Does Anybody use PowerBI?
What is the best software to import your data for a sales/P&L/Balance sheet/Purchase type document.
Does Anybody use PowerBI?
What is the best software to import your data for a sales/P&L/Balance sheet/Purchase type document.
Last edited by Farley945; 06-11-2021 at 09:01 AM.
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Ali
Enthusiastic self-taught user of MS Excel who's always learning!
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I am looking for other users of Power BI and there will most probably be more questions regarding the subject as long as the recipients are willing to help. Therefore, there isn't really a suitable title.
Maybe I should have mentioned that in my first post.
Sorry - that is not a satisfactory response.
You need to change the title to reflect what about Power BI you are trying to find out.
If you have further questions, each will require its own thread with a suitable title.
Please change the title of this thread and then I will remove the clutter from the thread.
Reading the description of the forum, I believe the title is now adequate. "A place for relaxed off-topic discussions, getting to know your fellow members or idle chit chat!"
I would like a discussion (to ask questions) on Power BI to any users of it.
Last edited by Farley945; 06-11-2021 at 09:03 AM.
OK. Let's get you started, then.
What are you planning on using Power BI for? It might not be the right tool, so you are going to need to be a bit more explicit.
Okay, I'll give you some background on what my job is.
I work as an Office Manager, I am in charge of sales and purchase ledger. I look to improve current processes and what I can do for the company as a whole.
I would like to produce reports periodically - whether it be sales reports, purchase report, P&L balance sheets etc .. (currently, all information is on Excel which my FD imports in from Sage 200 and makes changes every month.) I am sure this information would be better shown on Power BI but I am still getting to grips with it.
From what I have seen, Power BI is an easier method of changing graphs, tables and generally showing information clearly.
I have used it a little bit, importing 6 months worth of sales information but there was certain aspects I couldn't get to work.
My first question is, is there a recommended database to import the information into Power BI? Does it really matter?
How did you import the data and what couldn't you get to work? It's hard to comment without knowing what you felt the limitations were or the exact context in which you were working.I have used it a little bit, importing 6 months worth of sales information but there was certain aspects I couldn't get to work.
Not sure what you mean by this. You will (should) know from the PowerBI import menu that there are vast numbers of platforms from which you can import data, including Excel. You do not need to import data into a database in order to get it into PowerBI (if that's what you mean). I import data from Excel, but you could import tables from Access if you wished.My first question is, is there a recommended database to import the information into Power BI? Does it really matter?
My biggest problem was having to re-arrange all the data from Excel into a table - Something which is time consuming and would need to be done each month. (We have 15 departments, 10 branches which generate revenue and some loss centres.)
I will be able to get the information from SQL from our It Department but do you know; will it go in, in the same manner as Excel? I am assuming yes because it is a database.
I have also downloaded the free trial for Gold and I have downloaded a free app. I may be wrong but couldn't see anywhere to download the information to take a look at how it is set up - This is where I am struggling, I am unsure how the information should be displayed in the database to give ease of use.
I couldn't get the slicer to work on date properly because it groups all the dates and give figures instead, whereas I want to slice by the date. (Only used the following sample Data for each month over a 6 month period. Quantity of invoices. Sales. Gross profit £, True cost £.)
Also do you know with the applications you can use, do these link to a web based software and will be updated automatically from there? We are currently in the process of switching over but unsure how that would work. and again, would I need to re-arrange the information within the database.
Thank you in advance
Why can't you use PowerQuery in Excel to organise your data before importing it into PowerBI?
Everything you want can easily be done in Excel.
I'm inexperienced with PowerQuery as well, but I would assume my data would need to be rearranged as the trading figures my Director uses is split over 30 different sheets.
snb - would you not recommend delving into PowerBI then and look more into Excel? When we migrate over to a web based software, would it be easier to manipulate the information?
I actually found a slice in excel yesterday which I never knew was there.
Slicers are great!
PowerQuery is a good tool for normalising data, so it could easily bring together the data that you currently have over 30 sheets.
What you want can be done in Excel: the advantage of PowerBI is really that it's an online platform where your users can interact with the data in many different ways that would be onerous to replicate in Excel. However (and this is from experience), the PowerBI platform is not as user-friendly as it could be (although it improves constantly), and so the learning curve is really quite steep. PowerQuery is built into PowerBI, though, so the normalisation of your data could occur as you import it into PowerBI.
I did like using the slicers in the BI Templates
When I have the time, I'll play about a bit more with PowerQuery and Excel - trying to find the time with a 1 year old child, my aat exams and my day to day work isn't easy though (Although it is nice I am given free reign to explore different ideas if I have the time.)
I tried using PowerQuery before to bring together 300 spreadsheets but because some words were in a different format and wasn't picking them up, I gave up and instead used a Macro to collate the information I wanted.
The advantage I saw with PowerBI was how easy the end product was to use and the look of it when using the templates - but trying to replicate the tables, graphs and slicers (even using a small data sample never mind years of data) without knowing how to organise the initial data isn't the easiest.
I have contacted our software designers and they have advised "Yes, you certainly can connect Power BI up to the SQL Server database in the backend. We’d just need to create a secure database user, whitelist the IP addresses you’ll be accessing it from, explain the data tables to you (if needed) and you’re good to go."
If they can set it all up for ease of use, would save me a job!
Thank you for your help, it is appreciated.
If possible I do think a BI forum would be helpful. I will probably have more questions in the future and I would assume more people will as it gets more popular with businesses. (Possibly.)
I didn't find any other forums except for Microsoft's own and I have seen somebody else had a PowerBI question too. I don't know how this website works but if the owner uses SEO's to generate more hits, this forum would probably be near the top of Google.
This forum comes up on the first page for pretty much any query.
The owner doesn't seem to care about what we, the people at the chalk face, think: we've asked for a Power sub-forum before (many times) and it hasn't yet materialised. Even getting his tech team to fix anything that goes wrong takes an age.
Nonetheless, we are one of the busiest Excel forums (I'm a member of several others and only one has similar footfall to ours - the others are much, much quieter).
In the end, you can get your queries answered, however I would recommend for this sort of thing you post in the Charts & Pivots section of the Excel forum for now with a suitably engaging thread title.
I meant if you search PowerBI forum into Google, all that shows are Microsoft pages
Will do AliGW, thank you again for your help.
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