Power BI Series

Excel is a popular data analysis tool, yet most users have never learned the basics of data analysis using Excel or the tools that Excel offers to help with data analysis. Those that learned to analyze data using PivotTables, soon learned there were many weaknesses in PivotTables that resulted in elaborate calculations in order to perform simple tasks.

In 2010, after much development and little hype, Microsoft released Power Pivot, a new data analytic tool that removed the weaknesses of PivotTables. This single product took Excel from a low-end data analytic tool to one of the most sophisticated and comprehensive tools. Since 2010, Microsoft has continued their development of end-user data analytic tools. This entire suite of products is called Power BI.

In this session, we will provide an overview of the various Power BI tools and discuss Microsoft's Power BI Strategy. We will begin by explaining the challenges faced by many accountants when it comes to analyzing data in Excel. You will learn how each Power BI tool reduces the challenges and improves your data analytic skills. You will also gain a complete understanding of when to use which tool.

This session is an overview of the various Microsoft Power BI tools and should be your first step in learning the complete set of Power BI tools. As an overview, we will not be teaching the details of each tool but you will receive a thorough understanding of what each tool can accomplish.

This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

Learning Objectives:

After attending this presentation you will be able to...  

• Recognize ways that the Power BI tools can help with your data analysis needs
• Identify uses for each Power BI tool
• Select which Power BI tool will meet your organization's strategy

Program Content:

The major topics that will be covered in this class include:  

• The challenge of using Excel for Data Analysis
• An overview of the various Power BI Tools
• An overview of when and why to use each Power BI Tool
• A tour of each tools interface  

Who should attend: Anyone who uses or wants to use Excel for Data Analysis

 Developed By: CPA Crossings, LLC

Before you can analyze data, you first must get the data. This course focuses on getting data into Excel using different data sources. Whether your data is text, comma delimited (CSV), reports, Excel, databases, web, applications and/or many others, Excel provides the ability to access that data. 

You will learn about tools that have been added to Excel that will make accessing that data even easier, such as data models and Power Query (Get and Transform). After this class, you will finally be able to get the data you need to perform data analysis. 

This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel. 

Learning Objectives:

After attending this presentation you will be able to... 

• Differentiate between improper and proper data structure 
• Select the best way to import data into Excel 
• Identify ways to use  Power Query to clean your data 

Program Content:

The major topics that will be covered in this class include: 

• Getting data into the correct structure 
• Data sources that you can access 
• Working with multiple tables and data sources 
• Steps to import data for analysis 
• Introduction to Power Query and Get and Transform 

Who should attend: Anyone who uses Excel to analyze data

Excel is a popular tool for data analysis, yet most users have never learned the basics of data analysis using Excel or the tools that Excel offers to help with data analysis.

This session is designed to teach participants the importance of PivotTables for analyzing data. We will demonstrate how PivotTables can make data analyzation an easy task for all accountants. Participants will learn the step-by-step process to create PivotTables and PivotCharts. We will also cover all the setup options and features. 

This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

Learning Objectives:

After attending this presentation you will be able to... 

• Determine the advantages of using PivotTables to analyze data from multiple dimensions 
• Apply the step-by-step process to create PivotTables 
• Choose the PivotTable options that best fit your needs 
• Use PivotCharts to present your data graphically for the most effective analysis

Program Content:

• The major topics that will be covered in this class include: 
• The advantages of PivotTable for Data Analysis 
• Step-by-Step PivotTable creation Creating PivotCharts

Who should attend: Anyone who wants to analyze data in Excel

Most accountants use Excel to help them make decisions about their data. However, as the amount of data grows, it becomes difficult to make strategic decisions based on rows and rows and columns and columns of data. In this course, you will learn how to build robust dashboards for analyzing key metrics in Excel. 

We will begin with some dashboard design guidelines, such as understanding your audience and identifying necessary metrics. Then, we will work through creating key performance indicators (KPIs) for the dashboards. You will learn how you can add charts and eye-catching visuals, in order to make your dashboards easily understood. 

