Support & Documentation

1. Install the Visual from Microsoft Marketplace

AI Chatbot is published in the Microsoft Marketplace marketplace as SmartVisuals AI Chatbot. Open the listing and click "Get it now", or search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery, then click "Add" to install it. You can also download the .pbiviz file and import it manually.

2. Optional: Use Your Own AI API Key

With a license key the chat works straight away on SmartVisuals AI (included), no API key needed. If you prefer your own AI account, choose your provider under AI Provider in the format pane and paste an API key from one of these:

• OpenAI: platform.openai.com/api-keys
• Anthropic: console.anthropic.com
• Google AI: aistudio.google.com/app/apikey
• xAI (Grok): console.x.ai
• Azure OpenAI: portal.azure.com - Requires Azure subscription with OpenAI service enabled

3. Enter Your License Key

After adding the visual to your report, open the visual's format pane in Power BI. Navigate to the "License" section and enter your SmartVisuals license key. You can get a free license from our AI Chatbot page or purchase a paid plan from your dashboard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Troubleshooting

Accessibility

• Reduced motion — When the operating system asks for reduced motion, animations and transitions inside the visual are switched off. Message animations are also off by default (Interface > Enable Animations).
• High contrast — When the system asks for more contrast, every message gets a solid outline. Buttons and text fields show a 2px focus outline in the text colour. Colours otherwise follow the selected theme; the visual does not switch to the Power BI high-contrast palette.
• Screen readers — Questions and answers are plain text on the page, in reading order. The conversation history opens as a labelled modal dialog, and the menu and send buttons carry their names in the interface language.
• Context menu — Right-click (or the context-menu key) on the chat opens the Power BI context menu. Inside the message box you get the normal text menu for copy and paste.
• Languages — The interface is in English, Czech, German, French and Spanish (Language > Interface Language). Answers follow the language of your question, or the Chat Language you set.

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery). Then drop in the three required fields and add optional ones as you need them:

• Task, Start Date, End Date — required; this alone renders the chart
• Parent Task — builds the collapsible work-breakdown hierarchy with rollup summary bars
• Dependencies — comma-separated predecessor tasks; enables dependency arrows and critical path (premium)
• Progress % — progress fill inside bars and rollup progress on summaries
• Baseline Start / Baseline End — plan-vs-actual ghost bars with slip in tooltips (premium)
• Category / Group — color coding with an interactive legend
• Grid Columns — up to 3 sortable data columns (Owner, Status, Cost…) next to task names (premium)

Licensing

The Gantt Chart is licensed through Microsoft Marketplace with a per-user subscription — there is no license key to enter and no account on this website. The licensing model is designed to never block your report:

• Everything is unlocked while you author or edit a report, so you can try all features before buying
• Free features always render for every viewer — hierarchy, milestones, themes, zoom, legend, and more
• A per-user license is only needed for premium features in reading view: dependency arrows, critical path, baseline comparison and grid columns
• Licenses are purchased and assigned through Microsoft (first month free); the visual unlocks automatically for licensed users

Troubleshooting

Accessibility

• Screen readers — Each task row is announced as a button with its name, start and end date and percent complete, for example "Site survey, Mar 3, 2026 to Mar 14, 2026, 40% complete". Group rows announce their name, the number of tasks and whether they are expanded or collapsed.
• High contrast — In Windows high contrast mode the chart switches to the system foreground and background colours for bars, text, grid, arrows and the focus ring. Theme, report-theme and custom colours are set aside while the mode is on.
• Reduced motion — When the operating system asks for reduced motion, the bars appear without the entrance fade.
• Not colour alone — Critical-path tasks get a heavier outline and thicker arrows, overdue tasks a dashed outline, and milestones a distinct shape. The tooltip also spells it out: "Critical path: Yes", "Overdue: 3 days" and the baseline slip in days.
• Focus indicator — The focused row shows a visible outline when you move with the keyboard; mouse clicks do not trigger it.
• Context menu — Right-clicking a bar, a task row, a summary row or empty space opens the standard Power BI context menu.

