Power BI Questions

[anna-smith27]

Hi everyone, my name is Anna and I've delivered a few of the Power BI Dashboard in a Day for Women, by Women training courses in the United Kingdom. I really enjoy delivering these training days and I think they offer a valuable space for women to learn from and support each other. If anyone has any Power BI related questions do put them below and we can all try to help each other out! 

Many thanks,

Anna 

[Kjell83]

Hi Anna,

I'm Kjell from Belgium and I'm new to building reports/dashboards in Power BI.

During the last couple of months I followed some online course to get the basics of Power BI Desktop and

I have imported the data I think I will need for my inventory management report.

I have put the "empty" visuals on the canvas but I don't know how to start with filling them. I mean, how do you define which data to use for which visual?

I can find so many "images" of inventory management reports/dashboards but I can't find what data to use to fill them.

How do you know whether to just select data from a column or to create a calculated column or measure and how do you define what that measure should look like?

With so much data available I seem to be lost not just in the woods but in the amazone forest. ;o)

Do you know if there is a list of measures, specifically for inventory management, which I could consult and then tweak for my own report?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Kind regards,

Kjell

[Noha_]

Hi Anna,

Thank you so much for offering your expertise and for creating such an empowering space for women in Power BI! Your work truly makes a difference.

I’m eager to enhance my storytelling skills in data analysis. Could you share some strategies for crafting a compelling narrative, especially when working with complex datasets? Additionally, I’d appreciate any tips or techniques you have for making data insights more engaging and relatable to different audiences.

[bernate]

I like the book "Storytelling with Data" by Cole Nussbaumer. Personally, I think making a report or dashboard look visually appealing is the #1 priority (even if it sounds shallow) when presenting. People are more likely to pay attention and engage with something that looks good and isn't overly cluttered. I created a custom theme that uses my company's colors so that the report looks cohesive in a PowerPoint or other corporate presentation. For report layout, I like to watch some videos on YouTube for inspiration, tips, and tricks that I can apply to my own report. Things like adding shadows to visuals or lining them up precisely seem small but make the report look more interesting and appealing overall.

[MelissaE]

Hi There,

I have a question about using and publishing Power BI reports to Teams. Do I need to download an On-Premise Data Gateway to properly refresh and publish a report? The data I am using is from an Excel document that is linked to my Power BI reports and is being updated and refreshed every few days. 

[bernate]

If you want the published Power BI file to automatically refresh when the Excel file is updated, you need to add the data source (the Excel file) to an on-prem gateway. 

[clairemh]

Hi Anna, how are you? Thank you for creating this forum for ladies.  Is it convenient if I request for feedback for my Power BI project? I am taking part in a competition. I had condensed the findings into a one-page executive summary on Power BI.  Please advise. 

[anna-smith27]

Hi Claire,

I'm well thanks, how are you?  If the data is all publicly available and safe to share then feel free to do so. If there are any specific parts that you'd like feedback on then let us know. 

Many thanks,

Anna

[clairemh]

Thanks a lot Anna. I welcome constructive feedback. If you visit my portfolio page: please check out the Power BI report I did. https://mavenanalytics.io/project/12930  Actually I do not know how to create a nice background for the Canvas in Power BI.  Do you know where I can learn to do this? Your guidance will be very much appreciated. 

[hoba1981]

thank you so much for this amazing thread. I have a question, how can I add a code on Power BI to change the "K" for thousand to "M" and the "M" for million to "MM".

Thanks,

[anna-smith27]

Hi there,

Depending on what your intended purpose is, adding a new measure with a stated variable could work, here's an example of one that worked for me:

Formatted Number =

VAR OriginalNumber = [YourNumberColumn] 

RETURN

IF(

    OriginalNumber >= 1000000,

    FORMAT(OriginalNumber / 1000000, "#,##0.0") & "MM",

    IF(

        OriginalNumber >= 1000,

        FORMAT(OriginalNumber / 1000, "#,##0.0") & "M",

        FORMAT(OriginalNumber, "#,##0.0")

    )

)

Hope that helps!