Measure the real-world impact of your Microsoft Employee Self-Service (ESS) Copilot Studio agent — adoption, outcomes, deflection, and user feedback — using only the data your agent already produces.
A drop-in Power BI template purpose-built for the Microsoft ESS agent, with a 9-page executive dashboard that answers the questions HR, IT, and the executive sponsor will actually ask after launch.
📊 Data source: This report leverages the
ConversationTranscriptDataverse table that Copilot Studio writes for every agent conversation. No custom logging, no extra pipelines — just the data your agent already produces.
💡 Built for ESS, but works for any Copilot Studio agent — the same template will load and analyze transcripts from any agent (HR, IT, sales enablement, custom). See Customize for your agent.
📖 New — Interpretation Guide (PowerPoint): a consultant-style, page-by-page walkthrough of every dashboard page — what each visual means and, more importantly, what to do with it. Numbered markers connect each chart to plain-language interpretation and a recommended next step.
📈 Companion deck — Topic to Time Savings: shows how to translate topic-level conversation data into a defensible hours-saved and dollar-value estimate for the Business Impact page.
1. Pick your path (CSV or Dataverse) → 2. Get your data files → 3. Open the
.pbitand point it at your data.Jump to: Choose your path · Get your data files · What you get · Before you start · Troubleshooting · Full setup guides ↗
🆕 What's new in V10
- Adoption toggle preserves your filters — switching between the Conversations and Users view on the Adoption page no longer resets your selected date range, org, or country filters.
- Verbatim Feedback now scrolls correctly in every case — long comment tables reliably scroll instead of clipping, closing a gap that remained in earlier releases.
- Accurate per-agent cost and ROI — credit consumption, cost, and ROI now scope correctly to the agent you have selected. Previously, filtering to a single agent could still show credits from every agent, overstating cost and understating ROI.
- Corrected weekly user mix — the New / Retained / Churned / Resurrected cohort breakdown now evaluates each week against your full history rather than the visible window, so returning users are no longer misclassified as new. The weekly axis now sorts chronologically.
- Expanded Metric Glossary — the glossary now covers the topic leaderboards, the weekly retention cohorts, and the credit and ROI measures, alongside the existing per-page definitions. Several definitions that did not match the underlying calculation were corrected.
- Business Impact page fix — resolved a rendering issue that could leave the page showing a solid colored panel instead of its visuals.
- Wider savings assumptions — the minutes saved per ticket selector now offers 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45, and 60 minutes.
- Page icons — each page in the navigation now carries an icon for faster orientation.
- No hardcoded dates — every date calculation derives from your own data, so the report stays correct in any reporting period.
V10 is cumulative — it includes every improvement from the earlier 1.x, V5, V6, V7, V8, and V9 releases, including scheduled-refresh support and system-topic filtering. Applies to both the CSV Upload and Dataverse Direct editions.
Click to expand
The Microsoft ESS agent gives your employees a single, conversational front door to HR, IT, payroll, benefits, and travel self-service. But the platform gives you nested data, not insights. This template answers the questions an ESS program owner needs to answer every month:
- Are employees adopting it? Distinct users, repeat usage, DAU/WAU/MAU trend
- Is it actually resolving their requests? Resolution vs. escalation vs. abandonment rates, by topic
- How fast does it answer? Avg duration, response time, turns to resolve
- What is it saving the business? Tickets deflected, hours saved, dollar value, credit cost
- Are employees happy with it? In-conversation thumbs, CSAT, verbatim comments
- Which intents need authoring help? Per-topic deflection, abandonment, and outcomes
All nine pages light up from a single Power Platform export. Add optional companion files to unlock organization/country breakouts, satisfaction scores, and credit cost analysis.
