Creating Azure cost dashboards in Power BI can be complex and time-consuming. Fortunately, Microsoft and the community offer Power BI templates (.pbit) that can fast-track your analysis with prebuilt visuals, data models, and measures. These templates help you focus on insights—not setup.
🧩 1. Microsoft’s Official Templates and Apps
A. Legacy App (EA Only)
- For Enterprise Agreement (EA) customers, Microsoft previously offered a Power BI App via AppSource.
- Required your Enrollment Number and EA Administrator access.
- Included standard reports like:
- Cost by Service
- Cost Trends
- RI (Reserved Instance) usage
⚠️ Note: This legacy app may be deprecated in favor of the Cost Management connector + templates.
B. Power BI Template File (PBIT) with Cost Connector
- Microsoft and contributors have published
.pbitfiles that use the Azure Cost Management connector. - Example: Azure Cost Management Power BI template by Roan Wilson (GitHub)
📥 2. Using a PBIT Template Step-by-Step
🔽 A. Download the Template
- Visit a trusted source such as:
- Microsoft official GitHub
- Power BI Community Gallery
- Reputable blogs
- Download the
.pbitfile to your machine.
💻 B. Open in Power BI Desktop
- Open Power BI Desktop.
- Select the
.pbitfile. - You’ll be prompted to enter parameters:
- EA: Enrollment Number
- MCA: Billing Account ID (e.g.,
/providers/Microsoft.Billing/billingAccounts/ABC123) - Optional: Currency, date range, etc.
🔐 C. Authenticate with Azure
- You’ll need to log in with a user account that has billing access: Account TypeRequired RoleEAEnterprise Admin or ReaderMCABilling Reader or Owner
📊 D. Load Data and Explore Built-In Reports
Once connected, the template auto-loads your Azure cost data and populates prebuilt dashboards, such as:
- Cost Overview
- Monthly Trends
- Cost by Service, Resource Group, or Tag
- Forecasted vs Actual Spend
- Savings Plan or RI Insights
These dashboards follow FinOps best practices and are interactive, with slicers for subscription, month, and tags.
🛠️ 3. Customize and Extend
After the template loads:
- Modify visuals to match your org’s branding.
- Add custom KPIs or calculated measures.
- Create new pages for:
- Department-level showback
- Tag compliance reporting
- Cost anomaly detection
You’re now working in a full .pbix file, so everything is editable.
🌐 4. Publish and Refresh
| Data Source | Refresh Method |
|---|---|
| Connector-based | Publish to Power BI Service, schedule daily refresh |
| CSV-based | Manually update exports and re-load periodically |
If using the Cost Management connector, Power BI can refresh your dataset up to once daily, with support for ~5 million cost rows.
🧠 5. Community Templates
You’ll find excellent community-built templates that go beyond Microsoft defaults:
- Tag compliance analysis
- Departmental chargeback dashboards
- Anomaly detection and usage spikes
💡 Tip: Always review the template’s README for any dependencies (e.g., needing to upload org metadata or tag maps).
✅ Summary
| Step | What to Do |
|---|---|
| 1. Download | Get .pbit template from GitHub or AppSource |
| 2. Open | Enter billing scope parameters |
| 3. Authenticate | Use EA or MCA billing credentials |
| 4. Explore | Prebuilt visuals like cost by service, tags, etc. |
| 5. Customize | Add filters, branding, extra pages |
| 6. Publish | Enable refresh (via connector or manual updates) |
🎯 Result: A professional-grade Azure cost dashboard in minutes—not hours—leveraging prebuilt templates and best-practice models.