How to Make a Good Report in Microsoft Power BI [Visual Guide]

Microsoft’s Power BI is one of the leading business intelligence tools enterprises use.

Power BI stands out from other business intelligence tools based on Google Trends in terms of Google search queries and popularity among professionals.

Source: Google Trends

If you have just started learning about Power BI, then read this complete guide about how long it takes to learn Power BI for a beginner.

Power BI reports are useful in explaining the dataset visually for better understanding. The tool can be seamlessly used within the organization’s departments to create well-vetted Power BI reports improving the business operations.

But multiple business professionals have confusion in creating quality Power BI reports among different non-technical experts. Chances are, you might face trouble creating your first Power BI report, but don’t worry.

We’ve got you covered.

We’ll help you understand how to make a good report in Microsoft Power BI within a few simple steps. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Here is a step-by-step process for creating a Power BI reports in 3 steps.

How to Make Power BI Reports in 3 Simple Steps

Before kickstarting the Power BI report creation, you need a blank report canvas and a dataset.

Step 1: Click the ‘Datasets’ section and click the ‘Create Report’ icon in your workspace.

Source: Power BI

Once you click the report creation button, Power BI will open the editor or the report builder where the action takes place.

The tableau product suite is segmented into multiple parts:

Source: Power BI

There are three primary sections in the Power BI report builder, i.e., canvas, field pane, and visualization pane.

Canvas: The canvas is the white space at the center where you can view the visuals and make the changes for further assessment.

Field Pane: The field pane has the different fields of the dataset.

Visual Pane: The visualization pane is where you can modify or edit the visualization like the type of format, option, and visualization to want in your report.

If you have prior knowledge about creating graphs and charts using Excel, then it will be easier for you to use the Power BI dashboard and create intuitive reports compared to Excel.

We have selected the “Retail Analysis Sample” dataset prepared by Microsoft, composed of different retail items sold across different districts and stores.

The dataset also has information about the year’s performance, units, last year’s sales, variance, gross margin, and other factors.

The sales report we’ll make will be about the total sales per year per item category.
We’ll select the fields and then add visualization. Let’s see how that happens.

Create a Visual Representation of Dataset

Step 2: In the field pane, select “Sales” and click “Total Units This Year.”

Source: Power BI

Step 3: Click on the “Item and then “Category” to extract the visuals on the canvas.

Source: Power BI

If you want to change the type of visual of the data, you need to move to the visualization pane and then click on the favorite visual element to convert the data into a different visual representation.

Source: Power BI

Simple, right?

That’s how easy it is to convert the dataset into your desired visual format using Power BI.

Modify Your Report

The initial visual representation of data might appear smaller; you can edit the report using Power BI within a few clicks.

You can enlarge the visuals to your desired size by clicking the visual and dragging it by the corners.

Then you can enlarge the title, detail labels, legend, and other texts of your report by selecting “Format” on the visualization pane.

Source: Power BI

A different set of edit options are available for a different visual representation. You can change the format using those options.

If you want to increase the text size, then go to “Title,” “Detail Labels,” and “Legend,” and then change the text size.

Source: Power BI

You can experiment with multiple options available and change the visual representation of the reports. Power BI enables you to explore your creativity and create the best data visualization reports for better understanding.

Once done with the amendments, you can save your report easily to make it ready for sharing across multiple channels.

Share Your First Power BI Report

You can save your report and then exit the Power BI editor. Click on “File” and then select “Save” to enter a name for your Power BI.

Source: Power BI

You can finish the report creation process and share it with your team members or upload it on the Power BI Report Server to analyze the data sets in the best and most intuitive format.

You have access to edit and create reports using the Power BI desktop and then make them public on the web portal for different professionals to access your reports.

The review team can access the reports using the browser or the Power BI application available on iOS and Android devices.

Slowly and steadily, you’ll learn more about the wider horizon of features available in Power BI and become efficient in report building. You know how to create a Power BI report. Now, let’s get a quick overview of how Power BI assists your business.

How Does Power BI Assist Your Business?

If you go through a list of top Power BI books, you will find Microsoft’s Power BI is one of the top data visualization tools that can assist you in visualizing data using scalable, unified platforms for enterprise business intelligence and helps extract deeper data insights.

It assists professionals in bridging the gap between decision-making and data. Here’s how Power BI can help your business:

Switch To Power BI For Creating Report Building

You can explore the benefits of Power BI once you kick start creating well-vetted data reports. The tool has multiple options and great features to assist non-technical professionals in seamlessly handling their report-building process.

If you don’t have a professional IT team to manage your BI and you want to access the BI tools at highly cost-effective prices, then you can choose Microsoft BI to convert raw data into an insightful and intuitive visual representation.

So, what’s making you wait?

Install the Power BI Desktop application and create your first Power BI report.