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery). Two fields are enough:

• Axis — the dimensions of the radar (skills, KPIs, criteria…)
• Values — one or more measures, each drawn as a series; or one measure split by Legend
• Target — optional goal values drawn as a dashed polygon (premium)
• Pin the scale minimum and maximum in the format pane so slicer clicks stop rescaling the chart

Licensing

Licensed through Microsoft Marketplace per user ($1.99/user/month) — no license key, no account on this website, and the visual never blocks your report:

• Free forever: up to 3 series on up to 100 axes, every cosmetic option and the shared-scale controls (pinned minimum and maximum, start at zero, axis order)
• Premium in reading view: 4+ series, independent per-axis scaling and per-axis minimums and maximums, normalization, inverted axes, target polygon, zones, benchmark, reference line, conditional formatting, chart modes and small multiples
• Everything previews free in edit mode, so you can build the whole report before buying

Troubleshooting

Accessibility

• Screen readers — The chart announces itself as "Radar chart" with a short hint on the arrow keys, Enter and Escape. Each point is announced as a button with its axis, series and formatted value, for example "Delivery, Team North: 82". In small multiples each panel is announced by its series name.
• High contrast — In Windows high contrast mode series, grid, axes, labels, target, zones and rule colours switch to the system foreground and background colours. Custom and report-theme colours are set aside while the mode is on.
• Reduced motion — When the operating system asks for reduced motion, the chart draws without the entrance animation.
• Not colour alone — In the default SmartVisuals theme each series gets its own marker shape (circle, diamond, square, triangle), and Marker Shape in the format pane sets one for any theme. The target polygon is dashed and has a dashed legend entry of its own.
• Languages — Format pane, field names, messages and screen-reader text are available in English and Czech, following the Power BI language setting.
• Context menu — Right-clicking a point, a legend entry, a small-multiple panel or empty space opens the standard Power BI context menu.

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery). Two fields are the whole setup:

• Entity — who returns: customer ID, account, user…
• Event Date — when they acted; the visual derives cohorts, offsets and denominators from these two fields
• Value — optional revenue or amount, unlocking value retention, LTV curves and payback markers (premium)
• Segment — optional field for side-by-side cohort comparison with significance markers (premium)

Licensing

Licensed through Microsoft Marketplace per user ($1.99/user/month) — no license key and no account on this website. Unlicensed viewers always see the full free tier:

• Free forever: the count-based triangle, all four denominators, all three retention definitions, all three views, every theme, cross-filtering and keyboard navigation
• Premium in reading view: value retention (NRR), LTV curves, payback markers, segment comparison with significance, benchmarks, the age-vs-calendar panel, insights and retention projection
• Everything previews free in edit mode, so you can build the whole report before buying

Troubleshooting

Accessibility

• Screen readers — The triangle is exposed as a grid with row and column headers. Each cell announces its cohort, its period and its value, plus its state when it has one: low base suppressed, partial period, payback reached, projected, not observable yet or no data. The curves, layer cake and age-vs-calendar panels carry descriptive labels, and each curve line is announced with its cohort name.
• High contrast — When Windows high contrast is on, the visual switches to the foreground and background colours Power BI provides. The colour scale runs between those two colours and every line and marker is drawn in the foreground colour.
• Not colour alone — Unobserved cells are hatched, cells with no data are dotted, partial periods are outlined, projected cells are dashed and italic, payback is marked with a diamond and significance with an up or down triangle, so no state depends on colour.
• Context menu — Right-clicking a cell opens the Power BI context menu for that data point; right-clicking empty space opens the general menu.
• Languages — The format pane and the text on the visual are available in English and Czech and follow the language of Power BI.

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery). One field is enough to get a working ticker:

• Headline — required; a text column is all you need
• Badge — a short category label rendered as a coloured chip; the first eight badges each get their own colour picker, listed under your real badge names
• Value and Change — stock-ticker numbers with an up or down arrow; both follow the format string on your measure
• Image — an optional logo per item, stored in your model as a base64 data URI

No fields at all? Type an Announcement in the format pane and the ticker runs on that alone.

Licensing

The News Ticker is completely free. There is no licence to buy, no key to enter, no account on this website and no premium tier — every feature renders for every viewer, in every report. Install it and use it.

Troubleshooting

Accessibility

• Pause and focus — While any item has keyboard focus the strip stands still, so the focused item can be read and activated, and a focused item that has scrolled out of view is brought back into it. Viewers can also stop the strip with the Pause button, and Pause on Hover (on by default) holds it while the pointer rests on it.
• Reduced motion — When the operating system asks for reduced motion, the strip does not scroll: items are laid out still and can be scrolled by hand, and a Play button lets the viewer start the motion on purpose. The one-off flash on changed items is skipped too; the accent bar that marks them stays.
• High contrast — In Windows high contrast mode text, badges, values, deltas, separators and the focus ring all take the system foreground and background colours. The edge fade, a custom background colour and the transparent background are switched off so nothing fades into the page.
• Screen readers — The visual is labelled News ticker and its items form a toolbar labelled Ticker items. Each item is a button announced by its headline, with the badge in brackets after it, for example Revenue above plan (SALES). The copies used to loop the strip are hidden from screen readers, and the Pause and Play buttons announce Pause ticker and Play ticker.
• Not colour alone — The direction of a change is shown by a ▲ or ▼ arrow next to the number, not only by green or red, and an item whose numbers just changed is marked by a bar on its left edge as well as a colour.
• Languages — English and Czech. Other Power BI locales show the English strings.

