It’s very useful for users, administrators, and developers to have the data last refresh data added to Power BI reports as this helps confirm how up-to-date, the data is. Sometimes, when a Power BI file is refreshed, you will notice the data doesn’t actually refresh and there is no error, which can be confusing.

In the demo Power BI Demographics file, which you can download here the data’s last refreshed date has been added to the top right and corner of the Demographics page.

This is how to add the refresh date:

1. Open Power Query and add a blank query

2. In the formula bar of the blank query enter = DateTime.LocalNow(). This function gets the current time. Click on the source on the right-hand side to activate the function.

5. You should now have a second Transform tab, to transform the blank query to a table. Select To Table > Table

6. You can then change the data type to Date/Time

7. Finally just rename the column of the table and the column name to something meaningful, like Last Refresh Date.

8. Then Close and Apply to return to the report view.

9. Add a card to your page and add the field from the Last Refresh date table you just created. Adjust the size and you should get something like this.

11. The Date and time of the last refresh date should now refresh each time you refresh the report (as the last refresh table is refreshed).