Shortcuts Business Insights
Power BI is a powerful business intelligence tool that helps organizations make data-driven decisions. One of the key features of Power BI is its ability to connect to various data sources. In this article, we will focus on how to connect to the Shortcuts Business Insights data source from inside Power BI using Power Query M Language code.
What is Power Query M Language?
Power Query M Language is a functional, case-sensitive language used to perform data transformations and manipulations. It is used in Power Query, a data connection and transformation tool in Power BI. Power Query M Language is similar to other programming languages such as Python and R, but it is designed specifically for data transformations.
What is Shortcuts Business Insights?
Shortcuts Business Insights is a cloud-based reporting tool that provides real-time data insights into your salon or spa business. It allows users to analyze data such as service revenue, product sales, employee performance, and client retention. With Shortcuts Business Insights, users can make informed decisions about their business operations.
Connecting to Shortcuts Business Insights from Power BI
To connect to Shortcuts Business Insights from Power BI, we need to use Power Query M Language code. Here are the steps to follow:
1. Open Power BI and click on “Get Data” in the Home tab.
2. Select “Web” as the data source and click “Connect.”
3. In the “From Web” window, enter the URL for the Shortcuts Business Insights data source and click “OK.” The URL should look something like this: https://my.shortcutssoftware.com/BI
4. In the “Navigator” window, select the data you want to import and click “Load.” You can select a specific report or dashboard, or you can select all data.
Power Query M Language Code for Shortcuts Business Insights
Now that we know how to connect to Shortcuts Business Insights from Power BI, let’s take a look at the Power Query M Language code we can use to retrieve data.
Here is an example of code that retrieves all data from the “Sales by Item” report:
let
Source = Web.Page(Web.Contents(“https://my.shortcutssoftware.com/BI/Report/View/12345678-9012-3456-7890-123456789012”)),
Data0 = Source{0}[Data],
#”Promoted Headers” = Table.PromoteHeaders(Data0, [PromoteAllScalars=true]),
#”Changed Type” = Table.TransformColumnTypes(#”Promoted Headers”,{{“Date”, type date}, {“Item”, type text}, {“Quantity”, Int64.Type}, {“Total Sales”, Currency.Type}})
in
#”Changed Type”
Let’s break down this code:
– The `let` statement defines a variable called `Source` that retrieves the web page containing the “Sales by Item” report.
– The `Data0` variable extracts the first table from the web page.
– The `Promoted Headers` variable promotes all scalar values in the table to headers.
– The `Changed Type` variable transforms the column types to match the data types in the report.
This code can be modified to retrieve different reports and dashboards from Shortcuts Business Insights.
Conclusion
Connecting to Shortcuts Business Insights from Power BI using Power Query M Language code allows users to import real-time data into their Power BI workspace. With this data, users can create custom reports and dashboards to help make informed decisions about their salon or spa business. By understanding the basics of Power Query M Language code, users can harness the power of Power BI to analyze data and drive business success.
