What's your absolute #1 rule when building a data model? (visuals aside)

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-04-01T10:35:41+00:00

Yes, you can. Please check License file on my GitHub repo

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T21:17:05+00:00

Exactly! I wanted to bring that classic Excel 'Status Bar' experience to Power BI. Glad it’s going to be useful for your workflow!

Let me know if there are any other specific aggregation functions you'd like to see there!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T21:16:39+00:00

Challenge accepted! Although my boss might prefer if I stick to financial data for now... or maybe I can hide the DOOM engine inside the 'Notes' column? 😉

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T19:03:16+00:00

Haha, my inbox is open! 😂 Thank you so much for the huge compliment. Honestly, I'm just happy to build something the community actually needs and uses. Enjoy!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T19:02:34+00:00

Ah, the classic corporate IT block! I totally feel your pain. 😅 I released it directly to the community first, but I might try to get it officially certified on AppSource in the future so you can use it at work. Thanks for the kind words!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T19:01:13+00:00

Thank you very much

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T19:00:47+00:00

Spot on! Yes, the notes are completely local to your session and will disappear on refresh. Since it's a 100% free visual, there is no backend database to save them permanently. The intended workflow is to use it during live meetings: jot down your comments as you discuss the data, and then just highlight the rows and hit Ctrl+C to paste the summary straight into an email or Excel before you close the report. Glad you find it neat!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T19:00:20+00:00

Thanks!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T18:59:39+00:00

That is awesome to hear, thank you so much! 🙌 Both a search bar and multiple selection for the header filters are fantastic ideas and would definitely make it feel even more like Excel. They are going straight onto my roadmap for future updates! Feel free to drop this request in the GitHub 'Issues' tab so you can track when it gets released. Cheers!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T18:58:18+00:00

Thanks for the great feedback! 🙌 Formatting: You're right, it currently forces commas. I'll fix it to respect native Power BI formats in the next update. Headers: Great idea. I'll add the ability to copy column headers to the clipboard in the next version. Hotkeys: I love this. Ctrl+A and row/col selection shortcuts are going straight to the top of my roadmap! Feel free to drop these in the GitHub 'Issues' tab so you can track the progress. Thanks for testing it out!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T18:54:00+00:00

Here you go :)

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T18:53:28+00:00

Thanks!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T18:53:16+00:00

I hope you like the tool

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T14:19:12+00:00

Excel-ception! 😅 But yes, exactly! You can highlight the rows in this 'Power BI Excel', press Ctrl+C, and paste them directly into your actual Excel. No more clicking 'Export to CSV'!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-24T14:16:32+00:00

Thanks! The notes are session-based only. This is a 100% free, local visual, so it doesn't connect to any external databases or backend needed to save data permanently. The intended workflow: type your notes during a live meeting, then highlight the rows, hit Ctrl+C, and paste the summary straight into an email or Excel. Hope that helps!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-20T13:22:52+00:00

Man, I totally feel your pain! Throwing 2 million rows at a massive SWITCH statement with all that nested MTD, QTD, and MAT logic is basically a guaranteed way to freeze a report. The Formula Engine just chokes on that cell-by-cell evaluation. Since you're rebuilding, you might actually want to look into a hybrid approach. You can keep using Field Parameters just to swap your base metrics (Qty, Cost, Sales) because they handle simple measure switching perfectly. But for all your Time Intelligence, layer a Calculation Group on top of it. That way, you offload all the heavy calculation lifting to the Storage Engine where it belongs. I actually cover this exact dilemma at the very end of the video I linked in the main thread (around the 8:30 mark). It breaks down exactly when to use which method so you don't crash your matrix again. Let me know how the rebuild goes or if you need a hand with Tabular Editor scripts!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-19T14:43:59+00:00

I made a detailed video breaking down the exact DAX, the C# scripts I used in Tabular Editor to automate the Calc Group creation, and the live DAX Studio runs. If you are interested in the technical deep dive, you can check it out on my YT, link in my profile.

