📎 This article includes 2 downloadable practice files ↓
In this article
A report page has about five seconds to tell people whether things are good or bad. That depends far more on choosing and arranging visuals well than on clever DAX.
Pick the visual from the question
| Question | Visual |
|---|---|
| How much in total? | Card (or KPI with target) |
| Which is biggest? | Bar chart, sorted |
| How is it trending? | Line chart (Month on the axis) |
| Actual vs target over time | Line and clustered column |
| Exact numbers by two dimensions | Matrix |
| Where? | Map / filled map (needs clean city or state names) |
| Parts of a whole (few) | Donut or 100% stacked bar |
Layout: Z-pattern
- Top row: 3-5 cards with the headline numbers (Sales, Margin %, Orders, YoY).
- Middle: the main trend chart.
- Bottom: breakdowns (by region, product) and a detail matrix.
- Slicers on the left or top, consistently on every page.
Format with purpose
- Clear titles that say what the visual shows (“Sales by region, FY 2025-26”).
- Data labels on bars; remove gridlines and axis titles that repeat the title.
- One accent colour for the thing that matters; grey for the rest.
- View › Themes for consistent colours and fonts across pages.
Matrix basics
Rows: Region, then Customer (expand with the + icons). Columns: FY. Values: Total Sales, Margin %. Turn on stepped layout and subtotals as needed.
Indian number formats
Display units Lakhs/Crores aren’t built in. Options: divide in the measure ([Total Sales] / 100000, label “₹ lakh”), or a custom format string such as #,##,##0 on the measure for Indian grouping.
Where beginners go wrong
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| 15 visuals on one page | 5-7 per page; split pages by audience/question |
| Pie charts with 12 slices | Sorted bar chart |
| Default titles “Sum of Qty by Month” | Write real titles |
| Different colours for the same region on each page | Theme and fixed data colours |
Practice
Download the data model and expected results below. Load all four tables into Power BI Desktop and build this lesson’s steps; compare your numbers with the expected-results workbook.
📎 Practice files for this article
- 📗Practice data model (Excel)Four tables: Sales (600 orders, FY 2024-25 and 2025-26), Products, Customers and a Calendar with FY columns.⬇ XLSX · 40 KB
- 📗Expected resultsThe values your measures and visuals should show.⬇ XLSX · 7 KB
Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.
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