Introduction to Power BI

Power BI extends what's possible beyond Excel for businesses whose reporting needs grow: connecting multiple data sources, building more interactive reports, and sharing live dashboards.

• When to move beyond Excel: Multiple data sources, larger datasets, or a need to share live (not static) reports with a team.
• Power Query: Power BI's data-cleaning and combining engine — similar concepts to Excel's data cleaning, but built for repeatable, larger-scale imports.
• Visuals and reports: Drag-and-drop visual building, similar in spirit to Excel charts but more interactive and easier to combine into a polished report.
• Sharing: Power BI reports can be published and shared so a team always sees the latest data, rather than emailing updated spreadsheet versions back and forth.

Practical Skill: Import a sample dataset into Power BI Desktop (free), build one visual, and compare the experience to building the equivalent chart in Excel.

=== EXCEL vs POWER BI — WHEN TO USE WHICH === Use Excel when:  - Single dataset, manageable size  - You need full manual formula control  - Report is shared as a file, not live Use Power BI when:  - Multiple data sources need combining  - Data will be refreshed regularly and shared live  - Report needs deeper interactivity (cross-filtering    between multiple visuals at once) === FIRST POWER BI STEPS ===1. Open Power BI Desktop -> Get Data -> Excel2. Select your cleaned sales table3. Drag "Region" and "Sales" into a new Bar Chart visual4. Add a Slicer for "Month" to make it interactive