Creating dataflows in Power BI - Dashboard Building Guide

Dashboard Mode - Creating dataflows

Dashboard Goal

Understand how to create and use dataflows in Power BI to prepare and reuse data for reports and dashboards.

Sample Data: Sales Transactions

Date	Product	Category	Region	Sales Amount
2024-01-05	Notebook	Stationery	North	120
2024-01-10	Pen	Stationery	South	80
2024-01-15	Chair	Furniture	East	300
2024-01-20	Desk	Furniture	West	450
2024-01-25	Marker	Stationery	North	60
2024-01-30	Table	Furniture	South	500

Dashboard Components

• Dataflow: A Power BI dataflow created to extract, clean, and combine the sales transactions data from multiple sources. It includes steps to filter only sales from 2024 and add a calculated column for Sales Category (High if Sales Amount ≥ 300, else Low).
• KPI Card - Total Sales: Displays total sales amount from the dataflow.
  Formula: Total Sales = SUM('Sales'[Sales Amount])
  Result: 1510
• Bar Chart - Sales by Category: Shows total sales grouped by Sales Category (High, Low).
  Formula: Sales by Category = SUM('Sales'[Sales Amount]) grouped by Sales Category column from dataflow.
  Result: High = 1250, Low = 260
• Table - Sales Details: Lists Date, Product, Region, and Sales Amount from the dataflow for detailed view.

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
|      KPI Card        |   Bar Chart          |
|   Total Sales        |   Sales by Category  |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|                Sales Details Table               |
|  Date | Product | Region | Sales Amount          |
+-----------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

Filters or slicers can be added on Region or Category fields. When a filter is applied, all components update automatically because they use the same dataflow as their data source. For example, selecting Region = North will update the KPI card, bar chart, and table to show only North region sales.

Self Check

If you add a filter for Category = Furniture, which components update and what changes occur?

• All components update because they use the dataflow.
• KPI Card shows total sales for Furniture only: 1250 (Chair 300 + Desk 450 + Table 500).
• Bar Chart shows sales by Sales Category but only Furniture category rows, so Sales Category High = 1250, Low = 0.
• Sales Details Table lists only Furniture products and their sales.

Key Result

A Power BI dashboard showing total sales, sales by category, and detailed sales data all sourced from a reusable dataflow.