How to use Slicer Visual feature in Power BI (Preview).
Problem Statement: Hi there, and thanks for visiting the blog. Today, we’re going to concentrate on the Slicer Visual, which is among Power BI’s most engaging and user-friendly features. One kind of visual on a report page that filters other visuals is called a slicer. Slicers are displayed directly on the report canvas for everyone to utilize, eliminating the need to use the filter window that is limited to it. By enabling users to dynamically examine data at their own pace and in accordance with their needs, they greatly enhance the value of your reports. However, there are drawbacks to this Slicer visual, particularly when the developers were utilizing the tile layout. In order to counter this issue Microsoft released a new “Slicer Visual” in November 2023 Update to address this issue and enhance the user interface (UI) for users. NOTE: Currently this feature is in Preview. So, now let’s dive in to explore this new visual so that you can leverage it in your Power BI Report. As this feature is in Preview mode, we need to activate this feature from the “Settings in Power BI”. To do so follow the following steps and click on the “File” tab shown in the below screenshot. Then head to “Options and Settings” option as shown in the below screenshot. After clicking on the “Options and Settings” option click on the “Options” as shown in the below screenshot. After clicking on Options you will be directed to the below window, then click on the “Preview features” tab and tick the “Button Slicer Visual” and Click on “OK”. After turning on the feature and moving on to the visual pane in Visual view you will see the new Button slicer Visual as shown in the below screenshot. After getting the new Button Slicer Visual, we will see how it works and what features it contains. For that, I have considered demo data which consists of two tables which are having data of customers and Projects and it consists of a simple graph of No. of projects per Customer. And the Slicer consists of data of Accounts. Which we can see in the below screenshot. In the above screenshot, we can see that there are two slicers One slicer is the legacy one and the other is the new Button Slicer. We can see that the new button slicer is visually cleaner than the legacy one. Now let’s dive into the new “Button Slicer” “Format” Pane as shown in the below screenshot. Fig 1: New Button Slicer Visual Format Pane. Fig 2: Legacy Slicer Visual Format Pane. Now when we have seen the differences between the Visual Tab Options let’s see what is new in the New Button Slicer Visual section. a. Shape Section: This Section allows to formatting of the shapes of the button in the New Slicer. Below are the screenshot of the three options and outputs available for it. I. Rectangle Shape Options II. Rounded Rectangle (here you can see that we can customize each corner of the button) III. Snipped Tab, both top b. Layout Section: The above screenshot shows the layout section which has a Sub-Section, the Layout Sub-Section consists of the Alignment of text, Rows, and Columns in the visual, thus deciding the number of buttons in each row and column in the button slicer visual also we can define the Space between the cards. Moreover, we can also define the Overflow whether the Visual should have a continuous scroll or paginated Scroll, and the direction of the Overflow. The above screenshot represents the Continuous scroll and the below screenshot depicts the Paginated style Overflow. c. Callout Values This Section provides extra customization related to values. The below screenshot shows the comparison between the Values Section (Old Slicer Visual) and the new Callout Values (section) In the new slicer, visual new can see the State option which gives us more flexibility related to Customization. d. ImagesThis section allows us to add the Image data for the button and gives us the option to customize the image such as size, transparency, Blur, or if you want to set it as a Background, Moreover, you can also customize the position of the image. e. Buttons. The above screenshot highlighted section shows the Button section which allows you to do minute customization over a button of the slicer visual. These were all the changes in the Visual Tab, in the Properties Tab there is only one section added in this new visual which is the option to add a tooltip and its related Customization. The below screenshot shows the following section and its Sub-Sections. This is it for the new Button Slicer Visual that was introduced for Power BI Desktop. If you like this blog then please like the blog and feel free to comment for any suggestion.
