How to use power bi

What is Power BI?

Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights. Your data may be an Excel spreadsheet, or a collection of cloud-based and on-premises hybrid data warehouses. Power BI lets you easily connect to your data sources, visualize and discover what’s important, and share that with anyone or everyone you want.

The parts of Power BI

Power BI consists of several elements that all work together, starting with these three basics:

These three elements—Power BI Desktop, the service, and the mobile apps—are designed to let you create, share, and consume business insights in the way that serves you and your role most effectively.

Beyond those three, Power BI also features two other elements:

How Power BI matches your role

How you use Power BI may depend on your role in a project or on a team. Other people, in other roles, might use Power BI differently.

For example, you might primarily use the Power BI service to view reports and dashboards. Your number-crunching, business-report-creating coworker might make extensive use of Power BI Desktop or Power BI Report Builder to create reports, then publish those reports to the Power BI service, where you view them. Another coworker, in sales, might mainly use the Power BI phone app to monitor progress on sales quotas, and to drill into new sales lead details.

If you’re a developer, you might use Power BI APIs to push data into datasets or to embed dashboards and reports into your own custom applications. Have an idea for a new visual? Build it yourself and share it with others.

You also might use each element of Power BI at different times, depending on what you’re trying to achieve or your role for a given project.

How you use Power BI can be based on which feature or service of Power BI is the best tool for your situation. For example, you can use Power BI Desktop to create reports for your own team about customer engagement statistics and you can view inventory and manufacturing progress in a real-time dashboard in the Power BI service. You can create a paginated report of mailable invoices, based on a Power BI dataset. Each part of Power BI is available to you, which is why it’s so flexible and compelling.

Explore documents that pertain to your role:

The flow of work in Power BI

One common workflow in Power BI begins by connecting to data sources in Power BI Desktop and building a report. You then publish that report from Power BI Desktop to the Power BI service, and share it so business users in the Power BI service and on mobile devices can view and interact with the report.

This workflow is common, and shows how the three main Power BI elements complement one another.

Use the deployment pipeline tool

In the Power BI service, you can use the deployment pipeline tool to test your content before you release it to your users. The deployment pipeline tool can help you deploy reports, dashboards, datasets, and paginated reports. Read about how to get started with deployment pipelines in the Power BI service.

Paginated reports in the Power BI service

Another workflow involves paginated reports in the Power BI service. Enterprise report creators design paginated reports to be printed or shared. They can also share these reports in the Power BI service. They’re called paginated because they’re formatted to fit well on a page. They’re often used for operational reports, or for printing forms such as invoices or transcripts. They display all the data in a table, even if the table spans multiple pages. Power BI Report Builder is the standalone tool for authoring paginated reports.

Read more about paginated reports in the Power BI service.

On-premises reporting with Power BI Report Server

What if you need to keep your reports on premises, say, behind a firewall? Read on.

You can create, deploy, and manage Power BI reports in Power BI Desktop, and paginated reports in Report Builder, with the ready-to-use tools and services that Power BI Report Server provides.

Power BI Report Server is a solution that you deploy behind your firewall and then deliver your reports to the right users in different ways, whether that’s viewing them in a web browser, on a mobile device, or as an email. And because Power BI Report Server is compatible with Power BI in the cloud, you can move to the cloud when you’re ready.

Use Power BI

Power BI works with model-driven apps in Microsoft Dataverse to provide a self-service analytics solution. The Power BI service automatically refreshes the data displayed. With Power BI Desktop or Office Excel Power Query for authoring reports and Power BI for sharing dashboards and refreshing data from model-driven apps or Dynamics 365 apps, such as Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Customer Service. Integrating Power BI with Dataverse provides the personnel in your organization a powerful way to work with data.

Enable Power BI visualization embedding

Before users can embed Power BI visualizations on personal dashboards, the organization-wide setting must be enabled.

By default, Power BI visualization embedding is disabled and must be enabled before users can embed them in personal dashboards.

Enable Power BI visualizations in an environment

In the Power Platform admin center, select an environment.

Select Settings > Product > Features.

Under Embedded content set Power BI visualization embedding to On to enable or Off to disable.

Select Save.

Add Power BI tiles and dashboards in a model-driven app

To learn more about how to add Power BI dashboards to personal dashboards, see Add a Power BI dashboard on your personal dashboard.

Get support for Power BI

Though you administer Power BI from the Power BI admin portal, you request support for Power BI through Help + Support in the Power Platform admin center.

What is Power BI Desktop?

