Still rebuilding the same Excel report?

When should you move from Excel to Power BI?

A useful signal is repeated effort: exporting the same files, copying rows between workbooks, repairing formulas and rebuilding charts before every meeting. Another is disagreement about the numbers because teams use different definitions or versions of a report.

Illustrative reporting brief

From a weekly sales pack to a repeatable view.

Imagine a consumer brand whose commercial manager combines sales exports with product and customer lists each week. The meeting needs to explain which channels grew, which products changed the mix and where gross margin moved.

1. Agree the question and measures. Define the reporting period, net sales, returns, discounts and the cost basis for gross margin. Record which costs are available and which are excluded.
2. Prepare a repeatable input. Agree where source files will be stored, which columns they contain and how products and customers are matched. Check duplicates and unmatched records before combining tables.
3. Build one useful report. Scope a sales and gross-margin view by the agreed dimensions. Compare its totals and sample transactions with the existing records, and investigate differences before relying on it.
4. Test the next reporting cycle. Run the process with a new period of data. Confirm who handles changed files, refresh failures and questions about the numbers, then hand over the report and instructions.

This is a fictional scope example, not a client result or a promised saving. Available data and the agreed brief determine what can be delivered. Gross margin is not net profit.

What should you check before automating a report?

• The current workload. List the manual steps, how often they occur and who does them. Measure the time and rework before setting a savings target.
• The source data. Identify systems, exports, file locations, historical coverage and access owners. A report cannot show transactions that have not reached its source.
• The calculation rules. Agree the meaning of each KPI, how returns and discounts are treated, and any cost allocations. Keep a short definitions document alongside the report.
• The refresh arrangement. Decide how current the data needs to be. Refresh depends on the source, connection, credentials and deployment setup; some sources require a gateway. Uploading or replacing a workbook is not the same as refreshing its underlying data.
• The audience and access. Confirm who creates, shares and views the report, including anyone outside your organisation. Licensing and workspace capacity affect what those users can access; check these before quoting deployment.
• The owner after handover. Name someone to monitor refresh, resolve source changes and approve new measures. Agree what maintenance is included and what would be a separate request.

Microsoft explains the dependencies in its Power BI refresh guidance (opens in a new tab) and licensing guidance (opens in a new tab).

How Stratlens can help.

Sam reviews the reporting problem and sample data, then scopes a new Power BI report, improvements to an existing report, or a more reliable preparation process. A project can include agreed measures, data modelling, validation, refresh setup, documentation and a practical handover.

Power BI Dashboards & Reporting is quoted after reviewing your requirements. Licences and additional integration work are identified in the proposal. You do not need to purchase a Commercial Deep Dive first.

If the brief or data needs more investigation, the A$1,500 Data & Reporting Review provides a stakeholder discussion, assessment of sample data from up to two sources, and a concise roadmap. It is a standalone assessment; dashboard development and data remediation are scoped separately. Fees are in Australian dollars (AUD), and GST is not currently charged.