on 16 Jul 2018 15:59:57
It would be great if Grand Totals on a Matrix or Table would add up correctly to the sum of the rows when you include MEASURES in the visual. Currently the total on a measure consists of the measure function itself, instead of the sum of the rows above. PLEASE give us the option to toggle totals to be a simple aggregate of the rows above also.
Jeroen ter Heerdt (administrator) on 24 Oct 2022 18:59:09
Moving this idea to "under review" to mark that discussions are underway. For full transparency, we have started working on DAX calculations at the visual level. That feature will make changes that will serve as building blocks for other features, including but not limited to the one discussed in this idea: providing more flexibility for influencing what is shown on the total: the visual total, the "DAX" total, or another expression altogether.
Hence, the delivery of this Idea will be dependent on the DAX-calculations-on-a-visual feature.
- Comments (148)
- Merged Idea (29)
RE: Matrix/Table grand totals with Measures
I just want to add, since this idea is under review, that I hope Microsoft doesn't break the current implementation of how data is aggregated in Matrices. In fact, I am not even sure what everyone is complaining about. If you set up your parent-child hierarchies properly, then from my experience, Power BI does all the heavy lifting for you. And believe me, my matrices are incredibly complex from simple sums, counts, and averages to complex weighted averages and more and all in the same matrix. It is quite a marvel to see Grand Total metrics that are not only correct but never seen by anybody before. If the user can't understand why the Grand Total is not a sum of the rows, that's on them. If I had to write separate DAX measures to do all that math at the Grand Total level, I would go crazy. And if a user wants to reproduce that aggregating math in Excel, good luck, and this is from someone with over two decades of Excel engineering expertise including VBA. In my experience, this is where PowerBI really shines: its ability to aggregate which is really unparalleled, but you have to know what you're doing.
RE: Matrix/Table grand totals with Measures
Since this is so very confusing, it causes problem with the trust people have with the data. Power BI is supposed to be a self-serving BI tool. When the totals don't match the users have two options:Use another toolExport to Excel. Usually, they would export the data to Excel - that's what I would do. I have done it several times since I wanted to share valuable information with my Finance team. An Accountant or an Analyst might now their job really well - they don't care that much about "Power BI" and coding, they are just tools for them, and this is a huge issue.
RE: Matrix/Table grand totals with Measures
Please fix this. This is beyond ridiculous!!
RE: Matrix/Table grand totals with Measures
This has been under review for 7 years and its still not fixed?
RE: Matrix/Table grand totals with Measures
We get dark mode but cannot seem to get measure totals correct in matrix/table.The number of workarounds my team has to do to get a simple total correct is abysmal. Please prioritise this over nice to haves like the recent dark mode update.
RE: Matrix/Table grand totals with Measures
Upvoted - this desperately needs a fix.
RE: Matrix/Table grand totals with Measures
at many times need to work around with inscope or isfiltered to get the context and write our own measure to calculate the value sum
RE: Matrix/Table grand totals with Measures
Obviously support this. And note that original post was 16th July 2018 and latest (before this post) is 16th July 2024!
RE: Matrix/Table grand totals with Measures
I fully support the proposal to improve the calculation of Grand Totals in Matrix and Table visuals when measures are included. The actual Grand Total for a measure reflects the result of the measure's function applied to the entire dataset, rather than simply summing the individual row values. This behavior can be misleading and does not always provide the expected result.Despite the introduction of Visual DAX calculations, it would be incredibly beneficial to have the option to toggle Grand Totals to either:Use the current behavior (applying the measure function to the entire dataset).Simply aggregate (sum) the values of the rows above.We would also like this feature to be dependent on the DAX-calculations-on-a-visual feature. Providing this flexibility would allow users to choose the total calculation method that best suits their specific analysis needs, ensuring more accurate and intuitive reporting. This enhancement would greatly improve the clarity and accuracy of the insights derived from Power BI reports.
RE: Matrix/Table grand totals with Measures
You can spend billions on KI ... but it would be nice to fix the basics first.