Create dashboards in Power BI

 1 hr 8 min
 Module
 11 Units

Microsoft Power BI dashboards are different than Power BI reports. Dashboards allow
report consumers to create a single artifact of directed data that is personalized just
for them. Dashboards can be comprised of pinned visuals that are taken from
different reports. Where a Power BI report uses data from a single dataset, a Power BI
dashboard can contain visuals from different datasets.

Learning objectives
In this module, you will:
 Set a mobile view.
 Add a theme to the visuals in your dashboard.
 Configure data classification.
 Add real-time dataset visuals to your dashboards.
 Pin a live report page to a dashboard.
StartSave

Prerequisites
None
This module is part of these learning paths
 Visualize data in Power BI
 Introduction to dashboards5 min
 Configure data alerts2 min
 Explore data by asking questions2 min
 Add a dashboard theme1 min
 Pin a live report page to a dashboard3 min
 Configure a real-time dashboard2 min
 Configure data classification2 min
 Set mobile view2 min
 Lab - Create a Power BI dashboard45 min
 Check your knowledge3 min
 Summary1 min

Introduction to dashboards
Completed100 XP

 5 minutes

Microsoft Power BI dashboards are different than Power BI reports. Dashboards allow report
consumers to create a single artifact of directed data that is personalized just for them.
Dashboards can be comprised of pinned visuals that are taken from different reports. Where a
Power BI report uses data from a single dataset, a Power BI dashboard can contain visuals
from different datasets.

Well-built dashboards capture the main, most important highlights of the story that you are
trying to tell. The following screenshot is an example of a well-built dashboard.

Power BI dashboards is a feature that is only included in Power BI service. You can also
view dashboards on mobile devices, though you can't build them there.

Consider dashboards as the display window at a bakery, where you want people to be able to
view the most important items, while inside the shop (and in your reports in Power BI
Desktop) is where all ingredients are transformed to produce the display.

Dashboards vs. reports

When would you want to build a dashboard versus a report? The following list explains the
key similarities and differences worth noting when you are determining the right path for
you:

 Dashboards can be created from multiple datasets or reports.

 Dashboards do not have the Filter, Visualization, and Fields panes that are in
Power BI Desktop, meaning that you can't add new filters and slicers, and you
can't make edits.
 Dashboards can only be a single page, whereas reports can be multiple pages.
 You can't see the underlying dataset directly in a dashboard, while you can see
the dataset in a report under the Data tab in Power BI Desktop.
  Both dashboards and reports can be refreshed to show the latest data.

Dashboards allow a user to pin visuals from different reports and datasets onto a single
canvas, making it simple to group what's important to the user. Reports, on the other hand,
are more focused on being able to visualize and apply transformations to a single dataset.
Consider dashboards as the next step that you want to take after building your reports in
Power BI Desktop.

Now that you've learned about the background of dashboards and reports, you can learn about
dashboards in depth, specifically about their individual components.

Manage tiles on a dashboard

Tiles are the individual report elements, or snapshots, of your data that are then pinned to a
dashboard. Tiles can be sourced from a multitude of places including reports, datasets, other
dashboards, Microsoft Excel, SQL Server Reporting Services, and more. When pinning a
report element to a dashboard, you create a direct connection between the dashboard and the
report that the snapshot came from.

Your first task in this module is to create a basic dashboard. For this scenario, you have
created a simple report in Power BI Desktop called Tailwind Sales.

Pin a tile to a dashboard

You've uploaded your reports into Power BI service and are now viewing the report in Power
BI service. How do you create a dashboard? You can pin an entire report page, or you can pin
individual tiles, both of which will be discussed later.

The pinning process pulls visuals from your report and "pins" them to a dashboard for easy
viewing. When you make changes to the visuals in the report, and then re-publish to Power
BI Service, changes will be reflected on the dashboard.

To look at a specific visual, consider that you want to pin your tile, Sales by Category, onto
a new dashboard for easy viewing. You can complete this task by hovering over the visual. In
the visual header, select the Pin Visual icon, as shown in the following image.
After you have selected the icon, a window will appear, where you can choose to pin this
visual to a new or existing dashboard. For this example, you want your tile to be on a new
dashboard called Tailwind Dashboard.

After you have selected Pin, you will be redirected to your new dashboard, where you have
just pinned a tile from your report. You can resize and move this visual around the dashboard
by selecting the visual, dragging, and then dropping it.
One of biggest benefits of a dashboard is being able to pin a visual that is sourced from a
different dataset. The following section explains how you can add a visual onto
your Tailwind Dashboard from a different report.

Pin a tile from a different report

What if you want to pin a visual from a different report (and different dataset) to an existing
dashboard? To continue with the scenario, you want to add an Orders over Time visual,
which is housed in a different report to Tailwind Dashboard. You can perform the same
procedure in which you hover over the visual in the original report and then select
the Pin icon. The following window will appear, but this time, you want to pin this visual
onto an existing dashboard called Tailwind Dashboard.

