How to Use Power KPI Matrix in Power BI

Building a great dashboard in Power BI is about telling a clear story with your data. One of the most effective ways to do this is by consolidating key performance indicators (KPIs) so your audience can see performance at a glance. The Power KPI Matrix custom visual is a fantastic tool for this, letting you pack values, trends, and status indicators into one compact, easy-to-read table. This article will show you what the Power KPI Matrix is, why it's so useful, and how you can build one step-by-step.

What is the Power KPI Matrix?

The Power KPI Matrix is not a default visual in Power BI, it's a custom visual you can add for free from Microsoft's AppSource marketplace. Its main purpose is to display multiple KPIs in a matrix or table format, but with a few powerful additions that a standard table can't handle on its own.

For each row (or category) in your data, the Power KPI Matrix can show you:

• A Key Value: The main number you're tracking, like total sales or user signups.
• A Trend Line: A small chart, often called a sparkline, showing how that value has performed over time.
• A KPI Status Indicator: An icon and/or color (like a green checkmark, a yellow warning sign, or a red X) that tells you if the KPI is meeting its target.
• Target and Variance Info: You can explicitly show the target value and the percentage difference between the actual and the target.

In essence, it combines the functions of several visuals - a matrix, a KPI card, and a line chart - into one incredibly efficient component. Instead of creating a separate card and chart for each metric, you can line them all up in a single display that provides immediate context.

Why Should You Use the Power KPI Matrix?

This visual is more than just a space-saver. It fundamentally changes how users can interpret dashboard information quickly and accurately.

1. Ultimate Information Density

Dashboard real estate is precious. You want to present the most important information without cluttering the screen. The Power KPI Matrix excels here. You can monitor the performance of your sales team, product categories, or marketing campaigns across multiple metrics in a single component, freeing up canvas space for more detailed visuals.

2. Instant Context and Comparison

A number on its own often isn't enough. Is $50,000 in monthly sales good? It depends. The Power KPI Matrix answers the follow-up questions for you:

• Compared to what? It shows the value next to its target.
• What's the trend? The sparkline shows if you’re moving in the right direction, even if you’re currently below target.
• Are we on track? The status icon provides an immediate visual cue (good, bad, or neutral).

Seeing sales figures for all regions lined up together makes it effortlessly easy to spot top performers and those needing attention.

3. High Degree of Customization

You have full control over how your KPIs are presented. You can change the sparkline type (line, area, bar), customize indicator icons, define custom colors based on performance, and format every numerical value exactly how you want it. This flexibility allows you to tailor the visual to match your organization's specific reporting style.

Step-by-Step Guide: Building Your First Power KPI Matrix

Let's walk through the process of creating a Power KPI Matrix to track regional sales performance. We'll build a matrix that shows total sales, a sales trend, and a status icon indicating if each region met its sales target.

Step 1: Get the Power KPI Matrix Visual

Before you can use it, you need to add the visual to your Power BI Desktop file.

1. On the Visualizations pane, click the three dots (...) at the bottom.
2. Select Get more visuals.
3. In the AppSource marketplace window, search for "Power KPI Matrix".
4. Find the visual by Profitbase and click Add.

The visual’s icon will now appear in your Visualizations pane, ready to be used.

Step 2: Prepare Your Data Model

The Power KPI Matrix works best with a well-structured data model. To follow this example, your model should contain:

• A Fact Table with your sales transactions (e.g., Sales). This table should include a sales amount column and a date column.
• A Dimension Table for categories you want to analyze (e.g., a Regions table).
• A Calendar Table with a continuous list of dates, properly marked as a date table in Power BI.

