Reporting on TOPdesk in Power BI: what it takes

If TOPdesk’s own reports cannot answer a question, you can load the data into a BI tool. TOPdesk explains how in its documentation, with Power BI as one of the examples. Loading the data this way works, but the connection is only the first step. Viewers may need additional licences, and someone has to build and maintain a data model.

TOPdesk’s OData feed

Alongside the REST API, TOPdesk offers the OData feed, a separate interface for reporting that the documentation also calls the Reporting Layer API. TOPdesk recommends the feed when its own reporting is not enough and you want to build your own reports in a BI tool. The examples it gives are Microsoft Power BI (including the free version) and Microsoft Excel. What the REST API does and does not return is covered in the article on the TOPdesk API.

• API account. TOPdesk’s documentation recommends an API account with an application token rather than an operator’s login details. The page on connecting the BI tool still refers to an operator with an application password. An API account cannot log in to the operator section and counts as a free account in the Operator licence overview.
• Permissions. The account needs REST API > Read and Use application tokens > Write. For the reporting data it also needs Advanced reporting data access > Read.
• Application token. When you create the token, you give it a name and an expiry date. TOPdesk shows the token only once, so save it while it is on screen.
• BI tool. The tool must support OData 4.0, Basic Authentication and JSON. In Power BI, you connect via Get Data > OData feed, using the URL from the manual. That URL includes a version number, which may change in future TOPdesk releases.

According to TOPdesk’s manual on reporting with your BI tool, TOPdesk Support does not help with external tools such as Power BI. The manual assumes you already know how your BI tool works. TOPdesk also advises deciding on the purpose and audience of your reports first, because not everyone is allowed to see all the data.

The feed does not yet cover every module (TOPdesk is expanding it), nor does it contain all the information in the TOPdesk database. Which fields you see depends on your permissions, access levels, TOPdesk version and licence. TOPdesk advises loading only the tables you need.

Power BI is the example the manual works through. According to the same manual, you can also read the OData feed with Excel. To check whether another BI tool works with the feed, TOPdesk refers you to knowledge item 11910 on My TOPdesk. The sections below on licences and refreshing apply to Power BI.

What the Power BI route involves

The licences are one part of the cost of this route, and the only part that Microsoft’s pricing page shows. Building the reports and maintaining them also counts, because it takes time from your own staff or from someone you hire to do it.

Licences for viewers

According to Microsoft’s explanation of licence types, a free Power BI licence lets you create reports for yourself. With Pro, you can share reports with other Pro users. Someone with a free licence can view shared reports only if the workspace is on a Premium capacity or on an F64 or larger Fabric capacity. On a smaller Fabric capacity, every viewer needs Pro, Premium Per User or a trial licence.

On Microsoft’s pricing page for the Netherlands, Power BI Pro costs €12.10 per user per month and Premium Per User €20.80, both billed annually and excluding VAT (checked on 24 September 2026). These prices are a snapshot and may change. According to Microsoft, Pro is already included in Microsoft 365 E5 and Office 365 E5.

Building a data model

In the feed’s tables, linked data often appears only as a UNID, a unique ID. If you want to see a name instead of an ID, you load the related table as well and define the relationship yourself. Most of the work comes after that. You decide what counts as resolution time and which statuses are treated as On Hold. You also need a rule for empty fields.

Maintenance

Power BI refreshes the data behind a report on a schedule. With Pro that can be up to eight times a day, and with Premium Per User or on a Premium or Fabric capacity up to 48 times. Some of the rules only become clear when a report stops updating.

• Paused. If nobody has visited a report for two months, Power BI pauses its scheduled refresh.
• Disabled. After four failed refreshes in a row, or after an error that can only be fixed by changing the settings, such as expired credentials, Power BI disables the schedule. Because the application token expires, put its expiry date in the calendar of whoever manages the report.
• TOPdesk updates. If an update changes fields in the feed, the report has to be adjusted as well. After a new version of the feed is released, TOPdesk normally continues to support the old one for about six months. When you switch, existing reports may stop working and have to be rebuilt.