Click to expand — 9-page dashboard overview
| # | Page | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Executive Summary | Top-line scorecard for the sponsor — adoption, business outcomes, operational KPIs, productivity, and quality (and the value they create over time) at a glance |
| 2 | Conversation Outcomes | Resolution / escalation / abandonment trend, topic outcomes, top deflected topics |
| 3 | Adoption | Volume, distinct users, repeat-usage rate, DAU/WAU/MAU, breakdown by Org & Country |
| 4 | Time to Knowledge | Avg duration, response time, turns to resolve, abandonment & unengaged rate |
| 5 | Conversation Details | Per-topic drill-through with full transcripts and a first-message word cloud |
| 6 | Business Impact | Tickets deflected, hours saved, $ saved, credit-consumption leaderboard |
| 7 | Improvement Opportunities | Which intents need authoring help — per-topic deflection, abandonment, and the training backlog to prioritize |
| 8 | Agent Feedback | In-conversation thumbs, CSAT, verbatim comments, satisfaction trend |
| 9 | 📖 Glossary | Every metric defined, calculated, and sourced — no black boxes |
(A hidden Alternate Executive Summary page is retained in the file as an optional layout — not shown in the published report.)
Quick checklist — confirm all four before your working session. Click each item for details.
- Power BI Desktop installed (Windows) — details ↓
- Bot Transcript Viewer role assigned (minimum) on the agent's Dataverse environment — details ↓
- Agent environment is Production, Sandbox, or Default (not Teams or M365 Copilot) — details ↓
- Agent configured to capture transcripts + node-level details — details ↓
💡 If you're extending the default 30-day Dataverse history window, that has to be done before the data you want exists. See Dataverse retention window ↓.
Click to expand — full prerequisites reference
- Required. The
.pbittemplate opens in Power BI Desktop on Windows only. Mac users need a Windows VM or Parallels. - Download: Download PowerBI for free(Download PBI) (free) or install from the Microsoft Store.
- Version: Any release from the last 6 months. The template uses standard connectors only.
Copilot Studio agents can live in different environment types. Only some of them persist transcripts to Dataverse — which is what this dashboard reads.
| Environment type | Transcripts written to Dataverse? | Use with this dashboard? |
|---|---|---|
| Production | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Sandbox | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Default (per-tenant) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Developer (per-user) | ||
| Microsoft Teams environment | ❌ No — transcripts are not persisted | ❌ Not supported |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot environment | ❌ No | ❌ Not supported |
How to check your environment type:
- Power Platform Admin Center → Environments → click the env hosting the agent.
- The Type column (or the env detail page) shows Production / Sandbox / Default / Developer / Teams.
- If it's Teams or M365 Copilot, the agent needs to be moved or republished to a Production or Sandbox env to enable transcript analytics.
These toggles control what gets written to the transcript. With them off, transcripts are still saved, but most dashboard metrics will look blank.
- Open the agent in Copilot Studio.
- Settings (top right) → Advanced → Conversation transcripts.
- Confirm "Save conversation transcripts to Dataverse" is ON.
- Save / publish the agent.
- Same Settings page → scroll to Enhance Transcripts.
- Turn "Include node-level details in transcripts" ON.
- Save / publish the agent.
Without this, the dashboard's topic detection, turn counts, durations, and outcome classification will all be blank.
- Microsoft 365 Admin Center → Settings → Org settings → Reports.
- Uncheck "Display concealed user names in all reports."
- Otherwise UPNs in transcripts come back as anonymized hashes and Org Data joins will fail.
⏱ Important: These settings only affect future conversations. Historical transcripts written while a toggle was off won't backfill. Run a few test conversations after enabling them, wait 2–5 minutes, then refresh the dashboard.
By default, Dataverse automatically deletes conversation transcripts after 30 days via a system bulk-deletion job. If you want a longer history window:
Option A — Extend retention via the Copilot Studio agent setting
- Copilot Studio → agent → Settings → Advanced → Conversation transcripts.
- Set "Number of days to retain transcripts" to the desired value (max varies by tenant; commonly up to 365).
- Save / publish.
Option B — Modify the Dataverse bulk-delete job (requires System Administrator)
- Power Platform Admin Center → Environments → click the env → Settings → Data management → Bulk record deletion.
- Find the recurring job named something like "Bulk delete conversation transcripts older than 30 days".
- Edit → change the date filter (e.g.
older than 90 days) or deactivate the job. - Save.
💡 Plan ahead. If a customer wants 12 months of trend in the dashboard, retention must already have been extended 12 months ago. You can't backfill deleted transcripts.
