GDEL Power BI App Reports Hosted by Solutions
The GDEL Power BI Solutions app is an external application provided by Solutions DGR. The application hosts a multitude of reports that can be used to analyze sales and production statistics.
Reports
Each report can be divided into 3 types:
Power BI Report Types: | ||
Report Type | Details | Refresh Times |
Current Day Dynamic | Reports that are close to real-time. They refresh when a user loads the screen. These reports include the word “Dynamic” in the name. These reports refresh with the latest reporting information, which may lag from the Central data by up to 15 minutes. | Real-Time (when a user refreshes or loads the screen) |
Daily | Reports the refresh less frequently than current day dynamic reports, but refresh during working hours every 1.5 hours. Refresh may take several minutes to complete | 11:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:00 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 6:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. |
Nightly | Most of the reports refresh nightly between about 1 and 4 am. The exact time of the refresh depends on several factors (e.g., the complexity of the report, the amount of historical data, other reports refreshing at the same time, etc.) | Between 1 a.m. – 4 a.m. |
Current Day Dynamic Reports
Reports that are close to real-time*. They refresh when a user loads the screen. These reports include the work “Dynamic” in the name.
*These reports refresh with the latest reporting information, which may lag from the Central data by up to 15 minutes.
OverShort (Current Day Dynamic Report) (V 5.1.0)
NOTE: Numbers in parentheses indicate a negative value. Numbers without parentheses indicate a positive value. For example: ($0.10) means $0.10 short, and $0.50 means $0.50 over.
- Over/Short
- Shows store name and employee name with User Totals and System Totals. The Over/Short column will show the numerical difference between the user totals and system totals columns so managers know if their employees are over or short.
- The ‘Comment’ column shows any comments that are made on the GDEL application. Managers can comment on any discrepancies.
- Over/Short by Store, Employee, and Payment Method
- Displays 2 graphs:
- An Over/Short by TransDate and Payment Method ID line graph.
- An Over/Short by Region vertical bar graph. Shows the Over/Short numerical value by region (D120, D110, and Outlet).
- Displays 2 graphs:
Production By Category (Current Day Dynamic Report) (V 5.2.1)
- Production by Current Day Detail
- Displays two horizontal bar graphs:
- Ranks store names by total produced.
- Ranks store names by the quantity of items produced.
- Displays two horizontal bar graphs:
- Production by Category Current Day
- Displays two graphs:
- A double horizontal bar graph that compares store names to the total produced and quantity numerical values.
- A Tree Map of Total Produced, Quantity, and %GT Quantity by Store name. The store number’s block in the Tree Map increases in size as the total produced increases.
- Displays two graphs:
Sales By Category (Current Day Dynamic Dashboard)
- Sales By Category
- Displays an overview of total sales, total quantity sold, total discounts, and total # of transactions. Also displays 1 graph:
- A double horizontal bar graph showing the total sales and quantity by production category.
- Displays an overview of total sales, total quantity sold, total discounts, and total # of transactions. Also displays 1 graph:
Daily Reports
Reports the refresh less frequently than current day dynamic reports but refresh during working hours every 1.5 hours*.
*Refresh may take several minutes to complete
EOD By Deposit Reconciliation (V5.1.2)
Production By Category (V5.3.1)
Production By Category (Analysis Report) (V5.1.1)
Production By Employee (V5.2.1)
- Production by Employee
- Displays a table that lets you filter employees by store and transaction dates. You can view the number of products employees produced, the total production price that was produced, and the average price point
- Production by Employee Visualization
- Displays a treemap of information by store name. The higher the total production, the larger the store name's square becomes
- Production by Employee Current Day
- Allows you to see the quantity, total production, and average price point for last/next/this amount of days/weeks/months/years.
Production By Employee Sell Through (V5.2.1)
- Production by Employee Sell Through Report
- Allows information to be filtered using the Filter pane. You can organize employee sell through information depending on the date of production, store name, region, employee name, employee id, and category & SKU number.
- Production by Employee Sell Through Visualization
- Illustrates production by employee sell through data through 3 vertical stacked bar graphs.
