First Steps for a Dashboard

[PeterBI]

Hello,
the first steps in PowerBi Desktop are the most difficult steps.

I have my Date Table and a column with a calculated running total over several years. Phuuuu 😉

For my first Dashboard i want
1. the last running total number and a background chart over the whole Time period with all data in a small visual
2. then I want to dive deeper and compare the actual year with the year before Month by Month.

Do I need a measure to get the last running Total?
Which Steps are nessesary to acomplish these goals?

At the moment I am working with PowerBI Desktop only. To create Dashboards only for myself is it OK with the Desktop Version? or ist it needed to sign in with the service?

Thanks, Peter

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@PeterBI

I'm going to throw some links at you, you'll have to do these things in DAX measures. A great resource is DAXPatterns by sqlbi.

1. Cumulative Total

2. Time Intelligence functions

The steps are such that you can right click on the table and "New Measure" and then add the DAX functions you learn in the above links to the model.

Desktop vs. Service:

The Desktop allows you to create models and build reports.

The Service lets you build reports and Dashboards to share with others.

You really aren't creating dashboards in the Desktop, and unless you are going to pass around the PBIX file, you would need to publish your PBIX file to the Service and build a dashboard from the reports. This creates a data set and Report (which contains all the pages of the PBIX) in the Service.