Power Query is the tool in Excel and Power BI that lets you pull data from sources, clean it and reshape it — without programming. Every operation (splitting columns, filtering, merging) is recorded as a repeatable step, so that a refresh runs the same operations again with a single click.
Power Query in practice
That word 'repeatable' is the heart of it: where classic Excel work means cutting and pasting all over again every month, Power Query performs exactly the same transformations on the new data. For many teams this is the fastest first step in reporting automation, because it stays within the familiar Excel environment.
Power Query is therefore the ETL tool of the Microsoft stack (see ETL). When Power Query is enough and when you're better off moving to Power BI or an integration at the source, you can read in Automating Excel reporting.
Related terms
- ETL — ETL stands for Extract, Transform, Load: pulling data out of source systems (extract), reshaping it into a usable structure (transform) and writing it to a target system such as a database or dashboard (load).
- DAX — DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is the formula language of Power BI (and Excel Power Pivot) with which you define calculations over the data model: revenue compared with last year, rolling averages, margins per segment.
- Data model — A data model is the structure in which data and its mutual relationships are recorded: which tables exist (customers, orders, products), which fields they contain and how they are linked to each other.
- BI — BI (business intelligence) is the collecting, combining and visualising of business data to base decisions on it — usually in the form of dashboards and reports.