CSV and text file import in Power BI - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - CSV and text file import

Business Question

How can we import sales data from a CSV file into Power BI to analyze monthly sales performance?

Sample Data

Month	Product	Sales
January	Apples	120
January	Bananas	150
February	Apples	180
February	Bananas	130
March	Apples	200
March	Bananas	170

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales - Shows the sum of all sales from the imported CSV data.
  Formula: Total Sales = SUM('SalesData'[Sales])
  Result: 950
• Bar Chart: Sales by Month - Displays total sales for each month.
  Formula: Sales by Month = SUM('SalesData'[Sales]) with Month on axis
• Table: Detailed Sales Data - Shows the raw imported data with columns Month, Product, and Sales.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
|      Total Sales      |    Sales by Month    |
|       (KPI Card)      |      (Bar Chart)     |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|          Detailed Sales Data Table           |
+----------------------------------------------+
  

Interactivity

A slicer can be added for Product to filter the bar chart and table by Apples or Bananas. Selecting a product updates the sales totals and chart accordingly.

Self Check

If you add a filter for Product = Apples, which components update?

• The Total Sales KPI card updates to show sales only for Apples (120 + 180 + 200 = 500).
• The Sales by Month bar chart updates to show sales for Apples only.
• The Detailed Sales Data table shows only rows where Product is Apples.

Key Result

A Power BI dashboard showing total sales, monthly sales bar chart, and detailed sales table from CSV import with product filter.