Report design best practices in Power BI - Dashboard Guide

Dashboard Mode - Report design best practices

Goal

Create a clear and effective sales report that helps managers quickly understand sales performance and trends.

Sample Data

Region	Month	Sales	Profit	Units Sold
North	January	1000	200	50
South	January	1500	300	70
East	February	1200	250	60
West	February	1300	270	65
North	March	1100	220	55
South	March	1600	320	75

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Total Sales
  Formula: Total Sales = SUM(Sales[Sales])
  Result: 7700
• KPI Card: Total Profit
  Formula: Total Profit = SUM(Sales[Profit])
  Result: 1560
• Bar Chart: Sales by Region
  Formula: Sales by Region = SUM(Sales[Sales]) grouped by Region
  Shows total sales for each region
• Line Chart: Sales Trend by Month
  Formula: Sales Trend = SUM(Sales[Sales]) grouped by Month
  Shows sales changes over January to March
• Table: Detailed Sales Data
  Shows all columns from sample data for detailed view

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+----------------------+
| Total Sales (KPI)    | Total Profit (KPI)   |
+----------------------+----------------------+
|                      Bar Chart: Sales by Region             |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
|                      Line Chart: Sales Trend by Month       |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
|                      Table: Detailed Sales Data             |
+------------------------------------------------------------+

Interactivity

A slicer for Region filters all visuals to show data only for the selected region(s). Selecting a region updates the KPI cards, bar chart, line chart, and table accordingly.

A slicer for Month filters the line chart and table to show data for selected months, updating KPIs and bar chart as well.

Self Check

If you add a filter to select only the South region, which components update?

• Both KPI cards show totals only for South.
• The bar chart shows only South region sales.
• The line chart shows sales trend for South region months.
• The table lists only rows where Region is South.

Key Result

A sales report dashboard showing total sales, profit, sales by region, sales trends by month, and detailed data with interactive filters.