Power BI Desktop is a free application you install on your local computer that lets you connect to, transform, and visualize your data. With Power BI Desktop, you can connect to multiple different sources of data, and combine them (often called modeling) into a data model. This data model lets you build visuals, and collections of visuals you can share as reports, with other people inside your organization. Most users who work on business intelligence projects use Power BI Desktop to create reports, and then use the Power BI service to share their reports with others.

The most common uses for Power BI Desktop are as follows:

People most often responsible for such tasks are often considered data analysts (sometimes referred to as analysts) or business intelligence professionals (often referred to as report creators). However, many people who don’t consider themselves an analyst or a report creator use Power BI Desktop to create compelling reports, or to pull data from various sources and build data models, which they can share with their coworkers and organizations.

Power BI Desktop is updated and released on a monthly basis, incorporating customer feedback and new features. Only the most recent version of Power BI Desktop is supported; customers who contact support for Power BI Desktop will be asked to upgrade to the most recent version. You can get the most recent version of Power BI Desktop from the Windows Store, or as a single executable containing all supported languages that you download and install on your computer.

There are three views available in Power BI Desktop, which you select on the left side of the canvas. The views, shown in the order they appear, are as follows:

The following image shows the three views, as displayed along the left side of the canvas:

Connect to data

To get started with Power BI Desktop, the first step is to connect to data. There are many different data sources you can connect to from Power BI Desktop.

To connect to data:

From the Home ribbon, select Get Data > More.

The Get Data window appears, showing the many categories to which Power BI Desktop can connect.

When you select a data type, you’re prompted for information, such as the URL and credentials, necessary for Power BI Desktop to connect to the data source on your behalf.

After you connect to one or more data sources, you may want to transform the data so it’s useful for you.

Transform and clean data, create a model

In Power BI Desktop, you can clean and transform data using the built-in Power Query Editor. With Power Query Editor, you make changes to your data, such as changing a data type, removing columns, or combining data from multiple sources. It’s like sculpting: you start with a large block of clay (or data), then shave off pieces or add others as needed, until the shape of the data is how you want it.

To start Power Query Editor:

On the Home ribbon, in the Queries section, select Transform data.

The Power Query Editor window appears.

Each step you take in transforming data (such as renaming a table, transforming a data type, or deleting a column) is recorded by Power Query Editor. Every time this query connects to the data source, those steps are carried out so that the data is always shaped the way you specify.

The following image shows the Power Query Editor window for a query that has been shaped, and turned into a model.

Once your data is how you want it, you can create visuals.

Create visuals

After you have a data model, you can drag fields onto the report canvas to create visuals. A visual is a graphic representation of the data in your model. There are many different types of visuals to choose from in Power BI Desktop. The following visual shows a simple column chart.

To create or change a visual:

From the Visualizations pane, select the visual icon.

If you already have a visual selected on the report canvas, the selected visual changes to the type you selected.

If no visual is selected on the canvas, a new visual is created based on your selection.

Create reports

More often, you’ll want to create a collection of visuals that show various aspects of the data you’ve used to create your model in Power BI Desktop. A collection of visuals, in one Power BI Desktop file, is called a report. A report can have one or more pages, just like an Excel file can have one or more worksheets.

With Power BI Desktop you can create complex and visually rich reports, using data from multiple sources, all in one report that you can share with others in your organization.

In the following image, you see the first page of a Power BI Desktop report, named Overview, as seen on the tab near the bottom of the image.

Share reports

After a report is ready to share with others, you can publish the report to the Power BI service, and make it available to anyone in your organization who has a Power BI license.

To publish a Power BI Desktop report:

Select Publish from the Home ribbon.

Power BI Desktop connects you to the Power BI service with your Power BI account.

Power BI prompts you to select where in the Power BI service you’d like to share the report, such as your workspace, a team workspace, or some other location in the Power BI service.

You must have a Power BI license to share reports to the Power BI service.

Next steps

To get started with Power BI Desktop, the first thing you need is to download and install the application. There are two ways to get Power BI Desktop:

Getting started with Power BI

Quickly find meaningful insights within your data that help make better business decisions or easily build rich, visual analytic reports.

Choose what you’d like to do

Share, interact, and collaborate on reports based on your data to find the insights, trends, and critical business intelligence you need.

1. Discover relevant reports

Sign up for Power BI to find and access any relevant content—including reports you already built and pre-existing reports from either your organisation or the Power BI community.

2. Uncover report insights

Explore your reports to find and generate the quick insights you need for better business decisions.

3. Share insights

Collaborate on reports with colleagues, then easily share the reports and insights when and how you want—in workspaces, on the web, in apps, or using Microsoft Teams.

