What Is Writeback in Power BI and Why Do You Need It?

As businesses strive to become more data-driven, having tools that allow easy interaction with data is essential. Power BI is already a powerful business intelligence tool, but it lacks one key feature: writeback. This is where WeWrite becomes critical, empowering users to input data directly into Power BI reports. In this blog, we’ll explore what writeback is, why it’s vital, and how WeWrite brings this functionality to life.

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Writeback refers to the ability to modify or add data directly into a database from within a report interface—essentially, it’s a two-way interaction with your data. While PowerBI excels at visualizing and analyzing data, it traditionally hasn’t allowed users to directly input changes, which can slow down processes like budgeting, forecasting, or collaboration.

With writeback, data updates—like adjusting a budget or adding sales figures—can happen in real time from within the Power BI interface. It transforms Power BI from a passive reporting tool to an active platform for both planning and decision-making.

The challenge can be solved using WeWrite.

WeWrite is a custom Power BI visual (add-on) designed to enable writeback directly within Power BI reports. It allows users to modify data, input forecasts, and update figures without leaving the Power BI environment. You can find WeWrite in the Microsoft AppSource marketplace, where it’s available for easy integration into your existing reports.

Why Is Writeback Important?

• Dynamic Planning and Forecasting: Writeback lets teams modify budgets, forecasts, or key metrics directly within Power BI, keeping data up-to-date.
• Real-Time Collaboration: Teams can update and share data instantly, breaking down silos and improving collaboration.
• Error Reduction: By centralizing data entry, writeback eliminates the errors that can occur when switching between sources like Excel or CSV. Additionally, compatibility errors are a thing of the past.
• Secure Data Storage: Data is saved in a proper database, preferably in your data warehouse/lakehouse, ensuring robust security and reliable backups are in place.
• Direct Data Input: With WeWrite, users can update datasets directly within Power BI visuals. That allows users to enrich their datasets with comments or notes connected to a data point or a row.
• Secure Writeback: WeWrite ensures that writeback happens securely, allowing users to modify data while maintaining data integrity and governance. Access can be controlled, ensuring that only authorized users can modify specific datasets.
• Flexible Integration: WeWrite is versatile, working with a variety of data sources and offering a customizable experience based on business needs. Popular databases are Microsoft SQL (on-premises/cloud), AzureSQL, MySQL, Fabric Warehouse/Lakehouse, PostgreSQL, and Snowflake.

Read more on this topic here.

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One of the most important segments that WeWrite covers with its Power BI writeback capability is FP&A. In financial planning and analysis, the future is all about real-time forecasting and flexible, data-driven decision-making.

WeWrite not only empowers FP&A teams to update forecasts, adjust budgets, and analyze performance dynamically but also reduces implementation time. By combining BI and FP&A tools in one platform, data is clean and ready, eliminating the need for additional onboarding or another platform, and enabling smoother, faster adoption as businesses embrace digital transformation.

Use Cases for Writeback

WeWrite is invaluable in a variety of planning and operational use cases:

• P&L Planning: Create your yearly P&L plans in Power BI with the help of the numbers from the previous years that are already in your reports.
• Revenue Planning: Track and adjust revenue forecasts as sales performance changes.
• Cost Planning: Control expenses and budget allocation across departments dynamically.
• CapEx Planning: Plan capital expenditures by inputting future investments directly into your Power BI report.
• Headcount Planning: Plan workforce requirements by updating staffing figures in real time.
• Cash Flow Planning: Monitor and adjust cash flow projections.
• Purchasing Planning (Materials, Products): Manage procurement processes by adjusting orders and delivery timelines in real time.
• Data Entry: Eliminate the need for disconnected Excel sheets by inputting data directly within Power BI.
• Modify Data: Update data without leaving PowerBI, reducing time-consuming tasks of re-importing or refreshing reports.
• What-If Scenarios: Easily create versions for what-if planning, allowing users to forecast different scenarios.
• Comments, Notes, and Annotations: Add remarks, explanations, and context to your data directly in reports.
• Ad-Hoc Dimension Creation: Group and create new categories or dimensions for data analysis on the fly.
• Status Confirmation: Track and confirm project or task statuses.

