Bypassing Excel?

[cmcreynolds]

Okay, when I started this relationship with Power BI in Feb of 2015, things were a bit simpler - both in what I needed and what Power BI (Power Query/Power Pivot) offered.

So, here is what I want:

• To build an Excel workbook that grabs data (using Power Query) from my OneDrive files and external sources (namely Salesforce)
• To schedule times where this file's data is refreshed and saved (in the original filename is fine instead of new each time)
• To share this Excel workbook on OneDrive/Sharepoint with my colleagues.

Is this too much to ask? Is this not within the capabilities of the Power BI app (in Office365 and Windows 8.1)? The weird part is that for about 5 months I was able to refresh my Excel workbooks just fine, it's just when I upgraded to Excel 2016 (which has Power Query built in!), things started to not work. Namely, I receive a credentials error for my Salesforce connections - yes, I've checked that they are correct a few $&%*#& times

The new resources on Power BI seem to indicate (at least it's how I'm perceiving it) that Power BI Desktop and the Office365 app are there to "bypass" Excel altogether.

For example, recent PDF book from Russo and Ferrari (love these guys, btw). Introducing Microsoft Power BI - SQLBI
Can I still accomplish my bullet points above?

I'm at whit's end now after manually refreshing reports every morning.

 

[Matt Allington]

Try power update. Power Update Software - Excelerator BI

there is a free version for a single workbook

 

[cmcreynolds]

is it now "power planner"?

 

[Matt Allington]

Power planner is a different product from the same company. Power planner will turn any pivot table with a power pivot data model and a SQL server database into a fully editable solution. You can for instance add 10% to one of the sub totals in a pivot table, then write the increase back to the database and save it as a forecast. It is amazing.

Power Planner Software - Excelerator BI