5 Best Power BI Reports that helps organization take decisions with Dynamics 365 CRM
Reports in any organization are prime to provide valuable information about various things that happen. Be it w.r.t hiring, cash outflow, cash inflow, etc. If we do not take a look at the data timely and do not provide importance to it, our emotions might take us in a random direction. Power BI has a beautiful way of providing insight about the data visually. Its features like drill down help us play with the report unlike the traditional SSRS reports which are usually static. We @CloudFronts use below 5 reports primarily amongst many other Power BI reports that help us taking precise decision all the time and gives direction wile being in the management meeting as well. Let’s take a look at how an where each report help us in the decision making. Allocation Report: This report provides us with the utmost important information from the organization, that is the allocation of resources on the project. It provides a very vital information as to which resource is booked on which project, how many hours and on which days. Depending on the hours of allocation the color coding is decided. Let’s assume if the working hours of the resource is defined as 8 hours in the Work Hour Template (a feature in PSA) and he/she is allocated for more than 80% it is GREEN. If it is below 80% and above 30% is YELLOW else RED. GREEN indicates that the health of the company is good and needs hiring. Subsequently, HR Dept. can be intimated for hiring requisition in the required department. The report has 4 sub reports to it as you can see it in the screenshot below: Billable Allocation Billable & Non-Billable Allocation Report Billable & Proposed Allocation Billable & Non-Billable Client Work Each of them, by their names are self-explanatory. Below is the screenshot of the report and the Drilled Down report of Allocation Report. The Report shows the following information: to which the resource belong. The Resource Weekly Allocation of the entire year (52 weeks) Allocation Report: Drill Down of the same: Project Overview Report: This report gives the over all heath information of all the Active projects running in the company. For a better visibility and bifurcation, we prefer mentioning the priority of the project to be of High, Medium and Low priority. We created views in PSA based on these priorities and hence created Power BI Report filters based on it as well. The report gives the overview for the following crucial information like: Estimated Hours: These are the hours that are derived after the project WBS is ready and are the sum of all the Main tasks. Actual Hours: These are the sum of all the hours that are approved by Project Manager on the time entries done by the team members. Forecasted Hours: These are the hours that are the allocations done by the Resource Manager against the project for future. So the sum of all the future allocations are shown up here. Estimated Revenue: This is calculated on the basis of Estimated hours multiplied by the per hour rate from the pricelist of the project. So it gives the over all estimate revenue for the project. Forecasted Revenue: This is the current forecast of the expected revenue and is calculated on the basis of the no of hours allocated multiplied by the per hour rate from the pricelist of the project. During the weekly meetings with the management, they answer important question as to why is the forecast looking week, in case it is? How much of the estimated hours are balance on the project and in case we need more looking at the current state of the project? When is the project ending? Start Date gives us an understanding of since how long is the project running. Project Overview report screenshot: AR Report: This report by the name itself gives the information about the Accounts Receivable information against the invoice raised in PSA for the customers. The report helps in maintaining the cashflow of the organization and helps in keeping the tab of which customers invoice is overdue since when and needs a follow up. The report is bifurcated into buckets: 90 Days and above overdue 31 to 60 Days overdue 1-30 Days overdue Current invoices. They by there name of the buckets helps you understand, what information might be available in each one of them. There is a link also provided in the report to navigate it directly to the invoice created in PSA to review any additional information in case needed. Screenshot of the AR Report: 4. Support Metrics Report This is one of the beautiful reports that gives an overall view of how many no of cases are open in our support module against each customer, including internal tickets. The bar chart on the report when clicked opens up all the support tickets for that customer, which has the link to open the report in the D365 CRM. It also provides lots of vital information about the cases like: Case Created on Case Name Case No Follow up date Owner Customer This report answers the important questions like, when was the case created and when is the next follow up on the case? Is it been too long that the case is opened by the customer? Support Metrics Screenshot Billing Report: This is an important report for project Manager and Accounting department both in terms of billing standpoint. Project Manager get the information as to, whether the billing report shows the exact figure as the allocation report shows. If yes, then it is good else he/she can get it corrected by the respective project team member of the project, before approving the time entries. Accounting team on the contrary can drill down these reports and extract the hour wise billing report that the client demands and send it with the invoice in case needed. The report can be filtered by, Week, Month, Year. Screenshot of the Billing