# Power BI

> Microsoft's tool for turning company data into interactive charts and reports.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: Data, Tech companies
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/power-bi/
- In Spanish: [Power BI](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/power-bi/)

**Power BI** is Microsoft's business intelligence tool. It connects to where a company's data lives, such as Excel files, databases, Salesforce or SharePoint, cleans and combines it, and turns it into interactive reports and dashboards: charts you can click to filter, totals that update, maps, tables.

A typical workflow has two halves. An analyst builds the report in **Power BI Desktop**, a free Windows app: they pull in the data, shape it with Power Query (a step-by-step cleaning tool), define relationships between tables and write measures in a formula language called DAX. Then they publish it to the **Power BI service** in the cloud, where colleagues open it in a browser, Teams or the phone app, and it refreshes on a schedule.

Microsoft launched it as a standalone product in 2015, and it spread quickly in companies that already pay for Microsoft 365. Its main competitors include Tableau and Looker. Since 2023 it is also part of Microsoft Fabric, the company's broader analytics platform. For many office workers it is the next step after Excel: same instincts, but connected to live data and shared with the whole team.

## An analogy

Like a cockpit for a business: instead of reading pages of numbers, you look at gauges and dials, and you can tap any one of them to see what is behind it.

## Keep in mind

- Microsoft's BI tool for interactive reports and dashboards.
- Reports are built in Power BI Desktop and shared through the Power BI service.
- Power Query cleans the data; DAX defines calculations.
- Popular in companies already using Microsoft 365; competes with Tableau and Looker.

## Go deeper

- [What is Power BI? (Microsoft Learn)](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/fundamentals/power-bi-overview)
- [Microsoft Power BI on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_BI)

## Related terms

- [Microsoft](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/microsoft/): The company of Windows and Office, now just as much a cloud company with Azure.
- [Business intelligence](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/business-intelligence/): Turning a company's data into reports and dashboards people use to decide.
- [Spreadsheet vs database](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/spreadsheet-vs-database/): Why a company that runs on Excel eventually needs a real database.
- [Database](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/database/): An organized store of data that programs can search and update safely.
- [Salesforce](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/salesforce/): The company that sells, as an online subscription, the software to manage customers.
- [Dashboard](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/dashboard/): One screen of charts and numbers that shows how something is doing at a glance.
- [Cloud computing](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/cloud-computing/): Renting computers over the internet instead of buying your own.
- [Web browser](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/web-browser/): The app that fetches web pages from the internet and draws them on your screen.