When you navigate to your dashboard, notice that both visuals are now pinned, regardless of
the underlying dataset.
Now that you have learned how to pin individual tiles, you can learn how to pin an entire
report page, which will be discussed later in this module.

For more information, see Introduction to dashboard tiles.

Next unit: Configure data alerts

Continue

Configure data alerts

Completed100 XP

 2 minutes

Configuring data alerts is a simple process to complete on a dashboard in Power BI. Data
alerts can be used to notify you or a user that a specific data point is above, below, or at a
specific threshold that you can set. These alerts are features that are only available on Power
BI service and they are available on such report elements as KPI visuals, gauges, and cards.

To continue with the previous scenario, you've begun putting together dashboards for the
Sales team at Tailwind Traders. The sales data includes customer help ticket data that is
focused around payment processes on the website. The company has a requirement that they
want to be notified when the Total Tickets metric on the Tickets dashboard goes above a
threshold so they can escalate to the appropriate customer service team. They also want to
make sure that this alert is user-friendly so that anyone on the team can set up, view, and
configure such alerts.
Configure alerts

After you have uploaded your reports to Power BI service and have pinned your chosen
visuals to a dashboard, select the ellipsis (...) in the corner of the tile you want to set an alert
for and then select Manage Alerts.

In the resulting window, select + Add Alert Rule, which will add a new alert. Ensure that
the Active toggle switch is turned On, name the alert (in this case, use the name Alert for
Total Tickets), and then set the condition. At this point, you can choose the threshold that
you want to create the alert for, which includes options for Above or Below a specific
threshold. In this scenario, you want to create a threshold that notifies if the total number of
tickets goes above 90. Then, select at which frequency that you want the alerts to be sent.
These alerts will be sent directly to your Notification Center in Power BI, but you can also
configure emails to be sent to you if the threshold is crossed.
After selecting Save and Close, you will have successfully created a data alert in Power BI
service.

This feature is available to whomever has access to the dashboard, not just the dashboard
owner. Consequently, when the Sales team begins configuring the data alerts, they can
personalize them so that whoever uses the report can have their own set of alerts.
Additionally, you can enable or disable the alert by using the toggle switch.

For more information, see Data Alerts in Power BI service.

Next unit: Explore data by asking questions

Continue

Explore data by asking questions

Completed100 XP

 2 minutes

Power BI dashboards are about having a user-friendly experience. Dashboards in Power BI

service are comprised of a canvas of interactive tiles, or report elements, that tell a data story.

In this module's scenario, you are developing dashboards at Tailwind Traders. These
dashboards are published; however, you begin receiving emails from users who are asking
questions about the underlying data and are inquiring if you could build other visuals that are
specific to their needs. A few questions might be manageable to answer, but situations might
occur where you receive several emails and aren't able to keep up with demand. Power BI
solves this problem with the Q&A visual. From the dashboard view, people can ask questions
by using the Ask a question about your data search bar at the top of the dashboard, which
increases engagement between users and the dashboard.

Q&A feature

The Q&A feature is a tool within Power BI Desktop that allows you to ask natural-language
questions about the data.

To locate the Q&A feature, go to your dashboard in Power BI service. Along the top ribbon
is the Ask a question about your data search box.

After selecting this box, you will be routed to the following page.
The Q&A visual consists of three main elements:

 Question box - In this element, the user can enter their question about the data.
An example of a question could be: What was the average sales amount by
category? Entering this question will trigger Power BI's natural-language
analysis engine to parse and determine the appropriate data to display.
 Pre-populated suggestion tiles - This element contains tiles with pre-populated
suggestions for questions that the user can consider asking. When the user
selects one of these tiles, they will be shown analysis. For example, if you select
the top product category names by march sales tile, you would get the
following visual that is converted from the Q&A visual.

 Pin visual icon - This icon is located in the upper right of the visual, as shown
in the following image.
Selecting the pin visual icon will allow you to pin the visual onto a new or existing
dashboard, as you have done previously.

With the Q&A feature, you can return to your users with a solution to their questions. Now,
they can interact directly with the visual to ask their data questions, which will increase their
interactions with the visual and help them save time.

Next unit: Add a dashboard theme

Continue

Add a dashboard theme

Completed100 XP

 1 minute

When building dashboards, you should consider ensuring that the same theme is applied to
your dashboards to create a cohesive picture. You could also apply a specific theme to reports
and dashboards so that all report elements or tiles are uniform. This consideration is
particularly important when you are building multiple dashboards. Power BI has the
functionality to apply a theme directly to all visuals of a report.

Themes in Power BI

A variety of themes are available for use in Power BI service. Go to a dashboard, select the
edit dropdown arrow, and then select Dashboard theme.

