Power BI Report Date Display - Snack 7

It is time for another Snack!  Let's get back to that data we loaded several weeks ago.

Go to Power BI Service online, access "My Workspace," and click on the name of the report we are working on.  

If you are using the same sample data that I am, it is probably called "FinancialSample" or whatever you named it.  The type is a "Report."

It looks like a plain old ordinary table, right now.  It is nothing exciting, so we should start forming into something that is.

If you only added the date column last time, go ahead and add more.

The last time we were here, I added the following:

• Date
• Sales
• COGS
• Country
• Discount Band
• Gross Sales
• Manufacturing Price
• Product
• Profit
• Sale Price
• Units Sold

Viewing these, some of the column names may include "Sum of ..."

This is all OK.

Also, remember the Date is going to appear divided out by Year, Quarter, Month, and Day.

Today, we are going to fix that!

1. Click the EDIT button at the top of the page.
1. You should three panels appear on the right. 
   (One or more might be collapsed.  Don't worry about that too much.)
1. Filters
2. Visualizations
3. Data
2. Click on the data table on the screen so that the table visualization is selected.
3. Under the Visualizations panel, find the column that shows,
1. Date
1. Year
2. Quarter
3. Month
4. Day
2. Click the itty-bitty down arrow to the right of where it says "Date"
1. A menu appears that shows the following (or more items),
1. Remove field 
2. Move >
3. Show items with no data
4. Date
5. ✓ Date Hierarchy
3. Click the one that says Date
1. The data table should change to display something like "Friday, July 25, 2025" instead of all of those extra columns.
1. While that is pretty, it is not really want we want for this.  An adjustment to the Semantic Model is needed to get it to look the way we really want it.
4. Choose File from the top left
5. Choose Save
4. At the top of the screen, click "Open Data Model"
1. A new tab opens, related to your Data Model aka Semantic Model
2. Click the "Viewing" button in the top right
3. Choose "Editing"
4. In the Data panel,
1. Expand your data (click the little > next to "financials"
2. Click "Date"
5. In the Properties panel,
1. Choose "Date time format"
2. Choose "*3/14/2001 (m/d/yyyy)"
6. Close this tab (changes save automatically)
5. Back in your original tab, you may need to reload your window to the see changes.
1. The date column should display all dates in a format that looks like 7/25/2025
6. Choose File
7. Choose Save

We are with this for today.  I know it seems like a lot now, but most of these things will never need touched in this report again.  Power BI will remember everything we did.

Power BI Report Data Refresh - Snack 6

Now that we have everything relatively stable, and before we get to far into it, let's take a moment to consider how we might keep this updated.

This can be done easily, if you are getting data from a source that is consistent in format, meaning it looks exactly the same every time but with new numbers.

This can be done with very little effort and without having to go through the previously discussed process every single time.

Let's go over a couple of facts.

• The data set is in "My Workspace" in the Power BI Service.  
• It is named "Financial%20Sample," if you are using the same dataset that I am.
• The data (aka your spreadsheet) is still stored in OneDrive.
• It is named "Financial Sample.xlsx" if you are using the same file I am.
• I can't tell you where you stored it though.  You need to know that.

That file can be overwritten new data any time and update your Power BI Report with that new data.

There are a couple of conditions. 

• The file must be in the exact same structure every time.
• The file must use the same exact name.
• The original file must be overwritten with the new file.

Let's do it!

1. Get your new file, if you have one.
2. Ensure that file is exactly the same.
3. Ensure that file has the exact same name as the old one.
4. Copy that new file into the folder where you stored your original file.
1. A message will appear indicating "A file with this name already exists so we couldn't upload "Financial Sample.xlsx" Add it as a new version of the existing file or keep them both.
1. Choose "REPLACE"
5. Go to the Power BI service online
6. Go to "My Workspace"
7. Locate your "Semantic Model" (refer to type to discern the difference)
1. When you hover over your "Semantic Model," a circular arrow appears.
1. Hover over that circular arrow and it will say "Refresh"
2. Click that arrow to refresh your data
1. To the right of the "Refreshed" date stamp, you will see some dots chasing each other.   
2. When they stop chasing each other, the report has read your update.
8. Go look at your report.
1. If you have had it open, reload the page and your report now has new data.

Of interest:  If your department has a defined Workspace, you can do all this work there, then go into the settings for that Semantic Model and schedule a refresh, so you do not have to do steps 5-7

Karen drives a Ford

 

Ever wonder what "Karen" drives?  You are looking at it.  Karen loves his Ford F-150 Pick-em Up Truck.  Karen also enjoys cutting people off, break-checking, and then yelling at people for not following their rules of the road, as well as frightening little girls with his own personal brand of crazy and profanity.  If you see Karen, stay away.  He is considered armed with a head full of lunatic and dangerous.  His mother should be proud that he is such a good Christian.

Power BI Snacks Intermission

In case you missed it, we have been walking through how to get yourself going with Power BI Online through little snack size posts over on Viva Engage and Teams.

We learned some terms, grabbed some data, imported it, and created our first simple visual.

There are definitely more exciting things to come!

It seems everyone was out for a super-fabulous holiday weekend, so I thought I might just do a quick recap this week.  Use this opportunity to explore what we have done already, simply catch up, work on your tan, or all of the above.

Below are links to what has been covered so far, to help you in those efforts ... sunscreen not included.

• Power BI DIY Snacks! Starting off with Power BI Online - Snack 1
• Power BI Terms - Snack 2
• Power BI Side Bar - Snack 3
• Power BI Report Data Import - Snack 4
• Power BI Report Simple Table Visual - Snack 5

See you for the next round?

As an interesting side note, I only just now discovered Mina Saad over on LinkedIn wrote along similar lines about a year ago.  Super informative posts on the topic and even tinier bites.  That's where I hijacked this week's image.

Another Fourth of Arkansas

 

It probably comes as no surprise that we again returned to Arkansas for this fourth of July.  It is becoming quite habitual in nature.   The crew of a few grew to a crew of seven on this particular expedition south in the north central area of the state.

The journey offered up a few new intrigues by way of Boliver, Springfield, and the Peel Ferry.  Our ongoing investigation into the location included visits to the usual haunts along the Mossy Bluff and the Sugar Loaf.

The fourth of July exploded all around, fitting with the regular expectations.  Heber Springs stood apart this year, holding its return fire until Saturday the 5th.  That seemed to work well for folks further south, enabling them to stick around in Little Rock for the main event, and arrive the following down for the closer.

The return trip was nothing to write home about but did give up a story idea and some new scenery.  Otherwise, we put our effort into avoiding lake traffic, of which there turned out to be very little.  One can never be too cautious though, especially with boat-trucks unable to maintain their lane.

Tao Verse 7

By having no claims to life, they cannot be claimed by death.