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Integrate your platform data with Power BI

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Integrate your platform data with Power BI

Steps to integrate your data with Power BI

 

Related Help Guide Pages

Learn how you can integrate your platform data with Power BI!

Would you like to bring your accessplanit data to life with powerful dashboards and visual reports? Integrating Power BI with your accessplanit platform means your data flows automatically into Power BI, so you can easily track performance, identify trends, and share insights across your business.

Whether you’re analysing course bookings, revenue, or delegate progress, this integration helps you turn your platform data into meaningful, actionable insights.

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This guide will walk you through how accessplanit’s integration with Power BI works, and how to set up the integration step by step.

About

The Power BI integration allows you to connect your accessplanit data directly into Power BI for reporting and analysis. Using the ‘Power BI Query Generator’ in your accessplanit platform, you can select which modules, fields, and filters to include before generating a query to use in Power BI.

Once connected, you can view and analyse your accessplanit data alongside other business data sources to create a complete view of your organisation’s performance. Whether you want to track Course bookings, measure revenue, or analyse Delegate engagement, Power BI makes it easy to visualise trends and share insights across your team.

Please note

accessplanit’s Power BI integration is an additional, chargeable module. Please speak to your Customer Success Manager to see if this is already included within your accessplanit package or to find out more information!

Benefits

Report on all your data in one place

Bring your accessplanit data into Power BI to report alongside your wider business data (such as finance, HR, or sales) for a complete view of your organisation’s performance.

Build fully custom dashboards and visuals

Use Power BI’s powerful visualisation tools to create dashboards that match your organisation’s reporting needs!

Track training performance in real time

Once connected, your Power BI dashboards use the accessplanit API Feeds to display up-to-date data, helping you monitor your bookings, attendance, and revenue trends as they happen.

Combine data from multiple modules

Include data from several accessplanit modules, such as Courses, Delegates, Account, and Invoices, and connect them within Power BI to build cross-module insights.

Filter and refine before importing

The accessplanit Power BI Query Generator lets you choose specific modules, fields, and filters before you import, so you only bring in the data you need.

Keep your data secure

Access is controlled using your accessplanit API key and user permissions, ensuring only authorised users can connect and report on your platform data.

 

1. Set up the integration

In this step you will set up your integration between accessplanit and Power BI.

There are two steps to set up Power BI ready for your integration :

  • Download Power BI

  • Set up Power BI to support accessplanit

1.1. Download Power BI

If you do not yet have Power BI installed on your computer, complete these steps first

  1. From the Microsoft Store, download and install the Power BI application

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  2. Once installed, open Power BI

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  3. You can then login to Power BI using your Microsoft credentials

 

1.2. Set up Power BI to support accessplanit

Please note

These steps may vary if Power BI updates their user interface. If you’re unable to follow the instructions, please contact Microsoft support directly. Please let us know too, so we can review and update these steps!

 

  1. Open ‘Options and settings’ from the main Power BI page, or the File menu

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  2. Open the ‘Options’ menu

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  3. Open the ‘Security’ options

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  4. Update your Data Extensions option to ‘Allow any extension to load without validation or warning’

    image-20251022-102637.png

     

  5. Confirm this change

    image-20251022-102735.png

     

  6. Close your Power BI app

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  7. Open your Windows File Explorer and look for the path:
    C:\Documents\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors
    If your organisation uses OneDrive, this may also look like
    C:\Users\YourName\OneDrive - accessplanit ltd\Documents\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors
    If this path does not exist, create folders to create it

    image-20251022-105524.png

Please note

The folder names must be an exact match to Documents\Power BI Desktop\Custom Connectors

Any spelling inconsistencies will stop you from being able to access the accessplanit api from your Power BI application.

 

  1. Upload the following .mez folder to this folder:

    image-20251023-073108.png

     

  2. Reopen Power BI

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  3. From the Home tab, click to ‘Get data from other sources’

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  4. Search for & select ‘accessplanit API (Custom)’

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  5. Click ‘Connect'

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  1. Confirm the third party service notification

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  2. You are then prompted to complete the accessplanit API Connector form, leave this form open for now
    We will return to it in https://accessplanit.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/HG/pages/3968958465/Integrate+your+platform+data+with+Power+BI#%E2%9E%A1%EF%B8%8F--2.-Using-the-integration

    image-20251022-144141.png

 

1.3. Generate your accessplanit API key

  1. Open your accessplanit platform

  2. Open the ‘Administration’ menu from the Profile options at the top-right of your platform

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  3. Open the ‘API Keys’ menu option to access the page where you can create a new API Key for this integration

Please note

The option to generate API keys is not available to all Admins, please get in touch with a member of the Support Team if you are unable to access this option

 

  1. Click the green ‘Add API Key’ button

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  2. Provide your API Key with a name, e.g. ‘Power BI’

    image-20251022-151958.png

     

  3. Copy the provided API Key and save it somewhere secure

    image-20251022-152031.png

 

  1. Set your API key to be ‘Enabled’

    image-20250604-135426.png

     

Read more about API Keys

If you would like to know more about API Keys, and the other options available (such as the Expiration Date) please see our dedicated guide: https://accessplanit.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/HG/pages/3215425537/API+v2+-+Developer+Resources#Authorisation-using-API-Keys

 

  1. Click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the page to create your API Key

 

 

2. Using the integration

Here is how to generate the JSON in your accessplanit platform to integrate your data into Power BI!

