RELATED for cross-table values in Power BI - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - RELATED for cross-table values

Business Question

How can we show each sales order's customer name and region by using data from two related tables?

Sample Data

Sales Orders Table

OrderID	CustomerID	OrderAmount
1001	C001	250
1002	C002	450
1003	C003	300
1004	C001	150
1005	C002	500

Customers Table

CustomerID	CustomerName	Region
C001	Alpha Corp	East
C002	Beta LLC	West
C003	Gamma Inc	North

Dashboard Components

1. Sales Orders Table Visual

Shows OrderID, CustomerID, OrderAmount, CustomerName, and Region.

Calculated Columns using RELATED:

CustomerName = RELATED(Customers[CustomerName])
Region = RELATED(Customers[Region])

This pulls customer info from the Customers table into Sales Orders.

2. Total Sales Card

Shows total sales amount across all orders.

Total Sales = SUM('Sales Orders'[OrderAmount])

Result: 1650 (250+450+300+150+500)

3. Sales by Region Bar Chart

Aggregates sales by Region using the RELATED column.

Axis: Region (from Sales Orders table via RELATED)

Values: Total Sales (SUM of OrderAmount)

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+------------------+
| Total Sales Card     | Sales by Region  |
|                      | Bar Chart        |
+----------------------+------------------+
|              Sales Orders Table           |
| (with CustomerName & Region columns)      |
+------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

Clicking a region in the Sales by Region bar chart filters the Sales Orders table to show only orders from customers in that region.

All visuals update together because they share the CustomerID relationship and RELATED columns.

Self Check

If you add a filter for Region = 'West', which components update?

• The Sales Orders Table will show only orders from customers in the West region (CustomerID C002).
• The Total Sales Card will update to show total sales for West region orders (450 + 500 = 950).
• The Sales by Region Bar Chart will highlight or filter to the West region bar.

Key Result

Dashboard showing sales orders with customer names and regions using RELATED to pull cross-table values, plus total sales and sales by region visuals.