This selection will open a window, where you can choose from a variety of themes,
including Light (the default theme), Dark, Color-blind friendly, and Custom, where you
can create your own theme. You can also upload your own JSON theme or download the
current theme.
For instance, if you select Custom, you can add your own background image, or you can
change the background color, tile color, the opacity, or even the font color, as shown in the
following figure.
Now, you can customize your report to cater specifically to your needs.
Next unit: Pin a live report page to a dashboard

Continue

Pin a live report page to a dashboard

Completed100 XP

 3 minutes

The process of building reports and dashboards is iterative. As data is constantly refreshed
and business requirements change, it is expected that your reports and dashboards might also
change; both in what filters or slicers you might have and also in what report elements,
charts, and cards you have. For this reason, it is crucial that Power BI supports this iterative
process. Through Power BI's innate functionality to pin live report pages to a dashboard, you
can ensure that you aren't using old data and the visuals on your dashboards reflect changes
live.

To continue the module scenario, you have built a few reports for Tailwind Toys. Several
months go by, and the business requirements in the Sales team change, where they want you
to change and add a few more visuals to the reports. When deploying your reports to Power
BI service and creating dashboards, you want to ensure that you won't have to keep
publishing new reports and dashboards every time a change occurs. You want to make sure
that your changes are shown live. By using the pinning live reports to a dashboard feature
from Power BI, you can complete this task in an intuitive manner.

Pin a live page

When you pin a visual, you can add it to a new or an existing dashboard. You can do the
same with entire reports; when you pin a report page, all visuals on the report will be pinned
to a dashboard and they are also live, meaning that any changes you make on the report will
be immediately reflected on the dashboard that you have pinned the report to.

Pinning a live page is a simple way to pin all visuals at once so that you don't have to do any
reformatting on the dashboard. To pin a live page, select the ellipsis (...) on the navigation bar
of the report and then select Pin to a dashboard.
After you have made the selection, you can choose whether you want to pin this report to a
new dashboard or an existing one. For this scenario, you want to pin your report to a new
dashboard called Sales Figures.

After selecting Pin live, you will be redirected to a new window where you can see your
dashboard. On the dashboard, you can modify the visuals as needed. Note that all your slicers
and filters still work and that the visuals have the same data as in the report.
Any changes that you make to the tickets report will automatically show on the dashboard
when the page is refreshed. In Power BI Desktop, you can make changes to your visuals or
data as needed and then deploy to the appropriate workspace file, which will update the
report and simultaneously update the dashboard as well.

You have now learned how to pin visuals as individual tiles and as entire live report pages. A
word of caution: Dashboards are intended to be a collection from various sources, not just as
a "launching pad" for reports. We recommend that you pin at the tile level first and foremost,
and if needed, the entire report page can also be pinned. Seeing an entire report page in a
dashboard tile can be difficult.

For more information, see Pin an entire report page.

Next unit: Configure a real-time dashboard

Continue

Configure a real-time dashboard

Completed100 XP

 2 minutes

In this data-centric world, it has become increasingly important to be able to view

how data changes in real time. This ability is important in the context of dashboards;
these are the canvases on which you can tell the story of the data, so the ability to
show real-time, streaming data on these dashboards can be important to your
business. With Power BI's real-time streaming capabilities, you can stream data and
update dashboards as soon as the data is logged.

To continue with the module scenario, you are helping Tailwind Traders understand
how well their manufacturing floor is operating. The assembly line has machines that
are broadcasting a telemetry event each time that they do their functions. You're
collecting those event messages and want to display them with a Power BI visual.
Dashboards allow you to use streaming datasets for this purpose.

Stream in Power BI

Streaming data can come from a variety of sources, including from social media,
factory sensors, service-usage metrics, and other sources that contain a constant
stream of data points.

For instance, in the case with Tailwind Traders, sensors on the machines constantly
send a stream of telemetry data to the IoT hub, where they'll be housed in their
native, messy format. From the IoT hub, you can use a stream insight job to
aggregate the data, meaning that it will clean the data and quiet the noisy messages.
Then, you can retrieve the data into Power BI as a streaming dataset, where you can
consume the information and build the pertinent visuals.

Data that comes from a streaming dataset isn't stored in a Power BI data model;
instead, it's stored in a temporary cache. Consequently, you cannot model the data
with this type of dataset. The only way to visualize the data from a streaming data
source is to create a tile directly on a dashboard and use a custom streaming data
source. These tiles are optimized for displaying the data quickly and, because no
database exists to pull the data from, these types of tiles have low latency and are
best suited for data that doesn't need additional transformations, such as
temperature or humidity.
Visualize real-time data in Power BI

To visualize streaming data, you need to create a new tile directly on an existing or
new dashboard.

To complete this task, go to and open an existing dashboard and then select the Edit
drop down arrow and then Add Tile. The following window will appear, where you
can select Custom Streaming Datasets under Real-Time Data.

