When Microsoft Power BI and Excel are used together, a synergy is created that can transform the analysis of business data. The visualization and cloud sharing capabilities of Power BI amplify the already powerful data manipulation and modeling capabilities offered by Microsoft Excel, to allow the creation of an even more accurate and easy-to-use report. In this article, we'll explore the integration between Power BI and Excel to learn how they can simplify analysis processes and the sharing of updates in the company.
Power BI, a software from Microsoft, specializes in self-service Business Intelligence. The platform makes it easy to create visually appealing reports from data and allows users to design interactive tables that are easy to share.
Power BI is available with different licenses: a free, locally installable Desktop version, and Pro and Premium licenses. Thanks to the Power Query engine, users can extract data from virtually any source, thanks to a wide range of connectors.
With the DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) language, it is possible to program complex queries. Numerous tools and templates are provided to support report generation and the creation of interactive dashboards based on your data.
Power BI excels at creating visually intuitive reports and dashboards, an aspect where Microsoft Excel is limited due to its reduced styles and options.
Cloud technology makes it easy to seamlessly share reports and dashboards online, improving team collaboration and coordination on projects. These views are accessible on various mobile devices, such as those running iOS and Android.
Power BI integrates advanced security measures to effectively protect data. In addition, it offers the advantage of avoiding the distribution of obsolete information, ensuring that users always access the most up-to-date versions of reports and dashboards, unlike Excel.
Globally recognized, Excel is a versatile spreadsheet tool that supports a wide range of functions, including the creation of interactive dashboards similar to those of Power BI. Its strength lies in its ability to facilitate rapid analysis and calculations, offering a practical solution for fast data processing.
Thanks to VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), you can automate a wide range of tasks in Excel. In addition, there are a number of free templates available that help in creating dashboards.
While Excel dashboards may not have the visual appeal and advanced data filtering features found in Power BI, they offer a greater variety of functionality. Excel is particularly adept at financial modeling and forecasting, making it a valid choice for these specific tasks.
Excel may involve the risk of sharing outdated data. To avoid this problem, using platforms such as OneDrive, SharePoint, or Microsoft Teams can ensure that only the most up-to-date information is shared. It's important to stress that Excel is a multifunctional tool. In addition to its main functions, it can also be used for activities such as data visualization and data scraping.
Let's see how the synergy between Power BI and Excel can guarantee excellent results in the analysis of business data.
In this section, we'll explore how to connect Power BI with Excel. The combination of these two powerful tools can greatly improve your skills in data analysis and visualization. We'll guide you step by step on how to establish a connection between Power BI and Excel and how to import Excel data into Power BI.
By learning these techniques, you'll be able to effortlessly combine the two programs, boosting both the depth and efficiency of your analysis.
To get started, you need to install Power BI Desktop. You can download this free version, unlike the Power BI Pro and Premium versions, directly from the official Microsoft website. Once the installation is complete, let's see how to proceed to connect Power BI with Excel.
Next, once Power BI is open, click on 'Get Data' and select 'Excel from the data source list.
All that remains is to select which Excel file you want to connect to, choosing the range of specific data or the table that you are interested in importing.
To import Excel data into Power BI, click on the “Upload” button and, in this way, it is possible to create graphs and tables for your reports using all the tools that Microsoft software provides.
This allows you to use Power BI's advanced analysis and visualization tools, leading to more in-depth and insightful data assessments.
Whether you're using Excel Desktop or Excel for the web, you can access and explore any semantic Power BI model that you have authorized access to. This functionality allows you to analyze data within Excel spreadsheets, using Pivot Tables and other Excel tools.
The integration of Power BI semantic models into Excel allows you to find Power BI data in Excel, analyze them through pivot or connected tables, view related Power BI reports and obtain additional information on the semantic model directly in Excel.
According to what was reported on the Microsoft page, to directly link Power BI semantic models in real time within Excel, you can use one of the following methods.
Go to the 'Insert' tab, select 'Pivot Table' and then choose 'From Power BI'.
In the Excel Desktop 'Data' tab, click 'Get Data', select 'Power Platform' and then choose 'From Power BI'.
After selecting 'From Power BI' with either of the two methods, a panel will appear on the right side of the screen, showing the semantic Power BI templates at your disposal.
Next to the search bar in the panel, there's a link that takes you to the 'Power BI Data hub'. This hub provides a comprehensive view of all of Power BI's semantic models and the additional data artifacts you can access. Clicking on this link will open the Power BI service in a new tab of your web browser.
To start working with Power BI data in Excel, you can choose a semantic template already available in the panel, or use the search bar to enter your search criteria and press' Enter 'to find additional templates.
After locating the semantic model you want, select 'Insert Pivot Table' or 'Insert Table' from the tab. Note that 'Insert Table' is only available in Excel Desktop.
