Automatically adding date for last refresh of data

[Anonymous]

Hi

Is it somehow possible to automatically adding a date to your dashboard that tells the last date for refreshing your data?

Thanks

[PavelR]

Hi @Anonymous

it depends on you data source. When I use excel, csv etc. I use Date modified field from file header. When I use DW data I use the log tables with information about last refresh of data. Then I create simple table(s) with these dates and pin it as tile to dashboard.

If you want last date of refresh that was done by Power BI Service, then you can use the option to show refresh date when editing tile.

Regards.

Pavel

[Anonymous]

@PavelR Thanks for your reply.

Sounds pretty easy going when importing data from excel, csv. The thing is, that I use "live" (when refreshing) data from Salesforce repports.

I'm not sure what you mean by showing refresh date when editing tile? Can you explain?

/Anders

[v-yuezhe-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

You can directly use the last refresh time in tile of dashboard. Clicking the ... on the top right hand corner of the tile, then select Tile details and select  “Display last refresh time” as shown in the following screenshots. The refresh time will now show at the top of the tile.


Another method is to generate Last Refreshed Date with Power Query, then create the Last Refreshed Measure and add it to dashboard. For more details, please review the following blog:
http://www.excelguru.ca/blog/2016/06/08/display-last-refreshed-date-in-power-bi/


Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[PavelR]

@Anonymous I meant exactly that, what Lydia described.

Pavel

[Anonymous]

@v-yuezhe-msft

For some reason I don't get the "Tile Detail" virw by selecting "..." in upper right corner. I can only select "Export data" - which PBI desktop vesion are you working in?

I've already found the workaround for adding refresh date by using the Query Editor and creating a measure:

But the date for refreshing is not right, by that I mean, I did not press refresh yet - it's a couple of days ago now, but the date shown is today. Properly it will only work from further on?

[v-yuezhe-msft]

Hi @Anonymous,

The "Tile Detail" option is avaliable in Power BI Service but not in Power BI Desktop. You would need to publish your report to Power BI Service, then pin visual to a dashboard. This way, you will able to view "Tile Detail" option and “Display last refresh time” option.

Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[33Elwood]

I know this is late in the conversation, but I've been working with this today and have found that a better solution for me is to put the refresh date in the data source.  If you're pulling from a data warehouse, use the load date.  If you are using a query there's usually a getdate()/Now()... function you can use.

Even if you use the system time in Power BI Service you are only identifying when the Service ran, not the age of your original source.

[karimk]

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@PavelR 
Can you go through the steps to achieve this?

[Anonymous]

@v-yuezhe-msft i tried the workaround using the blog in the second method ...its working but,..i have question..

basically its just current datetime that is used in that method. ,In desktop when we refresh, it refreshes the data,,,soo that field will just show the curent datetime..But when publish it to service,,..and if we hit refresh on th report ribbon(not dataset refresh) it is showing last dataset refresh time and not the currentdatatime,,,basically this is what we want to show...but it is surprising me that how its tied to dataset refresh time and not the currentdateime..Any idea?