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Dashboard Design — Sales Dashboard

Dashboard Purpose

A 2-page Power BI dashboard for sales leadership: - Page 1 — Executive Overview: the Monday-morning answer to "how are we doing?" - Page 2 — Profitability Deep Dive: the discount/margin story for the CFO

Page 1 — Executive Overview

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Revenue        Profit        Margin       Orders      AOV         │
│  $2.30M         $286K         12.5%        5,009       $459        │
│  ▲ 8% YoY       ▲ 3% YoY      ▼ 1.2pt      ▲ 6% YoY    ▲ 2%        │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                    │
│  Monthly Revenue & Profit Trend (line + bar combo)                 │
│  [Revenue bars + profit line over 48 months]                       │
│                                                                    │
├────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┤
│  Revenue by Category            │  Revenue by Region (map)          │
│  [Horizontal bar]               │  [Filled US map]                  │
├────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────┤
│  Top 10 Products                │  Segment Breakdown                │
│  [Bar]                          │  [Donut]                          │
└────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────┘
   Slicers: [Year] [Region] [Segment] [Category]

Page 2 — Profitability Deep Dive

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Loss-Making Items: 1,871 (18.7%)    Profit Lost: -$130K          │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                    │
│  Profit by Discount Band (this is the headline chart)              │
│  [Bar: profit turns negative above 20% discount]                   │
│                                                                    │
├────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┤
│  Margin by Sub-Category         │  Discount vs Profit Scatter       │
│  [Bar, sorted ascending —       │  [Scatter, colored by category]   │
│   loss-makers in red]           │                                   │
└────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────┘

Building in Power BI Desktop

Step 1 — Load and Model

  1. Get Data → Text/CSV → superstore_clean.csv
  2. Verify types: order_date as Date, sales/profit as Decimal
  3. Create a Date table for time intelligence: 
    DateTable = CALENDAR(MIN(sales[order_date]), MAX(sales[order_date]))
  4. Mark it as a date table and relate DateTable[Date] → sales[order_date]

Step 2 — Core DAX Measures

Total Revenue = SUM(sales[sales])

Total Profit = SUM(sales[profit])

Profit Margin = DIVIDE([Total Profit], [Total Revenue], 0)

Total Orders = DISTINCTCOUNT(sales[order_id])

Avg Order Value = DIVIDE([Total Revenue], [Total Orders], 0)

-- Year over year
Revenue LY = CALCULATE([Total Revenue], SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR(DateTable[Date]))
Revenue YoY % = DIVIDE([Total Revenue] - [Revenue LY], [Revenue LY], 0)

-- Loss-making
Loss Making Items = CALCULATE(COUNTROWS(sales), sales[profit] < 0)
Loss Making % = DIVIDE([Loss Making Items], COUNTROWS(sales), 0)
Profit Lost = CALCULATE(SUM(sales[profit]), sales[profit] < 0)

Step 3 — KPI Cards

Add Card visuals for Revenue, Profit, Margin, Orders, AOV. Use the YoY measures in the callout for the trend indicator. Apply conditional formatting (green ▲ / red ▼).

Step 4 — Combo Chart (Revenue + Profit Trend)

  • Visual: Line and stacked column chart
  • X-axis: DateTable[Date] (month hierarchy)
  • Column values: Total Revenue
  • Line values: Total Profit

Step 5 — Map

  • Visual: Filled Map
  • Location: state
  • Color saturation: Total Profit (so low-margin states show red)

Step 6 — Profit by Discount Band (Page 2 headline)

  • Visual: Clustered column chart
  • X-axis: discount_band
  • Y-axis: Total Profit
  • Conditional formatting: bars turn red when profit is negative

Step 7 — Slicers and Interactions

Add slicers for Year, Region, Segment, Category. Verify cross-filtering works (clicking a category filters all visuals).

Design Checklist

  • [ ] KPI cards show trend vs last year, not just the raw number
  • [ ] The "Furniture has low margin" story is visible at a glance
  • [ ] The "discounts above 20% lose money" chart is the focal point of Page 2
  • [ ] Consistent colour scheme (one accent colour, red reserved for losses)
  • [ ] Slicers work across all visuals
  • [ ] Loss-making items are highlighted, not hidden

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