Power BI Desktop Fundamentals (2 Day)

This two-day remote learning workshop is an introduction to Power BI Desktop, the Microsoft tool that enables data from various sources to be "mashed together" to create insightful reports. By the end of this course, you will be able to import data, and create and publish your own Power BI reports.

Our public dates for this course are held online, via Live Online Learning. This course is also available for private group bookings for your organisation, either online or in the classroom — please contact us for availability, pricing and customisation options.

Course Overview

Prices

  • Standard Price

    £690*
  • Public Sector Price

    £580*
  • Charity Price

    £460*
  • *Per person, excluding VAT

  • Duration

    2 days
  • Class size

    6 approx.
  • Location

    Interactive online sessions delivered via Zoom. The link is sent to you after booking.

    Online
  • Requirements

    Delegates do not need any prior knowledge, although advanced Excel users (equivalent of our Level 3) are the typical audience for Power BI users.

Power BI Desktop Fundamentals - What you will learn

Course Overview

To take part in this course, you will need to have Power BI Desktop installed and updated to the latest version of the software. Either the free version or the Premium paid version is fine - however, if you would like to use Power BI to publish reports securely to your organisation, you will need the Premium version. This course is for PC users only — Power BI is not currently available on Mac.

What you will learn

By the end of this two-day workshop you will be able to:

  • Create a data model by importing data from various sources
  • Use the query editor to clean and transform data
  • Insert calculated columns using “M” functions
  • Understand and manage data relationships
  • Create and edit hierarchies
  • Create an interactive drill through report with charts, tables and slicers
  • Create and edit Measures (DAX aggregate functions)
  • Publish your Power BI report

If you want to expand your knowledge after taking this course, please see our one-day Power BI Desktop Next Steps course.

Course Timetable

Day One

Session 1

The workshop begins at 9.30am and starts with an introduction to self-service business intelligence and the Power BI suite of tools:

  • Brief overview of the tools
    • Power BI Service, Power BI Desktop & Power BI Mobile
    • Comparison with Excel Power Query and Power Pivot tools
  • Overview of the various types of data that can be imported into Power BI
  • Preview of the example report we will create during the training

Session 2

During the first morning we will explore the desktop interface and become familiar with connecting to different data sources whilst creating our first interactive example report:

  • Desktop interface: Report, Data and Model views, Visualizations panel, etc
  • Connecting to various data sources and understanding the difference between Direct Query and importing data
  • Using Query Editor to profile the data (check distinct and unique values, etc) then clean and filter data, such as removing rows, find and replacing values, splitting data into separate columns
  • Editing, renaming and deleting the applied steps
    • Creating calculated columns including the Column by example tool
  • Formatting chart visualisations including adding data labels and hiding axis
  • Formatting table and matrix visualisations including applying conditional formatting
  • Saving a pbix file

Session 3

During the first afternoon we will understand how to refresh data and deal with common issues such as source data being renamed, moved and changed. We will then focus on how best to design a report:

  • Applying a theme
  • Including text boxes, shapes, a company logo and a background
  • Working with Filters (including slicers, field filters, Top N, page filters v report filters)
  • Creating drill through pages
  • Using the selection pane effectively
  • Turning interactions (cross high lighting) on or off
  • Grouping visualisations

Session 4

We will create our first DAX measures.

Day Two

Session 1

To start the second day, we will learn more about modelling data in Power BI:

  • Append, merge and reference queries
  • Building the Data Model by creating relationships between the different data sources
  • Creating calculated columns in the model v. Power Query
  • Creating and using hierarchies
  • Using Enter Data to create a parameter table

Session 2

An important focus of day two is the creation of a Date Table

  • Change setting for auto dates
  • Create a date table using ‘M’
  • Sorting columns correctly (date order rather than alphabetically)
  • Date hierarchy drill down charts
  • Create active and inactive relationships between the date table and your transaction data
  • Relative date slicers

Session 3

We will continue learning DAX:

  • Understanding Implicit and Explicit Measures
  • Organising your measures into one ‘folder’
  • Creating some useful DAX functions including
    • COUNTX and COUNTROWS
    • CALCULATE with USERELATIONSHIP
    • SELECTEDVALUE and ISFILTERED
  • Using DAX aggregate functions in visualizations
  • Using DAX measures to create custom report titles

Session 4

We will finish the workshop by considering how to share the report:

  • Save as PDF
  • Overview of publishing to Power BI Service workspace and viewing your published report

A full PDF manual is provided, together with follow up exercises so that you can continue your learning. 

Please contact us if you require a condensed one-day workshop for your organisation.

