Power BI Progress Bars: Boost Your Reports with Visual Impact

Key insights

• Stacked bar charts are commonly used in Power BI to show progress by displaying both the completed and remaining percentages, making it easy to visualize how much of a goal has been achieved.


• You can enhance your reports by adding conditional formatting, dynamic goal lines, and using DAX calculations to automatically update progress based on your data.


• Slicers allow viewers to track individual or category-specific progress, while intermediate techniques use DAX to calculate precise progress percentages for more accurate visuals.


• Advanced customization includes segmenting the bar into intervals (such as 25%), using markers or error bars with custom labels for clarity, and adding visual elements like trophy icons when goals are reached.


• The latest Power BI updates (June 2025) offer improved features for layering visuals, grouping elements, and enhanced formatting options for data labels and markers, making it easier to create polished progress bars.


• Custom visuals, such as Linear Gauges and animated bars, provide advanced options like showing over 100% completion or visually engaging animations that fill the bar as values change.

Introduction to Power BI Progress Bars

Pragmatic Works recently published a detailed video tutorial demonstrating how to create custom progress bars in Power BI reports. The video, led by Greg Trzeciak, walks viewers through beginner, intermediate, and advanced techniques for visualizing progress toward goals. By utilizing stacked bar charts, conditional formatting, DAX calculations, and creative visual add-ons like trophy icons, the tutorial aims to make tracking project completion or personal milestones both intuitive and visually engaging.

As organizations increasingly rely on data-driven dashboards, the ability to clearly communicate progress has become more valuable. The tutorial underscores the versatility of Power BI for building such visuals, highlighting both the simplicity of basic implementations and the customization possible with advanced methods. This article summarizes the key insights from the video, explores the tradeoffs involved, and discusses challenges and best practices for creating effective progress bars in Power BI.

Building Basic Progress Bars: Foundations and Choices

The initial section of the video focuses on constructing simple progress bars using stacked bar charts. By assigning one field to represent the percentage complete and another for the percentage remaining, users can quickly visualize progress relative to a target. This approach is accessible for beginners and provides clear at-a-glance understanding.

However, balancing clarity and detail in basic progress bars can be challenging. While turning off labels or adjusting transparency can help reduce clutter, there is always a tradeoff between simplicity and the amount of information displayed. For instance, removing too many elements may make it harder for users to interpret values, whereas including excessive details might overwhelm the visual. Pragmatic Works recommends thoughtful use of formatting options to ensure the bars remain both informative and easy to read.

Intermediate Techniques: Dynamic Goals and DAX Calculations

Progressing beyond the basics, the tutorial introduces intermediate concepts such as dynamic goal setting and the use of DAX calculations. By incorporating slicers, viewers can track individual progress, and with conditional formatting, goals become adaptable based on context or user input. This flexibility is essential for organizations that need to monitor different teams or projects within the same report.

Nevertheless, implementing dynamic features increases complexity. Users must balance the power of DAX with the need to maintain report performance and usability. Creating calculated columns for precise values and measures for the incomplete portion allows for accurate stacking and coloring, but these steps require a deeper understanding of Power BI’s data model. Pragmatic Works emphasizes the importance of testing and validating these calculations to ensure reliability.

Advanced Customization: Visual Flair and External Tools

For those seeking advanced visuals, the video explores enhancements such as segmenting bars into intervals, adding markers or error bars, and integrating custom visuals like the Linear Gauge or Bullet Chart. These options allow for features such as displaying progress over 100% or visually indicating achievement with iconography like trophies. Such enhancements can make dashboards more engaging and informative.

However, with greater customization come new challenges. Advanced visuals may require additional configuration, and ensuring accessibility for all users becomes more critical. Pragmatic Works also highlights the growing trend of using external tools, such as Excel, to create unique progress bar styles that are then imported into Power BI. While this offers creative freedom, it may introduce compatibility or maintenance issues if data sources change or visuals need updates.

Recent Updates and Best Practices

The June 2025 Power BI update brought new features that further simplify progress bar creation. Enhanced layering and grouping make it easier to manage multiple visuals, while improved formatting options provide greater control over data labels and markers. These updates reflect the community’s feedback and ongoing demand for more flexible visual tools.

Best practices now include creating calculated columns for accurate percentages, leveraging dynamic measures, and using error bars to display values directly on visuals. As progress bars become more sophisticated, careful attention to design and usability remains crucial. Pragmatic Works advises maintaining a balance between visual appeal and functional clarity, ensuring that progress indicators serve their intended purpose without introducing confusion.

Conclusion: Turning Data into Insightful Visuals

In summary, Pragmatic Works’ tutorial demonstrates that making progress bars in Power BI is both accessible and highly customizable. By combining basic stacked charts, dynamic DAX-driven visuals, and advanced enhancements, users can create progress indicators tailored to diverse reporting needs. The challenge lies in balancing simplicity, informativeness, and aesthetic appeal, especially as new features and community best practices evolve.

Ultimately, well-designed progress bars not only track goals but also improve understanding and engagement for report consumers. As Power BI continues to develop, these techniques will help organizations turn raw data into clear, actionable insights.

Keywords

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