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Point Microsoft Power BI at your AIMS360 data two ways: a read only connection to your own SQL database, or the REST API. Build sell-through, inventory, open order and landed cost dashboards by style, color and size, and use the same live data in Excel or through the Claude, ChatGPT and Grok assistants.
Point Power BI at your apparel ERP and build the dashboard your team actually opens: sell-through by style, color and size, inventory against open orders, the order book by retailer, landed cost against standard. AIMS360 gives Power BI two ways in, a read only connection to your own database or the REST API, and both use connectors Power BI already has. No add on, no middleware, no export.
Power BI reads AIMS360 data two ways: straight from your own AIMS360 SQL database over a read only login, or through the AIMS360 REST API with a bearer token. Both use connectors that ship inside Power BI Desktop, SQL Server database for the first and Web for the second. There is no AIMS360 add on to install and nothing to pay a middleware vendor for.
That is a plainer answer than most ERP vendors give. A lot of apparel systems will sell you a reporting module and stop there. AIMS360 will do that too if you want it, but it will also hand your analyst the tables, which is what a Power BI project actually needs.
If the words DirectQuery and data model mean nothing to you, that is fine. The same data reaches a spreadsheet through a Live Excel report and reaches a plain English question through the AI assistant connectors. Power BI is the door for the dashboard everybody opens on Monday.
Same data, two doors. Which one you pick depends on who is building and what they need to see.
| Direct database ODBC / OLEDB | AIMS360 REST API | |
|---|---|---|
| What Power BI connects to | Your own AIMS360 SQL database, on a read only login. | The AIMS360 REST API, the same one integrations use. |
| Connector inside Power BI | Get Data, then SQL Server database. | Get Data, then Web, with the bearer token in the request header. |
| Credentials | Server name, database, login and password issued to your company by support. | An access token generated on your designated API user. |
| Import or DirectQuery | Either. Import for speed, DirectQuery when a visual should hit the database every time. | Import. Web sources load into the model and refresh on a schedule. |
| What it can see | Every table the read only login is granted, which is your company data. | Whatever the API user is permitted to see, by module permission. |
| Who it suits | An analyst who wants the raw tables and their own model on top. | A team already using the API, or one that wants permission scoped access. |
Direct database access is requested from AIMS360 support, who issue the server name, database, login and password for your company database and configure the login read only. In Power BI Desktop it is Get Data, SQL Server database, enter the server and database, sign in. From there every table is yours to model.
The API route starts with an access token generated on your designated API user. Power BI's Web connector calls the documented endpoints at api.aims360.io with that token in the header, and the data is limited to what the API user is permitted to see. The API supports read and write exchanges for integrations; a Power BI dataset only reads.
None of these are templates we ship. They are the reports brands rebuild by hand every week until somebody points Power BI at the source.
Units sold against units received, sliced by style, color and size, by season and by channel. The report a merchandiser rebuilds in a spreadsheet every Monday, as a visual that is simply current.
On hand, allocated, on order and available to sell, by warehouse and by dimension. Put open wholesale orders next to it and you can see where the next shortage is before a retailer does.
Open EDI and wholesale orders by customer, start ship and cancel date. A single page that answers which orders are at risk of chargeback this week.
What a style was supposed to cost, FOB or LDP, against what it actually cost when the vendor purchase order was received. Variance by vendor, by season, by style.
AR aging by customer, chargebacks by reason code, DTC and wholesale margin side by side. The finance view, refreshed without anyone exporting anything.
Because it is all in one ERP, one model covers Shopify orders, EDI orders, dropship orders and your own stores. No stitching three exports together to get a company view.
The reason these are possible in one model is that AIMS360 keeps every unit at the style, color and size level, across wholesale, EDI, dropship, DTC and retail, in one database. A dashboard built on a webstore's reporting sees the webstore. A dashboard built on the ERP sees the company.
Every report on this page can be built three ways from the same live AIMS360 data. Pick by who is asking and how often.
The visual the whole team opens. Built once by an analyst, refreshed on a schedule, sliced by style, color, size, season, customer and channel.
How it connects → The finance fileLive Excel reportsA workbook wired to the API. Press refresh and the numbers update while your formulas and pivots stay put. Build it yourself or have us build it.
Live Excel reports →They work best together. Ask Claude or ChatGPT which styles are over or under selling this month and get the answer in a minute. If it turns out to be the question you ask every Monday, build that one as a Power BI visual so it is already on the screen. Same data, same permissions, three ways to get at it.
The AI assistant connectors are provisioned by AIMS360 for your company, are read only by design, and answer over live data rather than a report somebody exported last week. They do not publish into Power BI, and Power BI does not answer in plain English. That is why there are three doors.
The credentials support issues for ODBC, OLEDB and Power BI are configured read only. Nothing built in Power BI, and nothing else using that login, can write to AIMS360.
On the API route Power BI sees exactly what the designated API user is permitted to see. If a dataset looks short, check that user's module permissions before you check anything else.
Everything running under that account stops with it: Power BI datasets on the API route, Live Excel reports, integrations. Use the admin or a permanent account, and move the designation before anyone leaves.
Who can open a report, and which rows they can see, is governed in the Power BI service. Combine that with role based access inside AIMS360 and you can be very specific about who sees what.
Power BI is not the only reporting AIMS360 has. Most days you will not need it.
