Dashboards vs Reports

Dashboards vs Reports

An explanation of how Power BI defines reports and dashboards

When to use

When you want to clarify the difference between dashboards and reports

Instructions

Power BI creates business intelligence in two ways.

Reports are:

• The foundation of dashboards
• Most often developed in Power BI desktop (can also be built online)
• Where we create and customize our visuals
• Interactive

Dashboards are:

• A collection of pinned visuals from reports and other locations
• Only built in the powerbi.com web service
• Intended to be a summary of key metrics
• Allowing linking back to the report to explore further
• Not interactive (except when pinning the entire report)
• Intended for sharing
• Based off the same data as the report

Create new dashboards by:

• Opening a report
• Pinning a visual
• Pin further visuals from other sources

Hints & tips

• A dashboard is intended to be a summary
• Only the most critical indicators should end up on the dashboard