Inventory before estimate
We list every workbook with its owner, last-viewed date, and data sources. You get a rebuild / merge / retire recommendation for each one before anyone commits to a budget.
Leaving Tableau
A Tableau to Power BI migration service that keeps the numbers intact
A senior-led Tableau to Power BI migration service: we inventory what is actually used, rebuild it on a governed model, reconcile the numbers against the originals, and hand it over before your renewal date.
Representative dashboard — sample data
Why teams move
The renewal date is the deadline, not the project plan
Most migrations start the same way: a licence renewal lands, someone notices the organisation already pays for Microsoft 365, and the question becomes whether the reporting can move before the next invoice. That is a real deadline, and it is the reason so many migrations get done badly — in a rush, workbook by workbook, with nobody checking whether the numbers still agree.
The work divides into three honest parts: deciding what deserves to survive, rebuilding it properly on a semantic model, and proving the outputs match. Skip the first and you pay to rebuild reports nobody opens. Skip the third and adoption stalls the first time two numbers disagree in a meeting.
What the migration covers
- Workbook inventory
- Usage-based triage
- Data source re-pointing
- LOD → DAX rebuilds
- Governed semantic model
- Reconciliation & handover
Try us risk-free for 4 hours
Start with a block of prepaid Flex hours and, if you're unhappy within the first 4 hours, we refund you in full — no questions asked. A migration inventory is a good first task: it tells you the real size of the job before you commit to it.
How we approach it
A migration that ends with trusted numbers
Rebuilding charts is the easy half. The value is in what gets retired, what gets consolidated, and what finally gets a single definition.
Consolidation, not translation
Five workbooks answering one question become one report with slicers. Most estates shrink substantially in the move, which is where the licence saving actually compounds.
A model, not a pile of extracts
Tableau extracts usually hide per-workbook logic. We rebuild onto one governed star-schema model so a measure is defined once and reused everywhere.
Reconciled before sign-off
Every rebuilt report is compared to its original on the same date range. Differences get explained, not hand-waved — and some of them turn out to be fixes.
Users brought with you
The people who lived in those workbooks get a walkthrough of where everything moved. Adoption fails on unfamiliarity far more often than on features.
Sequenced around your renewal
High-value reports move first so the old system can be switched off on schedule rather than extended for one straggler nobody triaged.
What actually has to be rebuilt?
Tableau and Power BI solve the same problem with different machinery, so a migration is a rebuild with a known map rather than a file conversion. Workbooks become reports, data sources become a semantic model, and calculated fields become DAX measures. The concepts transfer; the syntax and the performance characteristics do not.
The single biggest technical difference is where logic lives. Tableau lets each workbook carry its own calculations, which is why two dashboards can disagree and both be “right”. Power BI pushes that logic down into a shared model, so migration is the moment you finally settle which definition wins. Expect that conversation; it is the most valuable part of the project.
How do Tableau concepts map to Power BI?
Here is the practical mapping we work from. It is deliberately unglamorous — the point of a migration is that nothing surprising happens in week three.
| Tableau | Power BI equivalent | What changes in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Workbook / worksheet | Report and report pages | Several workbooks usually consolidate into one report with slicers |
| Data source / extract | Semantic model (Import or DirectQuery) | Per-workbook extracts collapse into one governed shared model |
| Calculated field | DAX measure or calculated column | Most become measures; columns only where a row-level value is genuinely needed |
| LOD expression (FIXED / INCLUDE / EXCLUDE) | CALCULATE with filter-context functions | Logic transfers, syntax is rewritten, output is reconciled line by line |
| Table calculation | DAX using time intelligence or window functions | Running totals and period comparisons are rebuilt against a proper date table |
| User filter | Row-level security roles | Per-user filtering becomes a governed, testable security model |
| Tableau Server / Cloud site | Power BI workspace and app | Permissions are re-expressed as workspace roles and app audiences |
Where security is involved, the row-level security rebuild deserves its own scoped task rather than being folded into a report migration — our guide to Power BI row level security setup covers how we test it. For the storage-mode decision behind the model, see DirectQuery vs Import mode and Microsoft's own DirectQuery documentation (opens in new tab).
How much does a Tableau migration cost?
Work runs on prepaid Flex hours that never expire: Starter 20 hours at $125/hr ($2,500), Growth 40 hours at $115/hr ($4,600), or Power 80 hours at $100/hr ($8,000). An inventory and triage of a modest estate typically fits inside a Starter block, and it is the task we recommend buying first because it tells you the size of everything that follows.
After that, cost tracks the number of reports that survive triage and how much calculation logic they carry. A dashboard with three straightforward measures is a different job from one built on nested LOD expressions and table calculations. You get an estimate in hours per report, approve what you want built, and unused hours stay banked.
How long does the move take?
