Hi,

I am trying to find out if there is any way to set alerts without purchasing Microsoft fabric separately,

currently I hold premium license.

if fabric IS necessary, any idea what the pricing is?
I would need it just for my account.

thank you in advance

Hello, Is there any way to set visual border and shadow by default? I'm tired of adding this with every new visual

Has anyone else experienced the following issues or knows how this might have happened?

I work for a company where we use Power BI dashboards to visualize our data. The data behind these dashboards is updated weekly, and we use an Azure pipeline to refresh the Power BI data models and reports in the service. This setup has been working flawlessly—until last Monday.

Since then, we’ve encountered some strange behavior with our gateway settings in the service and with staying signed in to Power BI Desktop.

Desktop Issues

My colleagues and I now have to sign in to Power BI Desktop multiple times a day, starting last Monday. We’re currently using version 2.132.1053.0 (64-bit). This issue occurs both when opening a report and while actively working on one, requiring us to log in repeatedly.

Service Issues

Published data models that have been running perfectly for weeks suddenly became disconnected from their database connections. As shown in the attached screenshot, two out of three data models no longer have a gateway connected. We haven’t made any changes to these models. Once we reconnect the gateways, they start working again

https://preview.redd.it/tjcruwnqkk7e1.png?width=368&format=png&auto=webp&s=be8fe031e5cf267ce4b0c05cbd33d3f86f8769cb

However, for other data models that are still connected, I can no longer refresh them and encounter the following error in the Power BI Service

https://preview.redd.it/1i1vwg9ykk7e1.png?width=953&format=png&auto=webp&s=57ee7ff7d05b2417f5642e4ac502314dc3087f0c

When I open this data model in Power BI Desktop, I encounter the following error. I sign in again using the same account, and the issue gets resolved. After that, I reload the data, publish the data model, and everything works as expected

https://preview.redd.it/2b25zwtfkk7e1.png?width=714&format=png&auto=webp&s=77912a0d482ff72844f6a1ac37022ec1d8ea130b

The issue is as follows: There are multiple data models, and I can refresh all of them in Power BI Desktop, but I still don’t understand how this problem could have occurred. We’ve also consulted our IT department, and they confirmed that nothing has changed on their end. Additionally, we haven’t changed any passwords or credentials.

Another persistent issue is the need to log in repeatedly to Power BI Desktop.

Has anyone else been experiencing similar problems over the past few days?

Can anyone explain all, all except with some real life example, I'm getting confused again n again..

So I've downloaded the power bi desktop app and have been playing around with it today. I'm curious if it can fit my requirements.

Tldr; browser viewable dashboards. User entry driving which data is queried. Buttons to open dynamically generated hyperlinks

Long version. Say I want to look up a product dashboard. I would need the user to type in a part number and that could query our ERP for the necessary data. Various charts showing various things. I figured out with the help of chatgpt how to use the restapi to query the product table. Well it's thousands of lines! So can power bi dynamically let me create my query to only pull what I want out of ERP using user input fields on dashboard? I discovered it's very easy to code a query and transform that rrturned data into something I want to see on the dashboard but there is a ton of overhead with that if you have to pull the whole table. Ideally I would like to send a post request to the erp's rest API with the database query. Is that possible? So far I've only used get request.

ERP allows us to embed URLs and pass parameters into a hyperlink based on database data. So I'd like to tell my ERP to launch a dashboard url with a Json body that contains variables to query various tables and data charts.

And finally I'd like to embed hyperlinks into the dashboard. Some of them would link to other dashboards and others would link back to ERP screens. We have a protocol that would make this work.

So am I barking up the wrong tree or just need to learn the product a bit better?

TIA

I saw that I can create a token but even with they ask me to login. I would like to share on real time my BI on my web system. Someone can help me with that?

I have been making reports/dashboards for a few months now and am fairly confident in the data aspect of Power BI.

I am wondering if anyone has any sources that are available for improving my UI/UX design in Power BI? I keep searching for inspiration and “good looking” dashboards but I’m not sure if there are any guiding principles for creating a visually appealing and user friendly report?

