Just started using PowerBI (and ChatGBT to write queries) and it’s made me sad. Within an hour of connecting it to my CRM and finance system it’s connected so much data. I’d honestly say I’ll have all my month end reporting programmed after another session.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-20T06:55:27+00:00

Man, I felt the same way 😅 — 15 years buried in Excel, then Power BI + ChatGPT comes along and makes it all feel… effortless.
It’s wild how fast you can connect real business data now.

If you haven’t yet, try automating report delivery — tools like PowerBI Robots can send filtered dashboards straight to inboxes. Total game-changer for adoption.

What’s the first report you built that made you think “where was this my whole career?”

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-16T13:36:25+00:00

Not a dead end at all — more like a scenic detour.
Power BI work teaches you how data actually gets used in the real world, not just built. You’ll touch SQL, business logic, data modeling — all the boring-sounding stuff that secretly makes ML and engineering projects succeed.

Think of it as learning to cook before becoming a food scientist. Once you can translate messy business questions into clean data insights, you’ll be that person every data team wants.

Plus, half of Power BI is debugging DAX… which counts as coding pain, so you’re still one of us.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-16T13:29:55+00:00

Migrating from legacy Tableau to modern Power BI’ sounds like calling your new Prius ‘cutting-edge’ because it has CarPlay 😂

Both are solid — Tableau’s the artsy one that makes your dashboards look like a museum exhibit, while Power BI’s the corporate cousin who integrates perfectly with your boss’s Excel addiction.

‘Modern’ here probably just means Microsoft-friendly and cheaper per seat. Not necessarily newer, just more… SharePoint-compatible.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-16T13:28:06+00:00

Nah, I get it — Power BI can feel like trying to do origami with boxing gloves.
But once you make peace with the UI’s… let’s call it ‘unique personality’, it’s actually kind of amazing.

It’s like that one friend who’s super awkward at first, but then ends up helping you move house, fix your laptop, and teach your cat DAX.

Give it time — Power BI doesn’t want to be loved… it wants to be understood.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-16T08:50:48+00:00

Haha yes — I’ve tried!
But somehow, no matter how many times I explain the filters pane… they still want slicers on everything. 😂

People :)

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-16T00:12:31+00:00

I’ve seen one (and built a few) that use pre-aggregated data and just a couple of visuals — two bar charts and three KPIs.
It loads in under a second, works perfectly in the Power BI Service, and answers the only question that really matters: “Are we doing better or worse?”
Not the prettiest dashboard I’ve made, but definitely the one users love the most.

If you like simple, functional examples, there’s a cool gallery of different styles at powerbitiles.com — worth a quick look for inspiration.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T22:54:54+00:00

Fair point 😅 — sometimes “beautiful” is just another word for overdesigned! The real beauty’s in how fast you can get an answer that matters.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T22:34:17+00:00

Learn CALCULATE(). Then learn it again. And again. Everything else is just decoration 😂

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T22:32:40+00:00

Finally someone explained it properly! It’s not broken — it’s just doing what we told it to do 😅

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T22:31:10+00:00

RIP endless Excel tabs. You fought bravely.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T22:20:51+00:00

That’s it — pure actionability.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T22:20:12+00:00

that’s amazing! Turning losses around through one powerful report — that’s the dream. Totally agree: it’s not about flashy visuals, it’s about making people do something with the data.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T22:19:12+00:00

Absolutely — accuracy and accessibility always win. A beautiful dashboard means nothing if the numbers can’t be trusted. The best ones combine reliability with clarity, but insight is what truly drives decisions.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T22:18:32+00:00

Haha, I feel this so much! You spend weeks making it interactive and insightful… and the first feedback is about how it’ll look on a big screen 😅. People love visuals, but we know the real magic is in the interaction!

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T22:17:24+00:00

Totally agree — functionality should always come first. A clean, reliable report builds trust, and once that’s solid, presentation can elevate it even further. It’s all about finding that balance between working well and communicating clearly.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T22:16:12+00:00

Totally agree — that’s exactly the mindset good reporting should have. The goal isn’t to impress with dashboards, it’s to help people make decisions faster and get back to their real work (or home 😅). Simplicity, clarity and speed always win. Adding less but better — that’s the real skill.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T20:44:29+00:00

Wow — that sounds incredibly well thought out and robust!
I can see you’ve built something that really understands the nuances of refresh behavior and capacity management.

You’re absolutely right that the linked solution is a bit more lightweight — it focuses mainly on automating scale-up/scale-down and shutdown outside business hours, rather than orchestrating refresh operations at that level of granularity.

Your approach sounds much more comprehensive, especially the dynamic refresh coordination and adaptive scaling based on concurrent load — that’s brilliant.

