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Power BI or Excel: when is it time to switch?

Excel is still useful for individual analysis and smaller tables. Power BI becomes worth considering when reporting spans several sources, branches or recurring manual tasks.

Reports are rebuilt by hand every month

If staff collect files, copy data and check formulas each month, the process may be ready for automation. Power BI can connect sources to a shared model and refresh reports on an agreed schedule.

Teams define the same metric differently

Sales, finance and operations may calculate a metric in different ways. A shared model makes the definitions explicit and gives each team the same basis for comparison.

You need to compare multiple branches or teams

Manual reconciliation becomes harder as the number of stores, products and departments grows. A shared model makes comparisons consistent.

Managers need a current view

A Power BI report can be viewed on a computer or phone, subject to permissions and refresh settings. The actual update frequency depends on the source systems and configuration.

You need more than a total

When the questions involve causes, seasonality, customer behaviour or future demand, a data model and additional analytical methods may be useful. They extend analysis; they do not replace every spreadsheet.

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