Power BI Essentials

All the key aspects you need to know to begin developing Power BI reports for your business.

Create stunning interactive reports and share amazing insights!

Power BI gives Excel users the power to extract data from multiple sources, link it together, perform calculations and create powerful visualisations.

What is Power BI – Take a look here?

Power BI is an AMAZING cloud-based business analytics service provided by Microsoft that allows users to transform data into rich, interactive visual reports that present a 360-degree business view and improve business decision making.

Key Advantages of Power BI

Easily connect to multiple data sources, including Excel files, SQL Databases, Google Analytics, SharePoint, CSVs, ODBC and many more
Quickly prepare raw data for analysis by recording data transformations
Simply drag and drop to easily create relationships between different data sources. NO VLOOKUP REQUIRED!
Create custom report calculations for measuring profitability, margins, KPIs and any other desired areas using the powerful DAX formula language
Easily prepare interactive data visualisations colour-coordinated with corporate colours using built-in or custom templates
Quickly publish reports to Power BI.com for users to interact with using any browser, mobile phone or tablet
Customize reports and dashboards

More About Power BI

Power BI Desktop is a development platform from Microsoft that allows users to connect to a huge range of data sources, clean and transform messy data, create relationships between data sets, perform calculations and prepare stunning interactive reports.

Power BI.com allows users to publish their interactive reports and share certain features of those reports with others. Reports published to PowerBI.com can be set to refresh automatically and can be interacted with online using any browser or mobile device.

Before you proceed, just to let you know, we sometimes find that people would be better learning the Power BI features that are already built into Excel. Power Query and Power Pivot are awesome and may be more relevant to your daily work right now than Power BI.

Take a look at our Power Query and Power Pivot (with a bit of Power BI) course here.

Power BI is awesome too though so if you’re not sure which course is right for you, drop us an email to discuss.

Pre-requisites

This is an introductory course and no prior knowledge of Power BI is required. Participants who have taught themselves Power BI will also benefit from attending as the course will fill-in a number of gaps in their knowledge and will also extend what they know.

A general understanding of databases, Excel formulas, and Excel Pivot Tables is useful though not essential.

Delivery Options

In-house

All courses are available for in-house training, providing flexible options to meet your needs wherever you are – Perth, interstate, or internationally. Our in-house courses are designed to maximise value with flexibility, tailored content, and cost savings for your team.

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Power BI Online Training

Passionate expertise and a decade of experience has lead to the creation of this practical, hands-on Power BI course. Perfect for beginners and self-taught people that want to start their Power BI journey being led by a true expert.

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Full course outline

This course provides 7.5 contact hours per day towards continuing education requirements.

Day 1-2

Introduction to the Power BI Environment

Key components and how each works
Report functionality and how to use this to get the data you want
Build your first report in just a few minutes

Preparing Dashboard Data

Most of the work in a Power BI project is in preparing and structuring your datasets so that they are ready for use in Power BI visuals.

How to import data into Power BI Desktop from a wide variety of data sources
How to join different data sets together, even if they come from different files, databases or other sources
How to clean and transform your data so it’s ready for use with Power BI
Delving into “Get Data” and an introduction to understanding “M” code (Power Query language)
How to turn short, wide data tables into long, tall tables and why this is so useful for Power BI
Joining multiple data tables together and understanding relationships
How to create efficient data models: merging, appending and structuring your datasets to create the optimal structure
Learn how to apply your Power Query skills to Excel and when to choose one over the other
Different techniques for creating and utilising a Calendar table that you can use to slice and summarise your reports
Create queries that automatically report errors and missing codes
Learn how to automatically combine all the Excel, CSV or Text files in a folder into one table and see how you could apply this
Learn the principles of filter context, how critical this is for DAX formulas, and how to modify this in calculations to produce the results you need
Learn how DAX formulas work and how they’re different from Excel (even though they look similar!)
When to use a calculated column in a table and when to write a measure
Key DAX concepts and formulas include grouping and naming measures, aggregation functions, counts, time-related calculations, conditional tests, preventing errors, dealing with multiple date fields in one table and building measures that are based on other measures.