- The left bar graph displays the sales and production dollars by store name
- the middle graph displays average sales price and average processed price by store name
- the right graph displays quantity sold and quantity produced by store name
- Illustrates production by employee sell through data through 3 vertical stacked bar graphs.
- Allows you to see employee sell through information depending on the date of production, store name, region, employee name, employee id, and category & SKU number for last/next/this amount of days/weeks/months/years.
Production Sell Through By Category (V5.1.1)
Production By Store And Category (V5.2.1)
Production Sell Through By Donation Location (V5.2.1)
Production Sell Through By Store and Donation Location (V5.2.1)
Production Sold By Employee (V5.2.2)
Pulls By Category (V5.1.1)
Pulls By Employee (V5.1.1)
Reconciliation by Employee (V5.0.1)
Round Up By Employee (V5.1.1)
Sales By Category (V5.2.1)
Sales By Hour Dashboard (V5.0.1)
Sales Current Day (V5.0.0)
Sales Detail Transactions (V5.1.1)
Sales Stats (V5.0.0)
Serial Payments Activity (V5.0.1)
Serial Payments History (V5.1.1)
Suspended Transactions (V5.1.1)
Transfers (V5.0.1)
Voided or Abandoned transactions by Employee (V5.1.1)
Nightly Reports
Most of the reports refresh nightly between about 1 and 4 am.
The exact time of the refresh depends on several factors (e.g., the complexity of the report, the amount of historical data, other reports refreshing at the same time, etc.)
Average Transaction Ranking (V5.0)
- Projects Average Sales $ per transaction by store name. The top bar shows the numerical value of total sales by filtered date, total transactions by filtered date, and the average sales $ Per Transaction by filtered date.
- Subcategories include:
- Average Transaction Ranking
- Default report that illustrates total sales by filtered date, total transactions by filtered date, and the average sales $ Per Transaction by filtered date.
- Average Transaction Ranking Visuals
- Displays 2 graphs:
- The top line graph illustrates the average sales $ per transaction by date
- The bottom graph illustrates the average sales $ per transaction by store.
- Displays 2 graphs:
- Average Transaction Ranking Current Day
- Displays bar graph of average sales $ per transaction by store. In the date filter, you can sort by the last/next/this number of days/weeks/months/years
- Average Transaction Ranking
Cashier Report by Store (V5.1.1)
Customer Report (V5.1.1)
Daily Budgeted Sales (V5.2.1)
Discounts by Date-Employee-Type (V5.1.1)
Discounts by Day-Type (V5.1.1)
Export Report (V5.0)
Inventory On Hand by SKU (V5.1.1)
Line Item-Delete
Manually Entered Items (V5.0.1)
Over-Short (V5.4.1)
Returns Detail Report
Returns Report
Sales By Color (V5.0.0)
Sales By Day (V5.0.0)
Sales By Hour (V5.0.0)
Sales By Item (V5.1.1)
Sales By Vendor By SKU (V5.1.1)
Sales MTD (V5.0.1)
Sales YTD (V5.0.1)
Serial Payments Balance (V5)
Tax Exempt (V5.3.1)
Tax Sales By Category (V5.1.1)
List of current reports in order: (Updated 2/16/2024)
Average Transaction Ranking
Cashier Report by Store
Customer Report
Daily Budgeted Sales
Discount by Date-Employee-Type
Discount By Day-Type
EOD Deposit and Reconciliation
Export Report
Inventory On Hand By SKU
Line Item Delete
Manually Entered Items
Over-Short
OverShort (Current Day Dynamic)
Production by Category
Production by Category (Analysis Report)
Production by Category (Current Day Dynamic Report)
Production by Employee
Production by Employee Sell Through
Production By Store and Category
Production Sell Through by Category
Production Sell Through by Donation Location
Production Sell Through By Store and Donation Location
Production Sold by Employee
Pulls by Category
Pulls by Employee
Reconciliation by Employee
Returns Detail Report
Returns Report
Round Up By Employee
Sales By Category
Sales By Category (Current Day Dynamic Dashboard)
Sales by Color
Sales By Day
Sales by Hour
Sales by Hour Dashboard
Sales by Item
Sales By Vendor By SKU
Sales Current Day
Sales Detail Transactions
Sales MTD
Sales Stats
Sales YTD
Serial Payments Activity
Serial Payments Balance
Serial Payments History
Suspended Transactions
Tax Exempt
Taxable Sale By Category
Transfers
Voided or Abandoned Transactions by Employee
Solutions Power BI Dashboard Report Release History
Updates include standardization, enhanced layouts and bug fixes unless otherwise specified below
Reports scheduled for week of 2/26/24:
