Power BI for the Excel Analyst: Your Essential Guide to Power BI

Book Description

The essential guide for getting started with Power BI.

Power BI is an amazing cloud-based business analytics service provided by Microsoft that allows people to transform data into rich, interactive visual reports that presents a 360-degree business view and improves business decision making. This book is designed to get the Excel analyst started with Power BI, touching on Power Query and Power Pivot.

Table of contents

Foreword
Power Pivot and Power Query – the Parents of Power BI
Why I Wrote this Book
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 - Getting Started with Power BI
	Getting Set Up
	Using this Book and Downloading Sample Files
	Download the Exercises and view the List of URLs
	The PBI.guide Website
Chapter 2 - First Look – an Introduction to Power BI Desktop
	Interacting with a Power BI Report
	Introducing Power Query
	Importing and Cleaning Data using Power Query
	Summary of Your Introduction to Power Query
Chapter 3 - Publishing Your Report
	Signing in to PowerBI.com for the First Time
	The PowerBI.com Experience (aka “the Service”)
	Creating a Workspace
	Power BI Licence Options: A Brief Overview
Chapter 4 - Files Stored in SharePoint/OneDrive for Business
	Step 1: Finding the Connection Path
	Step 2: Using the Power BI Desktop Web Connection
	Step 3: Pulling the Data into Power BI
	Step 4: Build a Simple Visual
	Step 5: Publish to Your New Workspace
	Step 6: Set up a Scheduled Refresh
Chapter 5 - Creating a Power BI Model
	Using a Template File with a Pre-built Calendar Table
	Creating Relationships Between Tables
	Managing Sort Order
	Adding Additional “Lookup/Dimension” Tables
	Adjusting Power BI Visuals
	Filtering via Slicers and the Filter Panel
	Exploring More Visuals
Chapter 6 - Getting Your Data into the “Right Shape”
	Power Query’s Two Best Features in One Chapter!
	Comparing Data from Two Fact Tables
Chapter 7 - DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions)
	Writing Your First DAX Measure
	Storing Measures in their Own Dedicated Table
	Year to Date Measure
	Prior Year Comparison and the CALCULATE Function
	Removing Filters
	Formatting Your DAX
	Ratios and Percentages Using DIVIDE
	Virtual Calculated Columns using the X Functions
	Dealing with Multiple Date Fields in Your Fact Table
	Organising Measures into Folders
	DAX – Next Steps in Your Learning
Chapter 8 - The Calendar Table
	Turning Off Auto Date/Time for New Files
	Power Query Advanced Editor
	Copying Queries Between files
	Changing the Display Order of Fields
	Marking as Date Table
Chapter 9 - Creating a Template File
	Setting Your Default Theme Fonts and Colours
	Adding a Measures Table
	Using Your Template
	Editing/Updating Templates
Chapter 10 - Intermission for Excel Fans
	A Little History of Power BI
	A Demonstration of Excel’s “Power” Features
	Create an Interactive Pivot Chart
Chapter 11 - Enrich Your Power BI Report
	Conditional Formatting
	Tooltips
	Drill-through Page
	Report Design Tips
	Making Analysis Easier
	Natural Language Queries and AI-Driven Insights
Chapter 12 - Sharing Your Reports via Apps
	Publish Your Report to the Workspace
	Create an App from Your Workspace
	Sharing the App
	Updating a Report and an App
	Scheduling a Refresh where a Gateway is Required
Chapter 13 - Additional Important Features
	Row-Level Security
	Dataflows
	Connecting to a Dataset via Power BI Desktop
Chapter 14 - Where Do We Go from Here?
	Some Topics We Didn’t Cover…
	Next Steps in Your Power BI Journey
	Pages after the Index in the printed book
Index

About The Author

Wyn Hopkins

Wyn Hopkins qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and then went on to work as a Financial Analyst with HBOS and the Barclays Group in the UK before emigrating to Australia in 2007. He then joined Access Analytic in Perth and in 2017 became a director. Wyn utilizes advanced Excel and Power BI techniques including Power Query, Power Pivot, DAX, and VBA to build applications that help companies address their reporting, automation, and analysis needs.