Select Next, which will redirect you to the following window where you can choose
an existing streaming dataset, or get new streaming datasets, as shown in the
following image.
After you have selected the new dataset, select Next, enter the details for your
streaming dataset, and then add a new streaming dataset tile. Streaming dataset tiles
can be in the form of line charts, stacked bar charts, cards, and gauges and are
formatted similarly to any other kind of tile.

For more information, see Real-time streaming in Power BI.

Next unit: Configure data classification

Configure data classification

Completed100 XP

 2 minutes

Power BI dashboards are an effective and visually pleasing way to disseminate

information. They allow you to share business insights and concisely tell you the
story of the data. However, because they can be seen by anyone who has been given
access or a link, an important concern is security.

For instance, consider that you have built a few dashboards for the Sales team at
your organization. You want to make sure that the users who have been given access
know how the data within these dashboards is classified. Your organization has
multiple ways to classify the data, and you want to incorporate and customize the
data classification so that the dashboards have these custom classifications. Data
classification in Power BI service allows you to complete this task.

Set up data classification on dashboards

Data classification helps the dashboard owner raise security awareness to viewers of
a dashboard so that they know what level of security should be considered when
viewing or sharing a dashboard. Data classification does not enforce policies because
data protection does.

Data classification is a feature that can be turned on and off in accordance with your
organization's business needs. All dashboards are defaulted to a certain classification
type; however, the dashboard owner can manually make changes to the
classification. To manually make changes, admin rights are required in Power BI
service.

To continue with the module scenario, you are working on the Tickets dashboard

and want to add data classification to it. The first action that you will need to take is
to ensure that your organization's custom data classification settings are added into
the Power BI system. Data classification is done by an administrator.
Next, you will have three classifications to choose from: High Impact, Low Impact,
and Medium Impact, which can be added directly as well as the shorthand versions
of these classifications. To access data classification on a dashboard, go to a specific
dashboard in Power BI service. Hover over the ellipsis (...) by the name of the
dashboard and then select Settings.

In the resulting window, under Dashboards, you can use the drop-down menu
under Data classification to choose how you want the data to be classified.
The Tickets dashboard contains highly sensitive information, so it must be marked
as High Impact. After you have made this selection, the dashboard will follow the
default data rules or the rules that you have established under Tenant settings.
When you open the dashboard, it will now be marked by this new data classification,
as shown in the following screenshot.

You have now added custom data classification to your dashboards and the Sales
team is pleased. Data classification is an important feature because it allows you to
add a level of security to your Power BI dashboards. Additionally, because you can
personalize them in any way that your organization requires, data classification also
adds a layer of personalization to your dashboards.
For more information, see Dashboard data classification.

Next unit: Set mobile view

Set mobile view

Completed100 XP

 2 minutes

Power BI reports are built in Power BI Desktop and then deployed to Power BI
service, where they can be viewed and shared. However, if you are building
dashboards for the Sales team at your organization and you receive a requirement
that the dashboards should also be viewable on mobile devices, Power BI will help
you to set dashboards to mobile view.

To navigate to mobile view in Power BI Desktop, select View on the ribbon and then
select Mobile Layout, which will redirect you to the mobile view, as shown in the
following figure.

In the mobile view in Power BI Desktop, you are able to accomplish several tasks. This
view emulates the view of a user who is looking at visuals on their phone, so you can
add visuals to this view, resize them, and change the formatting on them, as shown
in the ensuing screenshot. In the June 2020 release of Power BI Desktop, a new grid
has been added to this view so that you can orient your visuals with more ease and
overlay visuals on top of each other. This feature can be useful if you want to insert a
visual on top of an image.

After you have published to Power BI service, you can view your visuals on a mobile
device.

Alternatively, you can also optimize your dashboards for mobile view in Power BI
service. To see a dashboard in mobile view, select the Edit drop down arrow on the
home ribbon and select Mobile layout, as shown in the following Sales dashboard.

This selection will take you to the following view, where you can choose which tiles
that you want to see on the phone view.

You can also resize and reorient the tiles and visuals in whichever order you want.
This phone view is customizable for each person who uses the dashboard;
selecting Phone view will allow you to create a new view that you can see on your
phone when signing in to Power BI service.
For more information, see Optimize a dashboard for mobile phones.

Next unit: Lab - Create a Power BI dashboard

Lab - Create a Power BI dashboard

Completed100 XP

 45 minutes
This unit includes a lab to complete.

Use the free resources provided in the lab to complete the exercises in this unit. You
will not be charged.

Microsoft provides this lab experience and related content for educational purposes.
All presented information is owned by Microsoft and intended solely for learning
about the covered products and services in this Microsoft Learn module.

Launch lab

Access your environment

Before you start this lab (unless you are continuing from a previous lab),
select Launch lab above.

You are automatically logged in to your lab environment as data-ai\student.