- Sales by Category (Analysis Dashboard)
- Voided or Abandoned Transactions by Employee
- Serial Payments History
- Customer Report
- Production by Employee
Reports scheduled for week of 3/4/24:
- Round Up by Employee/Round Up Summary
- Taxable Sales by Category
- Pulls by Employee
- Reconciliation By Employee
- Sales by Day
Reports scheduled for week of 3/11/24:
- Discounts by Day Type
- End of Day Deposit & Reconciliation
- Serial Payment Balance
Parts of a Power BI Report (provided by Solutions DGR)
Menu: lists all available reports
Page(s): display the same report information in a variety of ways
Header: top section of the report which usually displays totals and holds slicer controls
Filter Pane: alternative location for slicer controls, if the header is too crowded
Grid: common choice for displaying detailed information (see Advanced Grid (p. 9) section for tips on drilling into information)
Tip! With very large reports like “Sales Detail Transactions” it is possible for a filter range to request more information than the grid can hold. In this case you will see a message saying “Visual has exceeded the available resources.” This is normal for large reports. Simply choose different slicer settings. Select a smaller date range, or fewer Stores. We generally recommend that “Sales Detail Transactions” be used to review only “1 Store, 1 Day” at the most:
Slicers (filters): enable you to narrow down report information to a specific range, group, or single choice of values. To clear away a selected filter setting, hover over the top right-hand corner of the slicer until the eraser appears. Click the eraser to remove all settings. Click the “Reset” button to erase all settings from all slicers at one time for an entire report page.
Date Between Slicer: allows a range of dates between Start Date and End Date; you can change the Start and End date values by using the slider bar, by selecting values from the calendar, or by typing values directly into the fields; always remember Start Date must come before End Date – the slicer will ignore you if you try to enter a range with Start Date after End Date.
- For example: if you are looking at the month of March, Start Date is 3/1 and End Date is 3/30. To look at the month of April, change End Date first to 4/30. The range 3/1 thru 4/30 is a valid range. If you try to change Start Date first, 4/1 thru 3/30 is not a valid range and your change will be ignored.
- Another example: If you are looking at the month of March, Start Date is 3/1 and End Date is 3/30. To look at the month of February, change Start Date first to 2/1. The range 2/1 thru 3/30 is still a valid range. If you try to change End Date first, 3/1 thru 2/28 is not a valid range and your change will be ignored
^ Valid date range examples
^ Figure: Attempted invalid date range ignored
Relative Date Slicer: “Last” option allows dates counted backward from today; you can choose to go back a number of days, weeks, months, or years. “This” option chooses a range based on this calendar date, week, month, or year. (“Next” option is only useful for forecast reports, most SolutionsDGR reports are historical.)
Drop-Down Slicer: displays a list of possible filter options with small checkboxes. Click a checkbox to select an option. Hold Ctrl while clicking to select multiple checkboxes. Check the “Select all” option to select all options at once. Click “Select all” again to clear all selections.
Tip! If you want to include most but not quite all of the available options (only exclude a few), click “Select all” to check all the boxes, then hold Ctrl and de-select the few options you wish to exclude. Use the “Search” box by typing a few characters of the option you need. Only options that match your text will be displayed.
Reloading a PowerBI report / Troubleshooting unexpected data values
Refresh Visuals: The Refresh Visuals button will force a report to reload all the data (numbers, graphs, etc.). It doesn’t compile brand new data, but it retries fetching the current data. This is always the first step to try if you see unexpected numbers in your report.
Browser Refresh: Click the Browser Refresh button one time to reload an entire PowerBI report. This works exactly the same with any other web page (e.g., Netflix, Amazon, etc.) and will give the entire page a chance to load again – hopefully this time without any glitches. This is a good second step to try.
