By connecting Aphex to Power BI, you can use your weekly Published Plans to create consistent, reliable dashboards without adding extra steps. The data’s already there, this is just a way to make use of it.
This page pulls together everything you need to get set up, along with links to downloadable reporting templates and supporting docs.
Each project can generate its own secure connection to Power BI, giving teams full control over whether and when to enable reporting.
You can enable the Power BI data source from the project’s Integrations menu, then generate a token and URL to connect to Power BI.
The Power BI API is based entirely on Published Versions, meaning your reports are built from official, reviewed snapshots of the plan. Because these versions are already created as part of your planning cycle, there’s no extra work required.
You get access to everything: task details, PPC, variance, subcontractor activity, who’s made ready, delays & even milestone movement.
Because it’s versioned data, it’s easy to track changes over time.
To help you get started quickly, we’ve created a set of plug-and-play Power BI templates. These dashboards work with your weekly Published Pan data and cover common use cases like PPC tracking, delay trends, and subcontractor performance.
Once you’ve connected your project, you can also schedule a refresh so the dashboards pull in each week’s data automatically after a new version is published. Most teams choose to align this with their weekly planning cycle.
Templates are free to download and easy to customise.
Things to know before you get started:
You will need the onto your device.
You must be a Project Admin to set up the integration.
In addition to our built in reporting app, Aphex Insight we also provide an integration with Power BI so that teams can customise their reports and hunt for insight.
In this guide we will go through the key steps to start analysing your data in Power BI. Where necessary we will include links to more advanced features throughout.
The Power BI Integration is enabled at a project level so that every team has control over who can access their data. To start, head to your project in Aphex Planner and locate the Integrations page.
Open your project
Click your project title in the top left and select Integrations from the menu
Locate the Power BI section and toggle Enable Source
Once you've enabled the Power BI source, you’ll be able to copy your project's unique URL endpoint.
To keep your data secure, the endpoint won’t return any data unless the request includes a valid token. The token is shown once only, so be sure to copy it before closing the window. If it expires or you forget to save it, you can generate a new one at any time.
On the Integrations page, click + Generate New Token
Give your token a name so that people know what it's being used for
Click Generate Token
Next up: pick a template. We’ve created a set of ready-to-use Power BI dashboards so you don’t have to build your own from scratch. Choose one that fits your reporting needs, then you’ll be ready to connect your project data.
Visit
Pick a Template
Enter in your details & email
Open the email and click the download link
or build your own using the
Next step: open your template Before the template can show anything, it needs to connect to your project. This is where you plug in the values you saved earlier and let Power BI load your project data into the report.
Open the PBIT file in Power BI Desktop
You’ll be prompted to enter three values:
Project API URL
With your data loaded, the dashboard is ready to use. If you’re familiar with Power BI, you can tweak visuals, add filters, or expand the reports to fit your project’s workflow.
Most connection issues come down to one of a few predictable causes. This section walks through the ones we see most often and how to fix them.
When Power BI prompts you with the Access Web Content window, make sure Anonymous is selected.
This is important because the API uses your token for authentication - selecting any other method (like Windows or Organizational Account) will block the connection.
In the Access Web Content window, select Anonymous
Make sure no other method is selected, and that no other information has been entered into the window (like Web API Key, or Organizational Account)
You may also need to ensure the Privacy Level is set to None or
Open the template
Click Transform Data
Select Data Source Settings
By default, your request will return data from the 5 most recent Published Versions. If your project’s dataset is too large, the connection may fail to load. Unless you're on an Enterprise plan, the API response must be under 32MB. You can reduce the amount of data being returned by using query parameters to limit the response size.
Read more about query parameters in our
Bearer tokens used for the Power BI integration are valid for 90 days. After that, the connection will stop working until you generate a new token.
If your token has expired, simply return to the project’s Integrations page, revoke the old token, and generate a new one. You’ll need to re-enter the new token into your report to restore the connection.
Generate a new Token from inside your Aphex Project
Open your template in Power BI
Click Transform Data then Edit Parameters
Once your report is connected, you can configure scheduled refresh in Power BI to keep your data up to date automatically.
