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21 Best Practices For Power BI
21 Best Practices For Power BI
21 Best Practices For Power BI
in Power BI
Power BI is one of the most widely used data analysis, data
visualisation and reporting tools due to its high analytical capabilities
and free will for customisation.
Companies make use of this tool to track and analyse their business
activity, among other things. Efficient business reporting has
become a necessity for companies. However, developing productive
reports that are aligned with the business logic and that help
managers make data-driven decisions and identify valuable insights
is not as easy as it may seem.
Find out more about Power BI and get the latest news on our blog.
Best Practices in Power BI
As a preferred Microsoft Power BI partner, Bismart has a long history of creating corporate reports using this powerful tool. Our team
of Power BI experts have identified a number of best practices that make the difference when creating efficient reports on the
platform.
1. Don’t use too many visuals
Data visualisation is one of the most useful and valued capabilities of Power BI. Visuals promote the comprehension of information and
foster data democratisation, helping executives in the decision-making process.
However, an excessive amount of visuals in a report can be counterproductive. A report with too many visuals will be confusing, hinder
the readability of data and be too slow.
According to Microsoft's 'Power BI Optimisation Guide', reports should have no more than 8 visuals and one table per page.
If our report has more than one visual on the same page
(Remember: no more than 8 visuals!) we must be careful. Power BI
creates interactions between all the visuals on the same page by
default. Interactions between visuals absorb a lot of loading
capacity and can slow down our report. Therefore, it is better to
remove the unnecessary interactions between visuals.
Are your reports too slow? Find out the main causes of slow
reports.
3. Use Microsoft-certified visuals
Microsoft has a portfolio of certified visuals in the AppSource. These visuals have passed quality tests and meet the company's code
requirements.
Certified visuals' main advantage is their high performance. Moreover, they are the only visuals that can be displayed in PowerPoint
export mode or in e-mail subscriptions.
However, sometimes companies need to incorporate custom visuals to adapt the storytelling of the report to their specific needs.
Therefore, when using a custom visual, we should always check its performance and, if it slows down the report too much, replace it.
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6. Don't forget data governance and security
Organisations usually share corporate reports with partners and customers. On the other hand, if the tool is being put to good business
use, employees from different departments and with different needs will work on or consult the same report.
Therefore, adding data security measures, assigning different roles to users and secure report sharing has become an essential need for
companies.
Strengthen report security and apply data governance measures to Power BI!
Keeping business needs in mind, Bismart has developed a set of solutions specially designed to facilitate the implementation of
data governance and security measures in Power BI: Power BI Viewer and Power BI Analytics.
For a report to run smoothly, we should decide what data we are going to use and get rid of the rest before importing it into Power BI. It
is especially important not to load unnecessary columns that contain scattered single values and do not provide valuable information.
Therefore, it is important to frequently review which slicers are being used and to delete those not being used.
To review and reduce slicers: Through the filter panel you can evaluate the slicers and remove those less used.
To reduce queries: Options > Power Query Editor > Reduce the number of queries sent
To apply categories: Select the table > Advanced Options > Data Category
Besides basic Power BI functionalities that we all know, there are some technical capabilities and usage options that only experts know
about.
For example, did you know that you can apply Google Analytics time filter to Power BI?
Therefore, it is very important that corporate reports are created by experts who understand the tool and know exactly how to use it to
create business value.
Need help creating
Power BI reports?
We can help you!
LET’S TALK?
info@bismart.com
www.bismart.com
+34 931 786 880