How to Connect Filters on PowerBi Service?

[abingle]

I'm using PowerBi Service (online version) and am struggling to connect filters between my different tabs from my data source. I'm working on headcount and absenteeism data for my organization, and I'd like department to be the main filter for the data. Even though the department match from tab to tab, it doesn't link when attempting to filter different graphs on the PowerBi pages. I've tried creating a general tab for department in my data source and then linking department name in other tabs to that general tab, to no luck.

Anything I try to Google gives me information about creating relationships on the Desktop app, but that's not possible with the online Service. I'm working on a deadline, so this is crucial - any help is much appreciated!!

[nandic]

@abingle relationship between tables is need in order to use this slicer.
You need to make relationship between table where field Department is with table  used for these 2 visuals.

When you have relationship, it will automatically filter data. If there is no relationship, it doesn't know how to filter it.

If it is easier, post image of data model so that we see from which tables data come.

Cheers,
Nemanja Andic

[v-huijiey-msft]

Hi @abingle ,

Your solution is great, @nandic . It worked like a charm! Here I have another idea in mind, and I would like to share it for reference.

When you open a report in Power BI Service, the default view is Read view, and you need to enter Edit view if you want to edit Slicer or Filter.

Access the report editing mode in Power BI Service.

Make sure to create relationships between your department table and other tables.

Try applying department filters at the report level.

Drag the Department field to the Filters pane on the right and set it up under the Filters on All Pages section.

Please see this document for more details:

Add a filter to a report in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me.

Best Regards,
Yang
Community Support Team

If there is any post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution  to help the other members find it more quickly.
If I misunderstand your needs or you still have problems on it, please feel free to let us know. Thanks a lot!

[abingle]

Hi, thanks! However, is it possible to create relationships between tables in PowerBi Service? Could you please help if so?

[v-huijiey-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @abingle ,

Here is the sample data I created:

Headcount table:

Department	Date	Value	Month
BREW	1/1/2024	189	1
BREW MAINT	1/1/2024	234	1
MAINT	1/1/2024	125	1
OPS	1/1/2024	246	1
PKG	1/1/2024	342	1
PKG MAINT	1/1/2024	545	1
QA	1/1/2024	21	1
UTIL	1/1/2024	45	1
BREW	2/1/2024	654	2
BREW MAINT	2/1/2024	221	2
MAINT	2/1/2024	667	2
OPS	2/1/2024	67	2
PKG	2/1/2024	865	2
PKG MAINT	2/1/2024	212	2
QA	2/1/2024	324	2
UTIL	2/1/2024	32	2
BREW	3/1/2024	545	3
BREW MAINT	3/1/2024	455	3
MAINT	3/1/2024	67	3
OPS	3/1/2024	90	3
PKG	3/1/2024	56	3
PKG MAINT	3/1/2024	21	3
QA	3/1/2024	34	3
UTIL	3/1/2024	45	3

Absenteeism table:

Department	Actuals	Requirements
BREW	80	100
BREW MAINT	210	200
MAINT	289	300
OPS	378	400
PKG	456	500
PKG MAINT	567	600
QA	712	700
UTIL	805	800

In Power BI Service, open the data model of the semantic model, Then you can establish a relationship between the two tables.

Drag the Department field of table Absenteeism to the Department field of table Headcount.

After it is created, it looks like this:

Exit the semantic model and enter the edit view of the report.

Put the Department of the table at one end into the report level Filter:

You can see that Filter can affect the visual objects of both pages.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me.

Best Regards,
Yang
Community Support Team

If there is any post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution  to help the other members find it more quickly.
If I misunderstand your needs or you still have problems on it, please feel free to let us know. Thanks a lot!

[nandic]

@abingle when you are in edit mode, go to view > sync slicers pane.
Then select slicer on main page.

You will get something like this:

It means that selected slicer is visible only on page "Dashboard". It is not visible on pages Details and Page 1.
However, if user selects something on this slicer on page Dashboard, it will also have impact on other pages.

Additionally, for me the easiest is to just copy/past slicer from main page to another page. It will ask you if you want to sync these slicers, just choose "Sync" and you're done.

Cheers,
Nemanja Andic

[abingle]

Thank you! However, my problem is not connecting slicers across different pages. I need to connect the filter titled "Department" to both graphs on this page. Each graph is pulling from a different tab in the backend data source, but the department classification is the same. However, when I select a specific department on this filter, it doesn't filter either graph.