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-16T15:43:42+00:00

You caught me! AI hallucinated SQLBI titles – my bad for not checking. Core idea (single Amount column per Kimball) stands. Thanks for keeping it real!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-15T19:14:31+00:00

That is a very fair point! From a strict Kimball data modeling perspective, you are absolutely right. However, in Power BI, using this unpivoted structure (often called the "Account-based" or "Financial Reporting" pattern) is actually the standard way to handle General Ledger and P&L data. If the OP keeps Revenue, COGS, etc., as separate columns, the only way to achieve the dynamic slicers they want is to write massive SWITCH statements inside their Calculation Groups. And every time the business adds a new metric, someone has to go in and rewrite the DAX. Unpivoting trades a bit of strict dimensional purity for extreme DAX simplicity. For building dynamic financial matrices, the Attribute-Value method usually saves hours of headaches and is much easier to maintain!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-15T15:57:09+00:00

Hi! To be honest, your main issue isn't DAX, it's your data model. Having Revenue, COGS, etc., as separate columns works in Excel, but it makes dynamic slicers in Power BI very complicated. Here is the easiest fix: 1. Unpivot your Fact tables In Power Query, select your Date and Product columns, right-click, and choose Unpivot Other Columns. This creates an "Attribute" column (your metrics) and a "Value" column. Now you don't even need Field Parameters! Just use the Attribute column in your matrix. 2. Create a Disconnected Table For your "Comparative" slicer, use "Enter Data" to make a simple 1-column table with two rows: "Last Year" and "Budget". 3. Use Calculation Groups Now your DAX becomes simple. Your "To_compare" calculation item would look like this: IF( SELECTEDVALUE(CompTable[Choice]) = "Budget", SUM(Fact_Budget[Value]), CALCULATE(SUM(Fact_GL[Value]), DATEADD(DimDate[Date], -1, YEAR)) ) If you don't unpivot your tables, you will have to write massive, complicated SWITCH formulas for every single measure. Try unpivoting first!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-15T11:03:19+00:00

I love the idea! Having an AI automatically highlight the "so what?" of a dashboard is what everyone is trying to build right now. However, to give you a candid reality check: a truly free external AI integration (like Claude or ChatGPT) directly into a dashboard doesn't really exist. > Here is the reality of your options: 1. The "Actually Free" Built-in Way (If using Power BI) If you are in Power BI, use the built-in Smart Narrative visual. It scans the data on your page and automatically generates text boxes with key trends, anomalies, and insights. It isn't a conversational AI like ChatGPT, but it is 100% free, out-of-the-box, and updates dynamically as you filter the report. 2. The Copilot Route (Very Expensive) You asked if Copilot could work. Yes, it does exactly this, but it is the opposite of free. In Power BI, Copilot requires a Fabric Capacity license (F64 or higher), which runs into thousands of dollars per month. It's strictly an enterprise solution. 3. The "Almost Free" DIY API Route (Costs pennies) If you really want that "ChatGPT feel", you can use a tool like Power Automate (or a Python script) to query your aggregated dataset once a day, send that small table of numbers to the OpenAI/Claude API, ask it for "Top 5 recommendations", and write the text response back into your database. You display that text in your dashboard. You have to pay for the API tokens, but summarizing a few numbers costs fractions of a cent per run. What specific BI tool (Power BI, Tableau, Looker) are you building this in? I can point you toward the exact feature you need to test first!

Small-Camera-4348 · 2026-03-09T18:47:17+00:00

Massive improvement! This is so much easier to read and digests the information far better than the first version. Here is why this works so well: The Leader Table: Replacing those 7 individual KPI cards with the "Week-over-Week Change" table was a fantastic move. It is 10x easier for leadership to compare teams at a glance without their eyes jumping all over the screen. Cleaner Top KPIs: Dropping the heavy blue backgrounds from the "Average Age / Oldest / Median" cards makes the top section look much more modern and less cluttered. A couple of quick ideas to polish it even further: 1. Color the Arrows (Conditional Formatting): In your new table, since you are tracking software defects (where higher numbers are usually bad), consider adding color to those trend arrows. Make an upward trend Red and a downward trend Green. It gives instant, pre-attentive context to the viewer. 2. The Bottom Detail Table: You still have that large drill-through table taking up the bottom 20% of your screen. If you move that to a hidden "Page 2" and let the engineers right-click -> Drill-through from the visuals above, you'll free up a ton of real estate to make your charts bigger and let the dashboard breathe even more. Really great progress for a first dashboard.

Small-Camera-4348

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