Dashboards vs reports in Power BI - Dashboard Approaches Compared

Dashboard Mode - Dashboards vs reports

Business Question

How can we understand the difference between dashboards and reports in Power BI to choose the right tool for our business needs?

Sample Data

Order ID	Product	Category	Sales Amount	Order Date	Region
1001	Chair	Furniture	250	2024-01-15	East
1002	Desk	Furniture	450	2024-01-20	West
1003	Pen	Office Supplies	15	2024-02-05	East
1004	Notebook	Office Supplies	30	2024-02-10	South
1005	Monitor	Technology	300	2024-03-01	North
1006	Keyboard	Technology	80	2024-03-05	West
1007	Mouse	Technology	40	2024-03-10	East

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: Total Sales = SUM('Sales'[Sales Amount])
  Result: 1165
• Bar Chart: Sales by Category
  Shows total sales for Furniture (700), Office Supplies (45), Technology (420)
• Line Chart: Sales Over Time
  Shows sales trend by Order Date from Jan to Mar 2024
• Table: Detailed Sales Data
  Shows all rows from sample data with columns Order ID, Product, Category, Sales Amount, Order Date, Region

Report Components

• Multi-page Report: Includes detailed tables, charts, and slicers for deep analysis
• Slicers: Filters for Region and Category to explore data
• Calculated Measures: Average Sales = AVERAGE('Sales'[Sales Amount]) Result: 166.43

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
|      KPI Card        |    Sales by Category  |
|    (Total Sales)     |      (Bar Chart)      |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|      Sales Over Time (Line Chart)           |
+---------------------------------------------+
|           Detailed Sales Data (Table)       |
+---------------------------------------------+

Report Layout

+---------------------------------------------+
|               Report Page 1                  |
|  - Detailed Tables with slicers on side      |
+---------------------------------------------+
|               Report Page 2                  |
|  - Multiple charts and filters                |
+---------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

Filters and slicers on reports allow users to select Region or Category. When a filter is applied:

• KPI Card updates total sales based on filter
• Bar Chart and Line Chart update to show filtered data
• Detailed Table shows only filtered rows
• Reports allow page navigation and deeper drill-down

Self Check

If you add a filter for Region = East, which components update and what changes?

• KPI Card shows total sales for East region only (250 + 15 + 40 = 305)
• Bar Chart updates sales by category for East region
• Line Chart shows sales trend for East region dates
• Table shows only rows with Region = East

Key Result

This dashboard compares key elements of dashboards and reports in Power BI using sales data, showing total sales, sales by category, sales trends, and detailed data with interactive filters.