Power BI for Business

Illustrative. Which sources can be connected depends on the products, access routes and checks described below.

It is the fourth working day of the month. Someone exports a trial balance, a job list and a debtors report from three systems, then spends two days lining them up in a spreadsheet for the management meeting.

By the meeting, the figures are a week old, and twenty minutes goes on deciding which version of a margin to believe. Next month the same person does it all again.

This guide explains what Power BI for business involves: what it does, when it fits, where the data comes from, how current the figures are, how it differs from Excel, what licences cover, how access is controlled and who keeps the reporting running.

What is Power BI for business?

Power BI is Microsoft’s reporting and analytics platform. It connects to supported data sources, applies the cleaning and joining rules you set up, and presents the results as reports and dashboards for a defined audience.

Reports are built in Power BI Desktop and published to the Power BI service for sharing and refresh. A report can have several pages, while a dashboard in the service is a single page of tiles pinned from reports.

Nothing new has to be collected for a first report. Power BI for business reads records your accounting, job and CRM systems already hold. The work lies in reaching the right fields, agreeing what each figure means and keeping the connections healthy as systems change.

Power BI sits within the Microsoft ecosystem and uses the same work account as Microsoft 365. The shared sign-in is convenient, but it does not by itself grant Power BI for business licences, sharing rights or permissions, which are covered below.

When is Power BI for business worth considering?

Power BI can help when recurring questions need data from several systems, or when teams need shared measures and interactive reports rather than separate spreadsheets. Start with the decisions and the audience, then check what the data supports.

• Several sources. The answer needs accounting, job and sales data read together, and no single system reports across all of them.
• Shared measures. Managers need the same definition of margin, revenue or utilisation rather than their own versions.
• Defined audience. A named group needs the same view on a regular cycle, with access set by role.

Built-in system reports or a connected Excel workbook may already be enough. Still deciding how reporting should work across your business? Our business reporting software service can help you choose a suitable approach.

What questions should a business dashboard answer?

A dashboard should answer the questions your leadership team asks and cannot answer without somebody building something first.

In your next management meeting, write down every question answered with “I would have to check”. That list is the start of a first report specification. Possible examples include:

• Profitability. Which jobs or product lines make money once actual costs land.
• Budget. How the month and year track against budget.
• Customers. Which regular customers have gone quiet.
• Unbilled work. Finished work waiting to be invoiced.
• Capacity. Who has room before the next job is promised.

Some questions cannot be answered because the data was not captured. If nobody records why a quote was lost, no report will explain it. The fix may be a field in an existing system or a purpose-built tool, which is where custom software development comes in.

Where does Power BI get its data from?

Power BI for business draws on the systems a company already runs. A business may hold useful data in an accounting package such as Xero or MYOB, job or project software, a CRM, industry software, timesheet or rostering software and spreadsheets.

Illustrative. Each source needs its own access route and checks before it is relied on.

Power BI supports many files, databases and services, but not every product has a free native connector or exposes the records needed. Check each source:

• Product and version. The exact product and edition, since connectors differ.
• Access route. A built-in or third-party connector, an API or an export.
• Permissions and cost. Who can authorise access, and any connector or API charges.
• Fields and limits. Whether the required records are exposed, and any rate or volume limits.
• Refresh method. How the data updates, and whether a gateway is needed for on-premises sources.

Xero and MYOB can be viable sources for Power BI for business, but the route depends on the product and may carry its own charges. Spreadsheets need one agreed location and a stable layout, or the refresh breaks.

Do the systems need to agree before reporting?

Bringing data together for reporting differs from making operational systems exchange records. Power BI for business can join sources for analysis without those systems synchronising first, but the definitions still have to agree.

The same customer may be “ABC Transport Ltd” in the accounts and “ABC” in the job software, and one system may count a job when quoted while another counts it when invoiced. Agree how dates, accounting periods, GST, cost allocation and customer identities are treated, then reconcile the measures against the source systems.

Where staff retype information between systems, fixing that can be worthwhile through business software integration. It is a separate decision rather than a prerequisite for every report, and an existing integration does not prove two systems define a figure the same way.

How is Power BI different from Excel?

