Power BI connected PivotTables in Excel for the web

[yunling]

Today we are excited to announce the initial availability of Power BI connected PivotTables in Excel for the web.  As part of our journey to simplify enterprise data discovery and analysis in Excel, this new capability unlocks more ways to consume such analysis from Excel for the web, empowering more users to make critical decisions with the benefits of Excel and Power BI. For example, you can get up-to-date insights by refreshing the PivotTable, or conduct explorations by manipulating the PivotTable fields all in a browser. You can also include live Excel PivotTables connected to Power BI data directly within your Power BI solutions and apps.

Furthermore, a layer of data protection is added by respecting any existing Microsoft Information Protection labels applied to the Power BI datasets as you connect to it with PivotTables in Excel for the web.

This will work on any workbooks in OneDrive for Business, SharePoint, and Teams, as well as those uploaded to the Power BI service. Users will need access to the underlying dataset to interact with PivotTables connected to Power BI datasets (see how to share Power BI datasets).  *Note: refresh and interactivity of Power BI datasets with a live connection to Analysis Services in Excel for the web is not supported.

This new feature has started rolling out across Microsoft 365 tenants, and we expect full roll out over the next few months.

Other Improvements

We are making a few other improvements to help you to be more productive with Power BI connected PivotTables.

Drag-and-Drop Aggregations

PivotTables connected to Power BI datasets will now support drag-and-drop aggregation of fields (e.g. sum, average, distinct count, etc.). This helps you to quickly get answers within Excel without needing pre-defined measures in the underlying Power BI datasets.

Date Fields

PivotTables connected to Power BI datasets will now support date fields, which means that date filters timelines, and date sorting will now be available.

Field list updates

In addition, we are making some small modifications to the field list, namely pre-defined measures will now be shown within the table they are stored in.  We are also updating some of the icons.

We Made it Faster Too

You may have noticed that PivotTables connected to Power BI also got faster. This is due to the recent updates to the Analysis Service engine in Power BI. Learn more details here: Analysis Services Tabular improves MDX query performance in the cloud.

Support for drag-and-drop aggregations, date fields, and the field list improvements will start rolling out in Excel Windows to Office Insiders soon and will be brought to Excel for web at a later stage.

Getting Started Now

We invite you to try out these new capabilities for yourself as they become available to you in the upcoming weeks. Send us your feedback via Help > Feedback in the app.

To learn more:

• Create a PivotTable from Power BI datasets
• Analyze in Excel for Power BI  
• Convert text to an Organization data type 
• Follow the Power BI Blog to get the latest Power BI updates and announcements from the Microsoft Business Applications Summit 

Subscribe to our Excel Blog and join our Excel Community to stay connected with us and other Excel fans around the world.

[Sergei Baklan]

That's great, it will be interesting to try and compare with desktop version. So far not available.

[Joost_de_Wit]

Will there be support for Analysis Services datasets as well?

[gabrielflores]

Support for Azure Analysis Services would be huge. Any timeline for this?

[BBarBI]

Date fields in connected pivot tables will now work just like, um, date fields?  Thank you!

[ptmartin]

I have tried connecting a O365 PT to a Power BI Premium Per User model with imported data and still get the "old message" of not supported :

Would appreciate any advice ?


STILL DOES NOT CONNECT 8TH JUNE ?

Does the online connection work with Pro licenses of Power BI or only Power BI Premium / Premium Per User ?

[C_Taddei_20]

This is a welcomed capability for my company.  Our self-serve users, especially those in accounting, will love this.

[testingthe]

@yunling With regards to loading a Power BI Dataset into Excel via Get Data, if a table is later renamed, a refresh can happen (albeit with a warning dialog) but the whole existing PivotTable is cleared. Is it not possible for it to know that this is the same table - just renamed - and to keep everything in place?

Similarly for renaming an existing column or measure, it removes the renamed column/measure from PivotTable if it was already dragged in rather than just keep it there. Can it not just be kept in-place?

[erm_cosm1705]

@yunling Great - long awaited - feature.

You say "This new feature has started rolling out across Microsoft 365 tenants, and we expect full roll out over the next few months". Is there any more detail on that? Will there be a further update on this blog? Would be very useful to know

Thanks

[Carlos Otero]

Quick Update: Please note that the Excel for the web feature announced in this post (i.e. Power BI PivotTable refresh and interaction) is now fully rolled out.  In addition, the Windows capabilities mentioned (i.e. drag and drop aggregations, date support, and visual polish) are being rolled out to the Insiders Slow audience. 

[Sergei Baklan]

Just in case

Insiders Slow == Current (Preview)

[Carlos Otero]

Thanks @Sergei Baklan!  I still have the bad habit of using the old terms.  :)

[Ralph Kemperdick]

Is there any plan to remove the above note: "refresh and interactivity of Power BI datasets with a live connection to Azure Analysis Services in Excel for the web is not supported." once the feature landed in Excel Online? Or will this capability not been addressed any time soon? 

[105479]

Hello

Any ETA for the rolling out of the Windows capabilities mentioned (i.e. drag and drop aggregations, date support, and visual polish) to the general audience?

[PatrickHarsnett]

Any timeline for support for external users? I connected Excel desktop client to a Power BI dataset (PBI Premium). Saved the Excel file to SharePoint Online. The SPO site has internal and external users. As an internal user, I’m able to successfully manipulate the Pivot via Excel for Web, but external users receive an error.