Semantic model partitioning with a region column and a date column

[PrasanthLBalan]

Hi,

I have a fact table that contains data for the last 5 years. currently we have incremental refresh setup and am able to see the date partitions.

However, the data also has a column for region and we have four distinct region for the millions of rows in the table.

my report visuals will require users to interact with data for any given region (via a slicer)

is there  a way for me to create the region as the first level of partition followed by the date partitions and have the incremental refresh setup based on the date?

[v-sshirivolu]

Hi @PrasanthLBalan ,
I would also take a moment to thank @Shahid12523, for actively participating in the community forum and for the solutions you’ve been sharing in the community forum. Your contributions make a real difference.
 

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions

[v-sshirivolu]

Hi @PrasanthLBalan   ,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

Thank you.

[v-sshirivolu]

Hi @PrasanthLBalan ,

I hope the above details help you fix the issue. If you still have any questions or need more help, feel free to reach out. We’re always here to support you

[Shahid12523 · Accepted solution]

Power BI’s native incremental refresh only supports date-based partitioning. To create region + date partitions, you’ll need to:

Publish your model to a Premium workspace
Use XMLA endpoint or Tabular Editor to manually define partitions like North_2024_Q1
Automate refreshes using TOM or Semantic Link scripts

This gives you full control over multi-level partitioning, but it’s a post-deployment, code-driven setup — not supported directly in Desktop UI.