📖 Learn more: Manage conversation transcript retention — Microsoft Learn
This dashboard ships in two flavors. Pick the one that matches how you want to refresh your data:
| 📄 CSV Upload | 🔌 Dataverse Direct | |
|---|---|---|
| How it loads data | You export ConversationTranscript to CSV, then point the template at the file |
The template connects live to your Dataverse environment via the native Power BI connector |
| Setup time | ~10 min | ~5 min |
| Refresh | Re-export the CSV, drop it at the same path, click Refresh | One click — pulls live from Dataverse |
| Power BI Service refresh | No Gateway if the CSV is hosted on SharePoint/OneDrive; local/network paths need a Gateway | No Gateway — cloud-to-cloud |
| Who can run it | Anyone who can run the Dataverse export | Anyone with the Bot Transcript Viewer role on the environment |
| Lookback control | Whatever the export window allows (default 30 days) | Parameter — pull 30 / 90 / 365 days at will |
| Best for | One-off snapshots, demos, sharing with people outside the tenant | Production dashboards, scheduled refresh, ongoing monitoring |
| Get the template | ESS Dashboard - Dynamic Topics (CSV) V10.pbit |
ESS Dashboard - Dynamic Topics (Dataverse) V10.pbit |
| Setup guide | 📘 Written Setup Guide — CSV Upload | 📘 Written Setup Guide — Dataverse Direct |
💡 Not sure? If this is your first time exploring the dashboard, start with CSV Upload — no tenant permissions needed beyond running the Dataverse export. Move to Dataverse Direct once you're ready to put the dashboard in front of stakeholders on a schedule.
🔄 Want it to update itself? See Set up automatic (scheduled) refresh ↗ — gateway‑free for Dataverse Direct and for SharePoint/OneDrive‑hosted CSVs.
This is the part most people ask about: where do I actually go to get each file? Below is the exact click-path for every input, and which template needs it. Each row links to the full step-by-step (with every menu spelled out) in the setup guide for your path.
📌 The only difference between the two templates: the CSV Upload template needs a transcript CSV you export yourself; the Dataverse Direct template pulls transcripts live and only needs your environment URL. Org Data and Agent Credits are the same optional files for both.
| # | File | Required? | Where to get it — exact path | Full steps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Conversation Transcripts | ✅ Required | make.powerapps.com → switch to your agent's environment (top-right selector) → Tables → All → search conversation → open ConversationTranscript → Export ▸ Export data → Download exported data → unzip the CSV |
📘 CSV guide — Step 1 |
| 2 | Org Data (HR roster) | ⭐ Recommended | admin.microsoft.com → Users ▸ Active users ▸ Export users ▸ Confirm — or export a roster CSV from your HR system | 📘 CSV guide — Step 2 |
| 3 | Agent Credits | Optional | copilotstudio.microsoft.com → open your agent → Analytics ▸ Message Consumption → set date range → Export | 📘 CSV guide — Step 3 |
⚠️ Do not open the transcript CSV in Excel — Excel corrupts the JSON in theContentcolumn and the template fails to load with anM Engine error. Load it straight into Power BI.
| # | Input | Required? | Where to get it — exact path | Full steps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dataverse Environment URL (no file — pulls transcripts live) | ✅ Required | make.powerapps.com → switch to your agent's environment → ⚙️ (gear) ▸ Session details → copy Instance url (e.g. https://orgabc12345.crm.dynamics.com) |
📘 Dataverse guide — Step 1 |
| 2 | Org Data (HR roster) | ⭐ Recommended | admin.microsoft.com → Users ▸ Active users ▸ Export users ▸ Confirm | 📘 Dataverse guide — Step 2 |
| 3 | Agent Credits | Optional | copilotstudio.microsoft.com → open your agent → Analytics ▸ Message Consumption → Export | 📘 Dataverse guide — Step 3 |
Next: download the matching .pbit from Choose your path above, open it in Power BI Desktop, and paste your file paths (or environment URL) into the parameter prompt.
