Auto-updates from PowerBI eliminate manual data entry by connecting your business metrics directly to Key Results and Initiatives. Whether you track quarterly revenue in PowerBI datasets, monitor KPIs in executive dashboards, or manage goals in PowerBI scorecards, Rhythms synchronizes these metrics automatically so your OKRs stay current without copying data.

New to auto-updates? The How to Set Up Auto-Updates article covers the general setup process and when auto-updates work best for your tracking needs.

Your workspace administrator needs to enable the PowerBI integration in Rhythms before you can connect. Visit Enable Integrations for Your Workspace if you don't see PowerBI as an option.

⚠️ Rhythms connects only to PowerBI workspaces with dedicated capacity (Premium, Premium Per User, or Fabric). Standard workspaces without dedicated capacity won't appear in your connection options.

Your PowerBI administrator needs to enable two settings in PowerBI tenant settings for the connection to work:

These settings enable Rhythms to access PowerBI data through Microsoft's Model Context Protocol. Your PowerBI administrator can find detailed setup instructions in Microsoft's MCP documentation.

You need a Microsoft account with access to the PowerBI workspace and data you want to track. Rhythms respects your PowerBI permissions:

Rhythms only shows you data you can already access in PowerBI.

Rhythms supports numeric Key Results and Initiatives that track measurable progress. Before connecting, make sure your Key Result or Initiative uses a number-based metric rather than milestones or completion status.

Rhythms guides you through PowerBI connections using a conversational interface. You describe what you want to track, and Rhythms locates the data in your accessible PowerBI content.

After authentication, Rhythms starts a conversation to help you find and connect your data.

Tell Rhythms what you want to track in natural language. Rhythms searches your accessible PowerBI workspaces, datasets, reports, and scorecards to find matching data.

Example conversations:

"Track Q1 North America revenue from the Sales Performance dataset"

"Monitor customer satisfaction scores from our NPS dashboard report"

"Sync the Monthly Active Users goal from our Q1 2025 Product Growth scorecard"

Rhythms asks clarifying questions if it needs more information:

Rhythms handles different PowerBI data sources automatically:

Datasets with calculations: Rhythms generates the necessary queries to filter and calculate values from your dataset. You can specify time periods (Q1, January, last 3 months), regional filters (North America, EMEA), status filters (closed deals, active projects), or other business criteria in plain language.

Report metrics: Rhythms identifies visible metrics in your PowerBI reports and tracks specific values. This works well for executive dashboards and summary reports where metrics are already calculated and displayed.

Scorecard goals: Rhythms connects directly to PowerBI Goals and Scorecards, syncing current values, targets, and status. This approach works best when you're already managing goals in PowerBI and want to mirror that progress in Rhythms.

Before finalizing, Rhythms shows you:

Review this information to confirm Rhythms found the right data. If the value doesn't match your expectations, refine your description and Rhythms will search again.

Once you confirm, Rhythms establishes the auto-update connection and begins daily synchronization.

Rhythms updates your Key Result or Initiative daily at 3 AM UTC. Each sync:

Auto-updates handle the numbers, but you still create check-ins to provide context. Your check-ins explain progress, highlight blockers, and give stakeholders the story behind the metrics. For guidance on effective check-ins with automated data, see Effective Check-ins to Track OKR Progress in Rhythms.

After connecting, you'll see a Connected to PowerBI button on your Key Result or Initiative. Click this button to view connection details or disconnect the auto-update.

To change your PowerBI configuration, you'll need to disconnect and reconnect. This disconnect-and-reconnect process is the same across all auto-update integrations. Learn more: How to Set Up Auto-Updates

If the numbers look incorrect but the data source selection seems right, first check the PowerBI data itself. Sometimes unexpected values come from PowerBI refresh timing, filters you didn't realize were applied, or calculations that work differently than expected. Disconnecting and reconnecting won't fix PowerBI data issues.

Before disconnecting your current auto-update, consider testing your new configuration on a separate Key Result. This lets you verify the new data source calculates correctly before switching your primary Key Result.

⚠️ Disconnecting preserves your existing check-in history, but creates a gap in automatic updates until you reconnect. Progress recorded during the gap stays visible, but new automated updates only resume after you establish the new connection.

Yes. Each Key Result or Initiative can have its own PowerBI connection, and you can connect different datasets, reports, or scorecards across your Key Results without conflicts.

Yes. Multiple team members can connect the same PowerBI metric to different Key Results. Each connection is independent and updates according to each person's PowerBI access permissions.

If you lose access, Rhythms can no longer retrieve updated values. Your Key Result retains its last known value and check-in history, but automatic updates stop until you regain access or connect a different data source. If updates seem stale, verify your PowerBI data has refreshed and that you still have the necessary permissions.

No. Each Key Result or Initiative supports one auto-update connection at a time. You can track data from PowerBI or from another integration, but not both simultaneously. To switch tools, disconnect the current integration before setting up the new one.

Rhythms updates your Key Result daily at 3 AM UTC. This timing ensures your OKR data reflects PowerBI's scheduled refresh cycles. If you need more frequent updates, consider using check-ins to record interim progress manually.

First, verify the PowerBI data has refreshed since the last Rhythms sync (3 AM UTC). If the discrepancy persists, check that your PowerBI permissions haven't changed and that the data source configuration remains the same. You can disconnect and reconnect with a new configuration if needed.

No. Each connection tracks data from a single workspace. To aggregate metrics across workspaces, either create separate Key Results for each workspace or use PowerBI's built-in capabilities to consolidate data into one workspace first.

No. Rhythms has read-only access to PowerBI. It retrieves values to update your OKRs but never writes back to PowerBI or changes your datasets, reports, or scorecards.

Rhythms shows only workspaces with dedicated capacity (Premium, Premium Per User, or Fabric). If your workspace doesn't appear, verify with your PowerBI administrator that it has dedicated capacity assigned. Standard workspaces aren't supported.

Yes, when working with datasets. Describe the filters you need (time periods, regions, statuses, categories) when setting up your connection, and Rhythms applies those filters in the calculations. Rhythms handles common business filtering patterns through natural language without requiring technical query knowledge.