Microsoft Power BI has rapidly become one of the most widely used tools for modern data analysis, offering organisations the ability to transform raw data into actionable insights through visually engaging Power BI reports and dashboards. Whether you’re new to Power BI Desktop, exploring Power BI Service for the first time, or simply looking to improve the way you import data, build a data model, or transform data in the Power Query Editor, following structured best practices is essential.
At Zenzero, we specialise in guiding businesses along their analytics journey – from installation and configuration to full-scale Power BI solution design and ongoing support and Power BI Training. In this blog, we’ll share key BI best practices for beginners and explain why choosing Zenzero as your analytics partner can accelerate your organisation’s success.
1. Begin by installing and opening Power BI Desktop properly
Before you get started with report development, ensure you install Power BI Desktop from the official Microsoft source. Once installed, open Power BI Desktop and familiarise yourself with the user-friendly interface. Taking time to understand the layout – especially the Report, Data, and Model views – helps beginners quickly grasp how Power BI data flows through a project.
The interface is designed to be intuitive, even for new analysts, but mastering navigation early makes future tasks like creating reports, switching between multiple visuals, or setting up cross filtering significantly easier.
2. Use the Power Query Editor to clean and transform data
The Power Query Editor (often simply called Power Query) is the engine behind import data, clean data, and transform data operations. As a beginner, this is where you should spend time structuring your data sources before loading them into your data model.
Key best practices:
- Remove unnecessary multiple records and duplicate rows.
- Ensure data types are set correctly – especially when dealing with floating point data types or values with a decimal point.
- Where possible, filter out irrelevant data before loading it.
- Keep transformation steps logical and minimal to support strong query performance and efficient query processing.
Efficient queries also reduce network latency, particularly when connecting to large SQL databases or cloud data sources in a different region. For best results, keep your data and reports in the same region when working in Power BI Service.
3. Build a strong and consistent data model
Your data model is the foundation of your entire Power BI report. It dictates how quickly your report renders, how accurate your data interpretation is, and how easily users can drill into key insights.
Recommendations for beginners:
- Use a custom date table rather than relying solely on the auto generated date table. This gives more control over fiscal calendars, holidays, and time-intelligence calculations.
- Maintain referential integrity checks wherever possible to avoid broken relationships and incorrect data aggregation.
- Avoid unnecessary many-to-many relationships, which can lead to ambiguous results.
- Create relationships that clearly define how tables connect, ideally following a star schema.
- Manage high cardinality columns carefully, as they can significantly slow down report rendering and query performance.
A consistent data model helps ensure that your reports run efficiently and that the key data your users rely on remains accurate.
4. Load only the data you actually need
Beginners often fall into the trap of loading an entire data set, including fields and tables that are not required. This slows down the report and makes report development more complex than needed.
Where possible:
- Filter relevant data in Power Query before it’s brought into the model.
- Avoid importing large blobs of unnecessary information from SQL Server, Excel workbooks, or other multiple data sources.
- Use staging queries to organise and prepare data before loading it.
Not only does this improve report performance, but it also supports better governance, helping your organisation maintain consistency across reports.
5. Create effective visuals without overloading your report page
As you start creating visuals, it’s tempting to demonstrate every metric with a pie chart, bar chart, line chart, or custom visual available. However, too many visuals on a report page can reduce clarity and slow down report rendering.
Smart visual design practices:
- Use only visuals that add value or help reveal key metrics.
- Group related insights together for easy consumption.
- Use visual interactions and drill down features to expose more detail without cluttering the initial view.
- Remember that fewer, well-designed visuals often result in more visually appealing and meaningful data interpretation.
At Zenzero, our team helps organisations create visually consistent dashboards that communicate insights with confidence.
6. Use calculated measures instead of calculated columns where possible
As beginners progress to advanced features, they often experiment with DAX. This is a key step in harnessing the full capabilities of Microsoft Power BI, but it’s important to follow best practices early.
General rule:
- Favour calculated measures for aggregations and analytics.
- Only use a calculated column when absolutely necessary – typically when you need row-level operations.
Measures are more efficient, reduce model size, and enable flexible data analytics, particularly when users apply filters in the filter pane or interact with visuals dynamically.
7. Manage your data sources thoughtfully
Working with multiple data sources – whether SQL databases, web APIs, Excel workbooks, or flat files – can introduce complexity. Power BI handles data loaded from various systems well, but beginners should still follow structured practices:
- Ensure credentials and privacy levels are defined correctly.
- Where possible, use gateways for secure and reliable data refresh.
- Keep data sources stable to avoid broken queries.
- Avoid connecting to volatile or temporary files such as desktop-stored spreadsheets.
Data reliability is essential to maintain trust in your Power BI dashboard and reporting environment.
8. Ensure Optimal Report Performance Before Publishing
Before pushing your report to Power BI Service, check its performance using:
- The Performance Analyzer
- Model size summaries
- Visual diagnostics
Beginners should look for issues such as:
- Slow visuals caused by complex visualisation types
- Over-detailed tables or too many relationships
- Poorly optimised query editor transformations
- Excessive use of more advanced features that may hinder rendering
Publishing a refined, optimised report ensures a smoother experience for end-users and improves adoption across the business.
9. Consider cyber security and governance from day one
Good analytics relies on strong governance and sensible cyber security practices. At Zenzero, we always emphasise secure configuration of the Power BI Service, including:
- Access control
- Workspace permissions
- Secure sharing
- Data sensitivity labels
- Regional compliance for datasets and storage
This is especially important when handling sensitive key data or connecting to internal systems such as SQL Server.
Why work with Zenzero for your Power BI deployment?
Choosing the right partner ensures your organisation gets the most from Power BI, avoids common beginner pitfalls, and develops a scalable analytics foundation. At Zenzero, we combine deep expertise in end-to-end Power BI implementation with a strong focus on cyber security, governance, and performance optimisation. We help organisations design robust data models, streamline queries, and build visually engaging, user-friendly dashboards tailored to their business needs.
Our team supports everything from installation and setup to report development and more advanced features, ensuring your analytics environment is secure, compliant, and aligned with Microsoft best practice. We also provide hands-on training and ongoing support so your team can confidently create, maintain, and expand your Power BI capability as your data needs evolve.
Ready to improve your Power BI capabilities?
If you’re just starting out with Power BI or looking to optimise what you already have, Zenzero can help you create a scalable, secure, and high-performance analytics framework.
Get in touch with our team today to unlock the full potential of your data.