Why Power BI isn’t suitable for Financial Statements (… currently … hopefully …)

!! This is a clickbait post to get your vote for some missing features in Power BI !!

Although this might not be what the inventors of Power BI had in mind, large lots of folks are trying to create classical financial statements in it. And putting aside the afford that might go into getting the numbers right, there is still a major drawback to swallow:

  1. We want to see our totals below the details and we need to see what they are and where they belong to.
  2. If we decide to show subtotals on the bottom, we’d prefer to see everything on the bottom, including the attribute.
  3. And an option to spare us the mention on top (green) would be very much appreciated as well: Just place everything on the bottom like so:

If you want to see this feature, please vote for it here:

https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/36031306-when-showing-subtotals-at-the-bottom-show-the-att

And another feature that’s missing in my eyes is conditional formatting to be applied on subtotals as well. This would allow us to use a larger variety of symbols for traffic light indicators, as we could use the native conditional formatting to apply colours: https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas/suggestions/17401381-conditional-formatting-for-total-and-subtotals-in

So pleeeeeease leave your votes on these features, as they will determine the priority for the team to work on!

Thanks & stay queryioius 😉

Comments (47) Write a comment

  1. And, importantly, not to mention the missing formatting (numbers, no currency symbol but with brackets for negative numbers). Currently can’t be done.

    Reply

  2. Pingback: Power BI Request: Subtotal Details At The Bottom Of A Section – Curated SQL

  3. Muito importante, hoje tenho grande dificuldade e retrabalho.

    Reply

    • Hello Martin,
      are we seeing your app here or did you discover a trick how to add brackets in Power BI natively?
      Still: Subtotals show at the top (like it’s currently possible in Power BI as well) and not at the bottom/after the details.
      ?
      Cheers, Imke

      Reply

      • @ Imke,

        he’s just using

        Format: Englisch (USA)

        giving you brackets and $ for your measure.

        Reply

  4. This is all standard Power BI – Acterys would just add write back, 3 way forecasting logic and modelling to it. You can switch the subtotals to be showing at bottom it works as well – the only issue is that it’s called “total” and the unnecessary “total” at the end- my solution avoids the other problems that you are showing. I agree that this is a worthwhile feature request. The formatting is just a standard DAX formatting string: in my case as I am also covering currency conversion with live FX rates it’s: depending if value is negative: format(sumx(‘Xero_Finance’,Xero_Finance[Value]/MIN(‘Currency'[Units])),”$#,##0.00;($#,##0.00)”). Here is the related report: https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiMzMzZWExYTQtOWJmZS00Yzc4LWEzZTQtZWRjYjAxM2QxYTVmIiwidCI6ImJkZGExNGRmLWQxMmYtNDBlNS1iYmZkLTZmYTI3NzRmMzkzOCIsImMiOjN9

    Reply

  5. Hey there, Did you create dis P&L out of a data warehouse or build the query within power query and created the measures? I’m trying to do it from a query against AX at the moment. thanks!

    Reply

  6. There is an alternate & intuitive approach using ValQ visual that does not require DAX. You can also add additional rows (e.g. # of shares outstanding and EPS to an income statement) if they are not available in the source data, apply different conditional formatting for different elements (e.g. Expenses and Gross Margin), and many more.

    Check out the video and the .pbix file here – https://valq.com/demos/financial-income-statement-microsoft-power-bi-planning-forecasting-budgeting/

    The bonus: You can also run forecast & simulate on P&L, create & compare multiple scenarios, create new budgets, save to Azure, run detailed variance analysis and many more.

    Reply

  7. leading Web Designing and development company that employs best industry practices and creates websites which deliver amazing UX. To get a custom business website designed with incredible aesthetics

    Reply

  8. We have enjoyed visiting your website.The information that is on your website is very beneficial for us. India News Agency.If you want to read latest news in Hindi then you can visit our website.You will feel very good coming here and you will get all the information in Hindi and in simple language.

    Reply

  9. Indian Medical System will continue to position itself as a manufacturer & exporter of choice for its valuable customer by offering high quality, cost effective supplies. IMS will achieve this by adopting customer oriented policies, hence no compromise in offering a quality product to serve the mankind as we belive “Human Life is Precious”.
    Needle Destroyer Supplier in Delhi

    Reply

  10. We provide a wide range of services for each customer that assist them in selecting the best options for their individual residences. We don’t think it’s enough to just sell the goods. Our company is built on providing excellent customer service. 11,000 square feet of shop space dedicated to high-end, luxurious fixtures chosen for both business and residential uses.
    jaguar fittings showroom

    Reply

  11. Practising with CBSE Previous Year Question Papers is the good way to get higher marks. As per the expert, solve the CBSE Previous Year Question Papers is a good way for board examinations. Selfstudys is the biggest platform where you can easily download the Previous Year Question Papers for CBSE Board subject wise as well as year wise. Here you also get CBSE Compartment Previous Year Question Papers at Free of Cost.

    Reply

  12. One of the great and useful post, i really like it. Thanks for sharing this nice post. Great efforts made here keep the efforts up and thanks for the efforts.

    Reply

  13. I’m really happy to have finds this site. I need to thank you for taking the time to read this great stuff!! everything about it’s great, and i’ve bookmarked your blog to check for new posts.
    https://goanyt.in/

    Reply

Leave a Reply