By opting for 'Insert Pivot Table', a new worksheet will be added to your Excel file with an empty PivotTable. In the 'Pivot Table Fields' area, you'll find a complete list of tables and measures from your Power BI semantic model, giving you the tools you need to start creating your report in Excel.
If you choose 'Insert Table', the 'Create Table' dialog box will appear, allowing you to configure your table using the 'Data, Build and Filters' panels. Once you've designed the table according to your preferences, click the 'Insert Table' button to insert it into your Excel sheet.
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Because both Excel and Power BI use Power Query and Power Pivot, a solid understanding of these tools can greatly improve your proficiency in both applications.
Power BI Excel collaborate fluidly thanks to their shared development by Microsoft. You can easily transfer a data model from Excel to Power BI without complications. In addition, their integration extends to other Microsoft Office applications, such as Teams and the wider Power ecosystem, improving efficiency and automating workflows.
There's no need to choose between Excel and Power BI, as they're designed to work together in harmony. In general, Excel is ideal for in-depth data analysis, while Power BI excels at presenting and visually sharing information.
Power BI stands out for its ease of sharing and collaborating on dashboards and reports, which can be managed with a few clicks. Its ability to manage and analyze large data sets makes it particularly effective for visualizing them. Customizable dashboards provide an overview, and you can also configure alerts for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Microsoft Excel has limitations in terms of interactivity and functionality for dashboards. Although it can display data in various chart formats thanks to its tabular layout, it is less suitable for managing large data sets. In contrast, Power BI offers a number of advanced features, such as sophisticated formatting options, natural language queries, and robust editing and filtering capabilities. These features make reports more visually appealing and improve their interactivity and dynamism.
Now we can focus on what the integration between Power BI and Excel allows us to do.
Business Intelligence (BI) encompasses the tools and processes used to collect data, transform it into valuable information, and improve decision-making. Office 365 Enterprise offers BI capabilities through Excel and SharePoint Online, allowing you to collect, view and disseminate information across your organization on multiple devices.
Let's find out what Excel can do once integrated with Power BI and business intelligence tools.
Expand your capabilities with ease by transferring your current Excel queries, data models, and reports to Power BI. Start creating visually complete interactive dashboards quickly, without having to learn how a new application or programming language works.
You can automate the updating of data. Start designing amazing interactive dashboards by quickly transferring your Excel queries, data models, and reports to Power BI. This process is smooth and requires no additional training on new applications or programming languages.
You can use and share different workbooks in a single view. Combine data from different sources by connecting your Excel spreadsheets to Power BI, allowing you to view a variety of data, charts, and tables on a single Power BI dashboard.
You can get a self-service data visualization. Extend your Excel data models to Power BI reports to unlock advanced interactive visualizations and the ability to execute natural language queries. This allows users of all skill levels, even those less familiar with Excel, to easily understand your insights and explore the data on their own.
In addition, advanced model analysis is available. In Power BI, improve your analytical workflows with advanced personalized visualizations and predictive models by integrating R scripts and visualizations powered by R. This allows for sophisticated data analysis and personalized visual representations.
It's very important that you can maintain the flexibility of your network by quickly performing ad-hoc analysis on Power BI data within Excel. With a single click, you can connect directly to your data models from Excel and create engaging pivot tables and charts.
When your organization uses team sites, you're taking advantage of SharePoint Online, which offers several methods for sharing worksheets. You have the option to set 'View Options' in the browser to determine what your worksheet looks like.
You can choose to show the worksheets in a gallery format, which centers a single element on the screen. Another option is the worksheet format, which allows you to view it within the browser.
Excel offers different methods for acquiring and organizing data. One of its most powerful features is Power Query, which allows you to import data from external sources. This imported data can be used to generate charts, tables, and reports.
Power Query allows you to search for and integrate data from multiple sources, customizing them according to your specific needs.
In Excel, you can develop a Data Model consisting of multiple tables from different databases. With Power Pivot, you can link these tables by creating relationships between them, even when they come from separate databases.
Within a data table, Flash Fill can automatically adapt the formatting of the columns according to your preferences. For more advanced users, Excel also offers the ability to create calculated items for more complex data processing.
Once your data is in Excel, generating reports is a simple process.
With quick analysis, you can select your data and quickly view different viewing options. Office offers a variety of chart types for creating reports, including tables, line charts, bar charts, radar charts, and more.
Excel provides a series of advanced tools for data analysis.
Use pivot tables and quick exploration to effectively investigate and interact with your data.
The list of fields allows you to customize your reports by choosing the exact details you want to present.
With Power Pivot, you can create scorecards with conditional formatting and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to easily monitor whether metrics are achieving their objectives.
Power Map allows you to examine and visualize data on a three-dimensional globe to get a spatial view of your information.