  1. Open the Administration Menu in your accessplanit platform

  2. Search for and open the Power BI Query Generator

    Open Power BI menu option.mp4

     

Please note

The Power BI Query Generator is only available to Super Admins, please get in touch with a member of the Support Team if you are unable to access this option

 

  1. At the top of the Query Generator page, select which platform modules you would like to include data for in your Power BI Query

    image-20251022-145320.png

 

  1. For each module, select which fields of data you would like to include in your query

    image-20251022-145814.png

Top tip!

Use your platform DataGrids to see what data is stored in each field!

If you’re unsure whether to include a field, it’s best to include it - adding fields later means re-running the query generator. You can always exclude any unneeded fields once the data is in Power BI.

 

  1. For each module, add in any filters that you would like to limit the results in your query

    image-20251022-150223.png

     

  2. When you are happy with your module selection, field selection, and filters, click the ‘Generate Query’ button at the bottom left of the page

    image-20251022-150739.png

  3. This will generate the query at the bottom of the page! Click ‘Copy’

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  4. Return to your Power BI window from https://accessplanit.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/HG/pages/3968958465/Integrate+your+platform+data+with+Power+BI#1.2.-Set-up-Power-BI-to-support-accessplanit.1

    image-20251022-144141.png

     

  5. In ‘Site URL’ enter the full URL of your platform, up to the accessplan or accessplansandbox if you are integrating Sandbox data
    e.g. https://platformname.accessplanit.com/accessplan

  6. In ‘Field Selection JSON’ paste in the JSON you copied in step 7
    e.g. {"Company":{"ModuleDisplayName":"Account","Fields":[{"PropertyName"…..

  7. In ‘Record Limit’ enter the maximum number of records that should be included from each module
    e.g. 5000
    You can add -1 to include all data, however if you have large amounts of data, this may cause the query to run slowly

  8. In ‘Order By’ enter how you would like the data to be sorted by typing in the name of the field to sort by and whether you would like this asc (ascending a-z) or desc (descending z-a), this is an optional setting

  9. Once you have completed the form, click ‘OK’ to proceed

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  10. You will then be prompted to enter your API Key

    image-20251022-152145.png

     

  11. Enter the key that you generated in https://accessplanit.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/HG/pages/3968958465/Integrate+your+platform+data+with+Power+BI#1.3.-Generate-your-accessplanit-API-key and click ‘Connect’

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  12. This will open the Navigator window where you can select the data sources to include

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  13. We recommend selecting your data sources and opening the ‘Transform Data’ option first and setting the correct data type against each field

    image-20251023-134450.png

     

  14. You may have some fields where there are multiple values included for each row, for example Course Templates can be linked to multiple Categories, so the Category IDs and Category Labels in the Course Templates data source are initially included as a ‘list’

    image-20251024-082914.png

    Click the arrows icon at the top right of the column header to open your options for these fields:

    1. Expand to New Rows = create duplicate lines in the data for each value in the list
      For example a Course Template assigned to two Categories would now be listed in the data twice with a line per Category

    2. Extract Values = will create a delimited list of the values all in the same record
      For example a Course Template assigned to two Categories would still be listed in the data once, with the Categories listed with a delimiter (e.g. a comma or a semi-colon)

 

  1. 'Close and apply' your transformation

     

  2. The data will then load

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  3. You’ll then be able to access it from the 'Data' area of Power BI!

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  4. Use the ‘Manage Relationships’ option to connect the data sources together so that you can report on the data from multiple sources together

    image-20251022-154430.png

    See our https://accessplanit.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/HG/pages/3968958465/Integrate+your+platform+data+with+Power+BI#%F0%9F%A7%91%E2%80%8D%F0%9F%A4%9D%E2%80%8D%F0%9F%A7%91-Data-source-relationships guide if you would like support with this!

 

Example reports

Here are some example reports that you can create within Power BI using your accessplanit data!

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Bar Chart Of Invoice Totals By Account
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Pie chart of Courses by Status
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Line and clustered column chart showing Course fill rates by quarter
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KPI chart showing User Award expiries by month
Power BI Finance Reporting.mp4
Example Finance report in Power BI
Power BI Example Courses Dashboard.mp4
Example Course report in Power BI

 

Data source relationships

If you’re struggling to match data sources together, in this section we outline key relationships between modules for Power BI.