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), or import the .pbiviz from the download page. One category and one measure are enough:

• Category — required; categories ranked by contribution (defect codes, SKUs, root causes). Add a hierarchy to drill
• Value — required; the contribution measure (count, cost, downtime). Add more measures to switch metrics or draw a second cumulative line (premium)
• Compare / Small multiples — optional group field: two values give a before/after comparison, more give one Pareto per group (premium)
• Tooltips — extra measures shown in tooltips

Licensing

Licensed through Microsoft Marketplace with a per-user subscription — no license key, no account on this website. The visual never blocks a report:

• Everything is unlocked while you author or edit a report, so you can evaluate every feature before buying
• Free features always render for every viewer — ranked bars, cumulative line, threshold, vital-few coloring, Top N with Others, the insight sentence, five themes, up to 25 individual categories
• A per-user license is only needed for premium features in reading view: more than 25 individual categories (up to 200 bars including Others), ABC classification, Smart Insights+, QM mode, before/after comparison, small multiples, metric switching
• Licenses are purchased and assigned through Microsoft (first month free); the visual unlocks automatically for licensed users

Troubleshooting

Accessibility

• Screen readers — Each bar is announced with its category, its value in your measure's format, its share of the total and the cumulative percentage.
• High contrast — When Windows high contrast is on, bars, the cumulative line and the ABC zones use the colours Power BI provides, and the transparent background option is ignored so the chart stays readable.
• Not colour alone — The vital few are always the bars to the left of the threshold crossing, ABC zones carry A, B and C labels, and the insight sentence states the split in words.
• Context menu — Right-clicking a bar opens the Power BI context menu for that category; right-clicking empty space opens the general menu.
• Languages — The format pane and the text on the visual are available in English, Czech, German, French and Spanish and follow the language of Power BI.

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), or import the .pbiviz from the download page. Map a long-format survey table (one row per respondent, question and answer):

• Question — one row / table block per question; leave empty or filter to the recommend question in the NPS view
• Answer / Score — scale answers in model sort order; the 0–10 likelihood-to-recommend score for the NPS view
• Value — respondent count, or Sum of Weight for weighted results
• Segment / Columns — optional: Likert segments and NPS segments (premium), Crosstab banner columns (free), with significance letters (premium)
• Wave / Period — optional: tracker mode; NPS trend over waves, Likert and Crosstab show the latest wave with the change
• Sum of Weight² (significance) — optional: SUM(weight²) as a measure enables Kish effective bases for weighted significance testing (premium)
• Dimension / Group, Question Text, Benchmark — optional: sections with pooled scores, full wording for tooltips, a norm per statement

Licensing

Licensed through Microsoft Marketplace with a per-user subscription — no license key, no account on this website. The visual never blocks a report:

• Everything is unlocked while you author or edit a report, so you can evaluate every feature before buying
• Free features always render for every viewer — all three views with unweighted counts and percentages, captions, footnotes, quick styles, tracker deltas, histogram, remappable NPS cut-offs, search, transpose, CSV export and every cosmetic option
• A per-user license is only needed for premium features in reading view: weighted results on effective bases, significance letters, crosstab net and mean rows, NPS inference, the target line and the gap to target
• Licenses are purchased and assigned through Microsoft (first month free); the visual unlocks automatically for licensed users

Troubleshooting

Accessibility

• High contrast — In Windows high contrast the visual uses the foreground and background colours Power BI hands it instead of the theme. Heat shading is switched off, bars get outlines, and low bases stay hatched.
• Screen readers — The view switcher is a tab list with the current view marked as selected. When the chart takes focus its accessible name is the smart caption, so the finding is read first. Bar segments, crosstab cells and NPS marks carry a label with row, answer or column, and value. The search box is labelled.
• Reduced motion — The NPS score counts up only when the system does not ask for reduced motion. The Animate Score switch in the format pane turns it off for everyone.
• Not colour alone — Significance is shown with column letters, ▲ and ▼ marks and a ✓ on tested changes. Low bases are hatched and starred. In the battery, disagree answers sit left of the axis and agree answers right of it.
• Languages — English and Czech, including the format pane, captions, footnotes and the footer that explains the letters.

