Home / Non-Accredited / Microsoft Office & Computer Skills / Microsoft Power BI Basics (3 days)
Quick Look Course Summary:Microsoft Power BI Basics (3 days)
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Length: 3 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 21,125 EX VAT 3 Person R 13,658 EX VAT 10 Person R 9,155 EX VAT
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Certification Type:Non-Accredited
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Locations & Venues: Off-site or in-house. We train in all major city centres throughout South Africa.
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Microsoft Power BI Basics (3 days)
Delegates leave able to turn your organisation's raw data into interactive Power BI reports and dashboards that colleagues can open, filter and trust.
Many organisations still run on monthly spreadsheets that are copied, pasted and emailed around, so managers see last month's numbers in several versions. This three-day power bi course shows delegates how to connect directly to the data, clean it once, model it properly and publish interactive reports that refresh instead of being rebuilt. It starts with Power BI Desktop and ends with a dashboard shared in the Power BI service.
Day one covers the Power BI family of products and Power BI Desktop, then importing and shaping data from Excel workbooks, CSV and text files and whole folders of files with Power Query. Day two moves to databases and the data model: relationships between tables, merging and appending queries, grouping and summarising, and first calculations in DAX. Day three is about reporting: matrix, card, chart and map visuals, slicers and filters, then publishing to the Power BI service, building a dashboard, sharing it with colleagues and opening it in the Power BI mobile app.
Every module is hands-on with realistic sales, finance and HR data. Delegates who already use Excel pivot tables will find the step up natural, and the course also covers what to check before sharing reports that hold personal information under POPIA.
Watch a short introduction
Why this course
For your organisation
- One trusted version of the numbers instead of competing spreadsheets
- Reports that refresh from the source instead of being rebuilt every month
- Managers who filter and explore the data themselves
- Less time compiling reports and more time acting on them
For your delegates
- A complete workflow from raw data to a shared dashboard
- Confidence cleaning messy system exports with Power Query
- A working data model with relationships and simple DAX measures
- A finished report built during the course
What delegates will be able to do
- Explain what Power BI Desktop, the Power BI service and Power BI Mobile each do
- Import, transform and load data from Excel, CSV and text files and folders
- Connect to relational databases and relate tables in a data model
- Merge, append, group and summarise data in Power Query
- Create calculated columns and simple DAX measures
- Build report pages with matrix, card, chart and map visuals and slicers
- Publish reports to the Power BI service and set up data refresh
- Pin visuals to a dashboard and share reports and dashboards with colleagues
Who should attend
Business managers, report developers, analysts, project managers, team leads, and finance, HR and operations staff who prepare or use regular reports. Delegates should be comfortable in Excel; experience with tables and pivot tables helps. No previous Power BI experience is needed.
Course outline
Day 1 – Power BI Desktop and getting data in
Introducing Power BI
- What Power BI is and where it fits next to Excel
- The Power BI family: Desktop, the Power BI service and the mobile apps
- How the products differ, and what licences mean for sharing
- Keeping up with Microsoft's monthly Power BI updates
Power BI Desktop
- Installing Power BI Desktop; the Report, Table and Model views
- PBIX and PBIT files: reports compared with templates
- An overview of data sources and connection modes
- Data types and why they matter
- How data refresh works
Importing and shaping files
- Importing Excel workbooks, CSV and text files
- The Power Query Editor: removing, renaming, splitting and changing columns
- Removing blank rows, errors and duplicates
- Appending queries that share the same layout
- Combining a whole folder of monthly files
- Unpivoting data that arrives as a cross-tab
Day 2 – Databases, relationships and calculations
Connecting to databases
- Relational data: tables, keys and why relationships matter
- Connecting to SQL Server and selecting tables
- An overview of SQL Server Analysis Services models: multidimensional and tabular
- Import compared with DirectQuery
The data model
- Fact and lookup tables in a simple star schema
- Creating and editing relationships in Model view
- Cardinality and filter direction
- Hiding fields and organising the model for report users
- Building a date table
Merging, grouping, summarising and calculating
- Merging queries and the common problems merges cause
- Join kinds: left, inner and anti joins
- Group By to summarise rows
- Custom and conditional columns in Power Query
- Calculated columns compared with measures in DAX
- First measures with SUM, COUNTROWS, DIVIDE and CALCULATE
Day 3 – Reports, dashboards and sharing
Building reports
- Planning a report page around the questions users ask
- Table and matrix visuals
- Card and KPI visuals
- Column, bar, line and combination charts
- Map visuals for regional data
- Slicers, filters, drill-down and cross-highlighting
Publishing to the Power BI service
- Workspaces and publishing from Desktop
- Importing data and creating reports online
- Scheduled refresh and when a data gateway is needed
- Building a dashboard by pinning visuals
Sharing and mobile
- Sharing reports and dashboards, and managing access
- Protecting personal information under POPIA when you share
- Viewing reports in the Power BI mobile app
- Exporting to PowerPoint, PDF and Excel
- Final exercise: from raw data to a shared dashboard
How it is delivered
Three days, 08:30-16:00. In person at your offices anywhere in South Africa, at a BOTI venue, or live online. One delegate or a group of up to 20, each on their own Windows computer with Power BI Desktop installed; laptops with the software can be supplied on request. Publishing and sharing exercises depend on your organisation's Power BI licences, which we confirm with you beforehand. Workbook and practice data included. We deliver it at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and anywhere else in South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online for teams in different places.
What our clients say
“We were particularly impressed by the quality of facilitation and the practical relevance of the content presented. The programme was delivered with professionalism, clarity, and a strong emphasis on real-world application.”
“The training courses were efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by the quality of training. I look forward to working with Business Optimization Training Institute in the future.”
“The facilitator effectively encouraged participation and used practical examples, discussions and interactive activities to ensure that the concepts were understood and could be applied in the workplace.”
Frequently asked questions
Can you run this course at our offices?
Yes. Most groups are trained on site anywhere in South Africa. We can also run it at a BOTI venue or live online.
Do delegates need Power BI licences?
Power BI Desktop is free to install. Publishing and sharing in the Power BI service depend on the licences in your Microsoft 365 tenant, so we confirm what is available before the course and adapt the sharing exercises.
What experience do delegates need?
They should be comfortable in Excel. Pivot table experience helps; Excel Pivot Tables, Dashboards and Power Pivot (2 days) is good preparation.
Is it accredited?
No – it is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance.
Can we use our own data?
Yes, where it is practical. Many teams provide a sample with personal information removed, and the facilitator builds exercises around it.
Can you run this course in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban?
Yes. We train on site at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and across South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online so a team spread over several offices can attend together.
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