5 out of 5 stars

The training course and the tutor was excellent. Th course was very practical and received lots of demo exercise to get practice on. The venue was great, specially the treats, i.e. lunch and ice creams. Thank you so much for providing a brilliant service, i.e. the experience with Happy Computers Ltd was wonderful and great!

Trusted Customer3 days ago

What's it like to learn online with Happy?

In this short video, Rachael explains how Happy makes our Live Online Learning IT programmes just as interactive and engaging as our classroom sessions.

Group Learning Events

If you have three or more learners, a private group course could be cheaper.

We can tailor the content to your team, and host the training remotely, at your workplace or here at Happy's HQ in Aldgate, Central London.

Find out more

Book now

See our available course dates, or contact us for bespoke options.

Live Online Learning (Interactive Webinar)
There are currently no upcoming public course dates available. Please email our team on hello@happy.co.uk and register your interest for this course. We'll let you know as soon as a date is available.

Not sure if this course is right for you? Call us:

020 7375 7300

Why choose Happy?

  • Award-winning learner-focused approach
  • Small class sizes to give personal one-to-one support
  • Two years of free support after your course
  • Private group options available
  • No quibble money-back guarantee on all courses

The Small Print

To take part in this course, you will need to have Power BI Desktop installed and updated to the latest version of the software. Either the free version or the Premium paid version is fine - however, if you would like to use Power BI to publish reports securely to your organisation, you will need the Premium version. This course is for PC users only — Power BI is not currently available on Mac.

For Live Online Interactive Learning sessions (webinars)

The course will run remotely for two full days between 9:30 – 16:30.

All learners will need to install Zoom on their machines. Full technical requirements are on the Zoom website. Your link will be included in your joining instructions once you have booked your place — if you haven't received this email then please contact our team.

Learners should log into the training session 10 minutes before the start time to ensure that they have downloaded and set up Zoom correctly. The course will start precisely on time and it may not be possible to go back over material missed by late arrivals.

Your active participation is expected: everyone will be heard and seen throughout, just as they would be if we were in a room together. To be heard, hear and seen you will need a microphone, speakers and camera – if you have a modern laptop that’s all you will need. Remember, you’ll need a quiet place to call from and a decent internet connection is a must.

Please ensure you read our Terms and Conditions before booking for our payment terms and cancellation policy.

For classroom sessions

All public classroom sessions take place at Happy's HQ in London at Robert Dolan House, 9 Alie Street, London E1 8DE. Please see our Contact Us page for full directions and a PDF map.

This course will run from 10am to 4:45pm (lunch is served 1pm to 1:45pm — we offer a choice of 3 cold bowl dishes) on both days. Please be careful to arrive by 9:45am for registration and refreshments. The course will start precisely on time and it may not be possible to go back over material missed by late arrivals. If you arrive over 30 minutes late you may be asked to leave and attend another day.

Please ensure you read our Terms and Conditions before booking for our payment terms and cancellation policy.

The happy Guarantee

We want everyone to go away from our courses feeling as though they have learnt useful, practical skills that they can use straight away when they go back to work.

If you don’t feel that your training has been useful or if you are unhappy in any way, please get in touch with our Customer Services team within 30 days of the course. We will be happy to offer you additional support and training free of charge to help you to gain the skills you need, or if you’d prefer, a full refund.

Coronavirus Policy

In light of the current Coronavirus outbreak we want all of our customers to be reassured that we are working to maintain the highest standards of Health and Safety. We are monitoring the situation closely and are following all current Government guidelines.

Please see our Coronavirus Policy for more details and the latest information.

If you have any questions or concerns, our friendly team are available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. You can leave a message on 020 7375 7300 or email us at hello@happy.co.uk.

Your post-course support package

  • Included in the price of both online and classroom programmes
  • 2 years of free access to our IT Helpline
  • Unlimited access - call or email our team as often as you need
  • Ask about any content covered on your course

Did you know...

...Power BI breaks the mould of traditional BI development and makes the analytics process easier and more flexible?

Power BI saves a lot of time and labour and makes sharing super simple. Power BI has its own desktop app, but is also built into Excel. Take a look at Happy's other training courses in Power BI and data analysis.

Power BI Desktop Next Steps to build on the knowledge learned on the Fundamentals course, with more focus on DAX calculations, in particular Time Intelligence. Find out more

Introduction to Power Query to enable you to import, tidy up and transform data, and output a workable, clean data set for analysis. Find out more

Introduction to Power Pivot to enable you to analyse, visualise and report on large amounts of data. Find out more. Find out more