Choosing between Excel and Power BI for business is not a choice between a static spreadsheet and a live dashboard. Excel can connect to external data with Power Query and refresh it when the workbook opens or at set intervals. Power BI can provide a shared data model, interactive reports and controlled distribution to a defined audience. Those are design choices rather than automatic advantages over every workbook.

Excel remains strong for flexible calculations and one-off analysis. Power BI for business suits a recurring report that several people read, where definitions, refresh and access are managed in one place. Many businesses use both, and neither tool makes the source data correct.

What does Power BI cost?

Power BI Desktop, where reports are built, is a free download. For Power BI for business reporting, sharing and viewing content depend on user licences and the workspace or capacity arrangement. Microsoft’s Power BI pricing page lists the current options and notes which plans include Pro.

• Pro workspaces. In ordinary shared workspaces, publishers and viewers generally need paid licences.
• Premium per user. Content in these workspaces normally needs the same licence for its viewers.
• Fabric capacity. Free viewers are supported on Fabric capacity of F64 and above; on smaller capacity, each viewer still needs a paid licence.
• Microsoft 365. Standard Microsoft 365 Business plans do not include Power BI Pro, while Microsoft 365 E5 does.

Check what your subscriptions already include and confirm current prices when you buy. Budget separately for the build, paid connectors, a gateway or capacity where needed, and maintenance, so licences are not mistaken for the full cost of Power BI for business.

What does a useful first report look like?

A useful first release answers a defined set of questions for one named audience. Power BI for business projects lose momentum when one report tries to satisfy four audiences at once, because each group finds much of the screen irrelevant.

Illustrative measures, not a standard package or a client result. Team capacity here means booked hours against the hours available.

Readers should be able to reach the detail behind a figure through drill-through or a linked page, rather than returning to the old spreadsheet. Plan the first report with a short checklist:

• Decisions. The questions the report must answer, and what the audience will do with each answer.
• Audience. Who reads it, on which devices, and what data each group may see.
• Definitions. Written definitions for each measure, agreed with the people who use them.
• Owner. The person responsible for the report after go-live.

Build the first report against real data. It will expose duplicate customers, open jobs and inconsistent cost codes, which is useful in its own right.

What is manual reporting costing you?

Manual reporting costs a business in hours, in decisions made on old figures and in dependence on one person, which is why Power BI for business gets considered.

As an illustration, a finance person who spends two days a month on the pack spends about 24 days a year on it, close to a tenth of their working year. Released time is useful but not automatically a cash saving.

A margin problem that starts early in the month may not surface until the next pack. A regularly refreshed report can shorten that delay where the source data is current, though it cannot promise every issue is found sooner. When the one person who understands the workbook is away, the pack stops or arrives with mistakes; documented connections and definitions reduce that dependency, and a dashboard alone does not remove it.

Who keeps Power BI reporting running?

Reports need an owner as systems, credentials and definitions change. A connector changes after an upgrade, a password expires or someone renames a column.

Document the connections, gateway, measures and refresh schedule in business-owned systems under more than one person’s control. Readers still need training on filters, refresh times and what to do when a figure looks wrong, because a misread filter produces a confident wrong answer.

Ownership can sit internally or with a provider. Either way, put a name against Power BI for business reporting before go-live, not after the first refresh fails. Reporting fits within the wider business software work, alongside the integration and development that feeds it.

What goes wrong with Power BI projects?

Power BI for business projects run into problems with data, access, performance and maintenance, as well as with how reports are used.

• Reports nobody opens. If nobody can name what they would do differently based on a visual, take it out.
• Figures that disagree. Trust is lost when the report and the accounting system disagree, such as on GST. Define every measure in writing where readers can find it.
• Refresh and access faults. Expired credentials, a stopped gateway or untested permissions break a report or expose data. Monitor refresh and test access with realistic accounts.
• Tool before question. Start with the questions, then the data, then the build, rather than buying licences first.

Power BI for business support from Exodesk

Exodesk helps businesses connect their systems, agree what the figures mean, and build and support reporting. Each piece of work is scoped for data access, checks, licences, refresh, permissions and ownership, so start with the decisions, audience and source systems you have in mind.

Exodesk has supported New Zealand businesses since 1989. Today, our Christchurch and Dunedin teams support businesses nationwide.

Contact us or call 0800 396 337 to talk through your reporting requirements.