Can You Add Comments to a Power BI Report?
The short answer is yes, you absolutely can add comments to a Power BI report. It's one of the most useful - and often underutilized - features for turning a static report into a dynamic space for collaboration and discussion. This article will show you exactly how to add comments at the report, page, and visual level, turning your dashboards into a central hub for team insights.
Why Comments are a Game-Changer in Power BI
Dashboards aren’t just for presenting data, they're for starting conversations. Manually taking screenshots of your report, pasting them into emails or Slack, and typing out your questions is slow and inefficient. Context gets lost, and feedback becomes scattered across different apps.
Power BI's built-in commenting feature solves this by centralizing the conversation right alongside the data itself. It's a game-changer for a few key reasons:
Centralized Collaboration: Keep all discussions about the data in one place. No more hunting through email chains or chat logs to find out why a decision was made.
Providing Context: Add notes to explain a sudden spike or dip in the data. For example, you can leave a comment on a sales chart saying, "Sales dip on July 10th was due to a site-wide promotion a week prior."
Asking Questions in Real-Time: Tag a team member directly on a visual to ask for their input. Instead of sending an email, you can simply @mention your marketing lead on a campaign performance chart and ask, "Why did our cost-per-click increase last week?"
Creating a Digital Paper Trail: Comments serve as a historical log of discussions and decisions. When you look back at a report from six months ago, you can see the reasoning behind the insights that were gathered.
Two Ways to Comment: Dashboards vs. Reports
In Power BI, you can leave feedback in two primary places: on a high-level Dashboard or on a specific Report page. Understanding the difference is important for keeping your conversations organized.
Think of it like this: a Dashboard is a one-page summary, often pulling visuals from multiple reports. A Report is a multi-page deep dive into a specific dataset.
1. Commenting on a Dashboard
Use dashboard comments for broad, high-level conversations about the overall business performance. These comments apply to the entire dashboard, not one specific chart.
Good for questions like:
"How are we tracking towards our overall Q3 sales goals?"
"@CEO This is the top-level view you requested. Let me know if you have any feedback."
"Can everyone review these KPIs before our weekly meeting tomorrow?"
To add a comment, simply open the dashboard in the Power BI Service and click the “Comments” button in the top menu bar to open the comment pane.
2. Commenting on a Report
Report comments offer more specific feedback because they are attached to a particular page within your report. Here, you can discuss the visuals on that page as a cohesive group.
Good for questions like:
"Looking at this regional sales breakout, why is the West coast underperforming?"
"The user engagement from last month's product launch looks great."
You access these comments in the same way - by opening the report and clicking the "Comments" button in the top menu.
But the real power comes from commenting on a specific visual within a report, which we’ll cover next.
Step-by-Step: Adding Your First Comment in a Report
Ready to try it out? Adding comments is straightforward. Just remember, commenting is a feature of the Power BI Service (app.powerbi.com), not Power BI Desktop. You can only collaborate once you've published your report.
Open Your Report in the Power BI Service: Log into your Power BI account and navigate to the report you want to discuss.
Click the “Comments” Button: In the top menu bar, you'll see a “Comments” icon. Clicking it will open a new pane on the right side of your screen where all conversations happen.
Tag Colleagues with @Mentions: This is the key to collaboration. To notify a colleague, simply type an "@" symbol followed by their name, just like on social media. They will receive a notification in Power BI and an email with your comment and a direct link to the report.
Example: "@Sarah Smith - take a look at the conversion rate drop on this page."
Write and Post Your Comment: Type your message into the text box and click "Post." Your comment, along with your name and profile picture, will appear in the pane for everyone with access to see.
Drilling Down: How to Comment on a Specific Visual
This is where Power BI commenting truly shines. While general comments on a report page are good, attaching a comment to a single chart, table, or map provides pinpoint clarity. Even better, Power BI automatically bookmarks your current filters when you post a comment on a visual.
For example, if you filter a sales report to only show data for "Canada" and then comment on the main line chart, anyone who clicks on your comment will see that exact same filtered view. This feature eliminates so much confusion and back-and-forth.
Here’s how to do it:
Hover Over the Visual: Find the chart or graph you want to discuss.
Apply Any Filters: This is optional but highly recommended. Slice your data to show the exact insight you discovered (e.g., filter by a specific time range, product category, or campaign).
Click the Ellipsis (...): In the top-right corner of the visual, click the three dots to open the "More options" menu.
Select "Add a comment": This will open the comments pane, but your new comment will now be linked directly to that visual.
Craft and Post Your Comment: @-mention the relevant teammate and explain your insight. Someone who clicks the notification will be taken not only to the right report page but will also see the visual highlighted with the exact filters you applied.
Best Practices for Effective Comments
To turn commenting from a simple feature into a powerhouse for productivity, follow a few simple rules:
Be Specific and Action-Oriented: Avoid vague comments like “This looks weird.” Instead, provide context and suggest a next step. For example, “ROI for our Spring Email Campaign is 15% lower than our projections. @MarketingTeam, can we figure out why?”
Use @Mentions Thoughtfully: Tag only the people who need to be involved. Over-notifying teammates can lead to them ignoring alerts altogether.
Use Visual-Specific Comments for Clarity: Whenever your comment relates to a single data point or chart, link the comment to that visual. It saves everyone time.
Close the Loop: Don’t just post and forget. Once a question is answered or a decision is made, reply to the original comment by saying "Resolved" or summarizing the outcome. This helps keep the conversation thread clean.
Good to Know: Power BI Commenting Limitations
While an excellent feature, commenting in Power BI isn't perfect. Be aware of a few limitations:
No Desktop Support: Comments are only available in the Power BI Service and mobile apps, not in the Desktop application where reports are built.
No Threaded Replies: Conversations are displayed in a running list, not with nested replies like you'd see in Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Formatting is Basic: You can’t bold text, add bullets, or embed links within the comment box itself. Clarity and brevity are your best friends.
Data Updates Can Break Bookmarks: The filter bookmarks in visual-level comments are powerful, but if the underlying data is removed or changed (e.g., a product name is updated), the bookmarked view may no longer work.
Final Thoughts
Power BI comments are an excellent way to bridge the gap between data discovery and team action. By embedding conversations directly within your reports, you create a single source of truth for both your data and the invaluable discussions that surround it. This makes it easier for everyone to stay on the same page and make smarter, more collaborative decisions.
Of course, the need for deep commentary and collaboration often highlights underlying friction in the reporting process. BI tools like Power BI are powerful, but they still require a significant learning curve to build, filter, and analyze reports. We created Graphed to remove that friction entirely, allowing anyone on your team to get answers from their data by simply asking questions in plain English. Instead of waiting for a dashboard to be built or trying to filter a complex report, you can just ask, "Show me our campaign ROI from Facebook compared to Google last month," and get a live, interactive visualization in seconds.