Not sure if this is allowed but is anyone in the US looking for an immediate Power BI/MS Fabric Developer? I have a fantastic candidate that has only done good work with open availability.

Send me a private message and we can talk sometime this week!

How to use quick measure to calculate weighted average?

Hello all,

I am new to PowerBI and have made progress in creating my first “coherent” report.

However, I cannot for the life of my figure out how to use quick measure to calculate weighted average, even with chat gpt premium which keeps giving me incorrect instructions.

What I am trying to accomplish specifically is getting a weighed average for each person in the whited out column.The value row shows possible survey answers (1-5). The survey legend column corresponds with the value column (ex. Strongly agree = 5). The count column shows how many strongly agrees, agrees, neutrals, etc. that each speaker got from all 12 questions. The purpose of this report is to gauge speaker performance based on a survey consisting of 12 questions. I want a grand weighted mean of all questions per person to compare each speakers performance.

For privacy purposes, the speaker column is whited out but this table is upivoted data.

Ex. John John John Sam Sam

I am not familiar at all with Dax, but I will accept it if I have to use Dax as I am still a beginner. However, if there is a way to do this avoiding Dax by using quick measure that would be awesome.

If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated!

I have a simple data set of streaming data.

I'm trying to return a table that shows the top 10 most played artists pivoted by date. Meaning, I want individual dates as column headers, artists as rows, and Count of Plays as values. I want to see each artists daily play counts going across.

This is easy when I drag and drop, but for the life of me I cannot get Q&A to give me dates as anything but rows along with each artist, giving me a table with Date|Artist|Count of Plays rather than Artist|12/10|12/11|12/13.

I've tried every phrasing and keyword I can think of but nothing is working. Any ideas?

Hello, all,

I know that Power BI can run R and Python scripts (although not all Python libraries are available. I imagine that the same can be said for R). My question is, Are there any other languages (such as C#) that are interoperable with DAX and/or M? I've seen vague allusions to forcing other languages to play nicely with DAX, but I've seen no documentation or proof. I invite your comments.

Thanks,

K.S.

Is there a way to have the subtotal of a measure be averaged while the rows are sum?

https://preview.redd.it/pvbrpxsdlh7e1.png?width=768&format=png&auto=webp&s=84fada20c403bf2d9c5374c852b717911109c5e3

https://preview.redd.it/zsiyr90jlh7e1.png?width=337&format=png&auto=webp&s=ba1bfe4f65c9b97b8571f64e78af7b98a7b69aed

I’m a Mac user and have been one my whole life. I’m not a fan of working with Windows OS, but I’m building my data analytics skill set and will begin a Microsoft Power BI training and certification course in January and I’m looking to spend as little as possible on a machine that will work well with Power BI since I won’t use it for anything else after I complete my Power BI training except to maybe refresh myself when needed.

I’d prefer a laptop, but I’m not against a desktop if it’s considerably cheaper since I’ll rarely, if ever, use it.

New to Power BI here and i'm learning some DAX and i saw a couple examples where the define function is used with the Measure statement. Is it interchangeable with Var? Is it better in any way? Thanks!

I'm looking to publish a web page to the public (using Power BI of course) that is optimized for a phone browser instead of a laptop browser when a phone browser requests the page. Can I do that? All of the tutorials I'm seeing online have a step at the end that says "have everyone install the Power BI app on their phone" at some point.

Does Power BI not support mobile browser formatting? I find that nearly impossible to believe in 2024, so if there's a button somewhere that I'm missing, please let me know. Thanks.

Hello, my table has SSH bruteforce login attempts information. Columns include: Date, Time, Country, IP, Username and I want to calculate how much does each country take on average to send a request (but it's important to take the IP into consideration because this means that it's the same machine/session).

I started by duplicating my fact table and there, I grouped by country and ip and once that's done I added an index and lastly, I expanded the grouped column to show the Time.

Am I in the right track? Where to go from here please, I'm stuck.

It's worth mentioning that I have over 600k records so I think I better go for a measure rather than a calculated column.

I am also starting to think that perhaps a median makes sense than average since some countries have way more records than others.

