As an accountant, you're no stranger to the power of Excel. It's a remarkably simple yet powerful product that you probably started to use, without any training and now is your go-to solution for just about everything. As a product, it has been so successful, that if you tried or organise a physical worldwide Excel conference for all users you would need the equivalent capacity of 100 Old Trafford stadia in every country. But have we now reached “peak Excel”? &nbsp;To me, for today’s financial reporting challenges, it is beginning to look like “if that’s what you want to do, I wouldn’t start from here”. The world in 2024 is a very different place from 1987!Around 10 years ago, the then 20-something Excel gave birth to Power BI, a child that, though it shares a lot of DNA with Excel, is an evolutionary step forward in dealing with today’s larger, more complex datasets and need for improved automation and collaboration. Now a well-rounded young adult of a product, Power BI is ready to start taking on many aspects of Excel’s role in financial reporting and has the potential to transform your daily life.Let’s consider why that is, and what practical steps you can take to benefit from this data analysis prodigy.<h1 id="a5ed327f-6823-40f9-a6de-60f7a858c6ce" data-toc-id="a5ed327f-6823-40f9-a6de-60f7a858c6ce">Why Consider Power BI?</h1><ol><li>Automation In my opinion, the clearest case for adopting Power BI for your financial reporting is based on automation. Ask yourself this. How much time is spent in your finance team every single month performing repetitive tasks to gather, prepare and combine data for management reports? Power BI excels at automatically connecting to multiple data sources, gathering, cleaning, preparing and uniting data for your reports. Teach it how to do this once, and it will faithfully execute the same processes on demand, or according to a schedule. After this, it is up to you whether you use Power BI or Excel to produce your final reports, but by automating your data preparation you can win back time every month. Say goodbye to manual data preparation and hello to more time for high-value analysis. </li><li>Interactive Visualizations While management reports often follow a fixed, consistent format every week or month, management meetings often provoke a more spontaneous line of questions. Power BI’s famous interactive dashboards can support dynamic interrogation of the data, from a headline variance to a journal entry. As an accountant, it can also help you to identify anomalies and anticipate questions prior to publishing your management reports. Say goodbye to "I’ll get back to you” and hello to “These are the things that need your attention”. </li><li>Timely Insights Because of the automation possibilities offered by Power BI, you can access up-to-the-hour information that cannot wait until the next monthly report. Information around sales, receivables, stock or working capital are classic examples where you may want to do this. It is quite common, for example, to track sales performance on a weekly, or even daily basis, and within this to track sales on a rolling 7x basis because of a sales cycle that has weekly patterns rather than monthly. </li><li>Enhanced Collaboration Too often, organisational reports end up as disconnected spreadsheets being emailed around as attachments and confusion arises as to what version of a particular report we are looking at. This confusion, at its best, adds cost and frustration and at its worst can too easily lead to errors and poor decision-making. Power BI offers significant opportunities for enhanced collaboration, firstly by making sure that all report users are looking at the same data. It goes beyond this, though, enabling reports to display only data that a user has permission to see (for example the performance of a division), automated notifications, and collaboration via tools such as Microsoft Teams. Furthermore, even for users who need to perform their own ad-hoc analysis in Excel, the data transformation capabilities of Power BI enable the automated provision of a common financial dataset for all. These features foster better communication and alignment on financial objectives. </li></ol><h1 id="aa1b9f3a-7852-41e7-8189-2c17a98b84b4" data-toc-id="aa1b9f3a-7852-41e7-8189-2c17a98b84b4">Making the Transition: Excel to Power BI</h1>Transitioning to Power BI doesn't mean abandoning Excel. Instead, think of it as a powerful complement to your existing skills. Here's how to get started:<ol><li>Identify Your Pain Points What aspects of your current reporting process are most time-consuming or error-prone? Concentrate first on elements that are manual and repetitive. These are prime candidates for improvement with Power BI. </li><li>Start Small Begin with a single report or dashboard. In my experience, this is often around variations of an income statement, sales report, or receivables report. In these cases, the data source(s) are often limited (reducing complexity), and data extraction from these sources can be automated (e.g. retrieving the list of journal entries from an accounting system). </li><li>Have a test plan It might seem obvious, but it is critical that you have a test plan for your new Power BI reports. The simplest way to do this is if your new Power BI report is to replace an existing Excel report that you can use in a parallel run for comparative purposes. </li><li>Build step by step One of the great advantages of Power BI over Excel, is the way in which you can build your queries, or query elements step by step, testing as you go. Each step can easily be reused by subsequent queries, ultimately enabling you to create very