This course focuses on using standard Excel features to create visuals. Although we will introduce new tools like Power BI Desktop, this course is NOT about using Power BI to create visuals. 

This session is presented using Excel 2019. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel. 

Learning Objectives:

After attending this presentation you will be able to... 

• Use dashboards to make strategic decisions 
• Create KPI dashboards that graphically represent your data 
• Use Excel tools to easily create meaningful KPI dashboards 

Program Content:

The major topics that will be covered in this class include: 

• Dashboard design guidelines 
• Using Excel features to create visuals 
• Using visuals to create dashboards Introduce new Power BI tools that enhance visual and dashboard creation 

Who should attend: Anyone who wants to use Excel to make strategic decisions

Data can be messy! In other words, it is not always clean and neat. Data comes from various sources like text files, Excel spreadsheets, databases, report files, etc. This is how most data analysis projects fail - the inability to get the correct data. 

This class focuses on using Power Query (Get and Transform) to clean, shape and transform your messy data while still allowing you a one-click refresh. We will review various data issues including appending files, combining multiple files from a folder, adding custom columns, unpivoting data, creating a lookup table, and much more. 

This session is presented using Excel 2019. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel. 

Learning Objectives: 

After attending this presentation you will be able to...

• Use Power Query to solve your data clean-up issues 
• Determine how Power Query allows you to get more data into Excel 
• Apply a one-click step to refresh your data

Program Content:

The major topics that will be covered in this class include: 

• Append files Combine multiple files from a folder 
• Add custom columns 
• Unpivot a table 
• Create a lookup table from a table 

Who should attend: Anyone who uses or wants to use Excel for data analysis"

This course focuses on using the Power Pivot features to enhance data analysis. We will review the 4 features of Power Pivot (data model, calculations, hierarchies and KPI's) and you will learn how you can use each of these features. Although, the majority of the time will be spent on building the data model and using calculations. 

You will learn how to add data to your data model either directly into Power Pivot or from Power Query. We will discuss the benefits of the data model relationships versus using the VLOOKUP function to access data in different tables. 

One of the strengths of Power Pivot is the formula language called DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions). We will introduce DAX so that you can use basic DAX formulas to build various calculations in the data model. You will learn the difference between calculated columns and measures as we build these various calculations into our data model. 

This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office365. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel. 

Learning Objectives: 

After attending this presentation you will be able to... 

• Create a data model using Power Pivot 
• Differentiate between calculated columns and measures 
• Use Power Pivot for data analysis 

Program Content:

The major topics that will be covered in this class include: 

• Data modeling in Power Pivot 
• Using basic DAX to create calculations 
• What are and when to use calculated columns and measures 
• Using the data model in Power Pivot to create PivotTables 
• Hierarchies in Power Pivot 

Who should attend: Anyone who uses or wants to use Excel for data analysis

This course focuses on using DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions) to create advanced calculations in Power Pivot data models. We will review what you learned in ""Power BI - Go Beyond PivotTables with Power Pivot"" and take your calculations to the next level using advanced DAX formulas. 

You will learn over 20 DAX functions that will allow you to perform calculations that were not possible with standard Excel. We will also review the use of a date or calendar table that allows us to perform date analysis that was never possible before. This will allow us to use the new time-intelligent functions to perform complex calculations on our data like: month-to-date, quarter-to-date, year-to-date, last year same period, last year-to-date, etc. You will also learn the DAX calculation process in order to proof and validate your calculations. 

We will be using Power Pivot to create our DAX calculations, however, the process is very similar in Power BI Desktop and the functions and formulas are identical. If you are using Power BI Desktop, you should be able to follow along and learn how to create advanced calculations. 

This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

Learning Objectives: 

After attending this presentation you will be able to... 

