Creating Basic Reports

Tim Boles
SENIOR MANAGER – DATABASE SERVICES

@timboles_dba
Overview Choosing a visual
Customizing a report
Managing static elements
Formatting reports
Plan
“If you don’t know where you are
going, you’ll end up someplace
else.”
Yogi Berra, former New York Yankees catcher
 Before You Start

Work the data How

Who Question / Decision

Choosing a Visual
“Information graphics should be aesthetically
pleasing but many designers think about
aesthetics before they think about structure,
about the information itself, about the story the
graphic should tell.”
Alberto Cairo – Author and Associate Professor
 Basic Visualization Types

Comparison Composition

Distribution Relationship
 Factors to Consider

Data Characteristics Story Audience

Source of Visualizations
Table
 When to Use a Table

Compare or show individual

Precise set of values needed
values

Multiple units of measurement

Just quantitative information
shown
Matrix
Matrix Drill Down
Matrix Drill Down
Demo

Create table visualization

Who Is Globomantics

Wholesale business
Retail and outlet store customers
Just ended fiscal year 2018
Fiscal year starts in November
Sales performance report requirements
Fiscal year bonus for salesperson
- 5% bonus
• >1900 invoices
• >$2800
- 5% bonus if > 50% profit margin
 Which Is the Right Story?

Average summarization Sum summarization

Demo

Create matrix visualization

Sales performance
- Details across geographic locations
- Be able to drill down
• Territory
• State / province
• City
Basic Comparison and Composition Visuals
Comparison Composition
 Line Chart Hint

Excessive amount of lines on the chart can make it unreadable

Outliner data can produce ugly charts

Be conscientious of chart formatting

 Hints and Tips

Line Chart Stacked Area Chart

Comparison type of visual
Use equal intervals
Good for trend analyses
Good for time-series relationships
Timelines run left to right
Watchful of the number of variables
Composition type of visual
Good for changes in composition over
time
Show part to whole relationship
Use less than 6 variables
Not useful for exact comparisons
Demo

Explore line and area charts

Sales manager visuals
Monthly sales fiscal year 2018
• By territory
• By purchasing group
• Contribution by group
Column and Bar Charts
Column Charts
Bar Chart
Showing Time
Clustered Column Chart
Clustered Column Chart

< 5 Categories

< 5 Groups
Stacked Column Charts
 Pluralsight Course:

Getting Started with Power BI

by Stacia Varga
Stacked Bar Chart
Stacked Bar Chart
100% Stacked Column Chart
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100% Stacked Column Chart
Line and Clustered Column Chart
Hints and Tips

Use stacked column charts to show a composition

Comparing parts beyond the baseline is difficult

Larger composition sets are difficult to compare

Larger data sets use stacked bars

Stacked column better on mobile devices

100% for Likert Scale, Two Segments, or Compact

Space
Demo

Explore column charts

Sales group
Chart to compare monthly sales.
Definite breaks between months
Monthly comparison not needed
Demo

Explore bar charts

Sales manager visuals
Monthly sales fiscal year 2018
• By territory
• By purchasing group
Compare fiscal year sales by groups
Customizing Reports
 Two Tips

Make it look pretty but still be useful

Keep in mind alignment, order, proximity

and color.
 Two Tips

Make it look pretty but still be useful

Keep in mind alignment, order, proximity

and color
 Colors with Inherent Meanings

Danger Good Caution

 Customizing reports
- Modifying colors in charts
- Modifying colors in visuals
Demo
Adding and managing static
visualizations
- Inserting shapes, text boxes, images
- Modifying static visualizations

Formatting reports
- Changing page layout
- Changing page formatting
Summary Four basic types of visuals
Comparison and composition visuals
Customizing reports
What’s Next?