create visual of refresh changes - history graphs

[Mike_Mace]

Hi all,

I have a number of metrics on my reports through a number of sources. Every 1-2 weeks I refresh to update reports.

When refresh is done, the previews numbers are superseded and do not show anymore.

This creates a question on "what has changed since last report"

I created a performance tab where I manually entry the numbers and use BI to plot graphs. 

BI doesn't stop surprising, there should be a smart-automatic way to do that step? 

[v-gizhi-msft]

Hi,

Every time after the report refreshed, the new report will cover the old, and i think there is no way to see what has updated on this report.

And you can create an idea here, it will be cool!

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas 

Best Regards,

Giotto

[Mike_Mace]

Great you agree @v-gizhi-msft. It would be quite cool yes. Can't Imagine it would be too difficult for MSFT to develop.

I'll create the idea

[Mike_Mace]

Idea link:

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/40295290-option-on-which-refresh-...

[Pragati11]

Hi @Mike_Mace ,

Can you tell more around how your refresh process works?

A quick thing I can suggest is rather than refreshing the whole data, append new data to existing data in Power BI.

But, if you are using a database to import data to Power BI for reporting, you can append new data to your database, rather then refreshing everythign and end up with only refreshed data and loosing historical data.

If this helps and resolves the issue, appreciate a Kudos and mark it as a Solution! 🙂

Thanks,

Pragati

[Mike_Mace]

Hi @Pragati11 

I have a number of excel spreadsheets feeding into a 15 tab Power BI report.

Some of them are simple BI desktop visuals. Others I researched into DAX to make available.

The data changes on a day by day, hour by hour basis (much like Covid 19 numbers - I'll use Covid for ease of reference). Once a week or two I refresh my spreadsheets that feed into BI and my visuals get updated with, lets say increased Covid 19 cases. 
The problem with that is when my reports are issued out, people see this weeks covid cases and cannot compare with last weeks cases. They cannot see the trend.

This is when I started populating manually a table with each weeks numbers before I refresh the report. This way gets the job done but not the smart BI way of how things are expected to be. 

Appending new data should work but then I'll be expected to iterate visuals-creation and keep appending new data week after week for all the metrics on 15 tabs of BI. (or at least that is what I am understanding)