→ Full CSV setup guide · Full Dataverse setup guide
🔑 Can't find the ConversationTranscript table, or transcripts come back empty? You're almost certainly missing the Bot Transcript Viewer security role (Environment Maker is not enough), or your agent runs in an unsupported environment (Teams / M365 Copilot). See Before you start and Prerequisites — details.
Click to expand — required & optional files, roles, and what each unlocks
| File | Required? | Required role(s) | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversation Transcripts (Dataverse export from your ESS environment) | ✅ Required | Bot Transcript Viewer (minimum, least-privilege) — or any role with Read on the conversationtranscript table. System Administrator always works. System Customizer usually works but isn't guaranteed; assign Bot Transcript Viewer alongside it to be safe. |
All adoption, outcomes, time-to-knowledge, and in-conversation thumbs/CSAT feedback |
| Org Data (HR roster CSV: UPN, Department, JobTitle, Country) | ⭐ Recommended | Global Reader, User Administrator, or Global Administrator (Microsoft 365 Admin Center) | "Users by Organization" and "Users by Country" breakouts on every page |
| Agent Credits (Copilot Studio usage export) | Optional | Copilot Studio Administrator for the agent's environment | Credit consumption leaderboard and Business Impact page |
⚠️ Environment Makeralone is not enough to read transcripts. Customers often have this role and assume they're covered — they aren't. Grant Bot Transcript Viewer (or higher) explicitly.
💡 Roles are assigned in Power Platform Admin Center → Environment → Settings → Users + permissions → Security roles (Dataverse / Copilot Studio roles) or Microsoft 365 Admin Center → Roles (M365 roles). Extending Dataverse retention (see Prerequisites §4) requires System Administrator on the environment.
The template will load and render every page without errors even if you provide only the required transcripts file. Optional pages and breakouts will show blank where data is missing — by design, so you can start with the minimum and add more later.
Click to expand — common issues and fixes
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "M Engine error: Token Identifier expected" on open | CSV opened in Excel before loading; Excel corrupted the JSON columns | Re-export from Dataverse, do not open in Excel, load directly into Power BI |
| Total Users count looks wrong | Same employee appears under both UPN and Entra Object ID in your transcripts | This is handled automatically — both identities are cross-walked in the model |
| "Users by Organization" chart shows only (Blank) | Org Data file not loaded, or UPN format doesn't match | Set the Org Data File parameter (Transform data → Edit Parameters); ensure the column is named UserPrincipalName |
| "Users by Country" chart shows "Something's wrong with one or more fields" | Your Org Data CSV is missing the Country column | Add a Country column to your Org Data file (it can be empty), or re-download the latest template |
| Repeat-usage rate is 0% | Period is too short (everyone is a first-time user) | Widen the date filter, or wait for more data |
Full validation checklist: see the Validate before sharing step in either setup guide (CSV Upload · Dataverse Direct).
Click to expand — repurpose this template for any Copilot Studio agent
While this template is purpose-built for the Microsoft ESS agent, the underlying data model works against any Copilot Studio agent's transcripts. To use it for a different agent (HR-only, IT helpdesk, sales enablement, custom internal agent):
- Point the Transcript File parameter at that agent's Dataverse export.
- Open the Adoption page → click the title text box → replace "ESS Agent" with your agent name.
- (Optional) Open the Glossary page → update the "About this report" callout.
- Save as a new
.pbitand re-distribute to your stakeholders.
No semantic-model edits required.
Click to expand
- Publish to Power BI Service for a live, refreshable workspace report.
- Export to PDF for monthly executive updates.
- Pin individual visuals to a Teams dashboard for daily monitoring.
Click to expand — how to present these numbers to execs
When presenting these numbers to a non-technical audience:
- Lead with Business Impact, not Adoption. Hours saved and tickets deflected resonate more than DAU with an exec sponsor.
- Pair Outcomes with Topic Outcomes. A 79% engagement rate means nothing without knowing which topics drove it.
- Use Verbatim Feedback as proof. Two quotes from real employees beats a 4.1/5 CSAT score every time.
- Show the trend, not the snapshot. The weekly trend visuals are your story arc — start there.
Found a bug? Have a feature request? Open an issue — feedback from real ESS customers makes this template better for everyone.
MIT — use it, modify it, ship it, share it.