You will also need a few basic DAX measures:

• A measure for your primary value:

Total Sales = SUM(Sales[SalesAmount])

• A measure for your target:

Sales Target = CALCULATE(SUM(Targets[TargetAmount]))

Step 3: Add and Configure the Visual

Click the Power KPI Matrix icon to add it to your report canvas. Then, start dragging your data fields and measures into the appropriate wells in the Visualizations pane:

• Category: This defines the rows of your matrix. Drag a categorical field here. Example: Regions[RegionName]
• Values: Your primary metric goes here. Example: [Total Sales]
• Trend Axis: The date field that defines the X-axis for your sparklines. Example: Calendar[Date]
• Target Value: The goal you are measuring against. Example: [Sales Target]

At this point, you'll see a basic matrix with values and sparklines for each region.

Step 4: Create a DAX Measure for the Status Indicator

This is the most important step for bringing the "KPI" aspect to life. The status indicator (the icon and its color) is driven by a DAX measure. The visual works by taking a numeric output from this measure and mapping it to a specific icon.

A common practice is to use -1 for "bad," 0 for "neutral," and 1 for "good."

Create a new measure with the following DAX formula:

Sales KPI Status = 
VAR PerformanceRatio = DIVIDE([Total Sales], [Sales Target])
RETURN
    SWITCH(
        TRUE(),
        PerformanceRatio >= 1.0, 1,   // Sales met or exceeded target (Good)
        PerformanceRatio >= 0.9, 0,  // Sales are within 10% of target (Neutral)
        -1                           // Sales are more than 10% below target (Bad)
    )

Now, drag this new [Sales KPI Status] measure into the Status field well for the visual.

You won't see icons immediately. You need to configure them in the formatting options, which we'll do next.

Step 5: Format and Customize Your Matrix

With the data fields in place, it's time to style the visual. Select the matrix and go to the Format your visual tab (the paintbrush icon).

KPI Images / Icons

1. Expand the KPI Images section.
2. Turn the feature On.
3. You'll see options for Bad, Neutral, and Good status.
4. For each status, enter the corresponding number from your DAX measure. In our case, Bad = -1, Neutral = 0, and Good = 1.
5. Now, choose an icon and color for each number. For example:

Your matrix will now display the correct icons based on performance!

Sparklines

1. Expand the Sparklines section.
2. Here you can change the chart type between Line, Area, or Bar. An area chart often looks great for sales trends.
3. You can also change the color, line weight, and other styling elements to make it visually clearer.
4. Optionally, turn on Indicators to show dots for the highest and lowest points on the trend line.

Advanced Tips for Your Power KPI Matrix

Once you've mastered the basics, you can take your KPI matrix even further.

Enable Drill-Down

You can create a hierarchy by dragging more than one field into the Category well. For instance, drag Country under Region to allow users to expand a region and see the performance of individual countries within it. The matrix will automatically let you drill down, recalculating the KPIs at each level.

Show Actual vs. Target Details

Under the Format Visual pane, there is a section called Values & Tooltips. Here, you can customize what appears in the columns. Turn on Show actual, target, and variance to display separate columns for the absolute sales, the target, and the percentage difference, giving your users even more detail.

Conditional Formatting for Values

Don’t just rely on the KPI icon for color cues. In the Values & Tooltips settings, you can apply conditional formatting to the background or font of the actual value itself. Set it up to use the same logic as your [Sales KPI Status] measure, making your matrix even easier to read.

Final Thoughts

The Power KPI Matrix is a swiss-army-knife visual for any Power BI report that needs to convey performance against goals quickly and effectively. By bundling values, sparkline trends, and status indicators together, it gives you a clean, data-rich view that’s perfect for executive dashboards and performance summaries.

Mastering visuals like this in Power BI involves understanding data structures and writing DAX, which certainly has a learning curve. That's why at Graphed, we focus on making high-level data analysis accessible without the need for complex setup. We designed our tool to let you connect your data sources - like Google Analytics, Shopify, or Salesforce - and build entire dashboards just by describing what you want in plain English. Your KPIs, trends, and comparisons are generated automatically, turning hours of report building into a matter of seconds. Explore an easier way to get insights from your business data with Graphed today.