Can PowerBI completely substitute MS Access?

[Anonymous]

Can PowerBI substitute completely MS Access as to get rid of it? I use the following features in MS Access.

-Query SQL Server, Excel Files, MS Access Data

-Create ALL TYPES of queries (filter, delete, update in the DB, create joins, uninons etc). 

-Macros to automate email sending, etc. 

[V-pazhen-msft]

@Anonymous 

Apparently, the answer is no, they are different in essence.

To be simple, MS Access is a database which is used to store the information. We usually compare MS Access with SQL Server, Oracle. Power BI is the reporting solution offering from Microsoft. We compared it with with Tableau. So you connect the data stored and queried in the MS access in Power Bi to generate reports. 

Paul Zheng _ Community Support Team
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

[amitchandak]

MS Access is And Database first reporting second. Power BI is reporting first and DB second. Most of the stuff is there. You should start and step by step replace the features. Depending on data you choose premium or pro version. 

But You can not say it is the replacement of MS Access.  Power BI is reporting and Analytics.

Refer :

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-shape-and-combine-data

https://radacad.com/pivot-and-unpivot-with-power-bi

https://radacad.com/append-vs-merge-in-power-bi-and-power-query

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/

[edhans]

Power BI is a read-only app, so it can do all of the below except DELETE, UPDATE, and APPEND (so-called "Action Queries") in Access. It can, IMHO, do all of the read stuff much better than Access. Power Query's UI is so much more powerful than Access. But only Access can actually change data in source files.

[vivran22 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous ,

MS Access and Power BI are are two applications with two disticnt objectives. While you could use Power Query platform available in Power BI to query your data tables, but you cannot make any changes in the existing data tables. Queries used in Power Query are more of SELECT category. They do not support APPEND or DELETE. You can do UNION & JOIN but that too will only visible in Power BI reports.

Power BI doesn't have any macros feature and cannot send emails from Power BI Desktop.

Cheers!
Vivek

If it helps, please mark it as a solution
Kudos would be a cherry on the top 🙂

https://www.vivran.in/

Connect on LinkedIn