Sales Dashboard Project

Project Goal

Build a professional Sales Dashboard that executives actually use:

This dashboard answers the key questions every sales team needs:

• How are we performing this month/quarter/year?
• Which products drive the most revenue?
• Where are our strongest regions?
• Who are our top customers?

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What You'll Build

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Step 1: Get Your Data Ready

Before building visuals, you need clean data. For this project, use:

Option A: Power BI Sample Data

1. Open Power BI Desktop
2. Home → Get Data → More → Samples
3. Select "Financial Sample" or "Sales & Marketing Sample"

Option B: Your Own Data (Excel) Create an Excel file with these columns:

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Step 2: Create Your Measures

Go to Modeling → New Measure and create these one by one:

Core Measures

Total Revenue = SUM(Sales[Amount])

Total Orders = COUNTROWS(Sales)

Unique Customers = DISTINCTCOUNT(Sales[CustomerID])

Avg Order Value = DIVIDE([Total Revenue], [Total Orders], 0)

Time Comparison Measures

LY Revenue =
CALCULATE(
    [Total Revenue],
    SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR(Calendar[Date])
)

YoY Growth =
DIVIDE(
    [Total Revenue] - [LY Revenue],
    [LY Revenue],
    0
)

YTD Revenue =
TOTALYTD([Total Revenue], Calendar[Date])

Pro Tip: Always use DIVIDE() instead of / to avoid division by zero errors!

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Step 3: Plan Your Layout

The F-Pattern Rule: Users scan dashboards in an F-shape. Put the most important info at the top-left.

Enable Grid:

1. View → Snap to Grid ✓
2. View → Gridlines ✓

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Step 4: Build KPI Cards

Create Revenue Card

1. Click Card visual in Visualizations pane
2. Drag Total Revenue measure to Fields
3. Resize to fit top row (about 25% width)

Format the Card

Click the card → Format pane (paint roller icon):

Repeat for Other Cards

Create 3 more cards:

• Total Orders (display units: Auto)
• Unique Customers (display units: Auto)
• Avg Order Value (display units: Auto, 0 decimals)

Align them: Select all 4 cards → Format → Align → Distribute Horizontally

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Step 5: Build the Line Chart

Create the Chart

1. Click Line Chart in Visualizations
2. Configure fields:

Format for Clarity

Add Last Year Comparison (Optional)

Drag LY Revenue to Y-axis as second line:

• Use dotted line style
• Use lighter/gray color
• Add legend

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Step 6: Build Top Products Bar Chart

Create the Chart

1. Click Clustered Bar Chart
2. Configure:

Apply Top 10 Filter

This is crucial - don't show all products!

1. Click the chart
2. Open Filters pane (right side)
3. Find "ProductName" in Visual level filters
4. Change filter type to Top N
5. Show top: 10
6. By value: Total Revenue
7. Click Apply filter

Format

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Step 7: Build the Map

Create the Map

1. Click Filled Map or Bubble Map
2. Configure:

Format

Note: Maps require location data that Power BI can geocode. Use standard names like "California" not "CA".

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Step 8: Build Top Customers Table

Create the Table

1. Click Table visual
2. Add columns:
   • CustomerName
   • Total Revenue
   • Total Orders

Apply Top 10 Filter

Same as bar chart - filter to Top 10 by Total Revenue.

Format

Add Conditional Formatting

1. Click column → Format → Conditional formatting
2. Add data bars to Total Revenue column
3. Color: subtle blue gradient

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Step 9: Add Slicers

Date Slicer

1. Click Slicer visual
2. Drag OrderDate to Field
3. Click dropdown arrow → Select Relative Date
4. Set to: "is in the last 1 year"

Region Slicer

1. Add another Slicer
2. Drag Region to Field
3. Format → Slicer settings → Style: Dropdown
4. Enable: Selection → Multi-select with Ctrl

Position Slicers

• Place on left sidebar
• Stack vertically
• Same width as each other

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Step 10: Apply Theme & Polish

Apply a Professional Theme

1. View → Themes
2. Choose: Executive or Innovation
3. Or import custom theme JSON

Final Formatting Checklist

Add Report Title

1. Insert → Text Box
2. Type: "Sales Performance Dashboard"
3. Format: 24pt, Bold, Dark gray

Add Last Refresh Date

1. Insert → Text Box
2. Add: "Last Updated: " + date
3. Or create measure: Last Refresh = NOW()

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Final Result

Your completed dashboard should:

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Test Your Dashboard

Cross-Filtering Test

1. Click a bar in the bar chart
2. All other visuals should filter
3. Click again to clear

Slicer Test

1. Select a region in slicer
2. All numbers should update
3. Verify numbers make sense

Mobile Test

1. View → Mobile Layout
2. Rearrange visuals for phone
3. Preview in Power BI Mobile app

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

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Next Steps

1. Save your .pbix file
2. Publish to Power BI Service
3. Share with your team
4. Schedule automatic refresh
5. Collect feedback and iterate

Congratulations! You've built a professional sales dashboard. This same pattern works for any business - just change the data source and measures!