🏗️ Using Power BI to Plan and Manage Council Capital Works Programs

Delivering a well-planned Capital Works Program is one of the most visible and impactful outcomes of good asset management. Each road reseal, footpath renewal, or drainage upgrade relies on accurate data, clear prioritisation, and alignment between asset, financial, and works systems.

Welcome to the Iamdata Solutions Asset Management Newsletter - November 2025

Jill Singleton

Director - Asset Management Specialist & Data Analyst

When councils link their core applications with Power BI, they unlock a single source of truth for all capital planning decisions. Identifying renewal candidates, tracking project progress and costs in real time becomes a much simpler task.

From Static Spreadsheets to Dynamic Insights

Traditionally, capital works planning involves exporting data from multiple systems into spreadsheets, a lot of manual manipulation, updating and constantly amending - a lot of work. I remember it as a time-consuming and tedious process. As soon as data is exported out of the system, it quickly becomes outdated.

Power BI changes that and provides a simple way to manage the assets. Power BI connects directly to live data sources and all you have to do is click the refresh button and you instantly have up-to-date data from your various systems displaying in your Power BI reports. You can bring together data from many systems into the one report, for example:

• The Asset Management System (for asset register, condition, useful life, and renewal forecasts, valuations, depreciation information)

• The Financial System (for budgets, expenditure, and GL codes)

• The Project Management Tool (for delivery status and responsible officers)

Enabling council teams to:

1. Identify assets due for renewal or replacement.

2. Prioritise projects based on condition, cost, and risk.

3. Track Capital Works budgets, schedules, and completion status.

4. Allow inspectors to review and update asset condition data in the field.

Power BI to Manage Council Capital Works Programs

Power BI allows us to maintain an up-to-date view of every asset, project, and funding line all in one interactive Power BI report.

Power BI Pages for Capital Works Planning

Page 1 – Assets Due for Renewal

This information allows officers to identify which assets have exceeded their expected life or are due for renewal in the next financial year.

Can Inspectors Record Field Data in Power BI?

This is a question I get asked quite regularly. Yes, while Power BI itself doesn’t provide native field data entry, it can be integrated with tools that do. Councils can choose from several approaches:

1. Power Apps Integration (Recommended):

   • Embed a Power App directly into the Power BI report using the Power Apps visual.

   • Inspectors can open the report on a tablet or mobile device, select an asset, and record the condition, inspection date, photos, and notes.

   • The data writes back to the Asset Management System (or a SQL/SharePoint data source) instantly.

2. Power Automate Forms:

   • Create a simple Microsoft Form or custom Power Automate flow linked to the report.

   • When the inspector selects an asset in Power BI and clicks “Update Condition,” the form pre-fills with asset data for quick field input.

3. Third-Party Field App Integration (e.g. Asset Vision, Reflect, or iAuditor, etc):

   • Use a hyperlink or dynamic URL in Power BI to launch the corresponding asset record in your field inspection app, ensuring seamless updates back to the master system.

Inspector Field Workflow

Step	Tool	Description
1	Power BI Mobile	Inspector opens the Assets Due for Renewal report page.
2	Map/Table	Selects asset to inspect.
3	Power Apps Form	Fills in condition rating, notes, adds photo.
4	Submission	Writes to live SQL or Asset Vision via API.
5	Dashboard	Data refreshes to update renewal scores and inspection history.

Page 2 – Capital Works Program

Providing an interactive view of the entire Capital Works Program for the current or upcoming financial year.

Page 3 – Financial Summary & Variance

The Financial Summary and Variance report provides an oversight of capital spend and trends.

Live or Near Live Integration with Core Systems

Power BI’s greatest strength is its ability to connect to multiple data sources in real time (if required), but in most cases, real time data isn't necessary, an over night data refresh is what most councils require:

• SQL Server or API connection to the Asset Management System: Brings in condition, and inspection data, valuation data and depreciation information, expiry dates (renewal forecast).

  
  

• Financial Systems: Provides current budget and expenditure values.

  
  

• ETL/Refresh pipelines: Ensure daily or weekly synchronisation so reports always reflect the latest data.

Please reach out if you would like some help building your interactive Capital Works Programs Power BI Reports, jill.singleton@iamdata.solutions. I would love to help you achieve your goals!

I have worked on many different projects with my Local Government clients, from designing and developing Power BI Reports, to building SQL Server databases for spatial data, to managing and maintaining GIS and the Asset Management systems. If you'd like to discuss how we might work together, then please email Jill at ➡️ jill.singleton@iamdata.solutions

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