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), or import the .pbiviz from the download page. Three fields build the table; the banner field turns it into a crosstab:

• Question — required; one table block per question
• Answer — required; answer categories in model sort order
• Value — required; respondent count, or Sum of Weight for weighted results
• Columns (banner) — optional: segments shown as table columns, with significance letters (premium)
• Sum of Weight² (significance) — optional: SUM(weight²) as a measure enables Kish effective bases for weighted significance testing (premium)
• Wave / Period — optional: tracker mode; the table shows the latest wave and the change since the previous one in every cell

Licensing

Licensed through Microsoft Marketplace with a per-user subscription — no license key, no account on this website. The visual never blocks a report:

• Everything is unlocked while you author or edit a report, so you can evaluate every feature before buying
• Free features always render for every viewer — the table with column % or values, Total column, base row, heat shading, sticky headers, the index vs Total, tracker deltas, search, transpose, CSV export and every cosmetic option
• A per-user license is only needed for premium features in reading view: significance letters, weighted cells on effective bases, net and mean rows with tests, the index vs Total test and the test on tracker deltas
• Licenses are purchased and assigned through Microsoft (first month free); the visual unlocks automatically for licensed users

Troubleshooting

Accessibility

• High contrast — In Windows high contrast the table uses the foreground and background colours Power BI hands it instead of the theme. Heat shading is switched off and low bases stay hatched.
• Screen readers — When the table takes focus its accessible name is the smart caption, so the finding is read first. Each cell carries a label with its row, column and value. The search box is labelled.
• Not colour alone — Significance is shown with column letters, ▲ and ▼ marks and a ✓ on tested changes. Low bases are hatched and starred in the base row.
• Languages — English and Czech, including the format pane, the caption, the footnote and the footer that explains the letters.

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), or import the .pbiviz from the download page. Three fields draw the battery:

• Question — required; one row of the battery per statement
• Answer (scale) — required; scale answers in model sort order
• Value — required; respondent count, or Sum of Weight for weighted results
• Segment (comparison) — optional (premium): compare groups side by side with significance letters
• Sum of Weight² (significance) — optional: SUM(weight²) as a measure enables Kish effective bases for weighted significance testing (premium)
• Dimension / Group, Question Text, Benchmark (top box) — optional: sections with pooled score bars, full wording for tooltips, a norm per statement
• Wave / Period — optional: tracker mode; the bars show the latest wave and each top box its change since the previous one

Licensing

Licensed through Microsoft Marketplace with a per-user subscription — no license key, no account on this website. The visual never blocks a report:

• Everything is unlocked while you author or edit a report, so you can evaluate every feature before buying
• Free features always render for every viewer — the full battery with neutral handling, N/A, nets, means, margins of error, tracker deltas, dimensions, benchmarks, captions, footnotes and every cosmetic option
• A per-user license is only needed for premium features in reading view: segment comparison with letters, weighted results on effective bases, and the vs-total, vs-benchmark and wave tests
• Licenses are purchased and assigned through Microsoft (first month free); the visual unlocks automatically for licensed users

Troubleshooting

Accessibility

• High contrast — In Windows high contrast mode the bars, labels, legend, caption and footnote take the system foreground and background colours. Answers become shades between the two with an outline on every segment, and the transparent background and custom answer colours are switched off so nothing fades into the page.
• Screen readers — The chart is one labelled region whose name is the smart caption, for example the highest and lowest statement and what beats the norm, so a screen reader reads the finding first. Each bar segment carries a label with the statement, the answer and its share, such as Workload, Agree: 34%, and the full question wording is attached to each statement label.
• Not colour alone — Disagree answers sit left of the axis and agree answers right of it, so the direction reads from position. Changes and test results carry glyphs as well as colour: ▲ or ▼ for a change or a significant difference, ✓ for a significant result, letters for segment differences, and an asterisk plus hatching for a base too small to test.
• Focus ring — The focused segment gets a dashed outline in the text colour, and in a long battery the plot scrolls so the focused segment stays in view.
• Languages — English and Czech for the format pane, the smart caption, the footnote and the empty-state help. Other Power BI locales show the English strings.

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), or import the .pbiviz from the download page. Two fields give the headline; Wave adds the trend:

• Score (0–10) — required; the likelihood-to-recommend answer as the raw 0–10 value, not a pre-computed score
• Value — required; respondent count, or Sum of Weight for weighted results
• Wave / Period — optional: the score over waves in model sort order, with a confidence band and rolling average
• Segment — optional (premium): the score per segment, lettered and with tested movement
• Sum of Weight² (significance) — optional: SUM(weight²) as a measure enables Kish effective bases for weighted significance testing (premium)

Licensing

Licensed through Microsoft Marketplace with a per-user subscription — no license key, no account on this website. The visual never blocks a report:

• Everything is unlocked while you author or edit a report, so you can evaluate every feature before buying
• Free features always render for every viewer — the headline score, margin of error, split, histogram, trend, captions, footnotes and every cosmetic option
• A per-user license is only needed for premium features in reading view: the wave-over-wave significance test, segments with letters and tested movement, weighted NPS on effective bases, and the target line with the gap to target
• Licenses are purchased and assigned through Microsoft (first month free); the visual unlocks automatically for licensed users