You can now begin your work on this lab.

 Tip

To dock the lab environment so that it fills the window, select the PC icon at the top
and then select Fit Window to Machine.
In this lab, you will create the Sales Monitoring dashboard.

In this lab, you learn how to:

 Pin visuals to a dashboard

 Use Q&A to create dashboard tiles

 Configure a dashboard tile alert

Create a sales monitoring dashboard

In this exercise, you will create the Sales Monitoring dashboard. The completed

dashboard will look like the following:

 Note
The exercise will require you to login to Power BI service, you will use your existing
account or create a trial account before starting this part of the lab.

Create a dashboard

In this task, you will create the Sales Monitoring dashboard.

1. In Edge, in the Power BI service, open the Sales Report file you created in
earlier lab, you will find the file in My Workspace.

2. If you are prompted to login to Power BI, please use your Power BI
account credentials to login.

3. If you get “Unable to connect” error when opening the report, click Edit
to select Sale Analysis dataset and click Create to re-create Sales Report.
You will save the file, and then republish the report.

4. After logging in, select Overview page from the report.

5. To create a dashboard and pin the logo image, hover the cursor over the
Adventure Works logo.

6. At the top-right corner, click the pushpin.

7. In the Pin to Dashboard window, in the Dashboard Name box,
enter Sales Monitoring.

8. Click Pin.

9. Set the Year slicer to FY2020.

10. Set the Region slicer to Select All.

 When pinning visuals to a dashboard, they will use the current filter
context. Once pinned, the filter context cannot be changed. For time-based
filters, it's a better idea to use a relative date slicer (or, Q&A using a
relative time-based question).

11. Pin the Sales and Profit Margin by Month (column/line) visual to

the Sales Monitoring dashboard.

12. Open the Navigation pane, and then open

the Sales Monitoring dashboard.

13. Notice that the dashboard has two tiles.

14. To resize the logo tile, drag the bottom-right corner, and resize the tile
to become one unit wide, and two units high.

Tile sizes are constrained into a rectangular shape. It's only possible to
resize into multiples of the rectangular shape.
15. To add a tile based on a question, at the top-left of the dashboard,
click Ask a Question About Your Data.

16. You can use the Q&A feature to ask a question, and Power BI will
respond with a visual.

17. Click any one of the suggested questions beneath the Q&A box, in gray
boxes.

18. Review the response.

19. Remove all text from the Q&A box.

20. In the Q&A box, enter the following: Sales YTD

21. Notice the response of (Blank).

This measure is Time Intelligence expression and it requires a filter on

the Date table to produce a result.

22. Extend the question with: in year FY2020.

23. Notice the response is now $33M.

 24. To pin the response to the dashboard, at the top-right corner,
click Pin Visual.

25. When prompted to pin the tile to the dashboard, click Pin.

There's a possible bug that will only allow you to pin to a new
dashboard. It's because your Power BI session has reverted to your "My
Workspace". If this happens, do not pin to a new dashboard. Return to
your Sales Analysis workspace, open the dashboard again, and recreate
the Q&A question.

26. To return to the dashboard, at the top-left corner, click Exit Q&A.

Edit tile details

In this task, you will edit the details of two tiles.

1. Hover the cursor over the Sales YTD tile, and then at the top-right of the
tile, click the ellipsis, and then select Edit Details.
2. In the Tile Details pane (located at the right), in the Subtitle box,
enter FY2020.

3. At the bottom of the pane, click Apply.

4. Notice that the Sales YTD tile displays a subtitle.

 5. Edit the tile details for the Sales, Profit Margin tile.

6. In the Tile Details pane, in the Functionality section,
check Display Last Refresh Time.

7. Click Apply.

8. Notice that the tile describes the last refresh time (which you did when
refreshing the data model in Power BI Desktop).

Later in this lab, you'll simulate a data refresh, and notice that the refresh
time updates.

Configure an alert

In this task, you will configure a data alert.

1. Hover the cursor over the Sales YTD tile, click the ellipsis, and then
select Manage Alerts.
2. In the Manage Alerts pane (located at the right), click Add Alert Rule.

3. In the Threshold box, replace the value with 35000000 (35 million).

 This configuration will ensure you're notified whenever the tile updates to
a value above 35 million.

4. At the bottom of the pane, click Save and Close.

In the next exercise, you'll refresh the dataset. Typically, this should be done by using
scheduled refresh, and Power BI could use a gateway to connect to the SQL Server
database. However, due to constraints in the classroom setup, there is no gateway.
So, you'll opening Power BI Desktop, perform a manual data refresh, and the upload
the file.

Refresh the dataset

In this exercise, you will first load sales order data for June 2020 into
the AdventureWorksDW2020 database. You will then open your Power BI Desktop
file, perform a data refresh, and then upload the file to
your Sales Analysis workspace.

