Original Post : Matt Allington, 24 Apr 2018 Background Technically you don’t need calendar tables to use Power BI, but for most reports that go beyond a simple Excel spreadsheet analysis, Calendars are an essential component of a successful Semantic Model. There are many different approaches to creating and maintaining […]
Today I’m going to share my solution to a question I found on the MrExcel forum. It’s an interesting problem. https://www.mrexcel.com/board/threads/power-query-to-determine-consecutive-and-non-consecutive-dates.1261496/ Let me briefly explain the problem. The Problem We have the following table, which contains the source data. Each row contains a unique ID (maybe a piece of equipment) […]
Level: Intermediate Why You May Want to use RLS Imagine you’ve just built a Power BI report filled with sensitive financial data. You want to start to share this data across the organisation but not everyone is allowed to see everything. The CFO should be allowed to see everything, but […]
Have you ever had a situation where you have a slicer selection that “sticks”? You make a selection in a slicer, then make some changes somewhere else, but the first selection you made “sticks” when it is no longer valid? Take a look at this animated demo below to see […]
In this article I’m going to talk about the recent change that Microsoft has made in renaming the underlying database used in Power BI from the term “dataset” to “semantic model” (or as I would call it, “semantic data model”). The Word “Semantic” Let me start by talking about the […]
The Power BI Matrix visual is similar to an Excel Pivot table, however there are quite a few limitations in the Matrix. In the Power BI Matrix below I have put the product categories on Rows, Calendar Year on Columns and the measure [Total Sales] on Values. At this point, […]
This is the third in my series where I show how I build a report from scratch. The objective is to show the warts and all process that I go through. Along the journey, I am sharing some tips and tricks. In this video, I demonstrate Standardising the data across […]
This is a follow up to my previous article and video where I demonstrated how to download data from multiple web pages into a data model. In this second article in the series, I demonstrate what I would normally do at the next stage of building a report. I often […]
Readers of my blog may have read this previous article from Roland where he covered an introduction to dataflows. In this new article, Roland is going to share some ideas about using the new field parameters. If you haven’t subscribed to Roland’s YouTube Channel yet, I highly recommend that you […]
I have many reasons for sharing content online. The main reasons are that I like sharing what I know, but also that I want to document how to complete a task for future reference. My article today ticks both of those boxes. How Many Employees by Period I’m calling this […]
What?! Exploding Measures I hear you say. Exploding, expanding, use which ever word you like; what I mean is when you want to remove any refence to a measure INSIDE another measure. Example Consider the 3 measures below. Total Sales = SUM(Sales[ExtendedAmount]) Total All Product Sales = CALCULATE([Total Sales],ALL(Products)) % […]
Paginated Reports have been available in Power BI since 2019. They serve an important purpose, but they are not easy for the average business user to learn, plus they require Power BI Premium to use. In my blog and video today, I will show you how you can use Excel […]
Today is another in my series where I am building out my COVID report for Australia. There are a few things I cover in the video today. The main “new” concept is the dynamic commentary, but I also show you some more warts and all insider view of building a […]
This is not the first time I have shared this concept. In my previous article I showed how it is possible to add a prefix to every column in a table. This article today is slightly different. Today I am removing text from multiple columns all at once using some […]
As is almost always the case when building Power BI reports, the first version is just the start of the journey, not the final destination. This article is a follow up from last week where I showed you how I built my COVID Power BI report from scratch. This week […]
As promised, today I am sharing with you the process I went through to build the COVID report I shared in my last article. One of the best ways to learn and improve your Power BI skills is to practice. The best way to practice is to find something you […]
This is a follow up article from my last blog post where I demonstrated how easy it is to use two slicers to compare any two items. In the demo in my article, I specifically showed how you could compare any 2 years of choice, but the principle applies to […]
This is an update to an article that I wrote back in 2019. This time around I created a video to go along with the written explanation and documentation below. You can jump straight to the video below if you prefer that medium. What is Calendar Over Run? Consider the […]
I blogged about how to Build a P&L With Power BI back in April 2020, and the response from my readers was great. Several people asked how to add percentages such as % of net sales revenue, % gross profit, etc. into the P&L. I decided therefore to do a […]
Level: Intermediate DAX is a tricky language; on the surface it is deceptively simple, but under the hood it can quickly become complex and it can take many years to master. If you have ever typed a formula and crossed your fingers when you press Enter, then you know what […]