Power BI: Create Compelling Interactive Reports

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Are you ready to embark on a journey that will revolutionize the way you work with data? Join us for Power BI Demystified: Transforming Data into Stunning Visuals and discover the power of Microsoft’s revolutionary business intelligence and data visualization platform, Power BI. Designed specifically for beginners, this comprehensive training session will introduce you to the fundamentals of data visualization, reporting, and analytics, helping you transform raw data into meaningful business insights.

Say goodbye to relying solely on IT departments for reports and dashboards. With Power BI, you can take control of your data, build impactful reports, and become a self-service reporting professional. Learn how to connect multiple data sources, create engaging visualizations, automate data preparation, and develop interactive reports that support informed, data-driven decision-making. Whether you are new to Power BI or looking to strengthen your reporting capabilities, this session will provide the foundational skills needed to unlock the full potential of your data.

Your Benefits For Attending:
  • Learn how to connect data sources, including Excel spreadsheets, databases, and text files, to Power BI.
  • Discover how to create compelling visualizations that transform data into meaningful insights.
  • Apply professional formatting techniques, including colors, fonts, and styles, to enhance report presentation.
  • Streamline report updates when underlying datasets change.
  • Create interactive filters that improve report usability and user engagement.
  • Automate data preparation processes to increase efficiency and reduce manual effort.
  • Learn how to easily share reports and insights with colleagues and stakeholders.

By attending this training, you will gain practical, hands-on knowledge that can help you work more efficiently with data, improve reporting accuracy, and create professional dashboards that drive better business decisions. You'll leave with the confidence to leverage Power BI's capabilities and transform data into actionable insights.

Topics Covered:
  • Connect data sources (Excel, databases, text files, etc.) to Power BI
  • Elevate your reports with engaging visual elements
  • Apply professional formatting, including colors, fonts, and styles, to your reports
  • Streamline report updates when the underlying dataset changes
  • Create interactive filters to enhance report interactivity
  • Automate data preparation
  • Easily share your reports with colleagues

Who Should Attend:
This training caters to a diverse audience, including business analysts, data professionals, and anyone with an interest in data analysis. It provides the foundational knowledge and skills needed to unlock the full potential of Power BI.

Important Note:
Please note that Power BI Desktop is exclusively available for Windows and is not compatible with Mac or mobile devices.

Join us on this transformative journey and demystify the world of data visualization. Your data has stories to tell—it's time to give them a voice with Power BI.

Level: Intermediate
Format: Live Webcast
Instructional Method: QAS Self-Study (Traditional)
NASBA Field of Study: Computer Software & App (2 hours)
Program Prerequisites: Excel on Windows System
Advance Preparation: No
  1. Introduction
  2. What Is Power Bi? 00:02:45
  3. PBIX Files 06:29
  4. Power Bi Desktop 00:09:14
  5. Sales Report File 00:11:23
  6. Updating To The Web 00:18:49
  7. How To Create A New Power BI File  00:20:27
  8. Updating Currency Rates 00:30:10
  9. Creating A Visual 00:31:27
  10. Publishing The Report 00:36:49
  11. Managing Access 00:43:06
  12. The Edit Option 00:46:52
  13. Cleaning Up The Data 00:54:15
  14. Pulling Data 01:01:34
  15. Building Another Report From Scratch 01:06:30
  16. Transform Data - Refresh 01:17:21
  17. Visuals - Power BI Dashboard Card 01:19:11
  18. Manage Relationships Function 01:28:29
  19. Visuals - Charts & Slicers 01:30:50
  20. Speaker Info 01:39:56
  21. Presentation Slides 01:40:40
  • Mike Thomas

    Mike Thomas

    Mike Thomas has worked in the IT training business for 26 years. His expertise and experience covers designing and delivering training courses, creating written training materials (Quick Reference Guides and step-by-step tutorials), recording and editing video-based tutorials and providing support t [...]

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You must answer all questions during the webinar, view the recording completely and pass the test at the end with 70% correct answers to receive CPE credit.

Browse previous versions of this webinar series:

  • Power BI Demystified: Transforming Data into Stunning Visuals
    Webinar Date: January 1, 2026
    VIEWING
  • Power BI - Create Compelling Interactive Reports
    Webinar Date: February 14, 2025
    View
  • .CSV 00:10:23
  • .PBIX 00:06:34, 00:11:34, 00:53:33
  • Bar Chart 00:33:00
  • Column 00:31:59, 00:33:59, 00:54:39, 00:57:55, 01:09:15, 01:10:01, 01:21:34
  • Column Chart 01:32:28
  • Column Heading 00:34:06
  • Dashboard 00:03:52
  • Field 00:32:51
  • Filter 00:05:49, 01:33:44
  • Formula 01:00:26
  • Microsoft 365 00:37:10
  • PDF 00:10:35
  • Pie Chart 01:30:57
  • Power BI 00:00:06, 00:03:35, 00:08:07, 00:36:51, 01:04:50, 01:21:45
  • Power BI Dashboard Card 00:13:56, 00:31:46, 01:19:17
  • Power BI Desktop 00:07:19, 00:41:56, 00:49:17
  • Power BI Semantic Model 00:40:19
  • Power BI Workspace 00:18:52, 00:20:46, 00:37:25
  • Power Query 00:55:45
  • Power Query Editor 00:55:26, 01:09:48, 01:13:29, 01:29:33
  • Query 01:18:48
  • Refresh 00:19:46, 00:30:21, 00:42:39, 00:53:02, 01:05:08, 01:17:31
  • Row 01:09:17
  • Slicer 01:33:43
  • Table 00:10:36, 00:12:27, 00:26:45, 00:29:01, 00:54:31, 01:00:00, 01:09:38