Troubleshooting

Accessibility

• High contrast — In Windows high contrast mode the score, split bar, histogram, trend, caption and footnote take the system foreground and background colours, every bar gets an outline, and the transparent background is switched off. The split keeps its fixed order, detractors, passives, promoters, and its percentage labels.
• Screen readers — The visual is one labelled region whose name is the smart caption, for example NPS +41 in 2026 H1, the change against the previous wave and the split, so a screen reader reads the finding first. Each mark carries a label such as Promoters: 48.0%, NPS 9: 21.5% or 2026 H1: NPS +41.
• Reduced motion — The headline counts up from zero when the score changes. When the operating system asks for reduced motion it does not: the number is shown still. Animate Score in the Display card switches the count-up off for everyone.
• Not colour alone — The direction of a change is shown by ▲ or ▼ next to the number, a tested change by ✓ or (n.s.), segment differences by letters and a base too small to test by an asterisk and hatching. With the face score style the band also shows as a smile, a level mouth or a frown.
• Languages — English and Czech for the format pane, the smart caption, the footnote and the empty-state help. Other Power BI locales show the English strings.

SmartVisuals Venn & UpSet

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), then:

1. Map an ID (respondent or customer) and the field that names the sets, or one 0/1 field per set. Delimited "A;B;C" answers are split automatically.
2. Up to three sets draw a Venn/Euler diagram, four or more an UpSet matrix; override the view in Format > View if you want.
3. Choose exclusive or inclusive counts, set a query (any of / all of / exactly / none of), and pick a theme.
4. Add a Weight, Compare by or Value field for the premium features; they preview free in edit mode.

Licensing

The free tier works for every viewer with no licence. Premium is $2.99 per user per month or $29 per user per year, bought on Microsoft Marketplace and assigned in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Every premium feature previews free in edit mode, and unlicensed viewers always see a working visual, never a blocked one or a watermark.

Use Cases

• Brand usage from a multi-select survey question — A brand tracker stores one row per respondent and brand bought. Put RespondentID in ID (respondent, customer…) and Brand in Sets (answer, item). With three brands you get an area-proportional Euler diagram with % of base; respondents who answered "None of these" stay in the base and are shown apart, so every share reads against everyone asked.
• Microsoft Forms export with answers in one cell — Forms writes a multi-select answer as "Helios;Aquaron" in a single column. Map the respondent column to ID (respondent, customer…) and the answer column to Sets (answer, item); the cell is split on ; or | automatically, and Format > Data > Split answers on handles commas or turns splitting off. No Power Query unpivot is needed.
• Cross-sell: which customers buy which product lines — From an orders table, map CustomerID to ID (respondent, customer…) and ProductLine to Sets (answer, item). Five product lines draw an UpSet matrix: one bar per combination, the dot matrix underneath and set-size bars beside it. A Set query of "All of" Pumps and Service contracts highlights and counts those customers, and clicking a bar cross-filters the rest of the page to exactly those IDs.
• Feature adoption from a wide user table — A product team keeps one row per user with a 0/1 or Yes/No column per feature. Put UserID in ID (respondent, customer…) and each feature column in Set flags (one per set), aggregated with Max or First. The UpSet shows which feature bundles users actually combine, and Format > View > Intersections switches between "exactly these features" and "at least these features".
• Overlap from a pre-aggregated summary — When only a summary table is available, for example "A;B" with 120 and "A" with 340, map the combination column to Sets (answer, item) and the number to Count (pre-aggregated). No ID is needed; the base note then reads "Base: all counted cases".
• Wave-on-wave reach for an insight team (Premium) — Add Wave to Compare by and Max of the weight column to Weight. Each wave gets its own panel or grouped bars, shares are weighted with the effective base next to N, and significance letters mark which wave is higher. Format > Overlap intelligence holds confidence intervals and deviation from independence, and View > Chart adds the Duplication matrix and TURF reach.

Troubleshooting

Articles

• Set overlap in Power BI: the data shape, why Venn breaks after three sets, and how to read an UpSet plot

Accessibility

• Screen readers — The chart is labelled with the view (Venn, UpSet, duplication matrix or TURF), the number of sets and the base with the name of your ID field, followed by the keyboard help. Each focused element is announced with its name, count and % of base, such as "Set Helios: 640, 53% of base".
• High contrast — In Windows high contrast the visual uses the system foreground, background and selection colours, drops the circle fills, draws set outlines and bars in the foreground colour, and ignores the transparent background setting.
• Not colour alone — Sets are named on their labels, the UpSet dot matrix shows which sets each combination contains, significant deviations and duplication-matrix cells carry ▲ or ▼, and a classic diagram is marked "Not to scale" in words.
• Contrast in every theme — Text, set outlines, bars and the focus ring are adjusted until they meet contrast targets against the theme background: 4.5:1 for text and 3:1 for marks.
• Languages — English, Czech, German, French and Spanish, for the format pane and every label drawn on the chart.