 

Linking Users, Employment, Accounts and Account Groups

e69f924a-febd-4272-ade1-d910ab2a7381.png
Users (UserID) > Employment (UserID)

Cardinality: Many to one
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Employment (EmployerID) > Account (AccountID)

Cardinality: Many to one
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Account (Account Group IDs) > Account Group (ID)

Cardinality: Many to one

 

Linking Delegates, Courses, and Course Templates

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Delegate (CourseID) > Course Date (ID)

Cardinality: Many to one
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Course Date (Course Template ID) > Course Templates (Course Template ID

Cardinality: Many to one

 

Linking Users and Delegates

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Delegate (Delegate ID) > Users (UserID)

Cardinality: Many to one

 

Linking Delegates and Placeholders with Invoices

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Invoice (ID) > Invoice Item (Invoice ID)

Cardinality: Many to one
image-20251027-130245.png
Invoice Item (Source ID) > Delegate (ID)

Cardinality: Many to one
image-20251027-130352.png
Invoice Item (Source ID) > Placeholder (ID)

Cardinality: Many to one

 

Linking Invoices, Invoice Items, and Transactions

image-20251027-130140.png
Invoice (ID) > Invoice Item (Invoice ID)

Cardinality: Many to one
image-20251027-130802.png
Invoice (ID) > Transaction (Invoice ID)

Cardinality: Many to one

 

 

Linking Delegates and Placeholders with Bookings

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Booking (Reference) > Delegate (Course Booking ID)

Cardinality: Many to one
image-20251027-131359.png
Booking (Reference) > Placeholder (Course Booking ID)

Cardinality: Many to one

 

Linking Invoices to Target Account

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Invoice (Target ID) > Account (AccountID)

Cardinality: Many to one

 

 

Linking Invoices to Target User

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Invoice (Target ID) > User (UserID)

Cardinality: Many to one

FAQs

Here are some common questions that we receive about the integration between accessplanit and Power BI and their answers.

Who can access the Power BI Query Generator?

Power BI is additional module, once enabled Super Admins can access and use the Power BI Query Generator via the Administration menu.
If you have the module included in your accessplanit package but you can’t see Power BI in your Administration Menu, please contact the accessplanit Support Team to enable access or confirm your permissions.

 

What is the Power BI Query Generator?

It’s a tool within accessplanit that allows you to choose which modules, fields, and filters to include in your data export. It then produces a JSON query that can be copied directly into Power BI to pull in your data automatically.

 

Do I need any technical knowledge to use this integration?

You don’t need any advanced technical skills to generate your Power BI Query in accessplanit! The process is straightforward and guided, with easy steps to choose your modules, fields, and filters before generating your query.
If you’re new to Power BI itself, we recommend setting aside some time to explore the tool and learn how to make the most of its powerful reporting features.

 

What kind of data can I bring into Power BI?

You can bring in data from a wide range of accessplanit modules, including Courses, Delegates, Accounts, Invoices, Bookings, and Products, this all depends on what you select in the Query Generator.

 

Can I connect data from multiple modules in one report?

Yes! Once imported into Power BI, you can use the ‘Manage Relationships’ feature to link related data sources together (for example, connecting Course data with Delegate data). This allows you to build combined, cross-module reports.

We have defined key relationships higher up in this guide.

 

How often does the data update in Power BI?

Data updates when you refresh your dataset in Power BI.
You can manually refresh or configure Power BI to refresh automatically (depending on your Power BI setup).

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Can I filter which data comes through?

Yes, you can apply filters directly in the Power BI Query Generator in accessplanit before generating your JSON. This ensures only the records you need are pulled into Power BI!

You can also further filter your data by using ‘slicers’ in Power BI.

 

Is there a limit to how much data I can import?

There isn’t currently a limit for how much data you can bring into Power BI, but we recommend setting a record limit per module to control performance, especially if your platform has high volumes of data!

 

Is the integration secure?

Yes, the integration uses your API key to ensure secure, authorised access.

 

Can I use this integration with my sandbox platform?

Yes! You can connect to your sandbox environment by entering your sandbox site URL (for example, https://platformname.accessplansandbox.com/accessplansandbox) in Power BI.

 

Can I use the integration with Power BI Desktop and Power BI Online?

Yes, it’s compatible with both Power BI Desktop (for building reports) and Power BI Online (for sharing and refreshing dashboards).

 

Will this integration cost extra?

Yes - the Power BI Query Generator is available as an add-on module, please have a chat with your Customer Success Manager if you would like any more information.

 

What if I need help setting this up?

If you need assistance, you can reach out to the accessplanit Support Team for guidance!

 

I am getting the error ‘we couldn’t authenticate with the credentials provided'

If you are seeing this error in Power BI, complete the following checks:

  • API v2 is enabled in your platform

  • The API Key is enabled and has not expired

  • The owner of the API Key is an active User

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