Why it is worth connecting Calamari with Power BI
Connecting Calamari with Power BI gives HR and managers a single, consistent view of data on employees, time off, and working time, which can be analyzed in real time. Instead of static spreadsheets, you get an interactive cockpit where you can filter data by team, location, or contract type.
Key benefits:
Consolidation of data from Calamari and other systems (e.g. payroll, surveys) in a single tool, which enables a more complete view of the HR situation.
Dynamic HR dashboards with the ability to drill down into data, making it easier to identify the causes of turnover or absence.
Automatic data refresh and report sharing across the organization, which reduces manual work and the risk of errors.
The ability to combine Calamari data with financial or operational data to better show HR’s impact on the business (e.g. absence cost vs. team performance).
What HR reports you can build using Calamari data
Calamari data is a great fit for key areas:
Headcount and organizational structure: number of employees, active/inactive status, distribution by departments, locations, and employment types.
Time off and requests: time‑off utilization, sick leave, seasonal peaks, outstanding time off, comparisons between teams or countries.
Working time and attendance: hours worked, overtime, lateness, attendance patterns across different teams or locations.
HR KPIs: average tenure, turnover rates, recruitment effectiveness (when combined with other data sources), compliance with leave policies.
With interactive filters and segmentation, you can, for example, click on a specific manager and see how their team performs in terms of absence or time‑off usage compared to the rest of the company.
Ways to use Power BI with Calamari data
Calamari provides an API and a ready‑made Power BI template, which let you quickly start analyzing data in a BI tool.
There are two typical scenarios:
Operational HR reporting: HR or Finance use a prepared Power BI report template that pulls data from Calamari and presents it as a standard set of KPIs (time off, absences, working time).
Advanced analytics: analytics teams combine Calamari data with other sources (e.g. ATS, payroll system, satisfaction surveys) and build their own models, such as turnover analyses or workload forecasts.
In both scenarios, you can use:
Power BI Desktop – for building and modifying reports locally.
Power BI Service – for sharing dashboards with managers and executives in a browser or mobile app.
Configuration: quick start with the Calamari template
Preparing access and tools
Make sure you have a Calamari account with API access and the appropriate role (e.g. administrator).
Install Power BI Desktop from Microsoft’s official website and sign in with your work account.
(Optional) Configure Power BI Service in your organization so you can later share reports with other people.
2. Downloading and opening the Power BI template for Calamari
Download the official Calamari Power BI template (.pbit file).
Open the .pbit file in Power BI Desktop; the tool will prompt you for connection parameters.
3. Configuring the connection to the Calamari API
In the parameter window, specify:
the Calamari API address or endpoints you want to use (e.g. employee, time‑off, or working‑time data), according to the Calamari documentation.
the API token or another authorization mechanism required by Calamari in your organization (How to obtain an API key?)
Confirm the connection; Power BI will load data from Calamari into the built‑in data model.
4. Adjusting the model and visualizations
Check the loaded tables (e.g. Employees, TimeOff, Attendance) and the relationships between them in the Model view.
If needed, add simple measures (e.g. number of absences per month, average number of time‑off days per person) or calculated columns.
Adjust existing report pages to your needs, for example by adding:
filters by locations or teams,
additional charts for specific leave policies or working‑time types.
5. Publishing and sharing the report
When the report is ready, use the “Publish” option in Power BI Desktop to send it to Power BI Service.
In Power BI Service:
assign report permissions to the appropriate groups (e.g. HR, CFO, leadership) using roles and security groups,
if you need to embed the report in an intranet or another system, configure the appropriate embedding and API settings according to Microsoft documentation.
6. Automatic data refresh
Set up a refresh schedule in Power BI Service (e.g. once a day or more often, depending on your licensing plan and needs).
Make sure the Calamari API credentials are stored correctly in the data source settings so that each refresh pulls up‑to‑date data on employees, time off, and working time.]