7 min read
8 things you should know before you start with Power BI
Although Power BI is known as one of the easier BI tools to get started with, there are still a number of things that are useful to know before you begin. A number of Reddit users felt the same way, which led to a sizeable Reddit thread full of important tips. Based on these points, we have gathered 8 things that, according to Power BI users, you really need to know before you get started.
#1 Power BI doesn't make “bad data” better
Power BI is very good at visualising data, but when the quality of the data is poor, Power BI can do nothing to change that. Research by Gartner from 2017 also shows that bad data is a major problem: it found that a company loses an average of 15 million dollars a year due to poor data quality. This shows up in lower customer and employee satisfaction, rising costs and poor decision-making, among other things. [1]
Poor data quality is often caused by poor or entirely absent data management. Think of poor data verification, no documentation of the complexity between systems, no data definitions and a lack of work instructions. A tool that can help a great deal with this is TimeXtender. TimeXtender is a Data Management Platform used to collect and manage data and business logic centrally.
Want to know more about TimeXtender in combination with Power BI? We will soon be offering a webinar on this topic. Stay informed about the exact date of this webinar by signing up for our newsletter via this link.
#2 Power BI is not Excel
Perhaps one of the most important things to know is that Power BI is not the same as Excel. Power BI is a much more powerful program than Excel, and it is crucial to respect the differences between the two. So don't try to do the same things in Power BI that you would normally do in Excel.
Power BI gives you far more possibilities than Excel. Another big advantage is that Power BI saves you time compared with Excel, because it automates a great many processes. Want to know more about why Power BI is better than Excel? Then read the blog “7 reasons why Power BI is a better BI tool than Excel”.
#3 Power BI refreshes your data automatically
A comment often made by Power BI users is that, at first, they didn't know that Power BI refreshes your data automatically. It is a fairly obvious option once you know about it, but beginners easily overlook it. And of course, it doesn't happen unless you set it up.
Because if you don't know the option exists, you may well keep refreshing your data manually, while Power BI can do it for you with ease! You can set when Power BI does this yourself: which day, what time and so on. This way you can have your data refreshed up to 8 times a day, per dataset. Below you can see an example of how to set this up.
#4 The difference between a Dashboard, a Report and an App
One of the things that often still causes some confusion is the difference between a Dashboard, a Report and an App in Power BI. That is quite understandable when you are just starting out with the program, as the three are rather similar.
Let's start with the Report. A Report is created from a dataset. Data visualisations are then created from that dataset. All the data visualisations in a report are therefore based on a single dataset.
A Dashboard, on the other hand, works slightly differently. A single Dashboard can contain various ‘tiles’ (data visualisations) from different Reports. So you might well have one tile from the HR Report and one tile from the Marketing Report in a Dashboard. These each have a different dataset. When you click on one of the tiles, the corresponding Report opens.
Finally, there are Apps. These actually fall into a completely different category, because Apps are about sharing Dashboards and Reports. These are, as it were, bundled together into a single App. You can find them in the Apps tab, and Apps are generally for viewing only. An advantage of Apps is that, before you update an App, you have the opportunity to test your Dashboard or Report first. You can then update this data in the App as well.
#5 Learn Power Query
Power BI users often recommend understanding Power Query before you start working with the program.
Power Query is part of the Data Connectivity and Data Preparation technology and allows users to seamlessly import and ‘reshape’ data. You can adapt your data to your needs in a user-friendly, no-code way.
With the Power Query Editor, you can apply more than 300 different data transformations by previewing the data and selecting the transformations in the user interface. You can transform all data from all data sources, regardless of the underlying limitations of the data source.
#6 Take a beginners' course
A frequently heard tip from the Power BI community is to take a beginners' course beforehand. These courses often last only half a day and teach you the basics of Power BI in a short time. You are also in a group with other beginners, so plenty of questions get asked that you can learn from too.
At E-mergo you can also take such a beginners' course, and it is completely free and online. It is organised regularly and gives you the opportunity to get off to a flying start in Power BI. Click here to sign up.
#7 Learn to model with a Star Schema
An important part of getting started with Power BI is modelling your data. A Star Schema is one such modelling method that is very popular with Power BI users. After all, before you start building your dashboard, it is important to look at the data model.
The data model contains all the data you have imported from various sources. This data is then structured into different tables and supplemented with additional calculations. The data model determines which charts and visualisations you can include in the dashboard. The data in the data model consists of tables with ‘facts’ and tables with ‘dimensions’. The difference between the two is that if, for example, you want to know the revenue per product group per year, the facts are the revenue and the dimensions are the product group and the year.
This is exactly where the Star Schema comes in: in this model, you arrange things so that the ‘fact table’ is at the centre, surrounded by the ‘dimension tables’. This literally creates the shape of a star, hence the name. Below you can see an example of the model.
#8 Learn the basics of DAX
Power BI is a very powerful “drag-and-drop” tool that lets you quickly create a first dashboard by dragging data visualisations onto it. But if you want to dive deeper into an analysis or “customise” variables, you will come into contact with DAX. DAX, Data Analysis Expressions, is a formula expression language used in Power BI and Excel, among others. DAX is used to create analyses and to add formulas and calculations to your Power BI reports. Although the language is also used in Excel, its use in Power BI is quite different. One of the differences is that in Excel you refer to cells when creating formulas, whereas in Power BI you work with rows and columns (tables). Users often describe DAX as a “must” to know when you start working with the program.
Want to learn more about DAX? Microsoft currently offers a training in which you take your first steps with DAX. You can follow the training via this link.
Want to learn more about Power BI?
Have these tips made you want to learn even more about Power BI? You can! At E-mergo, we offer a free monthly Power BI course for beginners. The next one is on 28 May, and you can sign up via the link below. The training takes place online via Microsoft Teams.