We suggest setting the refresh to run a few hours (or the day after) your team typically creates the weekly Published Version in Aphex. That way, your dashboard will always reflect the latest plan, without any manual updates.
Publish your report to Power BI Service
In Power BI Desktop, go to File → Publish → My Workspace (or your team’s shared workspace).
Select Copy Token
Click Done to close the window
A PBIT file will download to your device
TokenProject Name (this is just for display inside the report)
Click Load
Power BI will securely request your project data and load it into the report
PublicEdit Permissions at the bottom of the windowMake sure that Credentials match:
Type: Anonymous
Privacy Level: None
If needed, select Edit to open the Access Web Content window
Select Edit Token
Delete your old token and add your new one, then select Save
You may need to Reload Data
In Power BI Service, go to your workspace → Datasets tab.
Find the dataset linked to your Aphex report and click the More Options (⋯) → Settings
Set authentication method to Anonymous
Under Data source credentials, confirm that the method is set to Anonymous.
Also check that Privacy Level is set to None or Public, if prompted.
Enable “Skip test connection”
To avoid false errors during refresh setup, make sure to enable “Skip test connection”.
This setting tells Power BI not to validate the connection in advance, which is fine, because the bearer token is already embedded in the query.
Set up scheduled refresh
Expand the Scheduled refresh section and turn it on:
Choose daily or weekly refresh
Save your changes
Your dashboard will now stay in sync with the latest Published Plan - no manual exports or updates needed.
Visit the Microsoft Documentation to learn more about Scheduled Refresh in Power BI
Authentication Power BI connects using two parts: a project-specific URL and a bearer token. The token acts like a secure key - it proves that the request is allowed to access the data behind the URL.
Expiry Tokens expire automatically after 90 days, or can be manually revoked at any time from the project’s Integration settings.
Multiple tokens supported You can create as many tokens as you need - useful if you’re connecting different tools or templates.
Naming tokens Each token must be given a name when created. This helps you track where it’s being used (e.g. “PPC Dashboard” or “Client Reporting Suite”).
Usage tracking You’ll be able to see the timestamp of last use and the token creator for each token so you know what’s active and what can be cleaned up.
If you receive a warning about installing the latest version of Power BI Desktop you can most likely continue on without issue (although updating your software is usually a good idea!)
Ensure your token is valid, and that you've copied the Project API URL correctly
Access Web Content Prompt When Power BI prompts you with the Access Web Content window, it’s asking how to authenticate your connection to the API.
Since authentication is handled through the bearer token you already entered, no additional credentials are required here:
Select “Anonymous” as the authentication method, then click Connect.
This tells Power BI not to apply any other login method. Using other options like “Windows” or “Organizational Account” may block the request or cause errors.
Got a great report template? Why not give back to the Aphex Community and share it with us [email protected]
“The 'Authorization' header is only supported when connecting anonymously.”
These headers can be used with all authentication types: Accept, Accept-Charset, Accept-Encoding, etc.
This means Power BI tried to connect using an authentication method that doesn’t support your bearer token (such as Windows or Organizational Account).
“We couldn’t authenticate with the credentials provided.”
This suggests Power BI could be using the wrong method (e.g. "Organizational Account") instead of Anonymous.
“The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.”
This means the API blocked the request - often because Power BI tried to use Windows or Organizational credentials instead of the token.
“The response payload size exceeds the limit.”
A clear sign the API returned more than Power BI is allowed to process.
“DataFormat.Error: We reached the end of the buffer.”
This usually means the dataset was too large for Power BI to handle in one response.
“Unable to connect to the data source. The connection was closed before the data could be retrieved.”
This can sometimes be triggered when the response is too large and times out during transfer.
You can use the following parameters individually or in combination:
Limit the number of versions
Append ?limit=3 or ?limit=2 to your API URL
→ Example: https://app.aphex.co/au/power-bi...?limit=3
Exclude resource data
Append ?resource=false to your API URL
→ Useful if you don’t need labour or plant or material reporting.
Exclude delay status data
Append ?status=false to your API URL
→ Useful if you do not need to report on delay reasons.
Exclude blocker data
Append ?blockers=false to your API URL
→ Useful if you do not need to report on blockers.
