How to Create a Visual Report in Power BI

Building a report in Power BI can feel like a major project, especially when you’re just starting out. But with a clear roadmap, you can go from a messy spreadsheet to a dynamic, visual report without getting overwhelmed. This guide will walk you through the entire process, breaking it down into simple, actionable steps to get your first professional report built and shared.

First, What Exactly is Power BI?

Before we jump into the steps, let's quickly cover the basics. Power BI is Microsoft’s suite of business analytics tools that helps you analyze data and share insights. Think of it as Excel on steroids, specifically designed for data visualization and reporting.

The entire workflow generally involves three main components:

Power BI Desktop: This is a free application you install on your computer. It’s your workshop where you connect to data, transform it, create your data model, and design your reports.
Power BI Service: This is the cloud-based (SaaS) part of Power BI where you publish your reports from the Desktop app. From here, you can share them with your team, create dashboards, and set up automatic data refreshes.
Power BI Mobile: These are apps for your phone or tablet that allow you to view and interact with your reports on the go.

For this guide, we'll spend most of our time in Power BI Desktop, which is where all the building happens.

Step 1: Get Your Data into Power BI

You can’t build a report without data. Power BI can connect to an incredible number of data sources, from a simple Excel file on your desktop to a complex SQL database in the cloud. Let’s start with a common scenario: connecting to an Excel workbook.

Open Power BI Desktop. When you first open the app, you’ll see a splash screen. You can close this to get to the main canvas.
On the Home ribbon at the top, click the Get Data button. A dropdown menu will appear with common data sources.
Select Excel workbook. A familiar file explorer window will open. Navigate to your Excel file and click Open.
The Navigator window will pop up. This shows you all the sheets and tables within your Excel file. Select the sheet or table containing the data you want to import. A preview will appear on the right.
Click Load.

Power BI will now load your data. You’ll see the fields from your file appear in the Data pane on the right side of the screen. Just like that, your data is inside Power BI and you're ready to start working with it.

Step 2: Clean and Prepare Your Data

Real-world data is rarely perfect. It often has typos, missing values, or incorrect formats that can mess up your visuals. This is where Power BI's built-in Power Query Editor comes in handy. It's your data-cleaning powerhouse.

To open it, click on Transform data from the Home ribbon. This will launch a new window - the Power Query Editor.

Here are a few common cleaning operations you’ll perform:

Fix Data Types: Power BI is pretty smart about guessing data types (e.g., text, number, date), but it can sometimes get it wrong. For example, a numeric "Product ID" might be read as a number you want to sum, when it should be text. To fix this, right-click the column header, select Change Type, and choose the correct type.
Remove Unnecessary Columns: Your raw data might have columns you don't need for your report. To remove one, just click on the column header to select it and press the Delete key, or right-click and choose Remove.
Handle Null Values: If you have blank cells (or "nulls"), they can cause issues. You can handle them by right-clicking the column header and choosing Replace Values to replace them with something meaningful (like 0), or choosing Remove Rows > Remove Blank Rows.

One of the best features of the Power Query Editor is the Applied Steps pane on the right. Every change you make is recorded as a step. If you make a mistake, you can simply click the "X" next to a step to undo it without having to start over.

Once your data looks clean, click the Close & Apply button in the top-left corner to save your changes and return to the main report view.

Step 3: Define Data Relationships (Your Model)

If you pulled in data from more than one table, you need to tell Power BI how those tables relate to each other. For example, you might have a "Sales" table with sales transactions and a separate "Products" table with details about each product.

To make them work together, you need to build a data model.

On the left-hand side of Power BI Desktop, click on the Model view icon (it looks like three connected boxes).
Here, you’ll see your tables represented as boxes.
Find the common column that links your tables. In our example, both the "Sales" table and the "Products" table would likely have a "Product ID" or "SKU" column.
Click and drag the "Product ID" field from one table and drop it directly on top of the "Product ID" field in the other table.

Power BI will automatically create a line connecting them, indicating a relationship has been formed. Now, you can build a chart that shows "Sales amount" from the Sales table sliced by "Product Category" from the Products table, and it will work perfectly.