sophisticated, yet robust and maintainable reports. For example, rather than try to cram all logic into a simple measure, I break down my financial statement measures into the following logic:<ul><li>Base calculations that ignore date selection</li><li>Actual and Previous calculations that reuse the base calculations, but with date filters applied</li><li>Column calculations</li><li>Row calculations</li><li>Final formatting</li></ul>I have prepared a video <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://youtu.be/PdnWVMzSQH8?si=ghtP39yDalKyYykg">here</a> that explains how I do this in a typical income statement. </li><li>Leverage Your Excel Knowledge Many Excel functions have similar counterparts in Power BI's DAX language. Your existing skills will give you a head start in mastering Power BI. The syntaxes for these functions are similar. Just like with Excel, you don’t need to learn how to use a long list of functions before you start. Become familiar with the types of functions that exist, then simply <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/dax-function-reference">browse and look up the function</a> you need, when you need it. Excel still has nearly twice as many functions as there are Power BI DAX functions, and maybe you will still sometimes find it more convenient to use Excel against a dataset automatically prepared for you by Power BI. Bear in mind, though, that in my latest <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.accountinginsights.pro/course-detail/how-to-build-a-3-way-financial-model-in-power-bi/8981">3-way Power BI financial statement template</a>, I use just 28 of the 250 DAX functions available. </li><li>Develop reusable patterns Power BI lends itself well to creating reusable patterns for your DAX code, that you will use time and again and easily recognise when you review your code many months after you write it. A simple example that I use time and again is the following: <img src="https://letcheck.b-cdn.net/3081/reusable-dax-patterns-1726407057745.png" style="width: 100%; height: auto; cursor: pointer;" draggable="true"> </li><li>Structure your code Complex formulae in Excel are often written in a way that is extremely difficult to decipher. Taking your time to format your DAX code properly will pay dividends when it comes to understanding the code that you have written. <img src="https://letcheck.b-cdn.net/3081/dax-formatting-1726407188066.png" style="width: 100%; height: auto; cursor: pointer;" draggable="true"> The two measures above are functionally identical. The first one (typical of so many Excel formulae) is almost impossible to read and understand. The second one is formatted well and follows a pattern that is used throughout the report. I can read the second example in seconds, realising that the measure will return an “actual” calculation for Cash Flow by evaluating a base measure [Base_CF_actual] between two dates. You can format your DAX code well as you write it, or use <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.daxformatter.com/">tools like this</a> from the guys are SQLBI to do it for you. </li><li>Adopt a naming convention Power BI reports tend to end up with a proliferation of DAX Measures. My latest 3-way financial statements template has 196 measures, each used and with a specific purpose. If you adopt a consistent naming convention for your measures, you will find it much easier to understand the purpose of each measure simply by its name. It will make it easier for you, or anyone else, to pick up and maintain your reports later. </li><li>Focus on Data Modelling Power BI's true strength lies in its data modelling capabilities. Unlike Excel that is ultimately about how cells are related, Power BI operates naturally at the higher level of tables, columns and relationships – or a “Data Model”, making it much easier to deal with today’s bigger, more complex business data. Getting the data model right will make your reports more interactive, flexible, maintainable, and perform better. It will also dramatically simplify your DAX code. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/excel/abc-of-power-bi-m-is-for-model">Invest time in learning how to create robust data models</a> that can support multiple reports and analyses. </li><li>Get to grips with the Filter Context Perhaps the biggest difference between how you write DAX code in Power BI and Excel formulae is the existence and role of the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/business/finance-strategy/power-bi-basics-an-introduction-to-the-filter-context">Filter Context</a>. Consider the image below, showing an income statement. <img src="https://letcheck.b-cdn.net/3081/income-statement---filter-context-1726407301982.png" style="width: 100%; height: auto; cursor: pointer;" draggable="true"> The final DAX measure used in this income statement is a single measure that picks up the context (the filter context) provided by the rows and columns in the matrix to apply the desired formatting. In turn, intermediate measures also use the filter context to return the correct numerical value in each “cell”. In the “Actual” column, for example, the underlying “Gross Margin %” line uses the same code to return the numerical value 0.2258 as the total “Sales” value of 108,410k. Note: there is another important evaluation context, called the “Row Context” that you should learn about on your Power BI journey, but it is not, in my opinion, as urgent to learn about as the Filter Context. In this <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.accountinginsights.pro/course-detail/how-to-build-a-3-way-financial-model-in-power-bi/8981">3-way report</a> that