How to Set Default Filter in Power BI

Constantly opening a Power BI report only to apply the exact same filters every single time is a drag. Setting the date to the current year, filtering for the North American region, selecting a specific product category - these repetitive clicks add up and waste time for you and your team. Fortunately, you can set default filters so your report always opens with the most relevant view ready to go. We'll walk you through several powerful methods to make your reports more user-friendly and efficient from the moment they load.

Why Setting Default Filters is a Game-Changer

Taking a few minutes to configure a default view isn't just about saving a couple of clicks. It fundamentally improves the way people interact with your data.

• Creates a Consistent Starting Point: It ensures that everyone, from the CEO to a sales manager, sees the same baseline view when they open the report. This prevents confusion caused by looking at an unfiltered "all-time" data dump.
• Saves Time and Reduces Clicks: For reports that are viewed daily, eliminating three or four clicks per session adds up to significant time saved across an entire team.
• Improves User Experience: Non-technical stakeholders can get overwhelmed by filter panes. Presenting them with a pre-filtered, relevant view makes the report less intimidating and more immediately useful.
• Guides the Narrative: A good default filter guides the user's attention to what's most important right now, like performance in the current quarter, rather than letting them get lost in historical data first.

Understanding Power BI's Filter Levels

Before jumping into the "how," it's helpful to know where filters can live in Power BI. The location you choose determines the filter's scope and impact.

Visual Level Filters

These apply to a single chart, table, or card. You'd use this if you wanted one specific line chart to only show data for the "Marketing" department while all other visuals on the page show data for the entire company. We generally don't use this for "default" report settings, as we want a broader impact.

Page Level Filters

As the name suggests, any filter placed here affects all visuals on a single report page. This is a very common place to set defaults. For example, you might create a "Sales Overview" page and set a page-level filter to only show data for the current fiscal year.

Report Level Filters

This is the most powerful level. A filter set here applies to all visuals across all pages in your entire Power BI report. This is the perfect place for global filters that should almost always be active, like filtering out test accounts or setting a default to the current year across the entire dashboard.

Method 1: Using the Standard Filter Pane (The Easiest Approach)

The most direct way to set a persistent, default filter is by using the Filter Pane in Power BI Desktop. This is your go-to method for "hard-coding" a default view for everyone.

Let’s say you have a multi-page sales report, and you want it to always open showing data for a specific year, say 2024. A report-level filter is a perfect choice.

1. Open your Report in Power BI Desktop: You must make these changes in the Desktop application, you cannot set permanent filters this way in the Power BI Service (the web version).
2. Select the Correct Scope without Clicking a Visual: To set a report-level filter, make sure no specific charts are selected. Just click on the blank canvas of your report page. You will see "Filters on this page" and "Filters on all pages" in the right-hand Filter Pane.
3. Drag Your Field to the Filter Pane: Find the field you want to filter by - in our case, the 'Year' field from our date table. Drag and drop it into the "Filters on all pages" section.
4. Configure Your Filter Value: A filter card will appear. For our 'Year' field, we can select "Basic filtering" and then check the box for "2024." Now, every visual across every page will only show data from 2024.
5. Lock or Hide the Filter (Optional but Recommended): You have two important options on the filter card:
6. Save and Publish: Once you've set your filter, save your .pbix file and publish it to the Power BI Service. Now, when anyone opens the report, your default filter will be automatically applied.

Method 2: Setting a Default with Slicers

Sometimes you don't want to permanently lock a filter. Instead, you want the report to load with a recommended selection (like the current month) that the user can easily change. This is a "soft default," and slicers are the perfect tool for the job.

Unlike the Filter Pane, there’s no "set as default" button for a slicer. The trick is simple: Power BI remembers the state of your slicers when you save the report.

1. Add a Slicer visual to your report page.
2. Drag the field you want to filter by (e.g., 'Month', 'Region', 'Product Category') into the slicer.
3. Manually select the value you want to be the default. For example, if it's May, you would click on "May" in the Month slicer. All the other visuals on the page will filter accordingly.
4. Simply Save and Publish the report with that slicer selection active.

Now, when a user opens the report, it will load with "May" already selected on the slicer, filtering the page view by default. However, they are free to click "April" or "June" to explore other data, giving them both a smart starting point and the flexibility to look around.

Method 3: Creating Custom Views with Bookmarks

Bookmarks are a powerful feature for creating highly customized default views. A bookmark captures the complete state of a report page, including filters, slicer settings, and even the drill-down state of a visual.

Imagine your sales team is divided into three regions: North, West, and East. You could create three bookmarks, each one serving as a pre-filtered view for that specific team.

1. Set Up Your Desired View: First, use Slicers or the Filter pane to filter your report page to the exact state you want to save. For our example, select "North" from your Region slicer.
2. Open the Bookmarks Pane: Go to the "View" tab in the Power BI Desktop ribbon and check the box for "Bookmarks."
3. Create the Bookmark: In the Bookmarks pane, click "Add." A new bookmark will be created. It's a good idea to rename it immediately to something descriptive, like "North Region View."
4. Repeat for Other Views: Now, change your slicer selection to "West," and create another bookmark named "West Region View." Do the same for "East."
5. Add Navigation: You can create buttons or slicers that link directly to these bookmarks, allowing users to quickly jump between these curated views of the data.

While bookmarks don't set a single 'on-load' default for the entire report, they offer a way to guide users to multiple pre-set starting points, empowering them to get to the slice of data they care about most with a single click.

Best Practices for Setting Filters

Now that you know the different methods, here are a few tips to make your defaults more effective.

• Use Relative Date Filters: Instead of hard-coding the year to "2024," consider using the "Relative Date" filter type in the Filter Pane. You can set it to dynamic options like "in this year" or "in the last 30 days." This way, your report automatically stays current without you ever needing to manually update it again.
• Know Your Audience: Think about the first question your audience will ask. If they only care about their own sales region, then a default regional filter is perfect. Setting a smart default shows you understand their needs.
• Don't Be Too Restrictive: The beauty of Power BI is its interactivity. Avoid locking or hiding too many filters. A good default simplifies the initial view but should still allow curious users to explore the data freely if they want to.
• Communicate Invisible Filters: If you hide a critical filter (like "Current Year" or "North America Only"), it's good practice to mention it in the title of the report page or in a text box. For example, a title like "Sales Dashboard - North America (2024)" instantly manages user expectations.

Final Thoughts

Setting default filters is a small effort that pays big dividends in usability and efficiency. By using the Filter Pane for report-wide rules, slicers for interactive starting points, or bookmarks for custom views, you can transform your Power BI reports from static tools into dynamic and welcoming experiences for everyone on your team.

While mastering Power BI is a valuable skill, we know that sometimes you need answers without the manual setup. We built Graphed to create an experience where the default view is simply whatever you ask for. Instead of dragging fields, setting slicers, and publishing reports, you can just ask a question in plain English, like "Show me a comparison of last month's ad spend vs revenue," and get an interactive dashboard built in seconds - no configuration required.