More answers are in the Venn & UpSet page FAQ. Found a bug? Report it here.

SmartVisuals Slope Chart

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), then:

1. Map a category to Category, then either one measure per period to Values, or one measure plus a Year, Quarter, Month or Scenario column to Period.
2. Pick the slope or dumbbell view and the change annotation (%, absolute, percentage points or rank move); labels place themselves without overlapping.
3. Set the dead band for flat lines and turn off Higher is better for costs, defects or scrap.
4. Focus on named categories or on rising or falling lines, and try the premium features (3+ periods, Top N, small multiples, story headline, bump view) free in edit mode.

Licensing

The free tier works for every viewer with no licence. Premium is $1.99 per user per month or $19 per user per year, bought on Microsoft Marketplace and assigned in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Every premium feature previews free in edit mode, and unlicensed viewers always see a working visual, never a blocked one or a watermark.

Use Cases

• Year over year revenue by product line — A finance team maps ProductLine to Category and two measures, Revenue FY2024 and Revenue FY2026, to Values in that order. Each product line becomes one line from the first year to the last, the end labels carry the % change, and lines are coloured rising, falling or flat, so the products that carried the year stand out without a table.
• Scrap rate by plant, where lower is better — A quality lead maps Plant to Category and Scrap rate 2025 and Scrap rate 2026 to Values, with both measures formatted as percentages. In Colors, Higher is better is off, so falling scrap is drawn as good news, and Flat band measured as Absolute change with Flat within ± 0.002 keeps small wobbles grey. Because the measure is a percentage, the change annotation reads in percentage points.
• Budget vs actual by cost center — A controller maps Cost center to Category and two measures, Budget and Actual, to Values. With View > Chart type set to Dumbbell and Sort rows by set to % change, each cost center is one row with a start and an end marker, sorted so the biggest overruns sit at the top, and long cost-center names stay readable.
• Survey results wave over wave — A research team maps Statement to Category, the Wave column to Period and a Share agreeing measure to Values. The first and last waves become the two ends of each line; with a percent-formatted measure the Auto change annotation shows the move in percentage points, and Label content set to Rank and name shows where each statement placed in the first and the last wave.
• Rank shifts across three or more years (premium) — A sales analyst maps Brand to Category, Year to Period and Sales to Values, then sets View > Chart type to Bump (rank). The visual ranks the brands in every year itself, ties sharing a rank, and Focus on Top / Bottom N with Rank by set to Rank move highlights the brands that climbed or dropped the most.
• One slope per region (premium) — Adding Region to the Small multiples field draws one panel per region on a shared scale, with the same Category and Values as the single chart. A regional manager sees in one view which product line grew in every region and which grew in only one; Max panels and Columns in the Small multiples card control the grid.

Troubleshooting

Articles

• Before and after in Power BI: slope chart or dumbbell, and how to shape the data

Accessibility

• Screen readers — The chart is announced as a slope chart with the number of categories and the first and last period, for example "Slope chart comparing 8 categories from FY2024 to FY2026". Each line is a list item that reads its name, the first and last value, the direction (rising, falling or flat) and the change, and says when it is selected. An off-screen data table repeats the comparison (category, first period, last period, change) for up to 200 lines.
• Not colour alone — Direction is also shown by the ▲, ▼ and ▶ glyphs on the change annotations, in the legend and in the tooltip, so rising, falling and flat lines read the same with or without colour, and with Higher is better switched off.
• High contrast — In Windows high contrast mode the chart takes every colour from the contrast theme: lines, labels and axes use the foreground colour, focus and selection use the selected colour, decorative fills are dropped, and custom category colours and the transparent background are set aside until high contrast is turned off.
• Reduced motion — The only animation, a short fade when you hover or focus a line, is switched off when the operating system asks for reduced motion.
• Languages — The format pane, notes, tooltips and screen-reader text are available in English, Czech, German, Spanish and French.

More answers are in the Slope Chart page FAQ. Found a bug? Report it here.

SmartVisuals Tornado

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), then:

1. For a sensitivity tornado, map a driver to Category and measures to Left / low case, Right / high case and Base case. Bars swing around the base, sorted by swing.
2. Add Low, Base and High input measures and an Input unit to print each driver's assumptions at the bar ends.
3. For a butterfly or pyramid, skip the base case and map two measures, or one measure with a two-value Split by field; three or more values give diverging stacked bars.
4. Pick a theme, colour mode and sort in the format pane. Premium features preview in full while you edit.

