Switching from Excel to Power BI

[Christoff]

I am starting in a new position where a lot of data on many tabs is kept on a central excel sheet on the server. People access the excel sheet and update it given the prompts: What is your project, what type etc. I on another tab put financial information billing hours budgets etc.  With my position I will be more and more in charge of this excel sheet with less direct input from others. I would like to switch to Power BI, however, before I get everyone onboard with my idea is there a way to have the data entered onto this excel sheet directly update my information in Power BI 

[v-juanli-msft]

Hi @Christoff

According to your information, I learn you want to show data stored in excel files to Power BI, and make the data update timely when data in excel has been changed.

If my understanding is right, you can consider two ways.

1. import excels to Power BI Desktop, then publish reports to Power BI Service, then set schedule refresh for the excel source.

make sure the location excel is stored on the same server where Power BI Desktop and on-premises gateway run.

 Refresh a dataset created from an Excel workbook on a local drive

2.upload excel files onto OneDrive for Bussiness, then connect to files on OneDrive for Bussiness in Power BI Service directly.

When you setup a refresh schedule, Power BI will connect directly to the data sources using connection information and credentials in the dataset to query for updated data, then load the updated data into the dataset. Any visualizations in reports and dashboards based on that dataset in the Power BI service are also updated.

Refresh a dataset created from an Excel workbook on OneDrive, or SharePoint Online

Best Regards

Maggie

[Anonymous]

Hi @Christoff

You can schedule the Power BI dashboard in Power BI Service  and refresh the report to get the updated data, so that people who access the report get to see the latest data. Decide the frequency of the refresh.

Thanks

Raj