To refine your worksheets, you can integrate filters such as slicers and time controls, which help you focus on specific details. In addition, you can expand the functionality of your spreadsheets with advanced tools, including creating calculated items in Excel. These capabilities bring you several advantages:
The combination of Power BI with Excel constitutes a powerful and efficient tool for data analysis. Below, we'll explore the key benefits of this integration, including the ability to perform real-time data analysis and create interactive visualizations. In addition, we'll review how the Power BI Excel synergy improves collaboration between team members and simplifies data sharing.
Power BI's real-time data analysis is critical to making quick and informed decisions. To take advantage of this feature, connect Power BI to a live data source, such as a database or streaming service, to continuously obtain and analyze the most up-to-date data.
To keep an analysis always current, set automatic data update intervals. Create live visualizations, such as dynamic charts and dashboards, to observe data changes in real time. Take advantage of Power BI's streaming capabilities for continuous data updates and real-time analysis.
Interactive visualizations in Power BI offer a dynamic and engaging approach to exploring and analyzing data. To create these visual elements, follow these steps.
Import data: Connect Power BI to the selected data source, such as Excel, and import the necessary data.
Design visualizations: Use Power BI's intuitive interface to design visualizations, choosing from different types such as charts, diagrams, and maps. To add interactivity, integrate elements such as filters, slicers, and drill-through actions to personalize user interaction with data.
Add interactive elements: Take advantage of Power BI's interactive tools, such as cross-highlighting and cross-filtering, to explore connections and discover valuable insights.
Power BI's interactive visualizations help companies discover insights and detect patterns and trends that static reports may not reveal, facilitating a more informed decision.
Collaboration is simplified with Power BI Excel.
Distribute reports and dashboards: Power BI makes it easy to easily share reports and dashboards with your team, improving real-time collaboration.
Create collaboration groups: users can create groups in Power BI to work with specific teams or departments, ensuring smooth and efficient collaboration.
Use the comment and annotation features in Power BI to improve your reports and dashboards. This functionality simplifies the process of sharing feedback and communicating insights.
Configure automatic data updates in Power BI to ensure that all participants always have access to the most up-to-date information. This helps keep data up to date and accurate within your team.
If you want to extract Excel data from Power BI reports, the steps are very simple.
On Power BI, click 'Export' > 'Analyze to Excel'. In this way, the Microsoft tool allows you to download a complete worksheet of all the data and information found in Power BI.
The generated Excel file will consist of data exported from Power BI, but included in a Pivot table.
In a few simple clicks we can cross the fields of the Pivot tables and upload all the necessary information to the file. Based on the filters selected, the fields in the table will automatically update with the data.
Connecting Power BI to Excel is more than just an exchange of data: it is a progressive improvement that significantly improves data management and analytical processes.
Excel is excellent at handling complex calculations and performing comprehensive analyses thanks to its versatile and customizable functions. When combined with Power BI, these capabilities are amplified through advanced visualization and sharing tools, which facilitate the access and understanding of the analyses by all stakeholders.
Another important aspect of combining Power BI with Excel is to transform report updates into a fluid and automated activity. This integration reduces the need for manual adjustments and minimizes errors, resulting in significant time savings and allowing analysts to dedicate their efforts to more valuable activities.
Power BI's real-time integration with different data sources is a powerful feature. When this ability is combined with Excel's precise analytical tools, a reliable basis for decision making is created, based on the most recent and accurate information.
To summarize, the merger of Power BI Excel revolutionizes data analysis and reporting for everyday users. Excel's powerful data manipulation and financial modeling, combined with Power BI's advanced cloud visualization and sharing capabilities, offer professionals a more efficient, interactive, and comprehensive approach to data management. This integration not only enhances the functionality of each tool, but it also transforms the way in which data is analyzed and presented.
By combining Power BI and Excel, the reporting process becomes more efficient while offering real-time insights. This allows teams to make decisions based on data using the most up-to-date information available. Whether it's designing visually appealing interactive dashboards, automating data updates, or improving collaboration, integration dramatically changes the way data is managed and presented.
Power BI is a Microsoft tool for creating interactive data reports, while Excel is a versatile spreadsheet software. Together, they enhance data analysis and visualization.
Power BI and Excel can be connected by importing Excel data into Power BI or accessing Power BI models within Excel for advanced analysis.
This integration allows real-time data analysis, interactive visualizations, and improved collaboration, making data insights more accessible.
In Power BI, use the "Export" > "Analyze in Excel" feature to download data into an Excel Pivot Table.
Consider the efficiency of automated updates, advanced visualizations, and real-time data integration to enhance decision-making.
The Modern Apps team specializes in development and integration across the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem. We design native applications for Microsoft and Azure platforms, and implement business processes that integrate with and maximize the investment in Microsoft 365.
