Project Controllers: Stop Chasing Reports - Let Power BI Do It for You
It’s Thursday afternoon. The project review is tomorrow.
You’ve got seven spreadsheets open, a dozen Teams messages asking for “the latest numbers,” and a dashboard that’s suddenly showing three different dates for the same milestone.
Sound familiar?
For most project controllers, it’s not that they lack data - it’s that the data lives everywhere.
One tracker in finance, another in engineering, a RAID log on SharePoint, and half a dozen people who still prefer to email updates in PowerPoint.
By the time you’ve gathered, cleaned, and checked it all, you’re out of time to actually use it.
When Reporting Becomes the Job
I remember working with a project controls team who told me they spent two full days every week just preparing reports.
Not analysing trends. Not mitigating risks. Just pulling data together for the weekly review pack.
They were brilliant at detail - but completely exhausted by it.
When they mapped their process, they realised they weren’t controlling projects - they were controlling spreadsheets.
The Turning Point
Then the Programme Director asked a simple question:
“Where are our cost and schedule risks building up across all projects?”
They had the data. But it was scattered.
By the time they pulled it into a presentation, the picture had already changed.
That was their Power BI moment.
They started small - connecting a handful of their existing Excel files to Power BI and creating one clear visual showing risk by category and project.
Within an hour, patterns started appearing.
Dependencies clustered in one division. Resource constraints in another.
The team could finally see the story behind the data.
And suddenly, leadership conversations shifted from “What’s in red this week?” to “Why is this trend emerging - and what do we do about it?”
What You Can Try Today
If you recognise that story, here are a few small changes that can make a big difference before you even touch Power BI:
- List where your data lives.
Write down every tracker, system, and spreadsheet you pull from. Seeing it on paper shows where duplication starts. - Agree on a single version of truth.
Power BI doesn’t fix messy data - it highlights it. Choose one source per metric and stick to it. - Start small and show value fast.
Don’t rebuild everything. Pick one recurring report (like cost variance or risk) and visualise that first. When people see it, they buy in. - Ask better questions.
Instead of “What can we report?”, try “What do we actually need to know this week?” That mindset turns data into decisions. - Share your visuals in the meeting, not after.
Use dashboards live in reviews. It changes the energy - less guessing, more problem-solving.
Why Power BI Training Helps
Power BI isn’t just another reporting tool. It’s how you can move from managing data to managing performance.
Our Power BI courses are designed for professionals like you - people who already understand projects, risk, and cost, but want faster, clearer insights.
You’ll learn how to:
- Connect live data from multiple sources.
- Build dashboards that tell the story instantly.
- Highlight trends before they become problems.
Because in project control, speed and clarity aren’t nice-to-haves - they’re what keep delivery on track.
Explore our Power BI courses:
👉 Power BI – Introduction
👉 Power BI – Advanced Reporting
👉 Power BI – DAX Calculations and Measures
About the Author
Susan Howard
IT Training Specialist and Facilitator with deep expertise in Microsoft Office applications, Power BI, and business systems. As Technical Training Lead at Underscore, Susan delivers engaging, hands-on courses that help professionals boost productivity, improve data confidence, and master essential digital skills across Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more.