Every list screen in AIMS360 is a grid you can filter with rules and groups, re-column, sort, pivot by style, color or size and export to Excel. For the question you need answered right now, that is faster than any dashboard. Grids and the Report Editor.
Hundreds of formatted reports for sales, inventory, production and finance, and a report editor to customize them. These are formatted outputs, not a live connection, which is exactly what you want for an invoice run or a month end pack.
AIMS360's own BI screens export formatted analysis to Excel. Useful, but an export is a photograph. Power BI and Live Excel are the two routes that stay connected.
The rule of thumb: built in reports for the document, grids for the question, Live Excel for the file finance lives in, Power BI for the dashboard everyone watches, and an AI assistant for the question nobody has asked before.
The access is easy. The model is real work: relationships, measures, the calendar table, the difference between booked and shipped. If you do not have that person, a Power BI partner can build it, and AIMS360 will answer their questions about the tables. If you would rather we scope report work for you, ask; what is available depends on your plan.
An apparel ERP has more tables than a webstore. Styles, colors, sizes, sales orders, pick tickets, invoices, vendor purchase orders, cut tickets, receipts and returns all live in different places. Ask for a walkthrough of the tables that matter to your first dashboard before anyone drags a field onto a canvas.
Pick the one somebody rebuilds by hand every Monday. Build it, refresh it for a month, and let the team argue about it. The second and third dashboards are always better because the first one taught everyone what they actually look at.
Yes. Power BI connects to AIMS360 two ways: a read only connection straight to your own AIMS360 SQL database, or the AIMS360 REST API. Both use standard connectors that already exist inside Power BI, so there is nothing to install on the AIMS360 side.
No, and you do not need one. Power BI's built in SQL Server connector reads the database directly, and its Web connector calls the API. A dedicated connector would only be a wrapper around one of those two.
You ask AIMS360 support for direct database access. They issue a server name, database name, login and password for your company database, set up read only. In Power BI Desktop choose Get Data, SQL Server database, enter the server and database, and sign in with those credentials.
Yes. Generate an access token on your designated API user, then in Power BI choose Get Data, Web, and pass the bearer token in the request header. The API is publicly documented, and the data you get back is limited to what that API user is permitted to see.
If you have an analyst who wants raw tables and their own model, take the database route. If you want access scoped by module permissions, or you are already building on the API for other reasons, take the API route. Plenty of brands end up using both.
Yes. The login AIMS360 issues for ODBC, OLEDB and Power BI is configured read only. Nothing written in Power BI, or by any tool using that login, can change data in AIMS360.
Against the database, either. Import copies the data into your Power BI model and refreshes on a schedule; DirectQuery sends a query to the database each time a visual is rendered. Against the API you use Import, because Power BI's Web connector does not support DirectQuery.
Yes. Once a report is published to the Power BI service, your Power BI administrator sets the refresh schedule the same way they would for any other SQL or web data source. In Power BI Desktop you refresh on demand.
Sell-through by style, color and size. Inventory on hand, allocated and available by warehouse. The open order book by retailer and ship window. Landed cost against standard cost by vendor. AR aging and chargebacks. Wholesale, DTC and retail on one page, because they are all in one ERP.
Yes. AIMS360 stores every unit at the style, color and size level, and that structure comes through both routes. In Power BI you model style as the parent and color and size as dimensions, then slice any visual by them.
Power BI Desktop is free to download from Microsoft. Sharing reports through the Power BI service needs a Microsoft license for the people who publish and view them. That licensing is Microsoft's, not part of your AIMS360 subscription.
No. AIMS360 gives you the access and answers questions about the tables. The model and the visuals are built by your analyst or a Power BI partner, so they match how your company actually reads its numbers rather than how a template guessed you would.
Usually your own analyst, or a Power BI consultant you already work with. If nobody on your side wants to own it, tell us what the report has to show and we will talk through what AIMS360 can build; custom report work depends on your plan.
Direct database access is issued by support on request, and the API is already part of your platform. If you ask AIMS360 to build report work for you, that is scoped separately and depends on your plan. Ask support about both before you plan the project.
Yes. Power BI is built to join sources. AIMS360 becomes one connection in the model alongside whatever else you connect, and because AIMS360 already holds your Shopify, EDI and dropship orders, most of the operational data arrives from one place.
Then use a Live Excel report. It is the same idea, an Excel workbook wired to the AIMS360 API that refreshes on demand, and it suits finance and merchandising teams who live in a spreadsheet. Power BI is for the standing dashboard everyone opens.
The AI assistant connectors answer questions over live AIMS360 data in plain English and hand back a table, a chart or an Excel export. They do not publish into Power BI. Use them together: ask the assistant to find the answer, then build the one you keep coming back to as a Power BI visual.
Everything running under that user stops, including any Power BI dataset on the API route, Live Excel reports and integrations. Designate the admin or a permanent account as the API user, and move the designation before anyone's account is removed.
The database login is read only and issued per company. The API respects the API user's module permissions. Inside Power BI, who can see a report is governed by your Microsoft tenant. Treat the credentials the way you would any other password.
Yes. AIMS360 holds a Microsoft Solutions Partner designation and runs on Microsoft Azure, which is part of why Power BI, Excel and the AIMS360 SQL database get along so well.
Start with that one. Tell us the question it answers, and we will show you the two ways Power BI gets to the data behind it.