Update the lab database

In this task, you will run a PowerShell script to update data in

the AdventureWorksDW2020 database.
 1. In File Explorer, inside the D:\DA100\Setup folder, right-click
the UpdateDatabase-2-AddSales.ps1 file, and then
select Run with PowerShell.

2. When prompted to press any key to continue, press Enter again.

The  AdventureWorksDW2020  database now includes sales orders June

2020.

Refresh the Power BI Desktop file

In this task, you will open the Sales Analysis Power BI Desktop file, perform a data
refresh, and then upload the file to your Sales Analysis workspace.

1. Open your Sales Analysis Power BI Desktop file, stored in the D:\

DA100\Lab10A\Starter folder.

2. On the Home ribbon, from inside the Queries group, click Refresh.

3. When the refresh completes, save the Power BI Desktop file.

4. Publish the file to your workspace.

5. When prompted to replace the dataset, click Replace.

The dataset in the Power BI service now has June 2020 sales data.

6. Close Power BI Desktop.
 7. In Edge, in the Power BI service, in your Sales Analysis workspace, notice
that the Sales Analysis report was also published.

Review the dashboard for updated sales

In this exercise, you will review the dashboard to notice updated sales, and that the
alert was triggered.

Review the dashboard

In this task, you will review the dashboard to notice updated sales, and that the alert
was triggered.

1. In Edge, in the Power BI service, open the Sales Monitoring dashboard.

2. In the Sales, Profit Margin tile, in the subtitle, notice that the data was

refreshed NOW.

3. Notice also that there is now a column for 2020 Jun.

The alert on the Sales YTD tile should have triggered also. After a short

while, the alert should notify you that sales now exceeds the configured
threshold value.

4. Notice that the Sales YTD tile has updated to $37M.

 5. Verify that the Sales YTD tile displays an alert notification icon.

If you don't see the notification, you might need to press F5 to reload
the browser. If you still don't see the notification, wait some minutes
longer.

Alert notifications appear on the dashboard tile, and can be delivered by email, and
push notifications to mobile apps including the Apple Watch.

Next unit: Check your knowledge

Check your knowledge

200 XP

 3 minutes

Answer the following questions to see what you've learned.

1. 

What is a dashboard?

A canvas of report elements that can be built in Power BI Desktop

A canvas of report elements that can be built in Power BI service

Dashboards can be built by using visuals that are developed with an underlying data
source.

The canvas in which you can view the data model of a report
2. 

What is one way that reports and dashboards differ?

They are the same.

In reports, you can use the slicers and filter by selecting a data point on a visual; in
dashboards, you cannot.

In reports, you can have multiple pages; in dashboards, you can have only one page.

You can only build reports and dashboards in Power BI service.

3. 

Where can you configure and set data alerts?

Data alerts can be set only in Power BI service on specific visuals such as KPI cards,
gauges, and cards.

Data alerts can be set in both Power BI service and Power BI Desktop on any kind of
visual.

Data alerts can be set in Power BI service on any kind of visual.

Data alerts can be set only in Power BI Desktop on specific kinds of visuals such as
KPI cards and gauges.

Summary
Completed100 XP
 1 minute

In this module, you have learned about dashboards: what they are, why you need
them, and what tiles and pinning are in relation to dashboards. You have also learned
how to accomplish several tasks around dashboards, such as:

 Setting mobile view.

 Adding a theme to the visuals in your dashboard.
 Configuring data classification.
  Adding real-time dataset visuals to your dashboards.
 Pinning a live report page to a dashboard.

With this new knowledge, consider how you can transform the data that you have to
create a story. Dashboards can help you visualize that story.

For more information, see Introduction to dashboards.

Create a Power BI Dashboard

The estimated time to complete the lab is 45 minutes

In this lab you will create the Sales Monitoring dashboard.

In this lab you learn how to:

 Pin visuals to a dashboard

 Use Q&A to create dashboard tiles
 Configure a dashboard tile alert

Lab story

This lab is one of many in a series of labs that was designed as a complete story from data
preparation to publication as reports and dashboards. You can complete the labs in any order.
However, if you intend to work through multiple labs, for the first 10 labs, we suggest you do
them in the following order:

1. Prepare Data in Power BI Desktop

2. Load Data in Power BI Desktop
3. Model Data in Power BI Desktop, Part 1
4. Model Data in Power BI Desktop, Part 2
5. Create DAX Calculations in Power BI Desktop, Part 1
6. Create DAX Calculations in Power BI Desktop, Part 2
7. Design a Report in Power BI Desktop, Part 1
8. Design a Report in Power BI Desktop, Part 2
9. Create a Power BI Dashboard
10. Create a Power BI Paginated Report
11. Perform Data Analysis in Power BI Desktop
12. Enforce Row-Level Security

Exercise 1: Create a Dashboard

In this exercise you will create the Sales Monitoring dashboard. The completed dashboard
will look like the following:
Task 1: Get started – Sign in

In this task you will setup the environment for the lab by signing in to Power BI.

