How to Remove Subtotals in Power BI

Nothing clutters up a nice, clean Power BI report quite like unnecessary subtotals. While they can be useful for summarizing data across different groups, they often add noise, making it harder for your audience to see the key information. This guide will walk you through exactly how to remove subtotals in Power BI tables and matrices, giving you full control over your report's appearance.

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Why Remove Subtotals in Power BI?

Before jumping into the "how," it's helpful to understand the "why." Power BI automatically adds subtotals to certain visuals, especially the Matrix, as soon as you have more than one field in the rows or columns. This default behavior isn't always ideal. Here are a few common reasons you might want to turn them off:

• Visual Simplicity: In many reports, the grand total is all you need. Extra lines for subtotals can make your table or matrix look busy and overwhelm the viewer, especially if you have many levels of hierarchy.
• Creating a "Flat" View: Sometimes you want to use a matrix to display data that looks and feels like a simple, flat table. Removing subtotals is the first step in achieving that clean, list-like appearance without the hierarchical interruptions.
• Specific Stakeholder Needs: Your audience might only care about the individual line items and the final, overall total. Presenting a report without the intermediate subtotals can make it more digestible and tailored to their specific questions.
• Dashboard Aesthetics: When placing a table or matrix onto a dashboard alongside several other visuals, space is precious. Removing extra rows can help your visual fit better and contribute to a more polished, professional look.

Fortunately, getting rid of these totals is straightforward once you know where to look. Let's break down the process for the most common visuals.

How to Remove Subtotals from a Power BI Matrix (The Easy Way)

The Matrix visual is where users most frequently want to remove or adjust subtotals. Because it's designed for hierarchical data with multiple levels of grouping, Power BI gives you granular control over how these summaries are displayed.

Here’s the step-by-step process:

Step 1: Select Your Matrix Visual

Start by clicking on the Matrix visualization on your report canvas. When it's selected, you'll see a border around it, and the "Visualizations," "Data," and "Format" panes will update to reflect the properties of that specific visual.

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Step 2: Navigate to the Format Visual Pane

Look at the panes on the right side of the Power BI interface. Find the Format visual pane, which is represented by a paintbrush icon. Click on it to open up all the formatting options available for your selected matrix.

Step 3: Go to the 'Subtotals' Settings

In the list of formatting options under the 'Visual' tab, scroll down until you find Row subtotals and Column subtotals. Power BI separates these so you can control them independently. Click on the arrow next to "Row subtotals" to expand its options.

Step 4: Turn Subtotals Off

Inside the "Row subtotals" section, you will see a toggle for Values. A similar toggle exists under "Column subtotals."

• To remove all row subtotals, simply click the main toggle under Row subtotals to Off.
• To remove all column subtotals, click the main toggle under Column subtotals to Off.

As soon as you flip the switch, you'll see the corresponding subtotals disappear from your matrix in real-time. This is the quickest way to clean up the visual.

A Bit More Control: Adjusting Subtotal Position

What if you want some subtotals but not others? Underneath the main on/off toggle for subtotals, you'll find a dropdown for Position. This lets you choose between displaying subtotals at the 'Top' or 'Bottom' of a group. More importantly, there's a setting called "Per row level" or "Per column level." Activating this allows you to toggle subtotals on or off for specific fields in your hierarchy, giving you the ultimate control beyond just an all-or-nothing approach.

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How to Remove Totals from a Simple Table

What about the standard "Table" visual? Tables don't have the same concept of hierarchical "subtotals" because they don't group rows in the same way. Instead, tables have a single "Total" row at the bottom that summarizes all the numeric columns.

Removing this total row is even easier than removing subtotals from a matrix.

1. Select your Table visual on the report canvas.
2. Go to the Format visual (paintbrush icon) pane on the right.
3. Scroll down and expand the Totals section.
4. Simply click the main toggle to Off.

The total row at the bottom of your table will instantly vanish, leaving you with just the raw data rows.

Troubleshooting: What if the Subtotal Option is Greyed Out?

Occasionally, you might navigate to the Subtotals section for your matrix and find that the options are greyed out and cannot be changed. This usually happens for a simple reason: there are no subtotals to show.

The "subtotal" feature only becomes active when you have two or more fields in the "Rows" or "Columns" data wells. If you only have one field defining your rows (e.g., just 'Product Category'), Power BI won't generate a subtotal, it will only show a grand total (which is controlled under the "Totals" section, not "Subtotals").

So, if you can't click the subtotal toggle, check your visualization's 'Data' setup. Chances are you only have a single level of data in your rows or columns, making the subtotal option irrelevant.

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An Advanced Alternative: Using DAX to Control Totals

For most scenarios, the formatting pane offers all the control you need. However, for complex requirements where you need to show or hide totals based on certain conditions, you'll need to turn to DAX (Data Analysis Expressions).

Using functions like ISINSCOPE() or HASONEVALUE(), you can create a measure that behaves differently for total or subtotal rows compared to regular data rows.

For example, you could write a measure that only calculates sales for individual rows but returns a blank value for any subtotal or grand total row, effectively hiding it:

Sales No Totals = 
IF(
    ISINSCOPE('YourTable'[Subcategory]), 
    SUM('YourTable'[SalesAmount]), 
    BLANK()
)

In this example, the measure checks if it is being evaluated in the context of a "Subcategory." If so, it calculates the sum of sales. If not (meaning it's at a total or subtotal level above the Subcategory), it returns BLANK(), which Power BI visuals don't display. This method offers incredible flexibility but requires a comfortable understanding of DAX. For 99% of cases, the format pane is all you need.

Final Thoughts

Controlling the display of subtotals and totals is a fundamental skill for creating clean, effective, and user-friendly Power BI reports. By using the on/off toggles in the Format Visual pane for tables and matrices, you can easily control the level of detail your visuals provide, ensuring your audience can focus on the insights that matter most.

While mastering tools like Power BI is incredibly valuable, the reporting process often starts with connecting many scattered data sources. At Graphed, we streamline this entire process. We help you connect all your marketing and sales data - from platforms like Shopify, Google Analytics, and Hubspot - and use simple, natural language to instantly build the dashboards and reports you need. Instead of wrestling with toggles and complex setups, you can just ask a question and get a real-time, shareable dashboard in seconds.