Licensing

The free tier works for every viewer with no licence. Premium is $1.99 per user per month or $19 per user per year, bought on Microsoft Marketplace and assigned in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Every premium feature previews free in edit mode, and unlicensed viewers always see a working visual, never a blocked one or a watermark.

Use Cases

• NPV sensitivity for a capital investment case — An FP&A or project finance team has the model output at each driver's low and high input. Map Driver to Category, NPV at low input to Left / low case, NPV at high input to Right / high case and Base NPV to Base case, then the input values to Low input and High input with a unit column in Input unit or format (set to First). The bars swing around the base NPV with the widest swing on top, each bar end shows the assumption behind it (€620/t, 12 months) and a sentence names the two drivers that explain most of the variance.
• One tornado per project in a portfolio review — A capex committee comparing several investment cases keeps the same sensitivity fields and adds Project to Small multiples. Each project gets its own panel and, by default, its own scale, with a note reminding readers to compare bar lengths within a panel only. Small multiples are a premium feature; without a licence, readers see the first project with a note saying how many panels are not shown.
• Workforce age pyramid for HR analytics — Map the age band to Category (sorted by an age-order column in the model), Headcount to Value (with Split by) and Gender to Split by. With numeric bands split by Male / Female, the default sort draws a population pyramid: oldest band on top, men on the left. Set Butterfly & pyramid > Show as percent to % of grand total to compare plants of different size; last year's headcount in Reference left / low draws an outline behind each bar (premium).
• Won vs lost revenue by product family — Sales operations map Product family to Category, Lost to Left / low case and Won to Right / high case. Both bars grow out of a centre spine with the product names between them, and Chart > Sort by can order the rows by total, difference or size of difference. The difference column, showing the gap and the gap in percent per row, is premium.
• Revenue bridge drivers per region — A controller with revenue movement split into churn, downsell, price effect, upsell and new customers maps Region to Category, the movement amount to Value (with Split by) and the movement type to Split by. With three or more values the visual draws diverging stacked bars: losses stack left of zero, gains right, and Data labels > Net marker and label shows the net per region. Chart > Sort by > Net puts the strongest region on top.
• Likert survey results — Map the question to Category, the response count to Value (with Split by) and the answer to Split by, sorted from Strongly disagree to Strongly agree in the model. In the Diverging card, set Series on the left to 2 and turn on Split the next series at zero (neutral), so disagreement reads to the left, agreement to the right and the neutral answer sits across the centre.

Troubleshooting

Articles

• Tornado chart in Power BI: the sensitivity analysis recipe, and how to read it

Accessibility

• Screen readers — The chart is announced as a tornado chart with its number of rows and a short hint on the keys to use. Each row is a list item that reads its label and values: in a sensitivity tornado the low and high results with the input behind each and the swing; in a butterfly the two sides with their field names; in diverging bars the net. Bars and segments that can be selected are buttons that read their own series and value.
• Not colour alone — In a sensitivity tornado, Bars > Accessible hatching marks the worse side of each driver (or the high input when colouring by input) with a diagonal hatch, and the legend shows the same pattern. A sensitivity bar's side of the base line also tells whether the driver moves the result up or down.
• High contrast — In Windows high contrast mode the chart uses only the colours of the contrast theme. Bars become outlines, custom colours and row styles are set aside, and sides are told apart by line style: the worse side or high input of a sensitivity tornado and the right side of a butterfly are dashed, and each series of a diverging chart gets its own dash pattern.
• Context menu — Right-click, Shift+F10 or the context-menu key opens the Power BI context menu on a row, bar or segment, and right-clicking the empty background opens it for the visual.
• Languages — The format pane, notes, tooltips and keyboard hints are available in English, Czech, German, Spanish and French.

More answers are in the Tornado page FAQ. Found a bug? Report it here.

SmartVisuals Bullet Chart

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), then:

1. Map a category to Category, a measure to Actual and a measure to Target. Bands, status icons and variance appear immediately.
2. Choose rows, vertical columns or KPI tiles, pick a theme, and set sorting, Top N and the band thresholds in the format pane.
3. Mark lower-is-better KPIs for the whole visual or per row, and add a Unit or format field for mixed-unit scorecards; add a Group field for sections or side-by-side panels.
4. Add Forecast, Prior year, a Trend period or pace settings for the premium review view; all of it previews free while you edit.

Licensing

The free tier works for every viewer with no licence. Premium is $1.99 per user per month or $19 per user per year, bought on Microsoft Marketplace and assigned in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Every premium feature previews free in edit mode, and unlicensed viewers always see a working visual, never a blocked one or a watermark.

