The Power BI KPI card & line chart are the perfect combination for time series information such as sales for a given period.
Let’s review why these are such a good match.
✅ Line chart – great for showing a monthly amount, such as sales vs last year. However when you show each sales amount by the month, you don’t give an bigger “overall” picture as you give detail on a month by month basis; this is where the KPI card comes in.
✅ KPI card – gives the sales for the whole period, such as the whole year. The colour variance in the KPI card, shows the $ variance and % also, which instantly provides a bigger picture context to the line chart’s monthly detail.
✅ Tooltip – custom tooltips provide the additional detail on demand. This allows the report user to very quickly see the months that contributed the most to the overall variance shown in the KPI card, and help to complete the overall picture.
The only trade off here is that, if you want to provide cumulative amounts for the period, another chart will be required to complete that element of the picture. Depending on requirements, it may be better off using a cumulative chart instead of the monthly amounts.
Link to the full interactive report in my portfolio here.
