Setting up Power BI dashboards

EQ Flex is at the centre of your business and now it is even easier to work with your key business data to get insights into your performance using your EQ data in a Microsoft Power BI dashboard.

Featuring easy-to-understand visualizations and interactive charts, the default dashboard enables business owners and managers to explore key metrics across leads, quotes, sales, products, and purchasing. EQ Flex provides 5 standard Microsoft Power BI templates which you can instantly plug in to EQ and start analysing.

EQ Flex allows for an unlimited number of Power BI dashboard templates, so you can tailor dashboards for your specific functions or regions.

This article covers:

• Requirements
• Enable Power BI in System Config
• Setup a scheduled task
• How to open a Power BI dashboard
• Set Power BI templates for users

Requirements

You need EQ Flex version 25 or above.

No additional Power BI licensing is required to use these templates (with Power BI desktop). If you have a relevant Microsoft subscription you can publish these dashboards to the Power BI service for online access outside of EQ. You can read more in the Microsoft article here.

Enable Power BI in System Config

When using a Power BI dashboard you can set it as the default, over the EQ built-in dashboard:

1. On the main toolbar click System Config:
   
   
    
2. Click File Locations from the list on the left.
3. Tick the box at the bottom Use Power BI as the Default EQ Flex Dashboard.
4. Click Update to save and close settings.
   
   Now when you click the Dashboard icon, Power BI will open with your dashboard view.
   
    

Setup a scheduled task

You will begin setup by adding a task in EQ Automate that will schedule an export of the data for Power BI. You need this task to generate all of the data files that Power BI uses to create your charts.

1. Click EQ Automate on the main toolbar:
   
   
    
2. Click Add to start a new task where you have the blank task details to complete:
   
   
    
3. Complete the name and description with an easy to understand title like "Power BI data"
    
4. Under Default Task Files Folder select a location on your computer where the EQ Flex data will be saved. We recommend a new dedicated folder called EQ Flex Power BI.
    
5. Under Frequence Details select the frequency you want the data to be exported. For example Daily. You can then specify more information. For example, select a time to run each day.
    
6. In Task Type select Export.
    
7. In Task System select Power BI.
    
8. In Task Format select Comma Separated Values.
    
9. In PBI Template select a template name.
    
10. Under Processing Date Details you can decide if you want data from a set time period. If so, select a date range, for example This Year. Otherwise you can tick "Only include if Updated" which always exports the latest data.
     
11. In Emails enter an email address which will be used for the sending of successful task emails. (i.e. every time the task is successfully run, an email will be sent). 
     
12. In Fail Email enter an email address which will be used for sending of failures or errors with the scheduled task.
     
13. Click Update to save your task.
    A series of Work Lists will be created, wait for a few seconds.
     
14. At the lower section of the screen you will see all individual tasks created and enabled. No other setup is necessary.
    Here is an example of a completed task and all work list items:
    
    
     

How to open the default Power BI dashboard

So long as the setup has been completed, you can open the default Power BI dashboard quickly:

1. Click the Dashboard main button:
   
   
    
2. Power BI opens with your default dashboard view.
    
3. Click the Refresh button on the toolbar to load the latest data.

How to select which Power BI dashboard to open

If a user wants to specify which dashboard to open:

1. Click the arrow under the Dashboard main button:
   
   
    
2. Select Power Bi Dashboards... and then click the name of the dashboard you want to open.
    
3. Power BI opens with your dashboard loaded.
    
4. Click the Refresh button to load the latest data.

Set Power BI templates for valid users

EQ Flex is provided with 5 standard dashboard templates but these can be duplicated and adjusted to give an unlimited number of dashboards. You could  have 1 dashboard with multiple pages covering all areas of the business, or you could specialise so that some managers see a Sales overview dashboard whilst Purchasing managers only see a product and PO related dashboard.

By default all users can access all 5 templates (though access to the Dashboard button is still restricted by the usual User Groups security access). You can restrict this by setting valid users against each templates.

1. Click the arrow under the Dashboard button on the main toolbar:
   
   
    
2. Select Power Bi Templates
   This screen shows all template files and the names shown in EQ Flex.
    
3. Click on a template name you want to restrict, then click the Valid Users button.
    
4. Untick the All Users box to proceed.
    
5. Click each username you want to restrict and then click the Add -> button.
   All users you add to the list on te right will have access. Those users on the left will not have access.
    
6. Click Update to save and close back to the templates screen.
    
7. Click Update on the templates screen to save and close.