Import Avalara AvaTax Data into the Power BI Service for Visualizations

Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get access to Avalara AvaTax data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Avalara AvaTax in CData Connect AI, publish a dataset from Power BI Desktop to the Power BI Service and then create reports on Avalara AvaTax data in the Power BI service.

Configure Avalara AvaTax Connectivity for Power BI Service

Connectivity to Avalara AvaTax from Power BI Service is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Avalara AvaTax data from Power BI Service, we start by creating and configuring a Avalara AvaTax connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Avalara AvaTax" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Avalara AvaTax.

   The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

   • User: Set this to your username.
   • Password: Set this to your password.

   Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

   • UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

   Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

   Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

   • AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
   • LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Avalara AvaTax Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Avalara AvaTax data from the Power BI service.

Publish a Dataset from Power BI Desktop

Once you connect to Avalara AvaTax in Connect AI, you can create a dataset in Power BI desktop and publish the dataset to the Power BI service.

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> Online Services -> CData Connect AI and click "Connect"
2. Click "Sign in" and authenticate with your CData Connect AI account 👁 Authenticating with Connect AI
   
3. After signing in, click "Connect" 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
   
4. Select tables in the Navigator dialog 👁 The available tables. (Salesforce tables are shown)
   
5. Click Load to establish the connection to your Avalara AvaTax data from Power BI
6. Define any relationships between the selected entities on the Relationships tab.
7. Click Publish (from the Home menu) and select a Workspace.

Build Reports and Dashboards on Avalara AvaTax Data in the Power BI Service

Now that you have published a dataset to the Power BI service, you can create new reports and dashboards based on the published data:

1. Log in to PowerBI.com.
2. Click Workspaces and select a workspace.
3. Click Create and select Report.
4. Select the published dataset for the report. 👁 Select a dataset
   
5. Choose fields and visualizations to add to your report. 👁 Visualizing Avalara AvaTax data in the Power BI service
   

Live Access to Avalara AvaTax Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Avalara AvaTax data from the Power BI service. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Avalara AvaTax data.

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.