Power BI as a tool for Excel report preparation? - powerbi

I want to know if I can use Power BI to create reports in Excel? I want a well formatted report we present before clients.
Clients provide us data in SQL. I use statistical analysis tools. The analysed numbers are in SQL again. I have Power BI on my laptop. I want to know if I can build any process where I can create excel reports from the SQL server numbers?
I do use PBI for creating charts and graphs which I later manually paste in excel reports. But have no idea if complete report making is possible.
Can anyone elaborate??
Thanks!!

Power BI is (mostly) the combination of two Excel plugins, Power Query (Get data from Excel 2016 onwards) and Power Pivot. The visual/report layer is an advanced version of Power View in Excel.
You have two options. First you can use Excel to have the Power BI experience in getting and connecting the data together. For this method you will use the Power Query (M) and Power Pivot (DAX) parts, these are the same as getting data and using the relationship designer in Power BI. If you are currently copying and pasting visuals from Power BI into Excel, then this method would be the best way. You may want to create your visuals in Excel, and format them to a Power BI look and feel.
The second option is to create the dataset in Power BI, getting and transforming the data, then publishing it to the service. You can then use 'Analyze in Excel' to connect Excel to the dataset and surface the data in Excel.
I would recommend not copy and pasting visuals from Power BI to Excel as you lose the benefits of Power BI's interactivity, just use the normal charts, slicers and other tools in Excel. By using the first option, you are keeping the workflow in one application without any convoluted steps back and forth, and anything you learn and use in Power Query and Power Pivot you can use in Power BI.

Related

Export Multiple Power Bi visual (Matrix and Table) to Excel

I am trying to export multiple pages in one report to excel (same spreadsheet) with the filters.
Is there any way I can do it?
You can't export Power BI visuals to Excel for whatever reason. However, you can use Analyze in Excel to live connect to the Power BI dataset and then rebuild Power BI tables and matrices with Pivot tables. Note that this doesn't work with Power BI's implicit measures but explicit (DAX) measures only.

How to add calculated column to PowerBI datasets

I have created a dataset in Power BI web, and then imported it on Power BI desktop (using File -> Get data -> Power BI datasets).
I don't see a way of adding Calculated Columns. Does the dataset need some special configuration to enable this?
Based on my experience you won't be able to see the columns because it using direct query. you can still add some columns and measure but your'e basically flying blind. you can just select the table in the report(visual view) and add column however you'll have to play the guessing game. But if you know your dataset you should be fine.
However a Dataflow wouldn't give the issue you're having.

Adding a new data source to the existing report built with a dataset

I am new to Power BI and trying to build a report for one of our business requirements. I have access to a Power BI dataset which I imported in the Power BI desktop version. I also need to import an excel file placed in SharePoint/OneDrive and merge the data in these two sources. When I am trying to do this, I am getting the below error.
Is this feature not available in Power BI?
If not, is there a way to achieve this objective?
You are connected to a Tabular SSAS cube or Power BI Service dataset, you can't add other data sources.
You can only mix data source types in the modes direct query and import. See the limitations section of the MS docs
One option would be to recreate the Tabular data model in Power BI, over the base table/views it is based on in direct query mode, then add the SharePoint list, or add it as a table in the Tabular/Power BI Service Dataset

Combine several pbix models into a single repository

I have a collection of .pbix models that follow a similar structure, ie, have the same tables and relationships.
It is too complex to combine them all into a single .pbix.
Is there a way to upload all these tables into a single repository, like PBI Service dataflows or a data warehouse, or something similar.
And then get the data back to PBI Desktop and perform DAX calculations, visualizations and report.
Any suggestions/ ideas?
Thank you so much for helping!
You can publish them to Power BI Service, and then create separate reports, but using these published datasets as a data source.
See Connect to datasets in the Power BI service from Power BI Desktop.
After publishing your "model" reports to Power BI Online, start making a new blank report, but instead of getting the data from files/databases/etc., choose Power BI service as a data source and select the previously published dataset. After that, you can publish your report the same way, but in this case you can share one dataset (your model) between multiple reports.

Download entire dataset from a .pbix file

I have no luck finding answers online, so I resorted to posting the question here. I just want to know if there is a way to export an entire dataset to Excel from a .pbix report in Power BI Desktop? The .pbix report is a dashboard that contains multiple tabs.
I am doing the same report but through Excel. Another group is tasked to use Power BI to come up with the same report, but the results differ. I wanted to be able to extract the dataset from Power BI for me to run a comparison and know where the discrepancy lies. This other group cannot provide me the raw data for professional reasons.
For a report published to Power BI online, you can choose the Analyze in Excel option.
I'm not sure if that can be done directly from the desktop app without publishing or not.