Exercise: Create a sales report

1. Introduction

Sales reports are critical tools for business owners, stakeholders, and decision-makers. They
provide essential insights into how a company's products or services are performing in the
market—guiding decisions and shaping future strategies. In this exercise, you'll explore how you
can use Power BI’s data visualization capabilities to create an interactive sales report.

2. Case study

As the data analyst at Adventure Works, creating sales reports is critical to your role. By analyzing
sales performance, you can help the company identify trends and areas for improvement, assess
business performance and progress toward goals, plan and allocate resources, and ultimately
make data-driven decisions. Say the sales department requests a sales report demonstrating
Adventure Works' sales revenue over time. The sales dataset you'll use for the report consists of
rows representing a transaction with various data points, such as Product Category, Product
Name, Order Date, and Total Sales.

3. Instructions

Download and open the Power BI file, Create a sales report.

Create-a-sales-report

PBIX File

Note: If your data import was successful, the Fields pane on the right side of the screen should list
the Adventure Works sales data columns like Order Date, Order Total, and Product Category. The
Fields pane lists all your data columns from the imported datasets. With your data imported
successfully, follow the prompts below to complete the exercise.

4. Step 1: Create a line chart for sales revenue over time

1. First, select the Sales Revenue over Time page.

2. Navigate to the Visualizations pane to create a simple line chart to visualize Adventure
Works' sales revenue over time. The pane is on the right side of your screen, marked by an
icon resembling a bar graph.

3. Once in the Visualizations pane, find and select the Line Chart icon represented by a
jagged line ascending across a grid to create a standard line chart. An empty chart should
appear in the center of your Power BI canvas.

4. To populate the empty chart with data, you'll need to drag and drop the relevant fields into
the appropriate chart areas. To do this, find Order Date > Month in the Fields pane. Drag it
across to the X-Axis field well under the Visualizations pane.
 5. Similarly, find Order Total in the Fields pane. Drag it to the Y-Axis field well. When the Y-
Axis highlights, drop Order Total into it.

By completing the above steps, your line chart will display the total sales over time. Note: You can
adjust the chart's size by clicking and dragging its edges.

5. Step 2: Create a pie chart for sales by product category

Next, let's create a pie chart visualizing sales by product category, a valuable tool for Adventure
Works to understand the contribution of each product category to its total sales.

1. Begin by selecting the Sales by Product Category page.

2. Select the Pie chart icon in the Visualizations pane to start creating your pie chart. A blank
pie chart box should appear in your report canvas.

3. To add data to your pie chart, locate the Product Category field in your sales dataset. Then,
select and hold the Product Category field, and drag it over to the Legend box.

4. Next, locate the Order Total field, then select and drag it over the Values box. Note: The
Order Total field represents each order's total sales amount in monetary value (USD).
Power BI automatically sums up the order totals for each product category you visualize.

At this point, you should have created your pie chart. Hovering over each slice will display a tooltip
with the exact sales figure.

6. Step 3: Create a stacked bar chart as sales by day of the week

Visualizing sales by day of the week complements the broader picture of sales revenue over time
as it facilitates more precise, data-driven decision-making to enhance business performance. To
create a bar chart for this analysis:

7. Select the Sales by Day of Week page.

8. Navigate to the Visualizations pane on the right side of the screen. Select the Stacked bar
chart icon. A blank bar chart box will appear on your report canvas.

9. To add data to your bar chart, find the Order Day of Week field in the sales dataset and
drag it to the Y-Axis field well.

10. Next, locate the Order Total field and drag it to the X-Axis field well.

After completing these steps, you should have a bar chart representing the sales by day of the
week, where the bar height corresponds to the total sales for that day.

Step 4: Add a slicer visual to alter the data to reflect changes

Slicers can provide Adventure Works with a way to filter data interactively, enabling stakeholders to
select one or more items and filter the rest of the visuals in the report accordingly. To create a
slicer:

1. Select the Sales by Day of Week page.

3. To add data to your slicer, find the Order Date field in the Sales dataset and drag it to the
Field well.

11. Conclusion

As a data analyst, insights gained from the sales reports you create in Power BI can guide a
company's direction, shape its future strategies, and play a crucial role in its success. Your work is
not just about extracting information from datasets but leading companies like Adventure Works to
growth and success.