Forum Discussion
Helper IIncome and expense: same or separate fact table?
In my opinion keeping the fact tables separate (and not directly linking between them) is the cleanest approach. Alternatively you could have a single fact table where you add a "fact type" column with the values of "Income" and "Expense" and then use the appropriate filters. But that will get messy quickly with larger datasets, especially when the facts are updated with different cadence.
I think your approach is sound and you should continue with it.
Helper IThanks for the answer.
As I was continuing my learning I did conduct some tests. I also got an understanding of the value of cleaning up my data as early in the process as possible. Since I have all data in Excel, and this is a small project compared to what a lot of you guys are doing I ended up with the following:
I have a set number of income streams/expenses, there won't be any adding of much except updating it monthly, so I think I will be able to keep it all under control. I created a few measures and charts and it seems to work fine.
Since I am new to this, and am learning PowerBi just because I want to, not because I have a clear business need I have found that a real hard part of PowerBI for a beginner like me is getting a clear grasp on how the initial data best should be structured so it fits into a nice relationship table.
Most of what I read is to avoid two fact tables, but very nice for me to know it is possible and that it would work the way I initially planned it.
Thanks for your insight.