With Power BI Desktop, you’ll easily connect to, model, and visualise your data to create reports that deliver insights for better decisions.

1. Connect to data

Easily import your data from wherever it is—Excel workbooks, local databases, or the cloud—and transform it so it’s ready to analyse.

2. Build a report

Now that you imported your data, create your data story. Use drag-and-drop functionality to create and format visuals that help present your data in compelling and insightful ways.

3. Publish your report

Get your reports—and the insights they highlight—to the people who need it most. Start using Power BI to save and publish reports.

Choose Power BI for self-service and enterprise BI

Power BI Desktop

Create rich, interactive reports with visual analytics at your fingertips—for free.

Power BI Pro

Use Power BI in the cloud for easy report sharing and collaboration.

Power BI Premium

Add enterprise BI for advanced analytics and scale when you need it.

Power BI Mobile

Work on the go with this free app for Android, and iOS devices.

Connect and learn more

Documentation

Find guides and information on how to make the most of Power BI.

Guided learning

Take guided courses on how to accomplish common tasks within Power BI.

Online workshops

Learn how to use—and make the most of—Power BI through free virtual training.

Community

Connect, learn, and discuss with Power BI experts and peers.

Contact Sales

Request we contact you

Have a Power BI expert contact you

Chat with Sales

Available M-F from 8am to 5pm CT

Call Sales

Available M-F from 8am to 5pm CT

Power Platform

Browse

Downloads

Learn

Follow Power BI

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Need Help?

Chat with a Microsoft sales specialist for answers to your Power BI questions.

How can we help?

Connect with a Microsoft specialist or partner to learn how Microsoft Power BI can help you use data insights to drive and grow your business, answer pricing and licensing questions, or set up a free demo and trial. We’ll contact you within two business days.

For product assistance, get technical support

Thanks for your interest

Currently, there are no representatives available based on your selection. We invite you to reach out to a partner for assistance, ask our community of experts, or start a free Power BI trial.

Getting started with Power BI

Quickly find meaningful insights within your data that help make better business decisions or easily build rich, visual analytic reports.

Choose what you’d like to do

Share, interact, and collaborate on reports based on your data to find the insights, trends, and critical business intelligence you need.

1. Discover relevant reports

Sign up for Power BI to find and access any relevant content—including reports you already built and pre-existing reports from either your organisation or the Power BI community.

2. Uncover report insights

Explore your reports to find and generate the quick insights you need for better business decisions.

3. Share insights

Collaborate on reports with colleagues, then easily share the reports and insights when and how you want—in workspaces, on the web, in apps, or using Microsoft Teams.

With Power BI Desktop, you’ll easily connect to, model, and visualise your data to create reports that deliver insights for better decisions.

1. Connect to data

Easily import your data from wherever it is—Excel workbooks, local databases, or the cloud—and transform it so it’s ready to analyse.

2. Build a report

Now that you imported your data, create your data story. Use drag-and-drop functionality to create and format visuals that help present your data in compelling and insightful ways.

3. Publish your report

Get your reports—and the insights they highlight—to the people who need it most. Start using Power BI to save and publish reports.

Choose Power BI for self-service and enterprise BI

Power BI Desktop

Create rich, interactive reports with visual analytics at your fingertips—for free.

Power BI Pro

Use Power BI in the cloud for easy report sharing and collaboration.

Power BI Premium

Add enterprise BI for advanced analytics and scale when you need it.

Power BI Mobile

Work on the go with this free app for Android, and iOS devices.

Connect and learn more

Documentation

Find guides and information on how to make the most of Power BI.

Guided learning

Take guided courses on how to accomplish common tasks within Power BI.

Online workshops

Learn how to use—and make the most of—Power BI through free virtual training.

Community

Connect, learn, and discuss with Power BI experts and peers.

Contact Sales

Request we contact you

Have a Power BI expert contact you

Chat with Sales

Available Monday to Friday 8 AM to 8 PM AEST

Call Sales

Available Monday to Friday 8 AM to 8 PM AEST

Power Platform

Browse

Downloads

Learn

Follow Power BI

Power BI contact sales widget

Need Help?

Chat with a Microsoft sales specialist for answers to your Power BI questions.

How can we help?

Connect with a Microsoft specialist or partner to learn how Microsoft Power BI can help you use data insights to drive and grow your business, answer pricing and licensing questions, or set up a free demo and trial. We’ll contact you within two business days.

For product assistance, get technical support

Thanks for your interest

Currently, there are no representatives available based on your selection. We invite you to reach out to a partner for assistance, ask our community of experts, or start a free Power BI trial.