Writing data back and forth with PowerBI

[camirewood]

Hello everyone,

I’m exploring whether Power BI is a viable tool for the objectives we’re aiming to achieve in our company.

Before diving deeper, I’d appreciate your insights on the following:

• Can Power BI handle the connections and workflows described below?
• Specifically, I watched a video explaining how data can be written back and automatically refreshed when inserted into a SQL Server using PowerApps. However, my challenge is ensuring that this data is also updated in an Excel file, which serves as our primary source of information.

As I’m new to Power BI and still learning about its capabilities, any tips, tutorials, or resources related to this setup would be greatly appreciated.

I appreciate any help you can provide.

[ray_aramburo · Accepted solution]

To answer your questions:

1. Yes, it can handle them. 

2. Technically you can write data back. On practice you shouldn't do it. If you have already a SQL database that should be the source for all data. If you need to have calculations from Power BI written back, do them initially on the database. Power BI should be used to consume and report data. And yes, you can connect an Excel file to a database (or a Power BI semantic model as well). 

[rohit1991 · Accepted solution]

Yes, Power BI can handle your workflow:

1. Excel → SQL Server: Use Power Automate or Power Query to sync data.
2. SQL Server → Power BI: Connect directly for real-time or scheduled updates.
3. SQL Server → Excel: Use Power Query in Excel or Power Automate for sync.
4. Power BI Auto-Refresh: Set up scheduled refresh or trigger via Power Automate.

For automation, use Power Automate to update SQL, refresh Power BI, and sync Excel.

[ray_aramburo · Accepted solution]

To answer your questions:

1. Yes, it can handle them. 

2. Technically you can write data back. On practice you shouldn't do it. If you have already a SQL database that should be the source for all data. If you need to have calculations from Power BI written back, do them initially on the database. Power BI should be used to consume and report data. And yes, you can connect an Excel file to a database (or a Power BI semantic model as well).