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Power Automate or Power BI - where to start?

Dan Snyder

I was recently asked by a connection if they could only start learning Power Automate or Power BI, which one should they start with. Here's my answer, but I'm curious what others would say as well. @Austen Brown @Alex Wong @Nicole Holt @Shelby Lewis @Hallie Guiseppe

In my opinion, I would say start with Power Automate and here are a few thoughts on why in no particular order:

- In order to be successful with Power BI, or really any reporting, your underlying data needs to be in order. The ole garbage in garbage out principle.

- You can use Power Automate to make sure you have healthy underlying data.

- You can use Power Automate to record data points that will make your reporting easier.

- In the process of learning Power Automate, you will learn about data relationships/structure that will be helpful when building your data models in Power BI.

- Finally, when you use Power Automate to remove tasks from your plate, you will then have the time and additional skills that will help you be successful with Power BI.

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Comments

Alex Wong

@Dan Snyder
I agree with you, and on top of what you already pointed out, here's another 2 reasons why start with power automate first.

Power Automate has a lot more template to play with so it is easier to get hands on.
Power BI (without Power Automate) will quickly get struck with what the unofficial connector provide in terms of data. (i.e. all constituent fundraisers assignment) Power Automate can supply Power BI with all data needs without using the unofficial connector (which will require a gateway for refresh, which in itself is another barrier to overcome): https://community.blackbaud.com/forums/viewtopic/586/70826

Nicole Holt

@Dan Snyder I completely agree. I feel like Power Automate gave me some of the language/skills needed to start with Power BI. And it does help that PA can be used to make export data tables for BI.

Hallie Guiseppe

@Dan Snyder, @Nicole Holt , and @Alex Wong all make excellent points—Power Automate is a great place to start for all the reasons mentioned. That said, I’d like to offer a different perspective for the sake of discussion.

In my opinion, the best place to start is where you can have the biggest strategic impact on your division’s goals. While I personally started with Power Automate (I wasn’t aware of Power BI at the time), it was the dashboards I built in Power BI that ended up having the most significant strategic impact.

RENXT reports work well for historical data, but getting a clear view of projections can be challenging, even when fully utilizing the modules. With Power BI, I was able to build reports that not only show where we are to goal today but also project future revenue based on open opportunities. This has been a game-changer for our team—our VP no longer needs a separate spreadsheet to track campaign progress, and most importantly, it has reinforced adherence to our business processes for opportunity entry and maintenance since those updates now directly impact our daily dashboards.

Beyond fundraising, Power BI has helped our Alumni Engagement team by providing a clear visualization of year-over-year engagement trends. Instead of relying on anecdotal feedback, they can now see how alumni move from low/moderate engagement to higher engagement brackets and set data-driven goals accordingly.

Ultimately, both tools are powerful, and where you start depends on where you can make the most impact. If cleaning up and automating your processes will give you the best foundation, Power Automate is the way to go. But if insight-driven decision-making and strategic alignment are your priorities, Power BI might be the better first step.

Dariel Dixon

@Dan Snyder I have a much simpler answer. I would starting using whichever I had access to, and what would be solving the problem I have. Like @Hallie Guiseppe stated, it's wherever you're going to be doing the most work. I would hate someone to take the time to learn any tool that they won't use often enough to keep the knowledge fresh in their minds.

Otherwise, it would be like the French I learned in high school. 3 years of it, and I think I might remember 10 words. Au revoir!

Potique Johnson

@Hallie Guiseppe
Hi Hallie. I am a Data Specialist here at a Hospital Foundation. I am part of the Baby Boomer generation and know nothing about Power BI or Power Automate. I just took an introductory course of Power BI from local community college.

Although the intro course showed me how I could use BI - it didn't really get into reporting, etc.

Can you recommend other online videos that might help me learn BI and how it interacts with BB RE and specifically how to design reports?

Dan Snyder

@Dariel Dixon Moi aussi!

Also, great advice (as usual) to use what you have access to.

Hallie Guiseppe

@Potique Johnson
Hi Potique,

I took a few Power BI courses as well, and while they were helpful, they didn’t fully answer the questions I had related to Blackbaud data. Things really started to click when I joined the Blackbaud Power BI User Group and began seeing how others were applying Power BI specifically with Blackbaud datasets.

From there, I chose to work directly with a Blackbaud consultant so I could learn while building dashboards with guidance from someone who truly understood the data. I was fortunate to work with @Rebecca Sundquist, and with her support, I was able to bring my ideas to life.

If you have the budget for professional development, I highly recommend working directly with the Blackbaud team—it made a big difference for me!

Rebecca Sundquist

@Potique Johnson, getting the data to a place where you can work with it is the first hard step. Then learning to relate tables in the semantic model and layer DAX measures on top of that is also challenging. I know it can feel frustrating to have to learn all of that before getting to the data visualization!

To expedite your journey, you might forgo data automation and simply work with flat files coming out of The Raiser's Edge NXT and then manually save them to SharePoint, which Power BI can access for online refreshes. Ellen Smith has published a template for this method: Power BI Template for use with Exports - Blackbaud Community You can learn a lot about working with RENXT data in her example.