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 · Practitioner
Turn a dashboard into a recommendation you can put your name to.
What you’ll end up with
One finished management pack. A reshaped model with two date paths, twelve further measures, a targets comparison that marks a miss, a scenario page with a slider, and a written recommendation with the number behind it.
11½
hours in all — about 7½ 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
01115 min
Shape the model for the questions
Get three files into Power BI and check that everything arrived.
Afterwards: you can load any data file and prove nothing went missing.
02110 min
Two dates, one calendar
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.
03115 min
Make the number hold
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.
04115 min
Any period against any other
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.
05120 min
Targets and scenarios
Turn those numbers into pages someone can read in ten seconds.
Afterwards: you can choose the right chart for the question being asked.
06110 min
A pack someone can present
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
Power BI costs nothing for this course.
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.
- The finished Power BI Foundations report file, saved and reopening clean
- Power BI Desktop, the same installation Foundations used
- northgate-practitioner-data.zip unzipped into the same folder the Foundations files are already in, so that the report you bring keeps reading them — three of its four files are the ones already there, unchanged, and the fourth is new
- About twelve hours, in six sittings, with the independent run after each
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 11½ hours in all·about 7½ guided·about 4 on your own
What you earn — the record, the certificate and a sample
Completion record
- Name
- Your name
- Course
- Power BI Practitioner — turn a dashboard into an analysis that changes a decision
- Completed
- The date you finish
- Project
- The dashboard you built on your own →
- Skills demonstrated
- Reshaping a flat export into dimension tables without losing a row · Counting the same fact by two different dates · Saying what a filter context is doing to a number, and changing it on purpose · Holding a share and a rank honest under a reader's own filtering · Comparing any period to any other, and saying what a rolling window does before it is full · Bringing an outside file into a model and relating it on a key you had to build · Marking a miss against a target so a reader sees it without being told · Letting a reader move an assumption and see the number move · Turning a dashboard into a pack with a recommendation you can defend
What was built
A management pack: the Foundations model reshaped into dimensions with two date paths, twelve further measures, a targets comparison that marks a miss, a scenario page with a slider, a reader who can choose what they are looking at, and a written recommendation with the number that supports it.
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 Practitioner, 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. Practitioner is the second 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 11½ hours, when other courses are 40?
Because the time is spent doing the work rather than watching it. About 7½ 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 Practitioner is Practitioner 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 →