SQL Server connection in Power BI - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - SQL Server connection

Business Question

How can we connect Power BI to a SQL Server database to load sales data and create a simple report?

Sample Data from SQL Server

OrderID	Customer	Region	SalesAmount	OrderDate
1001	Alpha Co	East	250	2024-01-15
1002	Beta LLC	West	400	2024-01-20
1003	Gamma Inc	East	150	2024-02-05
1004	Delta Ltd	South	300	2024-02-10
1005	Epsilon	West	500	2024-03-01

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: Total Sales = SUM('Sales'[SalesAmount])
  Result: 1600
• Bar Chart: Sales by Region
  X-axis: Region
  Y-axis: Sum of SalesAmount
  Shows total sales per region (East: 400, West: 900, South: 300)
• Table: Sales Details
  Columns: OrderID, Customer, Region, SalesAmount, OrderDate
  Shows all rows from the SQL Server data

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
|      Total Sales     |    Sales by Region   |
|       (KPI Card)     |      (Bar Chart)     |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|                  Sales Details Table             |
+--------------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

A slicer filter on Region allows users to select one or more regions. When a region is selected:

• The Total Sales KPI updates to show sales only for the selected region(s).
• The Sales by Region bar chart updates to show bars only for the selected region(s).
• The Sales Details table filters to show only orders from the selected region(s).

Self Check

If you add a filter selecting Region = West, which components update and what are their new values?

• Total Sales: Updates to 900 (400 + 500)
• Sales by Region Chart: Shows only the West region bar with value 900
• Sales Details Table: Shows only orders 1002 and 1005

Key Result

Power BI dashboard showing total sales, sales by region, and sales details connected live to SQL Server data.