Step-by-Step Guide: Planner to Power BI

Microsoft Planner is a powerful task management tool within Microsoft Teams, allowing teams to collaborate on projects effectively. However, if you want to analyze Planner tasks in Power BI, there is no direct connector. The best solution is to use Power Automate to extract Planner task data and store it in a format that Power BI can read, such as an Excel file or a SharePoint list.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of automating the data extraction from Planner and visualizing it in Power BI.

Prerequisites

Before you get started, ensure you have access to the following tools:

• Microsoft Planner
• Power BI
• Power Automate
• A SharePoint site for data storage

Step 1: Set Up Your SharePoint List

1. Create a SharePoint List:
   • Navigate to your SharePoint site.
   • Click on Site contents > New > List.
   • Name your list (e.g., “Planner Data”) and create necessary columns to hold Planner data (e.g., Task Name, Due Date, Assigned To, Status).

Step 2: Create a Power Automate Flow

1. Go to Power Automate:
   • Access Power Automate and log in with your Microsoft account.

1. Create a New Flow:
   • Click on Create from the left sidebar.
   • Choose Scheduled cloud flow to set a recurring trigger for data extraction.
   • Specify a starting time and frequency (e.g., every day).

1. Add Microsoft Planner Trigger:
   • Search for Microsoft Planner and select the trigger When a task is completed or When a task is created, based on your needs.

1. Add Get Plan Action:
   • After the trigger, click on New step.
   • Search for and select Get plan to retrieve your specific plan’s details.

1. Add Get Tasks Action:
   • Next, search for List tasks from Microsoft Planner and add this action.
2. Add Condition (Optional):
   • If you wish to filter tasks (e.g., by status), add a Condition to check each task’s details.
3. Insert Data into SharePoint:
   • Click on New step, search for SharePoint, and select Create item.
   • Fill in the required information to input the Planner task data into your SharePoint list.

Save and Test Your Flow:

• Save your flow and use the Test button to ensure data transfers correctly from Planner to your SharePoint list.

Turn off the allow chunking,

Store the Data in an Excel File or SharePoint List

Save Data to a SharePoint List

1. Create a SharePoint list with appropriate columns (Task Name, Assigned To, Due Date, etc.).
2. In Power Automate, add “Create item” (SharePoint) and map the fields accordingly.

Schedule Flow Execution

To ensure continuous updates, add a Scheduled trigger (e.g., run every 30 minutes or day) to fetch newly created or updated tasks.

Step 3: Connect Power BI to SharePoint List

1. Open Power BI Desktop:
   • Launch Power BI Desktop on your computer.
2. Get Data from SharePoint:
   • In the Home tab, click on Get Data > More….
   • Search for and select SharePoint Online List.
3. Enter SharePoint Site URL:
   • Paste the URL of your SharePoint site and click OK.
4. Select Your List:
   • Once the connection is established, a list of available SharePoint lists will appear.
   • Select the list you created (e.g., “Planner Data”) and click Load.

Step 4: Build Your Report

1. Data Modeling:
   • After loading the data, you may need to clean and model it within Power BI.
2. Create Visualizations:
   • Use the fields pane to drag and drop data elements, creating visualizations like charts and tables.
3. Customize Your Report:
   • Modify the format, apply filters, and configure interactions according to your requirements.
4. Save and Publish:
   • After finalizing your report, save it and publish it to the Power BI service for sharing.

Conclusion

Using Power Automate, you can seamlessly integrate Microsoft Teams Planner with Power BI, providing valuable insights into task progress, workload distribution, and overdue tasks. This automation reduces manual efforts and ensures real-time task tracking for better decision-making.

Happy reading! 😊