Tip! Occasionally your web browser may “remember” some older data settings, causing a PowerBI report to hang on to earlier data after it is no longer correct. If you have had a report open earlier in the day and “Refresh Visuals” is not working to bring in new data, try a “hard refresh” of your browser by holding Ctrl and pressing F5. This will clear any old settings and reload the web page as if you had never opened it before.
Reset: The Reset button is a last-resort if you just have questionable data in a report, but it is very handy when you have chosen a lot of slicer/filter settings and you would like to clear them all at one time.
Clicking Reset will:
⦁ change all your slicer/filter settings to their default values
⦁ reset any custom sorting, sizing, or hiding of values in a grid/matrix
⦁ reset any custom sorting, highlighting on a chart
⦁ reload current data
If you are forced to Reset a report that you use over and over with the same slicer/filter settings, you may be interested in setting some Bookmarks
How to tell when my report last refreshed
At the top left-hand corner of each report is a toolbar that displays the report title (shown below on the “Production By Category” report). If you click the down-arrow to the right of the title, you will see a small display panel with additional information about the report. The last item of the panel shows “Date updated.” This is the last date/time the report retrieved fresh data
Tip! If at any time during business hours this shows yesterday’s date, there may be a problem with your scheduled refreshes. Please submit a ticket or contact support.
Advanced Tips & Tricks for Grids
Sorting: You can change how a grid is sorted by clicking on the column header of the column you would like to sort by. Once a column is sorted, it will show a small arrow indicating whether it is sorted in ascending order (smallest to largest), or descending order (largest to smallest). Click a column a second time to toggle the sort order. If you click a different column, the first column will no longer be sorted. PowerBI does not provide sorting by multiple columns.
Report Hierarchy: Most of the SolutionsDGR reports in PowerBI have several columns of grouping information. For example, the “Reconciliation By Employee” report shows quantity of pulls by Store Name, then by Employee Name, and finally by Product Category
Drill Up: Drill Up causes columns to collapse and hide detailed information. This will adapt your report for overview or summary.
Expand: The reverse of Drill Up is Expand. Expand can be used to show more detail in a report
Export Data: PowerBI makes it easy to export data into a spreadsheet, where it can be manipulated with the powerful data features of Excel. To export information from a grid, click anywhere in the grid to activate the grid toolbar. Click the “elipsis” icon with the three dots. Select “Export data” from the menu.
A panel will appear to ask “Which data do you want to export?”
Select the “Data with current layout” option if it is not already selected. Click “Export” to finish.
The data file will be downloaded by your browser. You can then open it with Excel like any other spreadsheet file. The information will be shown as it appeared in the PowerBI report. A row at the very bottom of the file will show any filters you had applied
Setting Bookmarks in PowerBI
PowerBI reports offer a nice feature for organizing and saving preferred or frequently used report configurations. Saved Personal Bookmarks can be selected at any time from the Bookmarks menu. Also, a Bookmark flagged as “Default” will be chosen automatically when a report is first opened (without a “Default” Bookmark a report will generally “remember” the arrangement it had the last time it was used).
A bookmark saves the settings listed below:
⦁ Slicer settings
⦁ Grid/chart selected values
⦁ Grid/chart sort order
Add a Personal Bookmark: Once you have a report arranged exactly as you want it, create a new Bookmark by droppingdown the “Personal Bookmarks” options. Select “Add a personal bookmark” and provide a name. Click “Save” to finish.
Delete a Personal Bookmark: Drop down the “Personal Bookmarks” menu to view all Personal Bookmarks. Click the ellipsis button () next to the bookmark to be removed. Select the “Delete” option.
Rename a Personal Bookmark: Drop down the “Personal Bookmarks” menu to view all Personal Bookmarks. Click the ellipsis button ( ) next to the bookmark you wish to rename. Select the “Rename” option and provide a new name. Press “Enter” to save the changes.
Make a Bookmark “Default”: Drop down the “Personal Bookmarks” menu to view all Personal Bookmarks. Click the ellipsis button ( ) next to the bookmark you wish to flag as the new “Default.” Select the “Make default” option. You should now see a flag icon next to the name. To remove, follow the above steps, and select “Clear default.” The flag icon will disappear.