Thank you for your help, I'm still learning this awesome tool.

How to learn Power BI from scratch??

I'm trying to create a measure in which I take our retention rate for each month and divide it by our Live ARR at the beginning of the year. Is there a way to add a filter to this measure to show the ARR from 1/1/2024?

Net Retention % = 
DIVIDE(
    [Net Retention],
    SUM('Excel Live ARR'[BOY Live ARR])
)

https://preview.redd.it/n1aqzscchg7e1.png?width=995&format=png&auto=webp&s=da29e564772a89b60cc46003bf61b55d17f10cc1

Also, is it possible to have an average as the subtotal versus the sum?

I'm struggling to figure out how to structure my headcount / movement data model, specifically the fact tables. The data I'm receiving is basically one record per employee and this is what I have for an employee dimension so far. All history related to headcount, movements, and employees need to be kept.

I can't figure out how to be able to report on headcount at any given point in time as well as report on it period over period and YTD/MTD. Not only do I need to report on headcount numbers but also the count of promotions, demotions, transfers, and salary increases. I don't think doing a snapshot is a good idea because the table will get large extremely fast & there is not a lot of changes to the employees on a daily basis. How would I structure a headcount fact? Should I have a movement fact as well that includes promotions? But how would that look. Not sure if I am overthinking this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

https://preview.redd.it/gk5w8xkwhg7e1.png?width=256&format=png&auto=webp&s=3bbf818e6e1ce6aca997cf3bc8ef4ad5561c647d

We have 3 areas we train employees in with a different training for each. Our training software generates a list of every completed training. (see below)

So if an employee is only trained in 1 area, they will be listed once along with which area. If they are trained in 2 or 3 areas, they will be listed either 2 of 3 times.

From this I need to generate values for the number of people trained in 1 area, 2 areas, and the number of people trained in 3 areas. I'd like to do this as a measure so that I can then calculate % for each area.

I have tried a bunch of different options I found online such as:

Crosstrained 2 Area = SUMX(VALUES('Cross Training'[Employee Name]),CALCULATE(COUNT('Cross Training'[Employee Name])))

However, I can't get it to actually work. Help is appreciated!

The table is much larger than this, and has about 3,000 employees on it. But I'm hoping I can extrapolate.

Hi folks, I signed up for an upcoming Dashboard in a Day seminar and I'm really excited!

I got an email that says to download some class materials:

"Download the workshop material, lab manuals and data set from https://aka.ms/DIAD"

This leads me to basically an online version of the course I think, I haven't found anything that specifically says I can download anything. Am I missing something here? Or should I just have this tab open during the seminar?

Thanks in advance!

Across like 10 workspaces and many reports of various sizes, all targeting Business Central I have an issue.

My scheduled and manual refreshes look like they aren't completing. There is in error message. the Refresh history will be as below. But the line for the Model and Report end in ellipsis like with it's still refreshing. The users say their data isn't refreshing. Can anyone give me any pointers on what's going on?

Thanks

https://preview.redd.it/fd4o6msozf7e1.png?width=1247&format=png&auto=webp&s=28631f7637cba23bbd5c2828e3b38156425644eb

https://preview.redd.it/in1jk6a7zf7e1.png?width=1021&format=png&auto=webp&s=a29f3dfe9279f06e71397ae7245ad67317ffb6c4

So, I specialise in BI in consumer goods production companies which all have large field force teams (lots of users) and complicated kpis systems.

We always struggle with data model sizes which come with import model storage type and how reports can be slow cuz we need to aggregate complex KPI’s in each dataset.

A lot of retail KPIs are calculated by month - product - outlet and there isn’t a sufficient way to roll up those queries not breaking the logic of KPI aggregation.

So, one of the solutions is use live connection to tabular models. This is a great practice to simplify report back end, ensure one set of numbers across all reports and good workspace performance.

Although I have a gut feeling there are some limitations we’re going to run into. Like if we need to build a cross-KPI / cross-tabular model report.

Those, who have experience with this kind of set up, what is your opinion? What are the difficulties you’ve run into?

