The POWER of Power BI

In April, we finally held a webinar on the Power of Power BI. We’ve been looking forward to sharing this for quite a while. Our clients have done some amazing things with this tool, and we knew it would be exciting to share some of these solutions and get those creative juices flowing for all those in attendance!
Power BI is an add-on tool and is part of the Power Apps in Microsoft 365, accessible using your existing M365 login. This tool can create some beautiful dashboards, and so much more!

One of the primary reasons we recommend this tool for our clients is that it opens up the availability of data to the field without having them log into the server or accounting/project management software. But, with this data connection, PM’s have up-to-date info on their jobs; owners have KPI’s at their fingertips; multiple sources can provide a consolidated report, pie chart, or other visuals; and there are some amazing drill-down options to dig into the details making up the dashboards.

Chris and I were attending a vendor event. We didn’t have our computers on, so when I asked about a specific result for us, he pulled up his phone, launched Power BI, and went straight to our report, right on his phone!

This has been a game-changer, especially for our Sage 100 Contractor clients. We’ve built a wide variety of reports pulling data directly from S100C. No need for additional S100C licenses, or logging into the server, or learning to navigate to the desired reports. Power BI reports can even include restrictions on who can see what information and how far they can drill down!

In some cases, we’ve pulled data from multiple sources to consolidate the ‘story’ right in Power BI. This may include SQL Server (Sage), Excel, Microsoft Lists, Salesforce, and about 150 more.

A couple of things we’ve built in Power BI, and these are just a few:

• Cost to Complete reports
• Work in Progress reports and many variations to meet specific needs
• Commission and Incentive reports
• Reports by last invoice date, last job cost date, and similar reports that are not possible in the Sage Report Writer
• Budget versus Actual by Job, Phase, and Cost Code
• Leadership KPI reports
• Company Revenue reports
• Top clients
• Employee Certification Tracking
• PTO Tracking
• Employee Home Location Map for efficient scheduling
• Minority Reporting
• Custom Audit reports to meet auditors’ requests
• Win/Loss Ratio by Estimator
• Number of Bids Created
• Many Profit reports by different criteria

AND, Chris used Copilot to create the slide deck and images, including AI-generated ‘people.’ We want to take every opportunity to share how these tools can be used.

Some of the primary advantages over Excel include the automatic data refresh, consistency in calculation of results, and no more errors from manually modified Excel fields. There are amazing filtering options that save a great deal of time.

Like any new tool, there may be one or two reports you need right now. Why not dip your toe into the waters. We’ve found that when clients see how this tool can work for them, and how easy it is for their team to use, they often come back with a second request.

Are you intrigued? We’d be happy to send you the private link to this webinar; just let Liz know you’re interested! – CMW