundup of Business Central Excel reporting tools covers the other names you will meet. If your group also consolidates, that is a separate conversation about Exsion Corporate.

Frequently asked questions

[[FAQ_START]]

Is Reporting Intelligence a replacement for Jet Reports? | insightsoftware describes Reporting Intelligence as the next evolution of Jet Reports for companies running Business Central Cloud, and it is built on the Jet Reports and Spreadsheet Server foundation. It has published no retirement date or migration deadline for the Jet Excel add-in, and still offers Jet Reports as the route for on-premises users.

Does Reporting Intelligence support Business Central on-premises? | Not at present. The product page names Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Cloud), Oracle Cloud ERP, NetSuite and Infor FSM and M3, and states that on-premises ERP support is planned for Q4 2026.

What does Reporting Intelligence cost? | insightsoftware publishes three packages, Essential, Professional and an Upgrade package for existing Spreadsheet Server and Jet Reports customers, but no prices. The links lead to pricing request forms and no free trial is mentioned. Exsion publishes its prices and offers a 30-day trial.

Where does Reporting Intelligence keep my Business Central data? | insightsoftware does not publish this. Its page states that the AI capabilities only run on data you have explicitly shared, based on subsets from your worksheet, which is a statement about the AI layer rather than about where reporting data rests. Ask the vendor directly, and ask about the hosting region and a data processing agreement.

Does Exsion Reporting have AI insights or KPI alerts? | No. Exsion Reporting has no AI insight layer and no threshold alerting. It focuses on pulling live Business Central data into Excel quickly, in sets, with the full query definition visible in the workbook. If automated anomaly detection is a requirement, Reporting Intelligence has that feature and Exsion does not.

Do my Business Central permissions still apply in Excel? | With Exsion Reporting, yes. Exsion uses the Business Central rights of the signed in user, so a user sees in Excel exactly what they can see in the client and there is no second security model.

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