Step 4: Build Your Visualizations

This is the fun part. The Report view (the first icon on the left pane) is your canvas for creating the report itself. You’ll use three main panes here:

Data: On the far right, this shows all your tables and fields.
Visualizations: In the middle, this pane shows the different types of charts and graphs available.
Filters: To the left of Visualizations, this is where you can add filters to your page or to specific visuals.

Creating Your First Chart: A Bar Chart

Let's create a simple bar chart to show sales by product category.

From the Visualizations pane, click the icon for a stacked column chart. A blank placeholder for the visual will appear on your canvas.
With the blank visual selected, go to your Data pane.
Drag your "Sales Amount" field and drop it into the Y-axis field in the Visualizations pane.
Next, drag your "Product Category" field and drop it into the X-axis field.

Instantly, you should see a bar chart on your canvas. Congratulations, you've built your first visual!

Adding More Visuals to Your Report

A good report tells a story with several visuals. Let’s add a couple more.

A Card for an Important KPI

Cards are perfect for displaying a single, important number.

Click on a blank space on your canvas to deselect your bar chart.
In the Visualizations pane, click the Card icon (it looks like "123").
Drag your "Sales Amount" field into the card's Fields well. The card will now show the grand total of your sales.

A Line Chart for Trends Over Time

Line charts are great for showing how a metric changes over time.

Click on a blank space on the canvas again.
Select the Line chart icon from the Visualizations pane.
Drag your "Order Date" field to the X-axis well.
Drag your "Sales Amount" field to the Y-axis well.

Power BI automatically understands dates and will create a time-based hierarchy (Year, Quarter, Month, Day), allowing you to drill up and down through time.

Step 5: Format and Design Your Report

A functional report is good, but a well-designed one is even better. Good formatting makes your report easier to read and understand.

To start formatting, select any visual on your canvas. In the Visualizations pane, click the Format your visual button (it looks like a paintbrush). You’ll now have options to change almost everything about the visual.

Here are a few tips to make your report look professional:

Give Your Visuals a Title: Go to General > Title and give your chart a clear, descriptive name.
Add a Report Title: On the Insert ribbon at the top, click Text Box. Drag it to the top of your report, type a title, and adjust the font size.
Align Your Visuals: The secret to a clean dashboard is making sure everything is aligned. Select multiple visuals (by holding Ctrl and clicking each one), go to the Format ribbon at the top, and use the Align tool to align them to the top, left, or distribute them evenly.
Add Slicers for Interactive Filtering: A slicer is an on-canvas filter that lets users easily segment the data. Click on a blank area on your canvas, select the Slicer icon from the Visualizations pane, and drag a field into it, like "Region." Users can now click on a region in the slicer to filter the entire report page.

Step 6: Publish and Share Your Report

Once you’re happy with your report, it’s time to share it with your team. To do this, you'll publish it from Power BI Desktop to the Power BI Service.

First, save your report. Go to File > Save and give your file a name. It will be saved as a .pbix file.
On the Home ribbon, click the Publish button.
You'll be asked to sign in to your Power BI account (you'll need a work or school account).
After signing in, select a destination for your report. Typically, this will be My workspace unless your organization has set up specific team workspaces.
Click Select. Power BI will upload your report.

Once published, you'll get a success message with a link. Click it to open your report in a web browser. From the Power BI Service, you can share it with colleagues by sending them a direct link, or even embed it in a team portal.

Final Thoughts

You’ve just walked through the entire workflow for creating a visual report in Power BI, from connecting your data all the way to sharing your finished product. While there's always more to learn, mastering these fundamental steps gives you a solid foundation for building insightful, data-driven reports that help your team make smarter decisions.

While Power BI is an outstanding tool for comprehensive analysis, it can sometimes feel too technical for users who just need quick answers. We often ran into situations where we wanted to create marketing or sales reports without getting stuck in query editors or data models. For those moments, we created Graphed. It’s an AI data analyst that allows you to connect your data sources in one click and create a full dashboard just by asking for it in plain English - “Show me my campaign ROI from Google Ads compared to Shopify sales this month” - turning a full day's work into about 30 seconds.