.CSV: Comma-Separated Value files are text files where each field of data is separated by a comma. This is an effective means to export data from QuickBooks that you, in turn, wish to analyze in Excel.

.PBIX: The file extension for Power BI files is “.pbix”. The .pbix files are highly compressed file types that contain all the graphics along with the actual data.

Bar Chart: A bar chart (also called a bar graph) is a great way to visually display certain types of information, such as changes over time or differences in size, volume, or amount. Bar charts can be horizontal or vertical; in Excel, the vertical version is referred to as a column chart.

Column: A column is a vertical series of cells in a chart, table, or spreadsheet in Excel.

Column Chart: A column chart is a graphic representation of data. Column charts display vertical bars going across the chart horizontally, with the values axis being displayed on the left side of the chart.

Column Headings : The column heading or column header is the gray-colored row containing the letters (A, B, C, etc.) used to identify each column in the worksheet. The column header is located above row 1 in the worksheet.

Dashboard: An Excel dashboard is a one-pager (mostly, but not always necessary) that helps managers and business leaders in tracking key KPIs or metrics and take a decision based on them. It contains charts/tables/views that are backed by data. A dashboard is often called a report, however, not all reports are dashboards.

Field: In a PivotTable or PivotChart, a category of data that is derived from a field in the source data. PivotTables have row, column, page, and data fields. PivotCharts have series, category, page, and data fields.

Filter: The Filter feature in Excel allows you to show or hide rows within a list of data by making selections from drop-down lists. The Filter feature is available on the Data tab of all versions of Excel as well under the Sort & Filter command on the Home menu.

Formula: A formula is an expression which calculates the value of a cell.

Microsoft 365: Microsoft 365, formerly Office 365, is a line of subscription services offered by Microsoft which adds to and includes the Microsoft Office product line.

PDF: Portable Document Format, a universal document format created by Adobe that allows cross-platform compatibility of documents.

Pie Chart: A pie chart is a circular representation that reflects the numbers of a single row or single column of Excel. The individual numbers are called data points (or categories) and a list (row or column) of numbers is called a data series.

Power BI: Power BI is an interactive data visualization software product developed by Microsoft with a primary focus on business intelligence. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform

Power BI Dashboard Card: The Power BI Dashboard card allows organizations to display dashboards from the Microsoft Power BI visualization tool, which includes various custom data visualization charts.

Power BI Desktop: Power BI Desktop is a free application you install on your local computer that lets you connect to, transform, and visualize your data. With Power BI Desktop, you can connect to multiple different sources of data, and combine them (often called modeling) into a data model.

Power BI Semantic Model: Power BI semantic models represent a source of data ready for reporting, visualization, discovery, and consumption. Power BI semantic models provide: The ability to expand warehousing constructs to include hierarchies, descriptions, relationships. This allows deeper semantic understanding of a domain.

Power BI Workspace: Workspaces are created on capacities. Essentially, they are containers for dashboards, reports, workbooks, datasets, and dataflows in Power BI. There are two types of workspaces: My workspace and workspaces. My workspace is the personal workspace for any Power BI customer to work with your own content.

Power Query: Power Query is a data connection technology that enables you to discover, connect, combine, and refine data sources to meet your analysis needs. Features in Power Query are available in Excel and Power BI Desktop. Power Query is one of three data analysis tools available in Excel: Power Pivot.

Power Query Editor: Power BI Desktop also comes with Power Query Editor. Use Power Query Editor to connect to one or many data sources, shape and transform the data to meet your needs, then load that model into Power BI Desktop.

Query: A database query extracts data from a database and formats it in a readable form. A query must be written in the language the database requires; usually, that language is Structured Query Language (SQL). For example, when you want data from a database, you use a query to request that specific information.

Refresh: The Refresh command appears on the Options tab of Excel 2007 and 2010 as well as the Analyze tab of Excel 2013. Pivot tables store a snapshot of the underlying source data, so they don’t immediately reflect changes to said data. You must periodically refresh any pivot table to ensure it reflects any changes to the source data.

Row: A row is the range of cells that go across (horizontal) the spreadsheet/worksheet. Rows are identified by numbers e.g. row 1, row 5. Examples of use. A row might contain the headings of a table e.g. product ID, product name, price, number sold.