You can combine parameters like:
?limit=3&resource=false&status=false
If you've downloaded one of our free Power BI dashboards, you may have questions about how the PPC (Percent Plan Complete) is being calculated.
PPC shows you what percentage of your planned work actually got done between two dates (usually last week and this week). There are two ways to measure it:
This method looks at how many work days you completed as planned.
Example:
Let's say you have three tasks:
Task A: 3-day task, all days planned for the reference week
Task B: 2-day task, all days planned for the reference week
Task C: 4-day task, with 2 days planned for the reference week and 2 days the following week
What actually happened:
Task A: âś“ All 3 days completed during the reference week
Task B: ✗ Slipped—only 1 of the 2 planned days completed during the reference week
Task C: ✗ Slipped—only 1 of the 2 planned days completed during the reference week
How we calculate it:
Task A: 3 / 3 days = 100% PPC
Task B: 1 / 2 days = 50% PPC
Task C: 1 / 2 days = 50% PPC
Total PPC = Average(100%, 50%, 50%) = 66%
This method only counts tasks that were completely finished on schedule.
Example:
Let's say you have three tasks:
Task A: Final day planned to occur in the reference week
Task B: Final day planned to occur in the reference week
Task C: Final day planned to occur in the reference week
What actually happened:
Task A: âś“ Final day of task occurred in the reference week
Task B: ✗ Slipped—final day pushed to the following week
Task C: âś“ Final day of task occurred in the reference week
How we calculate it:
Task A: Completed = 100% PPC
Task B: Not Completed = 0% PPC
Task C: Completed = 100% PPC
Total PPC = Average(100%, 0%, 100%) = 66%
Here at Aphex, we aim to keep things simple! That’s why we’ve created a set of pre-designed Power BI reports that allow you to pull data and insights directly from your project.
A key advantage of these templates is that they exclusively pull from your published versions, ensuring you always have the most accurate and up-to-date information at your fingertips.
This feature enables confident, data-driven decision-making. Each template is fully customisable to suit your unique project needs, but you can also use them as-is for immediate reporting.
This report provides a snapshot of your project's progress against its plan, tracking key metrics such as PPC (Percent Plan Complete) and identifying recorded delays within your publications.
Key Measures:
Leading Measure: You can choose your preferred method for measuring PPC (Percent Plan Complete) which helps in understanding how well your project is performing against the plan:
PPC (Task Day): Calculates the overall average percentage of task completion by evaluating the PPC of each task. The PPC of a task represents the percentage of planned workdays that were completed between two publication dates (such as from last week to now).
Latest Publication: Shows the date of the most recent publication in your dataset.
Current PPC: Displays the current PPC based on tasks completed between the two most recent publications selected.
Tasks Progressed: Calculates the number of unique tasks that have made progress (i.e., have recorded workdays) during the specified reference window, which is the period between two publication dates (e.g., from last week to now). It only considers the most recent version of each task. If no progress is recorded, it returns 0.
Unplanned Tasks: Calculates the number of unique tasks that have made progress (i.e., recorded workdays) but were not included in the planned work during the specified reference window (the period between two publication dates, such as from last week to now). It only considers the most recent version of each task. If no unplanned progress is recorded, it returns
Primary Source of Delay: Identifies the main reason for delays based on the amount of status logged for different reasons. It filters data by positive statuses, narrows it down to relevant owners, and returns the most significant delay reason within the reference window.
A number of filters can be applied to the report. By default, all filters are set to show all data:
Publications Included: Displays all publications in your dataset (up to five) by default, with options to select specific ones for analysis.
Task Owners: Displays all Task Owners with tasks in the selected publications
Overall PPC Trend: Breaks down the PPC on specific publication dates within the dataset and provides a rolling average (over four weeks). Hovering over the values reveals information about the included published versions (PPC, Tasks Progressed, and Unplanned Tasks).
Performance Breakdown - Users/Subcontractors/Packages: Compares the PPC of Owners, Subcontractors and Packages within the specified timeframe and over the past four weeks (rolling average). Owners are users assigned as task owners during the specified timeframe, while Subcontractors and Packages are assigned to tasks within the same timeframe.
Delay Breakdown: Details the reasons for delays associated with tasks in the specific time window and shows the individual reasons for delays along with their total impact (in days) for each reason.