Creating Interactive Visualizations

Creating interactive visualisations
Adding/changing information presented in a visualisation
Incorporating custom visuals
Adding custom colour schemes to a dashboard
Create pre-filtered reports and charts that allow your users to drill down to see more detail
Learn how to create chart tooltips that automatically pop-up when a user hovers over the charts
See how to setup your reports and dashboards for use on mobile phones and other devices

Using POWERBI.com to add value to your Reports

How to create and share dashboards
Learn a variety of different ways to share your Power BI reports, and when to apply each one
How to create new visualisations just by typing a sentence
How to create an Excel pivot table from a report that’s been published to PowerBI.com
Scheduling data refreshes so that your reports are always up-to-date
Setting up security so that different users automatically see different views of the same report when they login

Apply your Skills with Practice Examples

During day 2 we have extended exercises where you apply the skills you’ve learned to practice data sets. In this exercise, you’ll create a data model, build your calculated fields and measures, then produce reports and visuals … all without any step-by-step instructions. It’s designed to be as close to real-life as possible and provides a great test for your new skills.

Comprehensive course notes, exercises and completed solutions are included.

Day 3

Your Power BI Project

This is the most valuable day of the course, where you apply what you’ve learned to your own data and real-world scenarios, making the training more relevant, practical, and impactful.

This hands-on experience boosts your confidence and skills, increasing the likelihood of effectively using Power BI in your work.

Bring your own project and receive expert coaching to overcome reporting challenges. You’ll not only reinforce your learning but also leave with a practical solution you can use immediately.

Working with your own data makes the course more meaningful, helping us guide you in structuring data models, queries, and DAX formulas while addressing any unforeseen issues.

Many past participants found this day the most valuable, as it ensured they could apply their skills effectively.

Who Should Attend

Excel users & analysts that focus on extracting, re-organizing and analyzing data
Anyone involved in creating visualizations & data modelling
Anyone interested in saving huge amounts of time in automating the work involved in creating recurring reports and dashboards
No prior knowledge is required

Why Choose Access Analytic?

At Access Analytic, we don’t just provide training and consulting—we lead the industry. With a 25-year track record of excellence, we are the trusted choice of top global companies for training and consulting in Power BI, advanced financial modelling, data analytics, and AI-driven business solutions.

Industry-Leading Expertise

Our Course Facilitators are internationally recognised thought leaders, speaking at major conferences around the world. One of our directors has been a Microsoft MVP for over seven years—and is the only combined Excel and Data Platform MVP in Australia—highlighting our elite-level expertise.

Global Reach, Local Presence

We deliver world-class training across Australia, Oceania, the South Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, helping professionals and organisations harness the power of Power BI, Excel, and AI. Our expertise extends beyond consultancy—we train and educate thousands of professionals worldwide.

Top-Ranked YouTube Channel

We run one of the world’s top YouTube channels for Power BI and Excel, where thousands of professionals look to us for cutting-edge insights and practical expertise.

Trusted by the Biggest Names

Many of the world’s most trusted and respected companies rely on Access Analytic for innovative, data-driven solutions. Our vast experience across industries means we bring the best global ideas and strategies directly to your business.

Elite Team,
No Juniors

We only give you highly experienced facilitators. Every Facilitator assigned to your training course will have the right mix of expertise in areas such as Power BI, finance, AI, best-practice financial modelling, and data analytics. Our team’s depth of real-world knowledge ensures your business benefits from proven insights that streamline processes, enhance decision-making, and deliver measurable results.

Perth-Based, but Borderless Support

Our team is locally based in Perth, but we run courses all around the world.

Setting the
Standard

At Access Analytic, we don’t just keep up with the industry—we set the standard. Partner with us for world-class expertise, cutting-edge solutions, and long-term success.

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Previous Training Courses

Meet Our Speakers

Jeff Robson

Founder & CEO | Data and Financial Modelling Specialist

Wyn Hopkins

Director | Microsoft MVP | Reporting and Automation Expert

Yury Tokarev

Director | Financial Modelling and Analytics Expert

Where We Have Delivered Training

Our Clients

Client testimonials

We are thrilled to have helped hundreds of businesses in Perth and worldwide over the years.

I can see a massive difference in the skills and confidence of our analysts before they attended your course vs after they finish. It’s really lifted the quality of the models I’m seeing.This course forces participants to think. They have to work hard to apply the concepts (i.e. they can’t sit back and just listen).

There’s also a big component of learning by doing which in my opinion is invaluable.

Jeff has an unassuming nature and a great coaching style. That’s what makes the course work so much better than if I were trying to run it!

Head of Analysis large multinational client

Thank you so much for the training – I found it incredibly valuable! Already over the last 2 days I have used a number of your tips and tricks and have also done some ‘IF’ and ‘INDEX MATCH’ formulas which is a great confidence boost and is so much faster than the old school VLOOKUP that was my trusty go to – not anymore!

I’m still blown away by the Power Query so will spend some time working through how I can better utilise it in the coming weeks and will be sure to watch your video. Thank you again for the training – I know others that attended are more excited about excel and what it can do too!

Chevron Employee

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