Sessions need a Windows laptop or desktop.
If you’re on your phone now, that’s fine. Enrol now and we’ll email you a link so you can pick up when you’re at a computer.
Power BI · Foundations
Build a sales dashboard you can present and stand behind.
What you’ll end up with
One finished three-page report. An executive summary, a regional breakdown reached by drill-through, a page answering a question you chose, nine measures you can each explain, a slicer, a theme, and a PDF you can send to anyone.
12
hours in all — about 8 guided, 4 on your own
6
sessions. Each designed to be completed in one sitting
Free
No payment and no card required.
Finishing gives you a completion record showing the work you built, and all three levels earn the Alongrail Certificate in Power BI. See what you’ll build →
You don’t need prior experience with Power BI. There’s no payment and no card required.
From three spreadsheets to a finished dashboard
0170 min
Get the data in front of you
Get three files into Power BI and check that everything arrived.
Afterwards: you can load any data file and prove nothing went missing.
02150 min
One clean table you trust
Fix the messy spellings, blanks and duplicates so the numbers can be trusted.
Afterwards: you can turn a messy export into a table you’d rely on.
0395 min
Teach Power BI how your tables fit together
Tell Power BI how the tables relate to each other and add a calendar.
Afterwards: you can build a model where a filter reaches the right tables.
04175 min
Write the numbers the business actually asks for
Write the numbers the business actually asks for, and check each one.
Afterwards: you can write a measure and prove it returns the right figure.
05150 min
Build the dashboard people will actually use
Turn those numbers into pages someone can read in ten seconds.
Afterwards: you can choose the right chart for the question being asked.
0690 min
Finish it, share it, and defend it
Polish it, export it, and write what it tells you.
Afterwards: you can hand your work to someone else and defend it.
What you need before you start
A Windows laptop or desktop
Sessions need a Windows laptop or desktop. If you’re on your phone now, that’s fine. Enrol now and we’ll email you a link so you can pick up when you’re at a computer. Windows 10 or 11 — Power BI Desktop has no Mac version.
Chrome or Edge
Alongrail runs in the browser, beside Power BI.
The course files
Everything you work with is in the download.
What’s free
The whole course: every session, both parts, the files, and your record. Alongrail charges nothing for it. No payment, and no card at any point.
The software
None. Power BI Desktop is a free download from Microsoft and needs no account.
The data you’ll work with
Every file is invented — the companies, the people and everything in them are made up for the course, and the files are deliberately messy, the way real business data is. Cleaning them is part of the work.
Before you start
The course covers Power BI Desktop, on your own computer. It doesn’t cover publishing to Power BI Service, which needs a work or school account.
- Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit
- 4 GB of RAM or more, which is what Microsoft recommends
- Chrome or Edge, to run Alongrail alongside Power BI
- No account, no card, and no work email — Power BI Desktop is free
- The data bundle northgate-data.zip, downloaded from the course page and unzipped into Documents\Alongrail\Power BI Foundations — make that folder first, keep nothing else in it but the report file you will save there, and do not move or rename it afterwards, because Power BI records the path it loaded from
- The on-your-own data bundle for Harbourline, downloaded from the course page and unzipped into Documents\Alongrail\Harbourline — a second folder of its own, so that two sets of files with identical names can never be confused for each other
- Windows only. Power BI Desktop has no Mac version.
- The course stops at the desktop file. It does not cover publishing to the Power BI service, because Microsoft does not accept personal email addresses for signup.
- Not a DAX deep dive. You will write nine measures and understand all of them, rather than skim forty.
Alongrail teaches the software and gives you a record of what you built, with a link to the work itself. What happens with it afterwards is yours. We don’t place people and we take no part in anyone’s recruitment process.
Enrol free and start now.
Sign in, confirm the one thing the course needs, and session 1 opens. No payment, and no card at any point.
If something goes wrong on the way, press “Something’s wrong” in the panel, or write to hello@alongrail.com — we reply within one working day.
Frequently asked questions
What you build
Start with three messy spreadsheets. Finish with a three-page interactive dashboard you built yourself, understand, and can rebuild without help.
Nine measures·An interactive filter·Drill-through·Your written insight·A PDF you can send
How a session works
- Open Power BI
- Share your screen
- One instruction
- You do it
- It confirms it
- Next
You open Power BI and share your screen. Alongrail reads what’s there and gives you one instruction. You do it. It confirms the step landed, then gives you the next one. If something doesn’t match what you see, one button gets you back on track.