Important: If you have already signed in to Power BI in a previous lab, continue from the
next task.

1. To open Microsoft Edge, on the taskbar, click the Microsoft Edge program shortcut.

2. In the Microsoft Edge browser window, navigate to https://powerbi.com.

Tip: You can also use the Power BI Service favorite on the Microsoft Edge favorites
bar.

3. Click Sign In (located at the top-right corner).

4. Enter the account details provided to you.

5. If prompted to update the password, reenter the provided password, and then enter
and confirm a new password.

Important: Be sure to record your new password.

 6. Complete the sign in process.
7. If prompted by Microsoft Edge to stay signed in, click Yes.
8. In the Microsoft Edge browser window, in the Power BI service, in
the Navigation pane, expand My Workspace.

9. Leave the Microsoft Edge browser window open.

Task 2: Get started – Open report

In this task you will setup the environment for the lab by opening the starter report.

Important: If you are continuing on from the previous lab (and you completed that lab
successfully), do not complete this task; instead, continue from the next task.

1. To open the Power BI Desktop, on the taskbar, click the Microsoft Power BI Desktop
shortcut.

2. To close the getting started window, at the top-left of the window, click X.

3. If Power BI Desktop is not signed in to the Power BI service, at the top-right,

click Sign In.

4. Complete the sign in process using the same account used to sign in to the Power BI
service.
5. To open the starter Power BI Desktop file, click the File ribbon tab to open the
backstage view.
6. Select Open Report.
7. Click Browse Reports.

8. In the Open window, navigate to the D:\DA100\Labs\09-create-power-bi-

dashboard\Starter folder.
9. Select the Sales Analysis file.
10. Click Open.

11. Close any informational windows that may open.

12. To create a copy of the file, click the File ribbon tab to open the backstage view.
13. Select Save As.

14. If prompted to apply changes, click Apply.

 15. In the Save As window, navigate to the D:\DA100\MySolution folder.
16. Click Save.

Task 3: Get started – Publish the report

In this task you will setup the environment for the lab by creating a dataset.

Important: If you have already published the report in the Design a Report in Power BI
Desktop, Part 2 lab, continue from the next task.

1. In the Microsoft Edge browser window, in the Power BI service, in

the Navigation pane, at the bottom, click Get Data.

2. In the Files tile, click Get.

3. Click the Local File tile.

 4. In the Open window, navigate to the D:\DA100\Labs\08-design-report-in-power-
bi-desktop-enhanced\Solution folder.
5. Select the Sales Analysis.pbix file, and then click Open.
6. If prompted to replace the dataset, click Replace.

Task 4: Create a dashboard

In this task you will create the Sales Monitoring dashboard. You will pin a visual from the
report, and add a tile based on an image data URI, and use Q&A to create a tile.

1. In the Microsoft Edge browser window, in the Power BI service, open the Sales
Analysis report.
2. In the Overview page, set the Year slicer to FY2020.

3. Set the Region slicer to Select All.

When pinning visuals to a dashboard, they will use the current filter context. Once
pinned, the filter context cannot be changed. For time-based filters, it’s a better idea
to use a relative date slicer (or, Q&A using a relative time-based question).

4. To create a dashboard and pin a visual, hover the cursor over the Sales and Profit
Margin by Month (column/line) visual.
5. At the top-right corner, click the pushpin.

6. In the Pin to Dashboard window, in the Dashboard Name box, enter Sales

Monitoring.
7. Click Pin.

8. Open the Navigation pane, and then open the Sales Monitoring dashboard.

9. Notice that the dashboard has a single tile.

10. To add a tile based on a question, at the top-left of the dashboard, click Ask a
Question About Your Data.

You can use the Q&A feature to ask a question, and Power BI will respond will a
visual.

11. Click any one of the suggested questions beneath the Q&A box, in blue boxes.
12. Review the response.
13. Remove all text from the Q&A box.
14. In the Q&A box, enter the following: Sales YTD

15. Notice the response of (Blank).

 You may recall you added the Sales YTD measure in the Create DAX Calculations
in Power BI Desktop, Part 2 lab. This measure is a Time Intelligence expression and
it so requires a filter on the Date  table to produce a result.

16. Extend the question with: in year FY2020.

17. Notice the response is now $33M.

18. To pin the response to the dashboard, at the top-right corner, click Pin Visual.

19. When prompted to pin the tile to the dashboard, click Pin.

20. To return to the dashboard, at the top-left corner, click Exit Q&A.

21. To add the company logo, on the menu bar, click Edit, and then select Add a Tile.

Using this technique to add a dashboard tile lets you embellish your dashboard with
media, including web content, images, richly-formatted text boxes, and video (using
YouTube or Vimeo links).

