Power BI and Salesforce are two of the most popular business intelligence and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, respectively. By connecting Power BI to Salesforce, you can gain valuable insights into your data and create powerful reports and dashboards.

In this blog post, we will discuss how to connect Power BI to Salesforce and set up scheduled refresh.

Connecting Power BI to Salesforce

There are two ways to connect Power BI to Salesforce:

1. Using the Power BI Desktop: The Power BI Desktop app allows you to create and publish reports and dashboards. To connect Power BI Desktop to Salesforce, follow these steps:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click on the Get Data button.
2. In the Get Data dialog box, select Online Services and then select Salesforce.
3. Enter your Salesforce credentials and click on the Sign in button.
4. Select the Salesforce objects that you want to connect to and click on the Load button.

2. Using the Power BI service: The Power BI service is a cloud-based platform that allows you to share and collaborate on reports and dashboards. To connect the Power BI service to Salesforce, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Power BI service and click on the Datasets tab.
2. Click on the Get Data button and then select Online Services.
3. Select Salesforce and enter your Salesforce credentials.
4. Click on the Connect button.
5. Select the Salesforce objects that you want to connect to and click on the Load button.

Setting Up Scheduled Refresh

Once you have connected Power BI to Salesforce, you can set up scheduled refresh to ensure that your data is always up-to-date.

To set up scheduled refresh in Power BI Desktop, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Edit Queries button in the Home ribbon.
2. In the Home ribbon, click on the Refresh button.
3. In the Refresh dialog box, select the Scheduled refresh checkbox.
4. Select the frequency with which you want to refresh your data.
5. Click on the OK button.

To set up scheduled refresh in the Power BI service, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Datasets tab and click on the dataset that you want to schedule refresh for.
2. Click on the Schedule refresh button.
3. Select the frequency with which you want to refresh your data.
4. Click on the Save button.

Best Practices for Connecting Power BI to Salesforce

Here are some best practices for connecting Power BI to Salesforce:

• Use a Salesforce sandbox environment for testing and development.
• Use incremental refresh to improve the performance of refreshes for large datasets.
• Schedule refreshes at off-peak hours to avoid impacting Salesforce performance.
• Monitor refresh status and history to identify any problems early on.

Conclusion

By following the steps in this blog post, you can connect Power BI to Salesforce and set up scheduled refresh. With your data connected and refreshed, you can start creating powerful reports and dashboards to gain valuable insights into your business.