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TECHNOLOGY
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then data visualization applications such as Microsoft's are worth a look.
Accountants often are tasked with tracking the performance of their organization (or client organizations).That process usually requires referring to multiple sources to gain insight on the trends of the organization, its industry, and even its competitors.
Critical data monitoring the pulse of an organization can be summarized in custom format in one (or more) visuals, perhaps in a dashboard such as the one shown in the screenshot "Dashboard Example."
Imagine accessing those results and comparisons automatically refreshed, on demand, from your PC, tablet, smartphone, or even wearable device. That's the power of business intelligence and data visualization. (See the sidebar "Business Intelligence, Data Visualization, and CPAs.")
CPAs can choose from a number of business intelligence and data visualization applications, with the two most popular in the accounting space being Tableau and Microsoft Power BI. Other names to know include Adaptive Discovery, Google Charts, Qlik, Wolters Kluwer's TeamMate Analytics, and Zoho Analytics.
Tableau and Power BI are similar in many ways but have some significant differences, which are detailed in the sidebar "Power BI vs. Tableau."
For more on Tableau, see the accompanying article, "Excel vs. Tableau: See Your Data Differendy," on page 32. That article and this one are not meant to be exhaustive examinations of Power BI and Tableau, but rather introductions to how to use the two software packages.
This article focuses on Microsoft Power BI because it combines data extraction, transformation, and load tools already in Excel (namely PowerPivot and Power Query) with robust modern styles of interactive analysis and visualizations.
Microsoft introduced Power BI in 2014 and continues to make improvements. It connects seamlessly with Microsoft Excel and proprietary products including Google Analytics, Microsoft Dynamics, QuickBooks, and many more.
WHICH IS BETTER: POWER BI OR EXCEL?
Power BI works very well with Excel, as the two Microsoft products complement each other. Excel is a great source of data for Power BI, which can receive data from hundreds of possible sources. Power BI is a great choice for a vast array of visualization options, higher-level analytics, automatic updates upon changes to source data, very large sets of data, and user interaction,...