Whoever built and maintains the model knows why the relationships and definitions were chosen. If that person leaves and none of it has been written down, nobody else in the organisation knows why. Record the choices somewhere and agree who will take the model over.

Ready-made Power BI packages for TOPdesk

You can also buy what someone else has built. The TOPdesk Marketplace lists dashboard sets for incidents, changes, problems and SLAs, as well as a standalone data model and a report pack. A package like that takes part of the build off your hands, such as the relationships between the tables and an initial set of reports. The definitions then come from the vendor. Check whether they match how you measure resolution time and SLA compliance.

They are still Power BI reports, though. So ask what licences the people viewing them will need. Also ask who updates the package when TOPdesk releases a new OData version, and who will notice if the scheduled refresh is disabled.

What TOPdesk itself offers

Before you start on Power BI, check which questions TOPdesk can already answer. The rest of this section is based on the TOPdesk documentation (accessed 24 September 2026). Features and limitations may change after that date.

• Report Wizard. In the TOPdesk menu, choose New > Report, select a card type and work through five steps, from filters to the result. You can save a report and export it to Excel or PDF. The Report Wizard is not available for Asset Management. For assets, use the Asset Type Report or the OData feed instead.
• Dashboards. On the Overview page, you can combine widgets from different processes, such as Current Situation, Selections and Reports. The Report/KPI widget, which shows reports and KPIs as charts, is only available in TOPdesk Enterprise. Creating a new dashboard requires administrator permissions.
• Duration reports. These show how long it takes for incidents to reach a certain status and how long they stay there. In the Duration Distribution Report, you group by status or by operator group. You need the Reports & Selections > Duration reports permission.
• Reporting Hub. TOPdesk is building this as a central place for reports, gradually replacing the Report Wizard. In the menu, it appears as Reporting Hub (BETA). The hub is still in beta and only available in English. The reports are predefined. You can filter and download them, but you cannot change them. A dashboard shows at most the 70,000 most recent items.

According to the documentation (accessed 24 September 2026), the hub contains the Call, Workload, Knowledge management, Customer satisfaction and Change management dashboards, plus the duration reports. TOPdesk is adding to it gradually. If a report in the hub answers your question, you do not need a BI tool for it.

Reporting without a BI licence

If TOPdesk’s own reports do not answer your question, there are two options that need no BI licence.

Excel is one of them. You export from the Report Wizard, or you have Excel read the OData feed. An export is quick for a one-off analysis, but for a monthly report you have to repeat it each time. An Excel file connected to the feed can be refreshed, though you still define the relationships and definitions yourself.

The other is a hosted environment, such as AureaDesk, the service behind this site. You sign in with your browser and use the dashboard there, without Power BI or any other BI licence. AureaDesk reads data through the standard TOPdesk API, using a separate API account that has read permissions only on data, and writes nothing back. It works with TOPdesk SaaS, provided API access is available. In AureaDesk you do not choose the tables and relationships yourself, as you would in your own Power BI model.

You pay per package, from Standard with 10 users included (€500 a month) to Enterprise with 40 users included (€1,300 a month), per organisation and excluding VAT. If you need more users, you pay a fixed monthly amount for each additional user. The connection to TOPdesk is included. People who do not sign in can still receive the scheduled report by email. The pricing page shows what each package includes.

When Power BI makes sense

• You combine sources. You want to put TOPdesk figures next to data from other systems, for example HR, finance or monitoring.
• You have a BI team. If your team already maintains Power BI models and looks after the licences and the scheduled refreshes, TOPdesk becomes one more source.
• You already have the licences. If everyone who views the reports has Pro, for example through Microsoft 365 E5, or the workspace is on a Premium capacity or an F64 or larger Fabric capacity, you need no extra licences for viewers.
• You work with your own definitions. If your organisation has its own definition of resolution time, you will want to keep control of the model yourself.

Even then, keep anything the Reporting Hub or the Report Wizard already answers out of the model, so that there is less to maintain.