Configuring Planful Connector for Power BI

Connecting Planful with Power BI enables loading finance and workforce data to generate insightful dashboards and analytical reports within Power BI.

Note:

Contact Planful Support or your Account Manager to enable the Power BI flag.

Users can extract Planful cube data and metadata, including financial metrics, actuals, and plan data. In addition to Planful’s data, users can combine data from multiple sources within Power BI for comprehensive analysis.

Note:

• Dynamic planning data can only be extracted if mapped to the financial cube.

• Calculated data/members are not exported.

To complete the Power BI configuration with Planful follow the steps below:

1. Enable Power BI Access in Planful

2. Generating Access Keys

3. Download .pqx file

4. Update Data Extensions in Power BI

5. Connecting to Planful from Power BI

Enabling Power BI Access in Planful

Administrators can manage who can access cube data via Planful connector in Power BI based on user roles. This ensures that only authorized users can fetch cube data securely. Administrators can define whether users can access Financial data, Workforce data, or both, based on their responsibilities and reporting needs.

Administrators can configure the access on the Navigation Access page.

• To grant access to the Financial and Workforce cubes, select the Power BI checkbox.

• To grant access to only one model, select the respective checkbox:

  1. Finance Model

  2. Workforce Model

  Note:

  Power BI options will only be visible on the Navigation Access page when the Power BI flag is enabled. Contact Planful Support or your Account Manager to enable the Power BI flag.

  

To learn more about assigning navigation access to a navigation role, click here.

Generating Access Keys

An access key and ID should be generated in the Planful application to grant access to transfer data from the application to Power BI.  To learn how to generate an Access Key and ID, click here.

Downloading .pqx file

The pqx file extension (Power BI connector for Planful) allows users to load data from Planful.

1. Download the .pqx file from here.

2. Place the downloaded .pqx file in the Custom Connectors folder in the Local system by navigating to Documents > Power BI Desktop > Custom Connectors.

   Note:

   Create a Custom Connectors folder, if it doesn’t exist.

   

   Once the .pqx file is placed, update the security settings in the Power BI to allow any extensions to complete the configurations.

Updating Data Extensions in Power BI

To update the Data Extension settings, follow the steps below:

1. Open Power BI Desktop.

2. Navigate to File > Option and Settings > Options. The Options window will appear.

3. Click Security.

4. Under Data Extensions, select (Not Recommended) Allow any extensions to load without validation or warning.
   
   

5. Click OK.

Connecting to Planful from Power BI

To connect and fetch data from Planful to Power BI, users need an Access Key and ID. To learn how to generate an Access Key and ID, click here.

To load data from Planful to Power BI, follow the steps below:

1. Open Power BI Desktop.

2. On the Home page, click Get data from other sources. Get Data pop-up will appear.

   Note:

   Users can also navigate to the Get Data pop-up by Blank Report > Get Data.

3. Select Planful (Beta) (Custom) from the list or use the search bar to find it.
   

4. Click Connect. The Planful Connection popup will appear.

5. Enter the Planful base URL (e.g., https://demo.planful.com) and click OK.
   

6. Enter the Access ID and Access Key generated in Planful.
   

7. Click Connect. The Navigator tab will display the fetched Data and Dimensions for Finance and Workforce.

8. Select the desired leaf-level hierarchy checkbox from the list.

   Tip!

   It is recommended to load Dimensions first and repeat the steps from 2 to load Data.
   

9. Optionally, use the following filters to narrow down the selected data:

   1. Fiscal Year Expression: Specify the fiscal year in one of the following ways:

      1. Specific Year: Enter a specific year or use a substitution variable.

         For example, 2023 or @CURYR@

      2. Range of Years: Enter a range using years or substitution variables.

         For example, 2022:2024 or 2022:@CURYR@

   2. Account: Select the desired account from the drop-down list.

   3. Entity: Select the desired entity from the drop-down list.

   4. Apply Credit Debit: Select Yes or No from the drop-down list to include credit or debit entries.
      

10. Click Load. The loaded Dimensions and Data are displayed in the Data pane.

Building a Report

Users can create visuals on the report canvas using the Filters, Visualizations, and Data panes. They can select the desired visualization type and formatting from the Visualization pane. From the Data pane, users can choose the data fields or metrics to include in the report. The Filters pane displays any filters applied to the visual, page, or across all pages.

Let’s see an example to build a report using the Matrix:

1. Click Visualizations.

2. Select Matrix under the Build Visual.

3. Choose the data for Rows, Columns, and Values from the Data pane (right pane).
   

Publishing a Report

Once the report is built, users can publish it to the workspace. The published report can be accessed through the Power BI web service, and users can share it with others. To learn more about Publishing reports from BI Desktop, click here.

Refreshing a Published Report

To ensure that the published report data is always up-to-date with the original data sources, users can either set up an automatic refresh or perform a manual refresh.

To enable this, users must install the On-premises Data Gateway, which acts as a bridge between the Power BI web service and the user’s on-premises data sources. The gateway allows Power BI to access and retrieve the latest data from the Planful cube, ensuring that any updates made in the source data are reflected in reports.

Note:

Ensure that the Power BI connector file (.pqx) is placed in the folder shown in the Connectors tab.

• To learn about Installing an on-premises data gateway, click here.

• To learn about refresh data, click here.

Best Practice

• Schedule or manually refresh data regularly to keep reports up-to-date with Planful data.

Limitations

When publishing a PBIX file from the Power BI Desktop to the Power BI service, the file size must not exceed 1 GB. To know more about the limitations, click here.