Creating Your First Visualization

Let's build a basic sales report using a dataset containing the following columns:

The dataset contains product categories, sales amounts, and order dates.

Step 1: Create a Column Chart

1. Open the report in Power BI Desktop.
2. Select a clustered column chart.
3. Add Category to the X-axis.
4. Add SalesAmount to the Y-axis.
5. Verify that SalesAmount is summarized using Sum.

The chart will compare total sales across Electronics and Furniture.

Step 2: Create a Sales Card

1. Select a Card visual.
2. Add SalesAmount to the card.
3. Set the aggregation to Sum if necessary.
4. Rename the displayed metric to Total Sales if your formatting options allow it.

The total sales in this example is 175,000.

A card makes the overall result immediately visible without requiring users to compare individual chart bars.

Step 3: Create a Line Chart

1. Select a Line chart.
2. Add OrderDate to the X-axis.
3. Add SalesAmount to the Y-axis.
4. Configure the date axis appropriately.
5. Confirm that the values are aggregated as intended.

The line chart can show how sales change over time.

If the date hierarchy is used, you can analyze the data at different levels, such as year, quarter, month, or day.

Step 4: Compare the Results

Use the column chart to compare categories, the card to show total sales, and the line chart to inspect trends.

Together, these visuals provide more insight than any single chart alone.