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Build your first Power BI report from a spreadsheet (2026)

5 min read

What you’ll have at the end

Power BI Desktop installed on your computer, and a report built from one sheet or table of your Excel workbook. The report has a clustered column chart and a card showing one number. It's saved on your computer as a Power BI file, which Microsoft says has the extension .pbix.

This guide stops at saving the file. Publishing the report to the Power BI service online is a separate task.

Before you start

You’ll need

  • A computer running Windows 10 or later
  • An Excel workbook with your data, saved on that computer

What it costs. Microsoft says Power BI Desktop is free to download.

Power BI Desktop needs a Windows computer. Microsoft's download page lists only Windows in its minimum requirements: Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 or later. It asks you to use a client version of Windows, such as Windows 10, rather than Windows Server.

Microsoft says Power BI Desktop is free to download. Microsoft's Excel tutorial lists a Power BI account as something you need if you plan to publish your report to the Power BI service, which this guide doesn't do.

Please have an Excel workbook with your data saved on your computer. If you'd like to practise first, Microsoft offers a sample workbook, called Financial Sample, on its Connect to data quickstart.

Steps

  1. 1. Open the Power BI Desktop page in the Microsoft Store

    On your Windows computer, open a browser and go to aka.ms/pbidesktopstore. This opens the Power BI Desktop page of the Microsoft Store.

  2. 2. Click Install

    On the Power BI Desktop page of the Microsoft Store, click Install, and wait for the installation to finish.

  3. 3. Open Power BI Desktop

    Open Power BI Desktop from your Start menu. Microsoft says a welcome screen or tutorial may appear first. Please close it to start with a blank report.

  4. 4. Click Get data

    On the Home tab of the ribbon at the top, click Get data. The Get Data window opens.

  5. 5. Choose Excel and click Connect

    In the Get Data window, choose Excel, then click Connect. Some of Microsoft's pages show this option as Excel Workbook.

  6. 6. Choose your workbook and click Open

    Find your Excel workbook on your computer, select it, and click Open.

  7. 7. Tick the sheet or table you want in Navigator

    Power BI reads the workbook and shows what's in it in the Navigator window. Please tick the box beside the worksheet or table that holds your data.

  8. 8. Click Load

    Click Load. Power BI brings the data in.

    If you'd like to fix something in the data first, such as a column with the wrong type, you can click Transform Data instead. That opens the Power Query Editor. When you've finished there, click Close & Apply to return to your report.

  9. 9. Open your table in the Data pane

    On the right of the screen, find the Data pane. Click the arrow beside your table's name to see its columns, which Power BI calls fields.

  10. 10. Tick a text field

    Tick the box beside a field that holds categories, such as a product or region name. Power BI starts a visual on the report canvas.

  11. 11. Tick a number field

    Tick the box beside a field that holds numbers, such as sales. Power BI adds it to the same visual and chooses a chart type based on the fields you picked.

  12. 12. Change the visual to a Clustered column chart

    With the visual still selected, find the Visualizations pane on the right. Click the Clustered column chart icon. Your visual changes to a column chart.

  13. 13. Click a blank area of the canvas

    Click an empty part of the report canvas, away from your chart, so the chart is no longer selected.

  14. 14. Choose Card in the Visualizations pane

    In the Visualizations pane, select the Build visual tab, then select Card.

  15. 15. Add a number field to Values

    From the Data pane, drag a number field into the Values well in the Visualizations pane. The card shows a value for that field.

  16. 16. Save your report

    On the File menu, select Save, or hold Ctrl and press S. As this is the first save, choose a name and a folder for the file, and save it. This guide ends here.

If something looks different

  • If you'd rather not use the Microsoft Store, Microsoft also offers Power BI Desktop on the Microsoft Download Center. There, select Download, choose the 64-bit version, which Microsoft recommends, and select Next.
  • On older versions of Power BI Desktop, the Data pane is called the Fields pane. Microsoft says it's called the Data pane in current releases.
  • Microsoft also describes a shorter way in: the arrow next to Get data opens a Common data sources menu, with Excel in it. Choosing it takes you straight to step 6.
  • Microsoft says the card you get at step 14 is the card visual made generally available in November 2025. If you'd like the older card, open the ... menu in the Visualizations pane and select Restore default visuals.

Would you rather learn Power BI Desktop properly? There’s a free six-session course.

Related guides

Sources

Alongrail isn't affiliated with Microsoft.