Setting up your Reports for the first time in Power BI Desktop


Pre-requisites are:

  • Your first Tug should have either completed, or updated, otherwise any reports shown may contain errors due to a lack of data.
  • Power BI Desktop installed; available through the Windows store, or via the link here (select the 64bit version, if you can't run it then your PC is likely to be of too low a spec to run Power BI and import the templages).
  • Power BI Service (Online); this can be added to an Office 365 account, and is likely to have a free trial (60 days is the usual). Pricing available here
    • Note: you don't have to have Power BI Service to view the reports in Power BI Desktop, but to share the reports within your organisation, it is a requirement as sharing the Power BI Report files isn't recommended due to security reasons.

No matter your Connector Type (Cash, Harvest, HubSpot, Simpro®, Teams and others), the report setup process is the same.


Although your menu options may vary, all Connector Types have Report Setup, displayed in the image below.


If you aren't already on the page, select Report Setup (1 in the image below).



You can chose to create your own reports in Tableau, Excel (and even Power BI), but this guide details using the included template(s) that all Connectors have as part of your subscription.


Select 2, Power BI.



You will then be presented with the following screen.



1. Connector Type: here, will be displayed your particular connector name, such as HubSpot.


2. Report Templates available, will be displayed here; there will be at least one, and will contain your connector type in its name, such as Simpro. You can chose to download them all, or just the ones you are going to install.


3. Chose this option if you are NOT going to use Tugger's report templates.


4. This process presumes you have already downloaded at least one template, if you haven't done so, download a template now.


... Then click on the button "I have downloaded a template" indicated by the '4'.


Once the report template has downloaded, access it via your browser or navigate to your downloads folder and click or double click on it to load - just like you would with a Word document (for example).


Note: Power BI Desktop must be installed for the template to load.



You will be presented with the following in Tugger


1. Indicates the OData popup where the OData link is pasted (use the copy tool '2' to copy).


2. Copy the OData link.


3. Click on Next when you've done that.




In Power BI Desktop, the OData link popup can vary slightly; it will always have the OData field as indicated by the '1' above.


... See image below:



1. Shows that I am signed in to Power BI, which is required to publish to your account (usually part of Office 365).


2. OData link, seen previously.


3. When presented with the OData popup, some reports have additional options; these can be left at their default, or ignored.


4. Once the OData link has been copied to the correct field, click Load to continue the process.


Note optional fields, which can include:

  • Select a Month as the start of your financial year.
  • Enter a number, to indicate how many days before an item is considered overdue.
  • Enter a code from your connector type, allowing for additional functionality.
  • And as in the example above, enter a URL to your company's logo, which displays your logo in your reports.

Any of the options can be ignored (or not) at the report load stage and changed / added later.



After clicking 'Next' in Tugger's Report Setup process, shown previously above.


... You will be presented with the following, here you will need to enter your Username, Password and ensure the dropdown selection matches the link at the top of the dialogue popup. 


Don't forget to make sure that the security option on the left is set to Basic.


1. Select Basic.

2. Match the values in the Dropdown.

3. Copy these values as needed and paste into the corresponding fields in the popup.


4. Once completed, select 4: 'Finish Report Setup', which takes you back to the Summary page of your connector in Tugger.




The process for Power BI is detailed below.



1. Copy the OData link into the corresponding field into the OData popup.



2. If other options are available, like above, either complete those or leave for later.


3. Once ready, click on Load.


If this is the first time you loaded a report; removed them from Power BI Desktop; or if you have regenerated the credentials (Username and Password), you will be asked to enter them.


The screen will look like the one below and partially seen previously, in Tugger's Report Setup.




Enter the details and change the options, detailed below.



1 Select Basic.


2. Enter the Password and Username from Tugger's Report Setup (or Report Credentials) using the handy copy tools, which also have the benefit of ensuring they are copied correctly.


3. From the dropdown, select the option that matches the link at the top of the OData feed popup.


4. Click on Connect when ready.


The following image displays the Refresh dialogue, partially hidden in the image above.




After a little while, which may be some seconds, and possibly if you have a lot of data, some minutes, the Refresh dialogue will update, showing values against the tables being loaded. 

(This will occur for all reports regardless of report type.)


These values will be, bytes, KB and for some tables MB; some tables may end up with hundreds of MB of data.



Once this process has completed, you will be presented with a report, which will vary, depending on report-type and connector-type.



You can chose to Save the document, Publish the document (to Microsoft's Service) or even have a look at the various report pages; the number you will see, indicated on the bottom left, will vary between reports.