Office 365 - is Power BI Desktop still needed?

[Missred]

Hi

The organisation I am currently working for are beginning to use Power BI.

They use Office 365 and I've been advised to access Power BI Online though this.

However when using Power BI through Office 365 I do not have the functionality I am used to when using Power BI Desktop (e.g. the Transform and Load options, seeing M code etc).

It is normal to still also download Power BI Desktop or should I have all the functionality I need through Office 365?

Many thanks

[CahabaData]

and so as @KHorseman points out it is a 2 part solution; you continue to use Desktop as the development stage.  But your group already has the Service within their O365 license so they want you to upload to that - rather than I suppose set up your own separate Power BI Service and then have to pay your $10/mo.....

[KHorseman · Accepted solution]

You still need Power BI Desktop for creating queries, creating table relationships, and writing measures. The online service is not meant as a dataset authoring tool. It can be used to create and edit reports based on existing datasets, content packs, and ready-made online connectors, but not for creating new customized datasets.