Cross-filtering between visuals in Power BI - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a sales analyst at a retail company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants an interactive sales report where selecting a region filters the sales data by product category and vice versa.

📊 Data: You have sales data with columns: Date, Region, Product Category, Sales Amount.

🎯 Deliverable: Create a Power BI report with two visuals: a bar chart for Sales by Region and a pie chart for Sales by Product Category. Enable cross-filtering so selecting a region updates the product category sales and selecting a product category updates the region sales.

Sample Data

Date	Region	Product Category	Sales Amount
2024-01-05	North	Electronics	1200
2024-01-10	South	Clothing	800
2024-01-15	East	Electronics	950
2024-01-20	West	Clothing	700
2024-01-25	North	Clothing	650
2024-02-01	South	Electronics	1100
2024-02-05	East	Clothing	500
2024-02-10	West	Electronics	1300
2024-02-15	North	Electronics	1400
2024-02-20	South	Clothing	900

1

Step 1: Load the sales data into Power BI Desktop.

Use 'Get Data' > 'Excel/CSV' or paste data directly.

Expected Result

Sales data table appears in Power BI with columns Date, Region, Product Category, Sales Amount.

2

Step 2: Create a bar chart visual showing total sales by Region.

Drag 'Region' to Axis and 'Sales Amount' to Values (aggregation: Sum).

Expected Result

Bar chart displays total sales for each region: North, South, East, West.

3

Step 3: Create a pie chart visual showing total sales by Product Category.

Drag 'Product Category' to Legend and 'Sales Amount' to Values (aggregation: Sum).

Expected Result

Pie chart displays sales distribution between Electronics and Clothing.

4

Step 4: Enable cross-filtering between the two visuals.

Select the bar chart, then in Format pane > Edit interactions, ensure the pie chart is set to filter when a region is selected. Repeat for pie chart to filter bar chart by product category.

Expected Result

Selecting a region in the bar chart filters the pie chart to show sales only for that region's product categories, and selecting a product category in the pie chart filters the bar chart to show sales only for regions selling that category.

5

Step 5: Test the cross-filtering by selecting 'North' region in the bar chart.

Click on the 'North' bar in the bar chart.

Expected Result

Pie chart updates to show sales for Electronics and Clothing only in the North region.

6

Step 6: Test the cross-filtering by selecting 'Clothing' in the pie chart.

Click on the 'Clothing' slice in the pie chart.

Expected Result

Bar chart updates to show sales for Clothing only across all regions.

Final Result

Bar Chart: Sales by Region

↓

Pie Chart: Sales by Product Category

✓North region has the highest total sales.

✓Electronics sales are almost double Clothing sales overall.

✓Cross-filtering helps quickly see which product categories perform best in each region.

Bonus Challenge

Add a slicer for Date to filter sales by month and observe how cross-filtering updates accordingly.

Show Hint

Use the Date column to create a slicer visual. Selecting a month should filter both bar and pie charts dynamically.