Dashpivot article – Power BI has excel integration
Power BI has Excel Integration
How Does Excel Complement Power BI?
Excel is one of the most commonly used digital tools to analyse and visualise data. It’s easy to use, and it has powerful features for data organisation and cleaning. There are advanced calculations and functions one can study in Excel, having a library of formulas that can be used.
There are statistical functions that can also be utilised for data insights, and pivot tables and charts for data summarisations. So with all these features Excel has, why do organisations also use Power BI for advanced data visualisation, and how does Excel complement Power BI?
Preparing, Cleaning, Organising, and Transforming Data in Excel Before Importing to Power BI
Excel has a very straightforward tabular structure or grid layout, making it easier to input data in columns and rows. One can easily sort and clean data as well by using formulas and functions like TRIM, CLEAN, LEFT, RIGHT, MID, IF, VLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH, CONCATENATE, etc.
Most organisations and users prefer to clean data in Excel first before getting them into Power BI because it’s a familiar interface. Basic transformations are workable and quicker to implement in Excel than in Power BI. Aside from that, cleaning beforehand in Excel reduces the number of transformation steps needed in Power BI. However, large datasets are ideally better managed by Power BI rather than cleaning them in Excel. Choosing to clean in Excel first depends on the size and complexity of data.
Usually the best approach is to use Excel for simple tasks and then Power BI for automation and scalability.
Compatibility with Power BI
Excel is compatible with Power BI by using the .xlsx and .csv formats, and both of them use PowerQuery. Excel’s Power BI Publisher allows pinning of Excel charts and tables to Power BI dashboards.
Advanced Calculations and Custom Formulas
Excel has formulas that may be difficult to apply directly into Power BI such as TEXT, LEFT, RIGHT, MID, and TRIM. Even logical functions like IF, AND, OR, and IFS, and lookup functions VLOOKUP, XLOOKUP, and INDEX-MATCH. For users who are not familiar with Power Query, they can use Excel to perform calculations like SUMIF, COUNTIF, and AVERAGEIF.
What Features of Power BI Enhance Excel Data and Vice Versa?
Dashboards, Custom Data Visualisation
Power BI expands the visual options of data coming from Excel. If Excel makes manual data entry and organisation easy, then Power BI provides visuals like charts, gauges, maps, and more that are not yet available in Excel. Power BI also has a library of custom dashboards for specific use cases.
Data visualisation is made friendly to the eyes. It’s readable and modern, and ideal for engaging reports. Users can also explore on data even more by having slicers and filters. There are options and tools for in-depth and contextual insights not easily available in Excel.
Excel has static charts, which makes comprehensive charts difficult to create. With Power BI, you can combine Excel data to create extensive dashboards and visualisation. This is most especially useful for complex industries with multiple projects and sites.
Additionally, Power BI has interactive tooltips. Meaning, there’s a note or a display of additional information when one hovers over the data, chart, or visual.
How does Power BI improve visualisation and interactivity for Excel data?
Real-Time Data, Advanced Analytics
Power BI can be connected to other tools that stream real-time data and display them simultaneously in the dashboards. Excel does not have this feature of live streaming data integration yet.
Power BI provides predictive analysis like simulations. This is most especially helpful for organisations to be able to assess company performance and make informed decisions to avoid issues and mitigate risks.
Excel is limited to rows and columns. Power BI can handle multiple data sets efficiently.
Sharing, Collaboration, Accessibility
Power BI is cloud-based, meaning teams can collaborate and interact simultaneously on reports. With having multiple people working, Power BI has version control settings and access permissions to ensure that only selected users can have access to certain reports. It has the capabilities to filter who can view, edit, or share reports and dashboards across users, teams, and organisations. This protects data and ensures security on organisational data. Additionally, all stakeholders are updated with the latest organisational data which they can access using their computers, mobile phones, and tablets. Furthermore, Power BI has the feature to set alerts and notifications. This helps teams stay updated with the important changes of reports and dashboards.
What are Some Use Case Scenarios of Using Both Excel and Power BI?
Use case scenarios of using Excel first and then implementing the rest in Power BI are: (1) formatting and standardising fields in Excel first and then importing them into Power BI; (2) organisations use Excel for complex calculations in simple data sets and then importing them into Power BI, and; (3) if organisations use multiple Excel files or sheets to make reports, they can use Power BI to consolidate them all for unified reporting/view.
However, given that workers don’t have the time to create spreadsheets while on site, or even if they do have the time to get on their computers at the end of the shift which may cause data inaccuracies, what’s the best way to reduce manual data entry and data inconsistencies?
Excel may be useful for simple data entry with having a wide range of features, it’s not so accessible. In some demanding industries, other functional digital tools may serve organisations better and more conveniently.
With deadlines and time constraints, multiple steps of data entry are counterproductive. Organisations may utilise other workers to input data into Excel from paper reports coming on site, however, again, that’s inefficient.
To optimise data entry workflow, it’s easier to input data directly from the reporters or authors. For example, for checking deliveries, instead of: (1) having a physical paper to check and then transferring to Excel, or; (2) having a laptop or personal computer in the delivery section just to be able to use Excel; it’s more efficient to use a mobile phone or tablet and use another digital tool that uses standardised forms with Excel-like formulas.
How to Avoid Tedious Manual Data Entry and Standardisation in Excel Before Migrating to Power BI?
Manually collecting data and then having to manually input them again just to organise and standardise them is tedious. Excel may be a good starting too, but for fast-paced industries like the construction industry, having to manually input data twice in a row is counterproductive.
If you are building Power BI construction project dashboards (or Excel based dashboards), then you need to be using smart tools to transfer your project information.
Why not create a standardised format ahead of time to be used across the organisation? Users will just simply click on the form they want to create, and they can easily and seamlessly input data using their mobile phones and tablets.
Dashpivot works like Excel, but better. You can use multiple formulas similar to Excel’s formula syntax in your standardised forms and documents. For example, you run your daily timesheets and formulas through Excel, you can build this logic into an app Like Dashpivot so field workers can collect data direcrly on site in a digital format. No need for double data entry with Dashpivot.
Data coming in from the reporters and authors themselves reduces inaccuracies and inconsistencies. For example, if a worker is conducting an inspection in a site, they can use their organisation’s standardised Inspection Form they created in Dashpivot.
The worker just simply gets his/her mobile phone or tablet and enters data while conducting the inspection. They won’t have to go through the rigorous process of manually writing it down in paper and then organising data in Excel to be able to migrate data to Power BI for data visualisation. So, how can organisations import data from Dashpivot to Power BI?
How to Import Data from Dashpivot to Power BI?
If your organisation is using Dashpivot as the digital tool to automate your information management system, then importing to Power BI is easy.
Flowsite is the tool to use to connect Dashpivot and Power BI, and Flowsite also has a native integration with Excel as well. It’s the tool that complements Dashpivot to Power BI without any hassle. Moving data across systems (Power BI) is made easy without manual data entry.
Just simply set triggers and actions in Flowsite, and you’re good to go. There’s no need for codes to automate the processes. You and your organisation get better and more accurate reporting and insights coming in directly from the site.
Integrations are not only applicable in Power BI, but also in Excel, SharePoint, Xero, QuickBooks and Dataverse. Since we talked about Excel earlier, if there is a need to transfer data from Dashpivot to Excel, it’s also made possible with Flowsite.
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