Power BI Desktop: Build Your First Report From an Excel File

📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓

If you can build a pivot table, you can build a Power BI report. Power BI Desktop is free, reads the same Excel files, and turns them into interactive dashboards where every chart filters the others when you click. This walk-through takes about 30 minutes with the practice file below.

1. Install

Get Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store (it updates itself) or Microsoft’s download page. It runs on Windows only; on a Mac, use a Windows virtual machine or the web version for viewing.

2. Get the data

Home › Get data › Excel workbook, pick the practice file, tick the Sales table (tables are better than sheets, they have clean headers) and click Transform Data. That opens Power Query.

3. Check the columns in Power Query

Look at the icon in each column header: ABC text, 123 whole number, 1.2 decimal, a calendar for date. Fix any wrong type by clicking the icon. Here: Date should be Date, Qty whole number, Amount decimal or fixed decimal. Then Close & Apply.

4. Your first visuals

On the report canvas, the Visualizations pane is on the right and the Data pane lists your columns.

1. Card: click the card icon, drag Amount in. It shows total sales: ₹2.2 crore in the practice data (₹22,014,700).
2. Clustered column chart: Region on the X-axis, Amount on the Y-axis.
3. Line chart: Date on the X-axis (Power BI creates Year › Quarter › Month › Day; remove Day and Quarter for a monthly line), Amount on the Y-axis.
4. Table: Customer and Amount, sorted by Amount descending. Top customer: Iyer Stores.
5. Slicer: Category. Click “Computers” and every visual filters. Ctrl+click for several.

Click a bar in the region chart and the other visuals cross-filter to that region. That’s the main difference from Excel charts.

5. Your first DAX measure

Dragging Amount gives an implicit sum. Proper measures are reusable and clearer. On the Sales table, New measure:

Total Sales = SUM ( Sales[Amount] )
Orders = COUNTROWS ( Sales )
Avg Order Value = DIVIDE ( [Total Sales], [Orders] )

Use these in visuals instead of the raw column. DIVIDE avoids divide-by-zero errors. Average order value in the practice data is about ₹73,382.

6. Make it readable

• Select a visual › Format (paint roller): turn on data labels and set display units. Lakhs aren’t a built-in unit, so use a custom format string such as #,##,##0 on the measure for Indian grouping.
• Give every visual a clear title (“Sales by region”, not “Sum of Amount by Region”).
• View › Themes for consistent colours.
• Put cards on top, the main chart in the middle, details at the bottom.

7. Save, share, export

Save as a .pbix file. To share interactively, Publish to the Power BI service (needs a work or school account; sharing with others usually needs a Pro licence). Without that, File › Export › Export to PDF gives a static copy for email.

Check your numbers

The practice workbook’s Practice sheet lists what your visuals should show: total sales, orders, South region, Computers category, July 2026, top customer and Router units. If your card disagrees, check the column type and whether a slicer is still filtered.

Where people go wrong

Practice

Download the practice workbook below. Load the Sales table into Power BI; the Practice sheet lists the numbers your visuals should show, so you can check your report. Each task has an automatic ✓ check, and the Answers sheet has a working formula if you get stuck.

Next: time intelligence for the Indian financial year.