Available In:
See Also:
This report provides a comprehensive overview of your project's performance, including weekly and cumulative Percent Plan Complete (PPC) scores, reasons for non-completion (RNC), and detailed task status breakdowns.
Key Measures:
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See Also:
This report offers an in-depth analysis of your project's weekly progress, highlighting task statuses and providing insights into reasons for non-completion. With detailed visualisations, you can effectively track performance and identify areas for improvement.
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This report monitors the completion and quality of your weekly publications, tracking user involvement and identifying potential issues such as clashes or missing information. With clear visualisations, you can easily assess the status of each publication and address any concerns that may arise.
Key Measures:
Available In:
See Also:
The Plan Comparison report provides a comprehensive analysis of plan and milestone variances, enabling you to compare the overall plan or specific milestones effectively. By highlighting changes between any two points in time, this report helps you to make informed decisions based on real-time data insights.
Key Measures:
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The Milestone Comparison report provides a focused analysis of milestone date changes across your publication history, enabling you to track schedule progression and identify trends in milestone movement over time. By comparing milestone end dates between publications and visualising variance trends, this report helps you understand schedule stability, anticipate potential delays, and communicate milestone changes effectively.
Key Measures:
Available In:
The Daily Task Allocation report provides a detailed view of task distribution across your team, enabling you to compare planned versus actual work execution on a daily basis. By analysing task allocation between any two publications, this report helps you identify workload patterns, capacity constraints, and deviations from your original plan, supporting more accurate resource planning and scheduling decisions.
Key Measures:
Available In:
The Blockers Dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of key details regarding blockers (issues or obstacles) that may impact your project. By tracking and analysing these blockers, you can identify potential risks and implement strategies to mitigate them effectively.
Key Measures:
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The Material Resource offers valuable insights into how effectively material resources are planned and utilised across your project. By comparing planned quantities against actual usage, this report helps you identify trends and discrepancies, ensuring you have a comprehensive understanding of your material distribution.
Key Measures:
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The Labour and Plant Resource delivers clear visualisations and precise forecast allocations, enabling you to effectively analyse how Labour and Plant resources are planned across your projects. With this dashboard, you can easily identify trends and make informed decisions regarding resource allocation.
Key Measures:
Available In:
Packages: Displays all Package Names with tasks in the selected publications
Subcontractors: Displays all Subcontractors with tasks in the selected publications
Folder Code: Displays nested folder codes for the purpose of filtering to a specific branch of the folder tree.
Leading Measure: You can choose your preferred method for measuring PPC (Percent Plan Complete) which helps in understanding how well your project is performing against the plan:
PPC (Task Day): Calculates the overall average percentage of task completion by evaluating the PPC of each task. The PPC of a task represents the percentage of planned workdays that were completed between two publication dates (such as from last week to now).
PPC (Task): Calculates the efficiency of task completion in a project by comparing the number of tasks completed to the number of tasks planned between two publication dates (such as from last week to now).
Latest Publication: Shows the date of the most recent publication in your dataset.
Planned: Counts the number of individual tasks scheduled to occur within the specified time window.
On Track: Counts the number of tasks that are currently ongoing or have been completed within the specified time window.
Delayed: Counts the number of tasks that have been delayed (pushed out) within the specified time window.
Unplanned: Counts tasks that were not scheduled to start within the earlier selected publication but are now included in the most recent selected publication.
Brought Forward: Counts tasks that have been advanced beyond the latest publication selected.
Deleted: Counts tasks that existed in previous publications but have been removed from the most recent selected publication.
A number of filters can be applied to the report. By default, all filters are set to show all data:
Publications Included: Displays all publications in your dataset (up to five) by default, with options to select specific ones for analysis.
Task Owners: Displays all Task Owners with tasks in the selected publications
Packages: Displays all Package Names with tasks in the selected publications
Subcontractors: Displays all Subcontractors with tasks in the selected publications
Folder Code: Displays nested folder codes for the purpose of filtering to a specific branch of the folder tree.
Planned Percentage Complete by Week: Breaks down the PPC on specific publication dates within the dataset and provides a rolling average (over four weeks). Hovering over the values reveals information about the included published versions (PPC, Tasks Progressed, and Unplanned Tasks).
