Power BI: where do you start when you are coming from spreadsheets?

The first dashboard almost always fails for the same reason: people start with the charts instead of starting with the data. Here is the order that works.

Start with a single question nobody can answer today, and work back to the data that answers it. The first useful dashboard fits into three indicators. The ones that fail start with the charts and discover too late that the data is not usable.

Why do first dashboards end up abandoned?

Because they answer questions nobody is asking. A dashboard built to show what you can do gets looked at once.

The right starting point is a question that costs money today: which service is genuinely profitable, which cost line is drifting, which customer pays late. If the figure changes a decision, the dashboard will be consulted.

What must be done before drawing anything?

Cleaning. In a spreadsheet, the same supplier is written four different ways, dates are sometimes text and sometimes dates, and totals are typed in by hand.

This work is not glamorous and represents the bulk of the project. A dashboard built on dirty data produces wrong figures with confidence — which is worse than no dashboard at all.

Which mistakes come up most often?

Mistake	What it produces	The right reflex
Putting everything on one page	Nobody reads it	Three indicators, one question
Connecting to live spreadsheets	Breaks on every edit	A stable source
No date table	Comparisons impossible	Create it from the start
Calculations done in the spreadsheet	Unverifiable results	Redo them in the tool
No named owner	Abandoned within three months	One person responsible

How long before a useful result?

A few days for a first dashboard answering a specific question, provided the data exists. Several weeks if it is scattered across spreadsheets, a business system and paper documents.

The limiting factor is never the tool: it is the state of the data.

Should you train your teams or outsource?

Both, in that order. A first dashboard built with you shows what is possible; training then lets your teams develop it without depending on anyone.

A dashboard only the supplier knows how to change dies at the first new question. See our Power BI course.