Guided
In the Fields list, tick Region. The chart fills in.
One field on the axis, one measure as the value.
then
On your owna different company’s data
Same job, a different company's files. Alongrail stays quiet until you ask.
Guided, then on your own.
The second part of every session uses a different company’s data, with the same kind of mess in different places. Alongrail stays quiet until you ask. It’s the work your record points to.
About 12 hours in all·about 8 guided·about 4 on your own
What you earn — the record, the certificate and a sample
Completion record
- Name
- Your name
- Course
- Power BI Foundations — build and present a professional sales dashboard
- Completed
- The date you finish
- Project
- The dashboard you built on your own →
- Skills demonstrated
- Data import and inspection · Data cleaning and transformation · Combining data from multiple sources · Data modelling and relationships · DAX measures and time intelligence · Report design and visualisation · Interactivity and drill-through · Presenting and defending an analysis
What was built
A three-page Power BI report — an executive summary, a regional breakdown reached by drill-through, and a third page that answers a question about the business you chose yourself — built on a cleaned model with nine measures, a working slicer, a report-wide theme and a written insight, plus a PDF export you can send to anyone.
The 6 sessions, and when each was completed on their own
Each session was completed twice: once with step-by-step guidance on one company’s data, then on a second company’s data from a brief, with guidance only when asked. Every check passed on both. Alongrail records the sessions, the checks and the dates; the dashboard itself is the learner’s own, hosted where they chose.
A completion record for Power BI Foundations, now. It names the course, the date you finished, the skills you demonstrated, and links the dashboard you built on your own. It’s private until you publish it, and you can unpublish it at any time.
The record is a description of work you did, not a claim about you. Anyone who opens it can see the work for themselves.
The Alongrail Certificate in Power BI when all three levels are complete. Foundations is the first of three. Professional is in development, with no dates. See the track →
How this relates to PL-300 — the course covers core data preparation, modelling and visualisation skills assessed in Microsoft’s PL-300 exam. It isn’t exam preparation, and the exam fee is separate and paid to Microsoft.
Your screen stays yours
It looks when you ask. Never otherwise. Images of your screen are not stored. What Alongrail sees →
Nothing you build is public until you publish it. Your record is private until you say so, and you can unpublish it at any time.
What’s Power BI?
Microsoft’s tool for turning business data into reports and dashboards people can actually use. It’s free to download and runs on Windows.
You won’t learn it by watching hours of tutorials. You’ll learn it by building something real with it.
Who you’re building it for
Northgate Supply Co. has three years of orders, four regions, and returns that keep climbing. The finance director wants one answer:
Which regions are actually making money — and which are just busy?
Your job is to build the dashboard that answers it.
Do I need to know Power BI already?
No. The course assumes you’ve never opened it.
What if I get stuck?
Press the button in the panel and say what you see. Alongrail works out where you actually are and picks the instruction back up.
Why 12 hours, when other courses are 40?
Because the time is spent doing the work rather than watching it. About 8 hours is guided; the rest is you building the same thing again on your own.
What does Alongrail see on my screen?
Only the window you choose to share, and only when you ask it to look. Images of your screen are not stored by Alongrail. What Alongrail sees →
Can I use a Mac?
Not yet. Power BI Desktop is Windows-only, so this course is too. Other courses won’t be.
What if I miss a week?
Nothing closes. The dates are there to help you keep moving, not to catch you out.
Does this prepare me for the PL-300 exam?
It covers core skills the exam assesses, but it isn’t exam preparation. The exam fee is separate and paid to Microsoft.
What’s the “on your own” part?
The second half of every session: the same work on a different company’s data, with Alongrail quiet unless you ask. Both parts are needed for your completion record.
Is it really free?
Yes. No payment, and no card at any point.
Who can see what I build?
Nobody, until you say so. Your record is private until you publish it, and you can unpublish it at any time. What you build stays in your own files or account; where a step publishes something to the software’s own site, the step says so and says who can see it.
Where this course sits
Power BI Foundations is Foundations in Power BI. The track has three levels; each one you complete earns its own record, and all of them together earn the Alongrail Certificate in Power BI. All the courses →