topic Re: PBIGenie Hammerhead Variance Bar – Actual vs Budget Layout in Power BI in Custom Visuals Development Discussion

PBIGenie Hammerhead Variance Bar – Actual vs Budget Layout in Power BI

PBIGenie — Thu, 21 May 2026 23:53:08 GMT

I’ve been experimenting with a cleaner way to show Actual vs Budget in Power BI, using a custom visual style I’m developing called the PBIGenie Hammerhead Variance Bar.

The idea was to modernise the classic horizontal bar layout by improving:

readability
spacing
variance clarity
positive/negative cues

No DAX tricks — just a focus on visual interpretation.

I’ve attached a before/after example to show the difference in layout and clarity. Happy to hear any thoughts or suggestions from the community.

Re: PBIGenie Hammerhead Variance Bar – Actual vs Budget Layout in Power BI

Juan-Power-bi — Fri, 22 May 2026 14:17:24 GMT

I love it this is really clean

Re: PBIGenie Hammerhead Variance Bar – Actual vs Budget Layout in Power BI

PBIGenie — Sat, 23 May 2026 03:57:20 GMT

Thanks so much for the kind words — really appreciate it!

If you’d like to have a play with the visual yourself, I have a small demo PBIX file you can explore. It shows how the Hammerhead layout works, how the colours and shapes can be customised without any DAX, and it includes a few other variations to get the creative juices flowing.

No external links — the file is hosted directly on the Microsoft platform, so it’s completely safe to download and open.

Here’s the link to the demo file if you want to explore it: PBIGenie Visual Playground.pbix

Always happy to hear feedback or ideas for future Genie visuals — this is just the beginning.

The Genie 😉

Re: PBIGenie Hammerhead Variance Bar – Actual vs Budget Layout in Power BI

jasonmiller11tt — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 03:54:47 GMT

Nice enhancement! The cleaner layout and clearer variance indicators make Actual vs Budget comparisons much easier to understand at a glance. I especially like the use of spacing and visual cues to highlight positive and negative variances without adding clutter. Looking forward to seeing how the design evolves.

Re: PBIGenie Hammerhead Variance Bar – Actual vs Budget Layout in Power BI

davidwarner344 — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 05:41:59 GMT

Nice work! The cleaner layout and stronger variance indicators make the comparison much easier to read. I like the focus on clarity over complexity—small design improvements can have a big impact on how quickly users interpret the data. Looking forward to seeing how it evolves. 👍

Re: PBIGenie Hammerhead Variance Bar – Actual vs Budget Layout in Power BI

PBIGenie — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 14:59:20 GMT

Thanks for the kind words! Glad the layout changes landed well. I’m experimenting with a few more tweaks, so your feedback is appreciated.

Re: PBIGenie Hammerhead Variance Bar – Actual vs Budget Layout in Power BI

PBIGenie — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 14:59:39 GMT

Cheers for the feedback! Always good to hear when the clarity improvements are noticeable. Got a few more ideas in the pipeline.

Re: PBIGenie Hammerhead Variance Bar – Actual vs Budget Layout in Power BI

masonreed11t — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 10:42:46 GMT

Looks like a good improvment. The key is making variance obvious at a glance while keeping the visual clean. I would test it with crowded dashboards and different users if people understand the story faster than a standard bar chart it doing its job.