covers the Income Statement Balance Sheet and Cash Flow, the Row Context is only used in around 5% of the calculations, and these all relate to the Balance Sheet. </li><li>Become familiar with Power Query So far in this article, I have written about DAX. This is the language that you use in Power BI to present values that are displayed in visuals. There is another language called “M” (short for Mash-up language) that is used in Power Query (a data preparation tool common to Power BI and Excel) to get and pre-process the data that are used in your reports. Whenever you clink on the “Get Data” option in Power BI, you are invoking Power Query. It is in Power Query that you define all the steps needed (short of scheduling) to automate your reports. It is Power Query that you will use to create the tables of data in your report that will ultimately simplify your DAX code and make your reports more flexible.&nbsp; If you are coming from an Excel background and have not used Power Query before, you will probably find the syntax of M much less accessible than that of DAX, but you don’t, initially, need to worry about this. Power Query has a wonderful wizard style interface that enables you to build your queries without having to know how to write M code, which is generated automatically by Power Query. Yes, when you become more advanced, you will learn how to write M code, but there is no hurry. As an added benefit, you can start using Power Query within Excel to gather and prepare your data in an Excel workbook. </li><li>Embrace Continuous Learning I have found the Power BI community to be very supportive of anyone wanting to learn about Power BI. There is, however, one thing that does rub me up the wrong way, and it is the idea of the “Dashboard in a Day” workshops that is sometimes promoted. In my opinion it sends completely the wrong message. It raises false expectations about what can be done in a day and risks trivialising the potential of Power BI. I have been working with Power BI to produce financial reports since the beginning of 2015, and still there is barely a week that passes when I don’t learn something new. This could be through formal training, but usually it is from one of the many great resources put out for free by the community or through my own testing and experimentation. To become the master at Power BI that you are with Excel, you will need to invest your time (much more than a day), but it is worth it, and you can do it. By focusing on an initial report that will deliver immediate time savings through automation, you can seize the opportunity to bank at least some of your time savings to re-invest in developing your skills and additional reports.&nbsp; Here is a <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/tech/excel/abc-of-power-bi-l-is-for-lifetime-learning">list of resources</a> that I have found immensely useful on my journey. For accountants who already have some of the basics, I also run <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://www.accountinginsights.pro/course-detail/how-to-build-a-3-way-financial-model-in-power-bi/8981">this course</a> aimed specifically at the nuances of creating financial statements in Power BI.</li></ol><h2 id="6af5b70a-6801-44f1-ac83-92468300115c" data-toc-id="6af5b70a-6801-44f1-ac83-92468300115c">Real-World Impact</h2>My clients who have embraced Power BI for financial reporting have seen remarkable results:<ul><li>Very tangible reductions in time spent on monthly reporting processes</li><li>Substantial improvements in data accuracy due to automated data integration</li><li>Improved decision-making capabilities with access</li></ul>With the levels of automation offered, once a report is live, it tends to just keep on working every day. This is not so good for me if I want to make a living out of ad-hoc technical support (which I don’t), but it is great for my clients.<h2 id="1b750791-87f0-442a-aa06-8dabb14c49af" data-toc-id="1b750791-87f0-442a-aa06-8dabb14c49af">Taking the Next Step</h2>Transitioning from Excel to Power BI for your financial reporting needs is a significant step towards more efficient, accurate, and insightful financial management. While the learning curve may seem steep at first, the long-term benefits far outweigh the initial investment of time and resources. Choosing your starting point carefully, you can also bank early gains that will free up time for subsequent stages.Remember, you don't have to make this journey alone. Our team of experts is here to guide you every step of the way, from initial setup to advanced dashboard creation. We offer personalized training and ongoing support to ensure that you and your team can harness the full power of Power BI.Ready to streamline your financial reporting and unlock new insights from your data? Let's explore how Power BI can transform your financial processes and drive your organization forward. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://calendly.com/hugh-accountinginsights/30min">Schedule a consultation today</a>.

Transitioning from Excel to Power BI for your financial reporting needs is a significant step towards more efficient, accurate, and insightful financial management. 

From Excel to Power BI: An Accountant's Guide to Streamlined Financial Reporting

Learn how to grow and scale your online course business using our online course platform. EzyCourse blog is designed to teach you how to create and sell online courses.

From Excel to Power BI: An Accountant's Guide to Streamlined Financial Reporting

From Excel to Power BI: An Accountant's Guide to Streamlined Financial Reporting

Related Posts

Enhance your finance communications with Power BI