Course Details

This course is appropriate for a wide range of professionals but not limited to:

• Finance professionals and accountants
• Financial analysts and planning officers
• Budget officers and controllers
• Internal auditors and compliance professionals
• Anyone involved in financial reporting or dashboard creation

Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of Excel and finance; no prior Power BI experience required.

• Expert-led sessions with dynamic visual aids
• Comprehensive course manual to support practical application and reinforcement
• Interactive discussions addressing participants’ real-world projects and challenges
• Insightful case studies and proven best practices to enhance learning

By the end of this course, participants should be able to:

• Understand and navigate the Power BI environment for financial analysis
• Connect, model, and transform financial data using Power Query and DAX
• Build dynamic reports and dashboards for financial KPIs and performance tracking
• Automate budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis using Power BI
• Communicate financial insights clearly and effectively with interactive visualizations

DAY 1

Introduction to Power BI and Financial Data Handling

• Welcome and introduction
• Pre-test
• Overview of Power BI: architecture, components, and use cases in finance
• Connecting to data sources: Excel, databases, cloud platforms
• Importing and cleaning financial data using Power Query
• Data types, relationships, and data modeling basics
• Hands-on exercise

DAY 2

Data Modeling and Financial Calculations with DAX

• Creating relationships between financial datasets (e.g., GL, budget, actuals)
• Introduction to DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) for financial logic
• Key financial formulas: year-to-date, rolling averages, percentage changes
• Time intelligence functions for monthly, quarterly, and YTD analysis
• Hands-on exercise

DAY 3

Building Financial Dashboards and Reports

• Designing finance-specific visualizations: tables, cards, KPIs, waterfall charts
• Customizing visuals for P&L, cash flow, and balance sheet reporting
• Slicers, filters, and bookmarks for interactive storytelling
• Creating dashboards for executives and department heads
• Hands-on exercise

DAY 4

Advanced Analysis and Forecasting Techniques

• Budgeting vs. actuals variance analysis and scenario modeling
• Integrating Excel forecasts with Power BI
• Predictive forecasting with built-in analytics tools
• Drill-through, tooltips, and performance analysis techniques
• Hands-on exercise

DAY 5

Publishing, Sharing, and Governance

• Power BI Service vs. Desktop: publishing and sharing dashboards
• Data refresh scheduling, row-level security, and access control
• Collaboration within finance teams and across departments
• Embedding reports in PowerPoint, Teams, or SharePoint
• Final group project
• Post-test
• Certificate ceremony