I already tried using the Data format > Currency > UK ( Cornish )

It does provide the UK symbol but my number format is still Indian.

For the Zebra BI users or u/zebrabi, over the last month or two, I've been having a terrible time getting annotations to save on visuals. This happens on reports where it previously worked without any issues.

I'll add a comment, save, and switch to reading view. The comments are clearly visible at that point. However, if I leave and come back later, the comments are sometimes there, but more often than not, they’re gone.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

Have you ever wondered how to build custom Power Bi solutions using QuickBooks connector? For modern small and medium businesses, QuickBooks Online (QBO) provides a robust platform to manage core financial processes including accounting, invoicing, inventory and reporting. However, even sophisticated systems like QBO have limitations for data analysis which can prevent growing companies from unleashing the true value of their business information for strategic decision-making.

In this in-depth post, I explore how you can leverage the QuickBooks connector in Power BI to build custom solutions that cater to your unique business needs. We’ll walk through a real-world example of a client who sought to streamline their monthly financial reporting process, and how we used Power BI to create a tailored solution that saved time, improved accuracy, and enhanced their decision-making capabilities.

Case Study – Build Custom Power BI Solutions Using QuickBooks Connector

https://preview.redd.it/49kj8blz6f7e1.png?width=1952&format=png&auto=webp&s=144ca19e4945e6f9fa627650653bf2a42801821f

Let’s dive into a real-world example of how we used Power BI and QuickBooks connector to create a custom solution for a client. Our client, a restaurant group operating 12 cafe locations across a major metro area was responsible for preparing a comprehensive monthly financial report for their board of directors. This report, which included a balance sheet, income statement, and various performance metrics, was previously created manually in Excel and then exported to PDF for distribution.

The client approached us, seeking a more efficient and automated solution that would streamline their monthly reporting process. They wanted to leverage their existing QuickBooks data to generate a visually appealing, interactive report that could be easily exported to PDF or PowerPoint for their board meetings.

Designing the Custom Power BI Solution

To address the client’s needs, we developed a custom Power BI solution that seamlessly integrated with their QuickBooks data. The solution was divided into two main components: a visual-focused dashboard and a table-based report.

The Visual Dashboard

The visual dashboard was designed to provide a high-level overview of the client’s financial performance. Using Power BI’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface, we created a series of interactive visualizations that showcased key metrics, such as:

• Last 13 months’ revenue by customer
• Last 13 months’ revenue by meal type
• Breakfast, lunch, and snack average revenue per meal
• Last 13 months’ average cost per meal and COGS as a percentage of revenue
• Overtime and regular hours over the last 13 months
• Average days sales outstanding (DSO) and days payable outstanding (DPO)
• Meals per direct labor hour
• Last 13 months’ volume by customer and trailing 12-month revenue by customer

By leveraging Power BI’s powerful data visualization capabilities, we were able to transform the client’s financial data into a visually compelling and easily digestible format. The dashboard allowed the client to quickly identify trends, spot anomalies, and make informed decisions based on the insights presented.

The Table-Based Report

While the visual dashboard provided a high-level overview, the client also required a more detailed, table-based report to satisfy the needs of their board of directors. To address this, we utilized Power BI’s Report Builder feature to create a comprehensive financial report that included the following sections:

• Monthly Financial Summary
• Monthly Financial Detail
• Year-to-Date Financial Summary
• Year-to-Date Financial Detail
• Balance Sheet
• Cash Flow Statement
• Monthly Financial Detail
• Monthly Balance Sheet
• Monthly Cash Flows
• Monthly Revenue by Customer vs. Budget

We were able to seamlessly integrate the client’s financial data into the report, ensuring that the information presented was accurate, up-to-date, and aligned with their existing accounting practices.

Current Pain Points:

• No centralized view of enterprise performance. Rely on disjointed reports from individual locations
• CEO spends days manually manipulating data in Excel to prepare Board Packs
• Delayed access to results; limited analytics to understand root causes
• Lack of polish to reports shared across the management team

These limitations reflect common challenges of overburdened executives in thriving small companies. Let’s explore overcoming them by tapping the information stored within QuickBooks Online.

