Power BI Exercise - Building a Basic Sales Dashboard (Retail Dataset)

Turn the retail measures into an interactive one-page sales dashboard.

Exercise objectives

• Create KPI cards for important business measures.
• Compare sales by category, region, and channel.
• Display the sales trend by date.
• Add slicers for interactive filtering.
• Test interactions and verify the dashboard results.

Before you begin

This exercise continues from the retail dataset and basic DAX measures exercises. Your Power BI file should contain the Sales table and these four measures:

Measure	Expected unfiltered value
Total Sales	RM21,788
Total Quantity	42
Transaction Count	15
Average Sale Value	RM1,452.53

Dashboard principle: A dashboard should answer important questions quickly. Use a small number of clear visuals rather than filling every available space.

Step 1: Prepare the report page

1. Open Report view.
2. At the bottom of the window, right-click the report page tab.
3. Select Rename page and enter Sales Dashboard.
4. Open the Format pane and set the page canvas to 16:9.
5. Add a text box at the top of the page.
6. Enter the title Retail Sales Dashboard.

Suggested page layout

Total Sales

Total Quantity

Transactions

Average Sale

Sales by Category

Sales by Region

Sales Trend

Sales by Channel

Region, Category and Channel slicers

Step 2: Create four KPI cards

1. Select the Card visual from the Visualizations pane.
2. Drag Total Sales into the card.
3. Resize the card and place it below the dashboard title.
4. Copy and paste the card three times.
5. Replace the measure in each copied card with Total Quantity, Transaction Count, and Average Sale Value.
6. Arrange all four cards in one row.

Format the cards

• Turn on the category label so the measure name is visible.
• Use the same background, border, and font style for all four cards.
• Display currency measures with the RM symbol.
• Set display units to None so Total Sales is not shortened to 21.79K.

Checkpoint: With no filters, the cards should display RM21,788, 42, 15, and RM1,452.53.

Step 3: Create Sales by Category

1. Select the Clustered column chart.
2. Drag Category to the X-axis.
3. Drag the Total Sales measure to the Y-axis.
4. Sort the chart by Total Sales in descending order.
5. Turn on data labels.
6. Change the title to Sales by Category.

Category	Total Sales	Total Quantity	Transactions
Computing	RM5,959	11	4
Entertainment	RM5,893	7	3
Mobile	RM5,165	15	4
Home	RM4,771	9	4

Step 4: Create Sales by Region

1. Select the Clustered bar chart.
2. Drag Region to the Y-axis.
3. Drag Total Sales to the X-axis.
4. Sort by Total Sales in descending order.
5. Turn on data labels.
6. Change the title to Sales by Region.

Region	Total Sales	Total Quantity	Transactions
Central	RM9,281	9	5
South	RM6,695	5	3
East	RM3,078	12	3
North	RM2,734	16	4

Step 5: Create Sales by Channel

1. Select the Donut chart.
2. Drag Channel to Legend.
3. Drag Total Sales to Values.
4. Turn on detail labels.
5. Display the category name, value, and percentage.
6. Change the title to Sales by Channel.

Channel	Total Sales	Share of sales	Transactions
Store	RM15,243	69.96%	8
Online	RM6,545	30.04%	7

Step 6: Create the sales trend

1. Select the Line chart.
2. Drag SaleDate to the X-axis.
3. If Power BI creates a Date hierarchy, open the field menu and select SaleDate instead of Date hierarchy.
4. Drag Total Sales to the Y-axis.
5. Set the X-axis type to Continuous.
6. Change the title to Sales Trend.

Expected appearance: The chart should contain 15 dated points from 3 January 2026 to 31 January 2026. The highest point is RM3,598 on 17 January 2026.

Step 7: Add dashboard slicers

1. Select the Slicer visual.
2. Add Region to the slicer.
3. Create a second slicer using Category.
4. Create a third slicer using Channel.
5. Change each slicer to a dropdown if space is limited.
6. Place the three slicers together at the top or bottom of the page.

Step 8: Test visual interactions

1. Select Central in the Region slicer.
2. Confirm that all cards and charts update.
3. Clear the Region filter.
4. Select Online in the Channel slicer.
5. Confirm that Total Sales becomes RM6,545.
6. Select a category bar and confirm that the other visuals respond.
7. Clear all selections and confirm that Total Sales returns to RM21,788.

If a visual does not respond

1. Select the slicer or chart that should control the other visuals.
2. Open the ribbon and select Format → Edit interactions.
3. Above each target visual, select the Filter interaction.
4. Exit Edit interactions and test the selection again.

Final verification

Test	Expected Total Sales	Expected transactions
No filter	RM21,788	15
Region = Central	RM9,281	5
Region = South	RM6,695	3
Channel = Online	RM6,545	7
Channel = Store	RM15,243	8
Category = Computing	RM5,959	4

Completion checklist

• The page is named Sales Dashboard.
• Four KPI cards display correctly formatted measures.
• Sales by Category uses a clustered column chart.
• Sales by Region uses a clustered bar chart.
• Sales by Channel uses a donut chart.
• Sales Trend uses SaleDate and Total Sales.
• Region, Category, and Channel slicers filter all visuals.
• The unfiltered Total Sales value is RM21,788.

Exercise complete: You have created an interactive Power BI sales dashboard using reusable DAX measures and visual filter context.