Individual reports usually ship within 3–5 business days of approval, and a phased migration runs as a sequence of those tasks rather than one long project with a big-bang cutover. Larger estates get a clear timeline up front once the inventory tells us what is really there.
Running both platforms in parallel for one reporting cycle is worth the overlap cost. Users compare the old and new outputs on live data, trust builds quickly, and you retire the Tableau licences knowing nothing important was left behind. If you are still deciding between platforms rather than committing, read Power BI vs Tableau and, for finance teams specifically, Power BI vs Tableau for finance teams.
Who this is for
Teams with an approaching Tableau renewal, an existing Microsoft estate, and reporting that people genuinely depend on. It is not for organisations that want a lift-and-shift with no decisions made — that produces a more expensive copy of the problem you already have. Teams moving off QlikView or Qlik Sense face the same renewal-window pressure; our Qlik to Power BI migration path is built for that estate.
What you get
- Workbook inventory with usage data
- Rebuild / merge / retire recommendation
- A governed semantic model
- Reconciliation against the originals
- Handover docs and a user walkthrough
3–5
business days per report
Phased
not big-bang
You
own everything
Start with the inventory task and decide the rest once you can see the real scope. See Flex pricing.
How it works
From Tableau estate to trusted Power BI reporting
- 1
Inventory and triage
We catalogue every workbook with owner, usage, and sources, then recommend what to rebuild, merge, or retire. You approve the list before anything is built.
- 2
Rebuild on a model
Surviving reports are rebuilt on one governed semantic model, with calculated fields and LOD expressions reconstructed as tested DAX measures.
- 3
Reconcile and hand over
We compare outputs to the Tableau originals, explain every difference, publish to your workspace, and walk the users through where things moved.
Representative perspective
The inventory was the eye-opener. We were budgeting to move roughly two hundred workbooks and it turned out fewer than forty had been opened in the last quarter.Analytics manager, mid-market insurer
Representative perspective
Reconciling every report against the old one slowed us down by about a week and saved us months of people arguing about whose number was right.Finance director, distribution business
Find out what your migration actually involves
Tell us roughly how many workbooks you have and when the renewal lands. We'll scope the inventory task in hours, and you'll know the real size of the project before committing to it.
FAQ
Migration questions, answered
No, and anyone promising a one-click conversion is overselling it. The calculation languages and rendering models are genuinely different, so workbooks are rebuilt rather than translated. What can be systematic is the inventory, the triage, and the pattern library that turns common Tableau constructs into DAX.
FIXED, INCLUDE, and EXCLUDE expressions map onto DAX measures using CALCULATE with the right filter context, usually ALLEXCEPT or a grouped table function. The logic transfers cleanly; the syntax does not. Each expression is rebuilt and then reconciled against the Tableau output before we call it done.
Far fewer than the server reports. In most estates a large share of workbooks are duplicates, abandoned drafts, or personal one-offs nobody has opened in a year. We start with usage data and triage into rebuild, merge, and retire, which is usually where the biggest saving in the project sits.
That is the acceptance test. Every migrated report is reconciled against its Tableau original on the same date range, and differences are explained before sign-off. Some differences are corrections rather than errors, because a rebuild often exposes filters or joins that were quietly wrong in the original.
Yes, and we recommend it. Migrating the highest-value reports first lets users compare outputs while the old system is still available, which builds trust far faster than a hard cutover. Retire the Tableau licences only once the replacements have been used through a full reporting cycle.
Related work
This page covers the Tableau path specifically; if you are moving off spreadsheets instead, our migration to Power BI service covers the Excel route and our Excel to Power BI migration checklist is a good self-assessment. Teams whose governed layer is an Oracle repository rather than a set of published data sources should start with the OBIEE to Power BI migration page, which scopes the work one subject area at a time. Spotfire estates are a different shape again — their logic sits in Information Links, IronPython scripts and TERR data functions rather than in workbooks and calculated fields — so Spotfire to Power BI migration is scoped from a script and data-function inventory instead of a workbook count. The rebuild itself draws on data modeling and DAX work and report design, and once the estate is live, a Power BI health check keeps refresh and performance honest. Teams that want the platform decision framed in plain terms should read Power BI vs Tableau cost comparison first, and finance leaders can compare their own numbers against budget vs actual dashboards. Every task is scoped before work begins from your prepaid block of senior-led hours — no project minimums, no change-order surprises, and hours are deducted only for work you approve.
Book a free demo
Get senior Power BI help, on demand
Tell us the task. We scope it, you approve, and a senior consultant delivers — typically in 3–5 business days. Prepaid hours that never expire.
- Prepaid hours from $100/hour — and they never expire
- Senior-led delivery — 20+ years on the Microsoft platform
- Typical 3–5 business day turnaround
- Full refund if you’re unhappy in your first 4 hours
The fastest way to reach us is the form — tell us the task and we'll reply within one business day.