Using WeWrite for writeback is straightforward:

• Install WeWrite: Add the WeWrite visual from Microsoft AppSource to your Power BI report.
• Connect the Data Source: WeWrite supports various data sources, fill out the fields necessary to create a connection to the data source of choice.
• Start Writing Back: Once the setup is complete, users can begin entering data directly into their Power BI dashboards through intuitive input fields.

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• Efficiency: Users save time by eliminating the need for external tools like Excel for data entry.
• Real-Time Decision Making: Data updates instantly, allowing users to make immediate, informed decisions.
• Improved Collaboration: Multiple team members can update the same dataset, improving alignment and coordination.
• Data Governance and Security: WeWrite ensures that data updates happen securely. With robust access controls, businesses can manage who can update what data, maintaining strict governance over their data while enabling flexibility in usage. This ensures that only authorized personnel can make changes, helping maintain data integrity and compliance.

WeWrite serves a broad audience across various departments:

• Finance Teams: For budget management, P&L planning, and forecasts.
• Supply Chain Managers: To manage inventory and purchasing needs.
• Operations Managers: To track project status and adjust plans as needed.
• HR Teams: For headcount and staffing planning.
• Data Analysts: Who require real-time feedback from their data.

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While PowerApps allows for data writeback, using a custom visual like WeWrite directly within Power BI offers significant advantages. First, it provides a seamless experience—users don’t need to switch between different tools or interfaces, keeping all actions within Power BI. This simplifies workflows and reduces friction. Even if you embed your PowerApp in your Power BI report, you just don’t get the visual integration that you are hoping for. Custom visuals offer better integration with Power BI’s native functionality, allowing for better performance, tailored user experiences, and full control over permissions and security directly within your existing Power BI environment.

Pricing for WeWrite is often more flexible compared to custom PowerApps solutions. It is offered via a license-based model, allowing businesses to scale usage as needed. PowerApps, on the other hand, can have more complex pricing based on user counts, app usage, and data connectors, which might not be ideal for large-scale or high-frequency use cases.

WeWrite supports a variety of data sources like Microsoft SQL, AzureSQL, Fabric, MySQL, Snowflake, PostgreSQL, Excel, and many cloud platforms, offering flexibility in handling data from multiple origins. PowerApps also integrates with a wide array of sources but can sometimes require more manual setup or additional licensing for premium connectors.

This is a big one. WeWrite’s implementation process is made easy for Power BI users, as it’s built as a custom visual specifically for writeback. It requires minimal setup for integration within your Power BI environment, and modifications or updates to the data model can be done directly within the visual. PowerApps, while powerful, may require more complex development processes, including custom coding or building separate interfaces for each app. Does anybody have any extra developers available?

In addition, WeWrite allows for quicker adoption and less dependency on external developers, making it easier to maintain long-term within the organization.

If you’re using Power BI for analysis but still relying on external tools like Excel for data entry, you’re missing out on the full potential of your business intelligence. WeWrite offers the missing piece—writeback functionality that turns Power BI into an all-in-one tool for not only analyzing but also interacting with your data.

By integrating WeWrite into your Power BI environment, you empower your team to act on insights, collaborate more effectively, and create budgets/forecasts easily. This functionality transforms Power BI from a passive reporting tool to a dynamic data platform for real-time decision-making.

Writeback is more than just a convenience—it’s a critical feature for businesses looking to improve their data workflows and make real-time decisions based on up-to-date information. WeWrite fills this gap in Power BI better than alternatives such as PowerApps, providing effective writeback functionality that improves collaboration, data accuracy, and business efficiency.

If you’re ready to take your Power BI usage to the next level, give it a go with WeWrite. It’s not just about visualizing data anymore; it’s about acting on it in real time.

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