Solution Architecture with Power BI

https://preview.redd.it/4rlj9l2l7f7e1.png?width=1952&format=png&auto=webp&s=9625601aecc061430a0ef41c8c980e392ba720f1

The high-level architecture of our business intelligence solution comprises:

• QuickBooks Online – core financial transactions and reference data
• Power BI Desktop – import, model, visualize data
• Power BI Service – host dashboards and reports
• Power Automate – connect workflows, notifications, report distribution

By integrating these components, we can build an automated reporting suite providing complete visibility into operational and financial KPIs. This frees up the management team to focus exclusively on analyzing the business, not just compiling data.

QBO connector for Power BI

The first step is establishing connectivity between the QuickBooks company file and Power BI, handled seamlessly via the certified QBO connector.

Within report settings in Power BI Desktop, we link to the cloud accounting system using OAuth client credentials. This grants read-only data access to import into Power BI datasets.

The connector interface provides point-and-click configuration such as:

• Select connected QuickBooks company
• Choose date range for data import
• Pick individual tables/entities to include
• Preview/transform data through Power Query before loading

This makes extracting transaction information simple without needing to export reports or build CSV templates in QuickBooks.

Now let’s examine the key tables we use for this restaurant analytics solution:

• Chart of Accounts – reference data for mapping account numbers to categories like COGS or Utilities used in reporting structures
• Items – menu/inventory details including product names, prices and categories
• Vendors – names and categories for suppliers
• Customers – client references containing segmentations and contact info
• Employees – staffing details including assignments to locations
• Accounts Payable – bills and purchasing transaction history
• Accounts Receivable – sales invoice and payment data
• Inventory Adjustments – product stock adjustments over time reflected against costs

Combining these provide comprehensive coverage of financial, customer, product and vendor activity within one cloud database accessible through the connector.

Power BI Desktop Data Model

https://preview.redd.it/kb98l5nn8f7e1.png?width=1952&format=png&auto=webp&s=7c08e7cdc4c703ef9e16232e1e7d3a80e0e3c08d

With easy access now established into the QBO tables, we next structure the imported data for analysis

Visualize into Interactive Dashboards

https://preview.redd.it/tvq6ej6x8f7e1.png?width=1960&format=png&auto=webp&s=5c33e4f011a7621fe9ae42f9b0f322446e1288d1

With the foundations of a clean, unified data model in place, we now create graphical reports and dashboards designed specifically around the needs of key user personas.

For the CEO, we build an Executive Dashboard answering:

• What is our overall financial performance?
• How do operating expenses and net profit compare to budget?
• What sales trends or seasonal impacts are occurring?

For the Operations Manager we design a Store analysis dashboard showing:

• Measures of items costs, waste and profitability
• Labor productivity benchmarks
• Performance metrics across all locations

The Area Store Managers get tailored Individual Location Dashboards monitoring:

• My store’s revenue against targets
• Menu item popularity and sales
• Customer visit patterns
• Inventory stock on hand

In total, we construct over 30 visual reports spanned across interactive dashboards personalized for information needs of decision makers at the head office and store levels.

Advanced BI techniques like drill downs, decomposition trees and linkage highlighting are utilized within dashboards to enable diagnosis of factors influencing KPI outcomes. This equips executives with insights to pinpoint opportunities for improving performance at granular levels.

Automated, Scheduled Reporting

https://preview.redd.it/mcaxhum89f7e1.png?width=1952&format=png&auto=webp&s=b76f0b907511115783f172d855defa27b292b766

Alongside interactive dashboards, many stakeholders depend on familiar and standardized reporting packs in Word, PDF or PowerPoint formats. Executives often need to distribute or present large volumes of data in board meetings or shareholder communications.

It is unfeasible to expect these users to export and format 30 different visual charts. Instead, Power BI Report Builder is leveraged for automating personalised reporting packs including:

CEO Board Pack

• Monthly Financial Statements
• KPI Performance Summaries
• Region Benchmarking

Area Manager Standard Reports

• Monthly Sales Reports
• Store Ranking Comparisons
• Customer Segment Variations

Inventory Controller Package

• Wastage Reports
• Stock Level Analyses
• Replenishment Notifications

Reporting packs are designed inside report builder templates aligned to each manager’s preferences for layout formats, cover pages, visual styling, and custom calculations present the data narrative professionally.