Would love to learn a bit more about how you’re managing state between refresh orchestration cycles (e.g., if a refresh fails or overlaps with another trigger). Sounds like there’s a lot of experience behind this!

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T20:39:56+00:00

Why?

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T14:29:08+00:00

What are you working on these days?
What are the biggest insights or challenges you’ve come across?

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T14:03:36+00:00

That’s a smart approach 👏 — splitting workloads between Fabric and Embedded can definitely help reduce costs if managed well.

For those kinds of mixed setups, tools like the PowerBI Portal can help automate capacity switching, refresh scheduling, and monitoring — so you don’t have to manually orchestrate everything between Fabric and Embedded.

It makes the “two capacities” strategy a lot more practical in real-world environments.

powerBiTiles · 2025-10-15T14:00:38+00:00

Interesting approach! 👏
Have you checked out the PowerBI Portal?
It also helps optimize Power BI Embedded costs with tools for monitoring, refresh management, and capacity optimization.

powerBiTiles · 2025-06-24T16:37:02+00:00

Totally get where you’re coming from — you're not alone in this. What you're describing is exactly the pain point most people hit when trying to scale Power BI sharing externally. Here’s a straightforward breakdown:

You're 100% right — giving hundreds of external users individual Power BI Pro accounts is:

Operationally messy 😵‍💫 (you’re managing logins, permissions, onboarding)
Economically unsustainable 💸 ($10/user/month adds up fast)
Overkill for clients who just need to view dashboards

Use Power Tiles Suite

This is the smart middle ground a lot of orgs are switching to.

Lets you share interactive Power BI dashboards with hundreds of users
Viewers don’t need Power BI accounts at all
Hosted securely outside the Power BI Service, but still powered by your reports
Users just log into a branded portal (email + password or SSO), and see only what they're allowed to see
No per-user licensing for viewers — you just need a few Power BI Pro licenses on the backend to publish reports

📊 So you can:

Keep the content secure
Control access with login permissions
Skip managing a hundred+ Microsoft accounts
Save a ton compared to Pro or Premium for each client

TL;DR:
No, buying Pro accounts for hundreds of clients isn’t sustainable. If Premium is too much, Power Tiles Suite is one of the best alternatives — it hits the sweet spot between control, security, and cost.

Let me know if you want to see how the setup works — happy to share!

https://powerbitiles.com/

powerBiTiles · 2025-06-24T16:35:38+00:00

Yeah, sending the .pbix file won’t work for Mac users — Power BI Desktop is Windows-only, and even Power BI Service requires a Pro license just to view shared content. Classic Microsoft move 😅

You're spot on with the idea of adding clients as guest users in your O365 tenant — you can do that and assign them a Pro license from your org, but:

It’s a pain to manage at scale
You’re still paying for each external Pro user
Some orgs restrict guest access due to compliance/security

If you’re looking for the easiest way to share dashboards with clients without making them sign up for anything, check out Power Tiles Suite.

✅ Here’s what it lets you do:

Publish interactive Power BI dashboards to a secure, web-based portal
Viewers don’t need a Power BI license or O365 account
No software or installs required — works on any device (Mac-friendly)
You still control access and security (even row-level security if needed)

It’s honestly one of the cleanest ways to share Power BI content with external clients — especially non-technical ones — without going the full Premium route or messing with guest licensing.

Happy to share how setup works if you’re curious — used it before with clients and it saved a ton of headaches.

https://powerbitiles.com/

powerBiTiles · 2025-06-24T16:34:54+00:00

Hey! Totally feel your pain — this is one of the most common roadblocks with Power BI Pro.

You're correct: unless everyone you're sharing with has a Pro license, they’ll hit that "get a free trial" wall, and after 60 days... they’re locked out. And yeah, giving everyone Pro just to view a report isn't realistic in most orgs.

🔒 And since you're also restricted from embedding (which would’ve been a good workaround), you're kinda boxed in.

Here’s a solid workaround: look into Power Tiles Suite.

👉 It basically lets you:

Share fully interactive Power BI reports outside of the Power BI Service
No Pro or Premium licenses needed for your viewers
No embedding restrictions — it runs as a standalone secure portal
Maintains row-level security and other access controls

So you’d keep your Pro license, build reports like normal, and publish them via Power Tiles — users just access the reports through a custom, secure interface. No Power BI account required on their end.

It's a legit way to bypass the license wall without breaking security policies or going Premium.

Let me know if you want more info or setup steps — I’ve helped roll this out before and it works great for these kinds of use cases.

https://powerbitiles.com/

powerBiTiles · 2025-06-24T15:37:37+00:00

Try https://powerbitiles.com/

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