How to Create a Power BI Report from Excel

Updated on:

May 12, 2026

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Use this interactive demo to learn how to build a Power BI report using your Excel data.

Quick summary

This tutorial shows how to import Excel data into Power BI Desktop and create a report by connecting an .xlsx file as a data source. Follow the steps below to go from a blank report to a fully loaded Power BI data model in minutes.

Steps

Open Power BI Desktop and click 'Blank report' to start a new project.
Select 'Import data from Excel' as your data source option.
Browse your file system, select your .xlsx file, and click 'Open'.
Power BI will display all available tables and sheets from the file — check the boxes for the ones you want to import.
Click 'Load' to load your selected dataset from Excel into Power BI.
After loading, confirm that your Excel data is now part of your Power BI model and ready for reporting.

📌 Why this matters

Connecting Excel data to Power BI is one of the most common workflows for business analysts and data teams who need to turn spreadsheet data into interactive, shareable reports. Power BI's native Excel import feature eliminates manual data entry by letting users load structured .xlsx datasets directly into the data model in just a few clicks. This capability allows teams to build dynamic dashboards and visualizations on top of existing Excel data without rebuilding their datasets from scratch. Mastering this workflow helps organizations accelerate their move from static spreadsheets to scalable, real-time business intelligence reporting.

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