Business analysts
Turn spreadsheets into self-service dashboards that stakeholders can explore on their own.
← Back to training overview
Power BI masterclass
Power BI dashboard in a day
Learn how to turn raw Excel data into an interactive, refreshable Power BI dashboard in just one day. Ideal for analysts and business users who want to automate reporting and tell better data stories.
1-day workshop
80% hands-on labs
1 report from scratch
No prior BI needed
What you will achieve in one day
- Connect Excel and other data sources into Power BI.
- Clean and shape data using Power Query.
- Build a simple, robust data model with relationships.
- Create core DAX measures for revenue, profit, and margin.
- Design an interactive report and publish it with scheduled refresh.
Why this course
From static Excel to self-service dashboards in one day
This workshop is designed for busy professionals who want a structured, end-to-end introduction to Power BI. You spend most of the day in labs, not slides, and leave with a working dashboard you can keep improving.
The reporting challenge
- Recurring Excel reports that take hours to update every week or month.
- Multiple versions of the truth as spreadsheets are emailed around.
- Stakeholders who cannot drill into numbers without asking the analyst first.
- Limited visibility into trends and outliers until it is too late.
The Power BI opportunity
- Automate data refresh and free time for analysis instead of maintenance.
- Use a single model as the source for dashboards and ad hoc views.
- Enable self-service exploration with filters, drill-through, and slicers.
- Provide interactive, mobile-ready views for decision makers.
What you will learn
From raw data to published dashboard
The agenda walks through the full life cycle: connecting and cleaning data, modeling, DAX, report design, and publishing with refresh.
Foundations, data prep & modeling
- Power BI vs Excel, and where Power BI fits in your toolkit.
- Power BI Desktop, Service, and Mobile overview.
- Navigating the Power BI Desktop interface and key settings.
- Importing data from Excel and other common sources.
- Cleaning and transforming data with Power Query.
- Handling missing data, duplicates, and simple data quality issues.
- Building a basic data model with lookup tables and relationships.
DAX, time intelligence & dashboards
- Understanding calculated columns vs measures in DAX.
- Creating core business measures: total revenue, total profit, margin.
- Adding time-intelligence: last month, year-to-date, growth percentage.
- Designing interactive report pages with charts, tables, cards, and slicers.
- Publishing to Power BI Service and creating a simple dashboard.
- Setting up scheduled refresh using a personal gateway.
- Next steps for deepening Power BI skills after the workshop.
Who should attend
For professionals ready to move beyond static Excel
This course is suitable for analysts, managers, and business users who want to build their first serious dashboard without becoming full-time BI developers.
Finance & sales teams
Automate recurring management reports and track KPIs with near real-time data.
Managers & executives
Get a practical understanding of what Power BI can do and how to ask for the right dashboards.
Excel power users
Bring your existing pivot and formula skills into a more scalable BI environment.
New Power BI users
Start with best practices from day one instead of trial-and-error learning.
SME owners & ops leads
Build a first dashboard to monitor sales, operations, or performance without hiring a full BI team.
Course details
Delivery and requirements
A focused one-day programme that balances structured guidance with hands-on practice using a realistic dataset.
| Duration | 1 full day (9:00 AM – 5:00 PM). |
|---|---|
| Format | In-person or live online, highly interactive. |
| Level | Beginner — no prior Power BI experience required. |
| You should bring | Windows laptop with Power BI Desktop installed. |
| Account | Power BI account (Free or Pro, depending on your organisation). |
| Includes | Practice dataset, lab guide, and post-course resources. |
Outcomes
Walk away with a working dashboard and a path forward
By the end of the day, participants will have built an end-to-end dashboard and understand how to extend it with more data, measures, and visuals.
“One dashboard, many reusable patterns”
— the exercises are designed so you can adapt them to your own datasets and reporting needs after the course.
Next steps
Plan a Power BI dashboard-in-a-day workshop for your team
Share your team’s current reporting challenges and the outcomes you need, and we will recommend a Power BI workshop track that fits your data and environment — including HRDF claim guidance if required.
- Available for corporate groups and mixed business cohorts.
- Customisable using your own datasets where appropriate.
- Designed to complement more advanced Power BI learning paths.