Leading Measure: You can choose your preferred method for measuring PPC (Percent Plan Complete) which helps in understanding how well your project is performing against the plan:
PPC (Task Day): Calculates the overall average percentage of task completion by evaluating the PPC of each task. The PPC of a task represents the percentage of planned workdays that were completed between two publication dates (such as from last week to now).
PPC (Task): Calculates the efficiency of task completion in a project by comparing the number of tasks completed to the number of tasks planned between two publication dates (such as from last week to now).
A number of filters can be applied to the report. By default, all filters are set to show all data:
Publications Included: Displays all publications in your dataset (up to five) by default, with options to select specific ones for analysis.
Task Owners: Displays all Task Owners with tasks in the selected publications
Packages: Displays all Package Names with tasks in the selected publications
Subcontractors: Displays all Subcontractors with tasks in the selected publications
Folder Code: Displays nested folder codes for the purpose of filtering to a specific branch of the folder tree.
Latest Publication: Shows the date of the most recent publication in your dataset.
Planned: Counts the number of individual tasks scheduled to occur within the specified time window.
On Track: Counts the number of tasks that are currently ongoing or have been completed within the specified time window.
Delayed: Counts the number of tasks that have been delayed (pushed out) within the specified time window.
Unplanned: Counts tasks that were not scheduled to start within the earlier selected publication but are now included in the most recent selected publication.
Brought Forward: Counts tasks that have been advanced beyond the latest publication selected.
Deleted: Counts tasks that existed in previous publications but have been removed from the most recent selected publication.
Publications Included: By default, this report includes all publications within your dataset (up to a maximum of five). You have the option to select specific publications for your analysis.
Task Owners: By default, this report includes all task owners within your dataset. You have the option to select specific Task Owners for your analysis.
Publication Breakdown: Provides a comprehensive overview of each publication, detailing the status, clashes, missing fields, and blockers associated with each user and publication date. By clicking on an individual publication, you can focus on the corresponding data within the Publication Summary.
Primary Publication Selector: This allows you to choose the publication for analysis, with the default set to the latest publication. You can also select from Latest, Prior, or Rest options to customise your comparison.
Comparison Publication Selector: The default for this selector is set to Rest, but you can adjust it to Latest, Prior, or Rest, enabling a tailored view of your comparison data.
Subcontractors: By default, this report includes all subcontractors within your dataset. You have the option to select specific Task Owners for your analysis.
Task Owners: By default, this report includes all task owners within your dataset. You have the option to select specific Task Owners for your analysis.
Packages: By default, this report includes all Packages within your dataset. You have the option to select specific Packages for your analysis.
Folder Code (tree): By default, this report includes all Folder Codes within your dataset. You have the option to select specific Folder Codes for your analysis.
Selected publication: You can select only one Published Version at a time, with the default setting being the latest Publication Version, referred to as the Selected Publication. Options include Latest, Prior, or Rest for customised analysis.
Milestones Ending In: By default, the dashboard focuses on the next month, but you can adjust the timeframe to include options like Last, Next, This, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years for a more specific analysis.
Publications Included: By default, this includes all publications within your dataset (up to a maximum of five). You have the flexibility to select specific publications to include in your analysis. The latest two selected publications are used for comparison.
Date Range Included: By default, the dashboard focuses on the next month, but you can adjust the timeframe to include options like Last, Next, This, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years for a more specific analysis.
Date: Shows dates in the selected range
Owner: The owner of the task. Alternatively, this can be set to Subcontractor or Package
Planned Tasks: The number of tasks planned to be worked on per day from the prior selected publication
Actual Tasks: The number of tasks that happened per day in the latest selected publication
Over-time bar chart showing:
Count of Tasks Planned on Given Date: The number of tasks planned to be worked on per day from the prior selected publication
Count of Tasks on Given Date: The number of tasks that happened per day in the latest selected publication
The X-Axis displays dates in the selected range, as well as the Task Owners/Subcontractors/Packages working on each day
Open Blockers (4 Weeks): This metric counts the number of open blockers that are due within the next four weeks, providing insight into immediate concerns.
