BQE Core
If you are a data analyst or business intelligence professional, you are likely familiar with Power BI. This powerful tool allows you to create reports and visualizations based on data from a wide variety of sources. One of these sources is BQE Core, a popular project accounting software used by many businesses. In this article, we will explore how to use the Power Query M language to connect to the BQE Core data source from inside Power BI.
What is Power Query M Language?
Power Query is a data connection technology developed by Microsoft. It allows you to connect to and transform data from a variety of sources, including databases, Excel files, and web services. Power Query uses a functional programming language called M to perform these transformations.
M is a powerful language that can be used to manipulate data in a variety of ways. It allows you to perform complex data cleansing and transformation tasks, such as merging and splitting tables, pivoting data, and transforming data types. M is also highly extensible, allowing you to create your own custom functions and data connectors.
Connecting to BQE Core
To connect to BQE Core from Power BI, you will need to use the Power Query Editor. This is a built-in tool in Power BI that allows you to create and edit queries using the M language.
To get started, open Power BI and click on the “Get Data” button in the Home tab. In the “Get Data” window, select “BQE Core” from the list of available data sources.
You will then be prompted to enter your BQE Core credentials. Once you have entered your credentials, Power BI will connect to the BQE Core data source and display a list of available tables.
Querying BQE Core Data
Once you have connected to the BQE Core data source, you can begin querying the data using the Power Query Editor. The Editor allows you to perform a wide variety of transformations on the data, such as filtering, grouping, and sorting.
To create a query, click on the “Edit Queries” button in the Home tab. This will open the Power Query Editor, where you can create and edit queries using the M language.
To start, select the table you want to query from the list of available tables. You can then use the various transformation tools in the Editor to modify the data as needed.
For example, you might want to filter the data to only include entries for a specific date range. To do this, select the column you want to filter on, click on the “Filter Rows” button in the “Transform” tab, and select the date range you want to include.
You can also use the Power Query Editor to merge tables, split tables, and pivot data. These advanced features allow you to perform sophisticated data transformations with just a few clicks of the mouse.
Writing M Code
While the Power Query Editor provides a user-friendly interface for querying BQE Core data, it is also possible to write M code directly. This allows you to perform more complex transformations that may not be possible using the Editor alone.
To write M code, click on the “Advanced Editor” button in the “View” tab of the Power Query Editor. This will open the Advanced Editor, where you can write and edit M code.
The M language is a functional programming language, which means that it uses functions to perform operations on data. You can use a wide variety of built-in functions to perform common data transformations, such as filtering, grouping, and sorting.
You can also create your own custom functions using the M language. This allows you to encapsulate complex operations into easily reusable modules that can be called from other queries.
Conclusion
Power BI is a powerful tool for creating reports and visualizations based on data from a variety of sources. Using the Power Query M language, you can easily connect to and transform data from BQE Core, a popular project accounting software.
By using the Power Query Editor, you can quickly and easily perform common data transformations, such as filtering and grouping. Advanced users can also write M code directly to perform more complex operations.
With its powerful data transformation capabilities and intuitive user interface, Power BI is an invaluable tool for any data analyst or business intelligence professional.