22. In the Add a Tile pane (located at the right), select the Image tile.

23. Click Next.

24. In the Add Image Tile pane, in the URL box, enter the complete URL found in
the D:\DA100\Resources\AdventureWorksLogo_DataURL.txt file.

You can embed an image by using its URL, or you can use a data URL, which embeds
content inline.

25. At the bottom of the pane, click Apply.

26. To resize the logo tile, drag the bottom-right corner, and resize the tile to become one
unit wide, and two units high.

Tile sizes are constrained into a rectangular shape. It’s only possible to resize into
multiples of the rectangular shape.

27. Organize the tiles so that the logo appears at the top-left, with the Sales YTD tile
beneath it, and the Sales, Profit Margin tile at the right.
Task 5: Edit tile details

In this task you will edit the details of two tiles.

1. Hover the cursor over the Sales YTD tile, and then at the top-right of the tile, click
the ellipsis, and then select Edit Details.

2. In the Tile Details pane (located at the right), in the Subtitle box, enter FY2020.

3. Click Apply.

4. Notice that the Sales YTD tile displays a subtitle.

5. Edit the tile details for the Sales, Profit Margin tile.

6. In the Tile Details pane, in the Functionality section, check Display Last Refresh
Time.
 7. Click Apply.

8. Notice that the tile describes the last refresh time (which done when loading the data
model in Power BI Desktop).

You’ll simulate a data refresh later in this lab and see that the refresh time updates.

Task 6: Configure an alert

In this task you will configure a data alert.

Data alerts can only be configured on dashboard tiles, and specifically tiles that display a
single numeric value.

1. Hover the cursor over the Sales YTD tile, click the ellipsis, and then select Manage
Alerts.
2. In the Manage Alerts pane (located at the right), click Add Alert Rule.

3. In the Threshold box, replace the value with 35000000 (35 million).

 This configuration ensures you’ll be notified whenever the tile updates to a value
above 35 million.

4. At the bottom of the pane, click Save and Close.

You’ll refresh the dataset in the next exercise. Typically, this would be achieved by
using scheduled refresh, in which case Power BI would use a gateway to connect to
the SQL Server database. However, due to constraints in the classroom setup, there is
no gateway. So, you’ll open Power BI Desktop, perform a manual data refresh, and
then upload the file to your workspace.

Exercise 2: Refresh the Dataset

In this exercise you will first load sales order data for June 2020 into
the AdventureWorksDW2020 database. You will then open your Power BI Desktop file,
perform a data refresh, and then upload the file to your workspace.

Task 1: Update the lab database

In this task you will run a PowerShell script to update data in

the AdventureWorksDW2020 database.

1. In File Explorer, inside the D:\DA100\Setup folder, right-click the UpdateDatabase-

2-AddSales.ps1 file, and then select Run with PowerShell.
 2. If prompted to change the execution policy, press A.
3. When prompted to press any key to close, press Enter again.

The  AdventureWorksDW2020  database now includes sales orders made in June

2020.

Task 2: Refresh the Power BI Desktop file

In this task you will open the Sales Analysis Power BI Desktop file, perform a data refresh,
and then upload the file to your Sales Analysis workspace.

1. In Power BI Desktop file, in the Fields pane, right-click the Sales table, and then

select Refresh Data.

2. When the refresh completes, save the Power BI Desktop file.

3. To publish the file to your workspace, on the Home ribbon tab, from inside
the Share group, click Publish.
 4. When prompted to replace the dataset, click Replace.

The dataset in the Power BI service now has June 2020 sales data.

5. Close Power BI Desktop.

Exercise 3: Review the Dashboard

In this exercise you will review the dashboard to notice updated sales, and that the alert was
triggered.

Task 1: Review the dashboard

In this task you will review the dashboard to notice updated sales, and that the alert was
triggered.

1. In the Microsoft Edge browser window, in the Power BI service, review the Sales
Monitoring dashboard.
2. In the Sales, Profit Margin tile, in the subtitle, notice that the data was
refreshed NOW.
3. Notice also that there is now a column for 2020 Jun.

If you don’t see the June 2020 data, you might need to press F5 to reload the web
browser.
 The alert on the Sales YTD tile should have triggered also. After a short while, the
alert should notify you that sales now exceeds the configured threshold value.

4. Notice that the Sales YTD tile has updated to $37M.

5. Verify that the Sales YTD tile displays an alert notification icon.

If you don’t see the notification, you might need to press F5 to reload the browser. If
you still don’t see the notification, wait some minutes longer.

Alert notifications appear on the dashboard tile, and can be delivered by email, and
push notifications to mobile apps including the Apple Watch.

6. At the top-right corner of the web page, click the Notifications icon.

 7. In the All Notifications pane, review the details of the alert notification.
8. To close the pane, click Close.

Congratulations!

You have successfully completed this Module, to mark the lab as complete click End.