Slicer: You can insert slicers in Excel to quickly and easily filter pivot tables. Slicers were introduced in Excel 2010, and they make it easy to change multiple pivot tables with a single click

Table: A table is an arrangement of data in rows and columns, or possibly in a more complex structure. Tables are widely used in communication, research, and data analysis. Tables appear in print media, handwritten notes, computer software, architectural ornamentation, traffic signs, and many other places.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Power BI is Microsoft's business intelligence and data visualization platform, designed to connect to diverse data sources, transform raw data, and create interactive, shareable reports and dashboards — capabilities that go significantly beyond what Excel offers for reporting purposes. While Excel remains a powerful tool for individual data analysis and spreadsheet modeling, Power BI excels at handling large datasets from multiple sources simultaneously, creating visually engaging interactive reports with slicers and filters, and distributing those reports to stakeholders through the web-based Power BI Service without requiring recipients to own the underlying data file. Power BI Desktop — the free Windows application used to build reports — connects to databases, Excel files, CSV files, cloud services, and many other sources, combining data through a built-in model rather than requiring manual copy-paste workflows. Power Query, shared between Excel and Power BI, enables automated data preparation that refreshes with each update. For business professionals who currently rely on static Excel reports, Power BI represents a significant upgrade in report interactivity, visual sophistication, and sharing capability, all accessible without IT involvement.
Connecting data to Power BI begins in Power BI Desktop, where the Get Data button provides access to hundreds of data connectors — including Excel workbooks, CSV files, SQL databases, SharePoint lists, and cloud services like Salesforce and Google Analytics. Once connected, data flows into Power Query Editor, where you can clean, transform, and shape the data before loading it into the model. After loading, you build reports on the Report canvas by selecting fields from the Fields pane and choosing from a wide variety of visual types — bar charts, column charts, pie charts, cards, tables, maps, and more. Slicers added to the report canvas create interactive filters that update all visuals simultaneously when a user clicks a value, enabling dynamic exploration without any additional configuration. Once the report is complete, you publish it to the Power BI Service through your Microsoft 365 account, where it becomes accessible to any permitted user through a browser or the Power BI mobile app. The entire workflow from raw data to a shared interactive report can be accomplished without writing a single line of code — making Power BI genuinely accessible for business professionals without a technical background.
Slicers in Power BI are visual filter controls placed directly on the report canvas that allow users to interactively segment data by selecting one or more values — without needing to open a filter pane or modify the report. A slicer might display a list of product categories, date ranges, regions, or employee names; when a user clicks a value, every visual on the page updates instantly to reflect that selection. This interactivity transforms static reports into self-service analytical tools, enabling business users to explore their data without needing to request a new version from an analyst. Slicers support multiple selection modes — single-select for simple filtering, multi-select for comparing categories, and range selection for date or numeric sliders. They can be synchronized across multiple report pages so a filter selection on one page applies throughout the report. For business professionals creating reports for leadership or operational teams, mastering slicers is one of the highest-impact skills for producing reports that are genuinely used rather than simply viewed. Power BI training designed for business users covers slicer configuration alongside other interactive report features.
Power Query is the data transformation engine built into both Power BI Desktop and Excel, enabling users to clean, reshape, and combine data from multiple sources through a recorded, replayable set of steps — without writing code. When you connect a data source in Power BI, Power Query Editor opens and allows you to remove unwanted columns, rename fields, split text columns, filter rows, change data types, merge tables from different sources, and apply dozens of other transformations through a point-and-click interface. Each step is recorded in the Applied Steps pane and replayed automatically every time the data refreshes, meaning that messy incoming data is cleaned consistently without any manual intervention. For business professionals who currently spend hours copying, cleaning, and reformatting data in Excel before building reports, Power Query represents a transformative time savings — the preparation work is done once and runs automatically thereafter. Data refresh in Power BI can be scheduled through the Power BI Service so reports always reflect current information without requiring user action. Expert Power BI training helps professionals master Power Query as the foundation of reliable, maintainable reporting workflows.
Sharing Power BI reports with colleagues requires publishing the report from Power BI Desktop to the Power BI Service — the cloud-based platform accessible through any web browser with a Microsoft 365 account. Once published to a workspace in the Power BI Service, reports can be shared directly with specific users by email address, embedded in Microsoft Teams channels for easy access during meetings, or packaged into an app that presents a curated set of reports to a defined audience. Access control is managed at the workspace level, where different permission roles — Viewer, Contributor, Member, Admin — determine what each user can see and do. Row-level security (RLS) can be applied to restrict which data rows individual users see within the same report, enabling a single report to serve multiple audiences with different data scopes. Reports can also be exported to PDF or PowerPoint for sharing with stakeholders who do not have Power BI access. For organizations transitioning away from email attachments of static Excel reports, Power BI's sharing model provides centralized, permission-controlled distribution that keeps everyone working from a single, current version of the data.