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asjam86
Frequent Visitor

Import xls files not available to me.

Hi all,

 

I receive raw data from one of our suppliers in xls format. I use this data to produce reports on usage and identifying issues. These reports are given in paper to Sales and Tech support. I would like to make this paperless and use PowerBi to illustrate different areas to both teams simultaneously. I have completed this on PowerBi Desktop edition however I would like to automate the process so that I do not have to be at my desk to show up to date information.

 

I use Microsoft Flow to extract the XLS file to my One Drive for Business (will ultimately be in SharePoint) and then use PowerBi to add in relationships from a SharePoint list, work some magic and hey presto Dashboards for all.

 

However I wanted to build this directly into the PowerBi Service, but when I try get data and look for the xls it doesn't appear only xslx appear. Can anyone help with importing xls files or on he fly conversions to xlsx?

 

Thanks

Justin

2 REPLIES 2
v-micsh-msft
Employee
Employee

Hi asjam86,

 

We could publish the report directly to Power BI service from Power BI Desktop, see: Publish from Power BI Desktop.

Regarding the source file, for Power BI service, it only supports importing or connecting to workbooks created in Excel 2007 and later. Workbooks must be saved as .xlsx or .xlsm file type and be under 250 MB. See reference: Get data from Excel workbook files. And Get data from files.

In Power BI (service), you can connect to or import data and reports from three types of files.

Microsoft Excel (.xlsx or .xlsm)

Power BI Desktop (.pbix)

Comma Separated Value (.csv)

While Power Bi desktop do support to import .xls file type, we could also manage report under Power Bi desktop, when finished, save the Power BI Desktop file into a PBIX format, then upload the PBIX file into OneDrive for Business. After that, use the Get Data under Power BI service to Get files from OneDrive for Business to obtain the PBIX file.

Connect to files on your group's OneDrive for Business

 

In conclusion, if you would like to import the xls file into Power BI Service, there would be options below:

  1. Publish directly using Power BI Desktop when finished creating reports; (Publish from Power BI Desktop)
  2. Save the Report into PBIX format under Power BI Desktop, and upload it into OneDrive for Business, then Connect this file under Power BI Service;
  3. Save the xls file into xlsx file format using File->Save As option when open with Microsoft Excel 2007 or later. Then upload it.

If any further questions, please feel free to post back.

Regards

Thanks Michael,

 

Unfortunately all these work arounds involve manual intervention. This is something I'm trying to avoid.

 

Thanks Justin

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