The pre-built reports dynamically connect to the real-time QBO datasets inside Power BI. As fresh data from each accounting period updates the linked dataset, reports remain accurate without needing manual regenerations.

We configure subscriptions against the Report Builder templates to get these packs automatically delivered to recipients email inboxes. Schedules are set for monthly, weekly or even daily distributions. Conditional alerts trigger for anomalies like:

• Revenue below X threshold
• Inventory stockouts risk
• Excessive labor costs warning

This automates an entire suite of KPI monitoring for the management team while removing manual report creation workloads through the flexibility of Power BI.

Solution Deployment and Consumption

With the data connections configured, dashboards designed and reports automated − the last phase is deployment to relevant audiences for consumption.

Inside the Power BI Service, the analytics assets are published into a Content Hub creating a central collaboration portal for end users.

Bricks enable bundling together dashboards and underlying datasets for access control distribution.

We utilize row-level security filtering to limit sensitive financial figures from frontline staff not needing full system visibility. Auditing monitors artifact access where required.

Embedding analytics content into relevant business systems is also achievable using Power BI APIs. Screens on the Restaurant Point-of-Sale system highlight real-time results empowering floor staff to influence outcomes.

For external communications, CEO can export presentations from PowerPoint plug-in to share the latest performance with investors or board members.

Ubiquitous mobility is enabled as executives can monitor reports remotely across any device. The Power BI mobile app provides data on-the-go with iOS and Android compatibility.

Through these frontline staff engagement tactics combined with mobility and extensibility options, Power BI facilitates data consumption down to moments that trigger actions.

Solution Deployment and Consumption

With the data connections configured, dashboards designed and reports automated − the last phase is deployment to relevant audiences for consumption.

Inside the Power BI Service, the analytics assets are published into a Content Hub creating a central collaboration portal for end users.

Bricks enable bundling together dashboards and underlying datasets for access control distribution.

We utilize row-level security filtering to limit sensitive financial figures from frontline staff not needing full system visibility. Auditing monitors artifact access where required.

Embedding analytics content into relevant business systems is also achievable using Power BI APIs. Screens on the Restaurant Point-of-Sale system highlight real-time results empowering floor staff to influence outcomes.

For external communications, CEO can export presentations from PowerPoint plug-in to share the latest performance with investors or board members.

Ubiquitous mobility is enabled as executives can monitor reports remotely across any device. The Power BI mobile app provides data on-the-go with iOS and Android compatibility.

Through these frontline staff engagement tactics combined with mobility and extensibility options, Power BI facilitates data consumption down to moments that trigger actions.

Maintaining Future Solution Enhancements

https://preview.redd.it/1a916lxk9f7e1.png?width=1952&format=png&auto=webp&s=384ed5bd5a13ee3dff67aad2839857183f004361

While this current build delivers immense value revealing insights hidden within QuickBooks data, additional functionality can be swiftly activated as the client’s needs expand.

Some foreseeable enhancements include:

Append New Data Feeds

As the restaurant group acquires new franchises, promptly onboard new locations into the Power BI solution for accurate consolidated visibility by augmenting sourcing pipelines.

Extended Granularity

Incorporate actual food production volumes from Restaurant Management System databases into Power BI for comparing against ingredient consumption rates and identifying process waste opportunities.

Enhanced Predictions

Build forecasting models applying machine learning to estimate future customer demand and inventory requirements that support proactive management.

The success of this custom Power BI solution for the client is a testament to the power of integrating QuickBooks data with the robust reporting and analytics capabilities of the Power BI platform.

By leveraging the QuickBooks connector, businesses can unlock a world of possibilities, transforming their financial data into actionable insights that drive strategic decision-making and operational efficiency.

P.S. if you need help in developing Power BI reports from Quickbooks, Feel free to DM me!