Using the same report for different data

[Anonymous]

Hi Everybody,

Sorry if this is a really basic question but I'm very new to Power BI.

Every few days, I get a large spreadsheet with information that my bosses want to be displayed in various charts and graphs. The bosses want a report with the same set of graphs each time a new spreadsheet is delivered. They typically want additional charts for follow-up reports depending on how the information in the spreadsheet changes.

Is it possible to build a report or dashboard in a way that I can get the same set of graphs using the data from the new spreadsheet?

I'm trying to cut down on the time it takes to prepare the charts and graphs for the first report.

Thanks for your help!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Pretty much yes.  If you are looking for reports that will do a "Last report vs this report" you might need to get trickier but the idea is the same.  This is the process i would follow:

1. Take your Excel report and save it into a specific location with a reusable name.  This should be something like "Finance.xlsx" instead of "FinanceNov2017.xlsx"
2. When you receive your new file, save it over the top of your previous file
3. Refresh Power BI

If you need to do a this report, last report type graph, you will just need to get clever with renaming and copying the excel files such that they sit in a "ThisReport.Xlsx" and "LastReport.xlsx".  That will maintain the data, which you can merge or handle view the Queries section of Power BI.

**Note**  This method assumes your excel data will be in the same format every time.  If it is not in the same format, you might need to get clever in Power Query to grab the right columns.  Power BI is reasonably robust with some data upsets.

[Henri_Tecsys]

Hi, 

Since last year, is there any new ways to resolve this problem?

I'm in a similar situation. I'm getting excel file from our customers, with the same structure everytime, and I always need to run the same report for them (report built in powerbi).

There are 2 requirements in 1 for me : 

#1 reuse report developped in powerbi with a different excel data source

#2 be able to run period over period report for each customer. 

How can I do that? 

I look using parameters but it seens not active for Excrel dataset.

Thank you

H.