• Create calculations using DAX formulas 
• Use a Date / Calendar table to perform complex date analysis 
• Use the DAX calculation process to validate calculations

Program Content:

The major topics that will be covered in this class include: 

• Review Power Pivot calculations (column calculations vs. measures) 
• Create advanced DAX formulas 
• Using a Date / Calendar table for data analysis 
• The DAX calculation process 

Who should attend: Anyone who is using Power Pivot or Power BI Desktop for data analysis

Power BI Desktop is a new stand-alone tool that adds visualization to your data. This course focus on learning the Power BI Desktop interface, connecting to data sources and creating the visualizations. We will demonstrate the creation of each of the various visualizations and the various options related to each. 

We will also show how the visualization can be connected together to provide fully-interactive reports with drill-down capabilities. This class does not require any Excel knowledge but understanding Power Pivot and Power Query can reduce your learning curve. 

This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel. 

Learning Objectives: 

After attending this presentation you will be able to... 

• Identify components of the Power BI Desktop interface 
• Use Power BI Desktop to connect to data sources 
• Use Power BI Desktop to create interactive visualizations of your data

Program Content:

The major topics that will be covered in this class include: 

• Tour of the Power BI Desktop interface 
• Using Power BI Desktop to connect to data sources 
• Available visualizations in Power BI Desktop 
• Building interactivity into visualizations

Who should attend: Anyone who wants to learn how to analyze data

What good is data analysis if you can't share it? This course will focus on using Microsoft’s cloud-based sharing/publishing platform, PowerBI.com. You will learn the interface as well as the benefits of using PowerBI.com. You will learn how to use PowerBI.com to leverage the work performed in Power Pivot or Power BI Desktop. Using PowerBI.com to create visuals is very similar to Power BI Desktop, so we will only review this feature. If you want detailed instructions on creating visualizations, please attend the Power BI Desktop course. This class can be taken with no Excel or Power BI Desktop knowledge, but some concepts will be a repeat from those classes and will serve as a knowledge reinforcement for experienced users. Many data analysts may create models in Power Pivot or Power BI Desktop, so we will spend time to learn how to share that data with PowerBI.com. This will ensure that everyone is looking at the same data, no matter the toolset. PowerBI.com adds the ability to create and share dashboards, so we will demonstrate how to create visualizations that can be turned into dashboards that allow users to customize their PowerBI.com with dashboards that are meaningful to them. 

This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel. 

Learning Objectives: 

After attending this presentation you will be able to... 

• Identify the components of the PowerBI.com interface 
• Use PowerBI.com to connect data models 
• Use PowerBI.com to create interactive visualizations and dashboards 

Program Content: 

The major topics that will be covered in this class include: 

• A tour of the PowerBI.com interface 
• Sharing data with Power Pivot and Power BI Desktop 
• Creating visualizations and turning them into dashboards 
• Sharing visualizations and dashboards with others

Who should attend: Anyone who wants to learn how to analyze data

This course is an extension of the Power BI series of courses that specifically explores using OLAP formulas and advanced time intelligent functions.  OLAP formulas provide the ability to create a calculation in a cell that is based upon the measure in the data model. This powerful tool provides the ability to create calculations in an Excel worksheet without using a PivotTable to perform the calculation. Gone are the days of creating a PivotTable, then using those values in the PivotTable for additional calculations.

When using Power BI to build a data model that connects to data files, you may want to know the date of these files. This class teaches you how to create a measure based upon the refresh date of your data.  In the class "Power BI - Use Advanced Calculations with DAX Formulas," you learned the basics of time intelligent functions, the ability to calculate measures based upon dates. In THIS course, we will take it to the next step and teach you how to perform many more date-based calculations.

This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

Learning Objectives:

• After attending this presentation you will be able to...
• Formulate worksheet calculations that use the Power Pivot data model
• Create measures that provide a visual of the date of the data
• Formulate calculated measures that calculate based upon the date of the filters

Program Content:

The major topics that will be covered in this class include:

• OLAP functions to create custom calculations on an Excel worksheet
• Measures that help determine the date of your refreshed data
• Advanced time intelligent functions to create date-based measures

Who should attend: Anyone who wants to learn to create advanced calculations in Power BI or Power Pivot