Overdue Blockers: This measure calculates the total number of overdue blockers in the selected publication, helping you identify tasks that need urgent attention.
Top Overdue Category: This identifies the blocker category with the highest number of overdue blockers for the selected publication. The data is filtered to show overdue blockers, grouped by category.
Average Days Overdue: This metric calculates the average number of days that overdue blockers have been outstanding within the selected publication, allowing for assessment of the severity of delays.
Top Overdue Blocker: This identifies the specific blocker that has the highest average number of overdue days for the selected publication, highlighting the most pressing issues.
Selected Publication: You can select only one Published Version at a time, with the default setting being the latest Publication Version, referred to as the Selected Publication. Options include Latest, Prior, or Rest for customised analysis.
Open Blockers Date Range: Adjusting the date range in this section influences the graph when the status is set to Open. It affects the task results in the Open tab of the table on the right, focusing on open blockers with due dates within the specified timeframe. Note that open blockers without due dates will not be included in the graph.
Group Blockers By: Select how to group the information displayed in the graph - by Category, Owner, or Subcontractor. The Y-axis reflects the count of distinct blocker names based on the selected status and date range, while the X-axis displays your chosen grouping option.
Blocker Category: This selector allows you to focus on one category at a time. The default setting is "All Categories." When a specific category is selected, the report filters to display data exclusively related to blockers within that category.
Blocker Status: Use this feature to select between Open, Overdue, Resolved, or All Blockers to dynamically update the information displayed in the accompanying graph. The default setting is Overdue.
Folder Code: Filter to view blockers on tasks within a specific WBS (Folder) in the included publications. By default, all blockers will be displayed.
Task Owner: Filter to view blockers on tasks owned by a specific user. By default, all blockers will be displayed.
Packages: Filter to view blockers on tasks within a specific package. By default, all blockers will be displayed.
Subcontractors: Filter to view blockers on tasks assigned to a specific Subcontractor. By default, all blockers will be displayed
Category: The graph displays how many blockers there are in each category within the selected Publications Included, with their names listed above the bars for easy identification. Hovering over each category bar will show the category name, the individual blockers assigned to that category, and the total number of blockers in that category.
All Overdue: The All Overdue tab lists all tasks associated with overdue blockers within the selected published version, providing a comprehensive view of outstanding issues.
Open: The Open tab displays all tasks linked to open blockers, filtered by those whose due dates fall within the specified date range set in the Open Blockers Date Range control.
Selected Publication: You can select only one Published Version at a time, with the default setting being the latest Publication Version, referred to as the Selected Publication. Options include Latest, Prior, or Rest for customised analysis.
Date Range Included: By default, the dashboard focuses on the next month, but you can adjust the timeframe to include options like Last, Next, This, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years for a more specific analysis.
Resource Types: This displays the titles of materials within your Aphex project, helping you easily identify the resources in use.
Subcontractors: Filter to view materials on tasks assigned to a specific subcontractor. By default, all materials are displayed
Folder Code (tree): Filter to view materials on tasks within a specific folder. By default, all materials are displayed
Packages: Filter to view materials on tasks assigned to a specific package. By default, all materials are displayed
Task Owners: Filter to view materials on tasks owned by a specific user. By default, all materials are displayed
Progress Percentage: This calculates the percentage of actual materials used compared to the planned materials in the selected primary publication. It offers a straightforward percentage score to assess how closely actual usage aligns with your plans, enabling informed decision-making for future resource allocation.
Selected Publication: You can select only one Published Version at a time, with the default setting being the latest Publication Version, referred to as the Selected Publication. Options include Latest, Prior, or Rest for customised analysis
Resource Types: The Resource Types selector allows you to choose which Labour and Plant resources to display. By default, all resources are included, giving you a comprehensive overview
Subcontractors: Filter to view labour & plant on tasks assigned to a specific subcontractor. By default, all resources are displayed
Packages: Filter to view labour & plant on tasks assigned to a specific package. By default, all resources are displayed
Task Owners: Filter to view labour & plant on tasks owned by a specific user. By default, all resources are displayed
Folder Code (tree): Filter to view labour & plant on tasks assigned to a specific folder. By default, all resources are displayed
