Organisations in every sector now collect far more data than they use. Finance teams reconcile figures by hand, donors expect live results frameworks and executives want a single page that shows performance against target. Power BI and Tableau have become the standard tools for this work, but many users learn them informally and produce cluttered pages that mislead or slow down.

This course teaches a disciplined workflow that applies equally to both products. Participants start with a business question and a list of indicators, then prepare and model the data so that calculations are reliable. They build measures, choose visuals that fit the message, arrange layouts that guide the eye and add interactivity that helps users explore without breaking the report.

Later sessions deal with life after the build: publishing, sharing, permissions, scheduled refresh, performance tuning and documentation so someone else can maintain the work. Each day is dominated by lab time on provided sample datasets covering sales, budgets, human resources and programme monitoring. Participants complete a capstone dashboard in the tool of their choice and receive facilitator feedback on design and accuracy.

After the course, participants will be able to:

• Translate a reporting need into questions, indicators and a dashboard specification.
• Import, clean and transform data using Power Query and Tableau data preparation features.
• Design a star-schema data model with correct relationships and granularity.
• Create calculated measures with DAX and Tableau calculations, including time comparisons.
• Select and format visuals that communicate clearly and avoid common design mistakes.
• Add interactivity through slicers, filters, parameters, drill-through and actions.
• Publish, secure and refresh dashboards and document them for maintenance.

The course is relevant to staff who report on performance or support those who do, including:

• Business, data and reporting analysts
• Finance, budgeting and planning officers
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning officers
• Programme and project managers needing live indicators
• Sales, marketing and operations managers
• HR analysts preparing workforce reports
• ICT and database staff supporting self-service reporting
• Researchers and statisticians presenting results to decision makers

Participants finish with:

• A working dashboard built from sample or their own data.
• A reusable data model layout and naming convention.
• A library of DAX measures and Tableau calculations for common KPIs.
• A design checklist for clear, accessible visuals.
• A publishing and refresh plan for their organisation.
• A short comparison guide for choosing between the two tools.

This is a lab-based course in which most time is spent at the keyboard. Methods include:

• Instructor demonstrations followed by guided hands-on labs
• Practice datasets for sales, finance, HR and monitoring data
• Parallel builds in Power BI and Tableau to compare approaches
• Peer critique of layouts and visual choices
• A capstone dashboard reviewed by the facilitator

Participants who complete the labs and capstone dashboard are issued a CPD-accredited Certificate of Completion by Vision Reach Global Consultancy. The certificate is not a Microsoft or Tableau vendor certification.