Use Cases

• Regional sales against plan in the monthly review — A controller maps Region to Category, a Sales YTD measure to Actual and a Plan YTD measure to Target. Every region becomes one row with the bar, the plan marker, the 80 % and 100 % bands and a status icon, and Layout > Sort set to Worst first puts the regions that need discussion at the top. With a premium licence, a Forecast and a Prior year measure add the FC and PY markers to the same rows.
• Plant scorecard with mixed units and lower-is-better KPIs — A plant manager maps a KPI Name column to Category, the KPI actual and target measures to Actual and Target, a 1/0 column to Lower is better and a text column (First) to Unit or format. On-time delivery, scrap rate and lead time then sit in one visual, each with its own unit, and scrap and lead time turn green when they fall. The premium % of target scale under Layout > Axis scale puts them all on one axis with a shared 100 % line.
• Quota attainment and pace for a sales team — Sales operations maps Sales Rep to Category, Bookings QTD to Actual and the quarterly quota to Target. With the premium Pace & projection card set to Quarter to date (today), each row shows a run-rate projection and an Expected by now marker, and the status judges each rep against where they should be today rather than against the full quota.
• KPI tiles on a landing page — An operations dashboard switches Layout > Layout to KPI tiles and maps a handful of headline measures by KPI name. Each tile shows the big number, a status icon, the variance and a small bullet against the target. Adding a Month column to Trend period draws a premium sparkline with the target line in every tile.
• One visual per market with side-by-side panels — A commercial team maps Market to Group and Product line to Category. Layout > Groups as set to Side-by-side panels draws one panel per market, each header carrying its on-target count such as 3 of 5 on target. Group sections and panels are free.
• Service levels with absolute thresholds — A support team whose service levels are fixed numbers rather than a percentage of target maps a warning-level measure to Band boundary 1 and an agreed-level measure to Band boundary 2, then sets Bands > Band boundaries from to Band boundary fields. Each row gets its own band boundaries, and the status follows those boundaries instead of the 80 % and 100 % default.

Troubleshooting

Articles

• Actual vs target in Power BI: bullet chart or gauge, bands, and the DAX behind them

Accessibility

• Screen readers — The chart is announced as a bullet chart with its number of rows. Each row is a selectable option that reads its group and category, then the same values as the tooltip: actual, target and any forecast or prior year, % of target, variance, status, lower is better where it applies, and the pace projection when pace is on. Each row also says whether it is selected.
• Not colour alone — Every status has its own icon shape as well as its own colour: a circle with a tick for on target, a triangle with an exclamation mark for near target, and a diamond with a cross for off target.
• High contrast — In Windows high contrast mode every mark uses the colours of the contrast theme. Bands become an outline with dashed boundary lines, custom bar, band and marker colours are set aside, and status stays readable through the icon shapes.
• Contrast-checked themes — The colour pairs that carry meaning in the SmartVisuals, Dark, Clean (White) and Slate themes are checked against WCAG contrast ratios in the visual's test suite.
• Languages — The format pane, notes, tooltips and screen-reader text are available in 20 languages: English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Simplified) and Chinese (Traditional).

More answers are in the Bullet Chart page FAQ. Found a bug? Report it here.

SmartVisuals KPI Weather

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), then:

1. Map your KPI names, Actual and Target. Every KPI gets its weather in a grid, or a hero for a single KPI.
2. Add a period field such as Month for the trend arrow and sparklines, and a measure to Comparison for vs prior year.
3. Set tolerance bands, lower-is-better and the layout, theme and words in the format pane.
4. Set an outlook horizon or pace to try Premium Outlook; everything previews in full while you edit.

Licensing

The free tier works for every viewer with no licence. Premium is $1.99 per user per month or $19 per user per year, bought on Microsoft Marketplace and assigned in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Every premium feature previews free in edit mode, and unlicensed viewers always see a working visual, never a blocked one or a watermark.

Use Cases

• Monthly plant scorecard for operations — A plant controller maps the KPI name to KPI, the area (Quality, Delivery, Safety) to Group, Month to Period, and the Actual and Target measures. Each KPI gets a tile with its weather, a trend arrow and a sparkline with the target line, grouped under headers that count how many are sunny. With Sort set to Worst first, storms and rain come to the top of the grid.
• One mixed scorecard of higher- and lower-is-better KPIs — A quality lead keeps revenue, scrap rate, complaints and lead time in one visual. A 0/1 column in the Lower is better well, aggregated with Max, sets the direction per KPI, and a Unit or format column gives each row its own unit (%, days, €). Being 5 % over the scrap target and 5 % short of the revenue target land in the same weather.
• Service levels with absolute limits — Some KPIs have a fixed tolerance rather than a percentage, such as a lead time that is acceptable up to 12 days and critical beyond 15. Binding measures to Rain threshold and Storm threshold sets those boundaries per KPI, while KPIs without them keep the percentage bands from the Weather rules card.
• Wall screen in the plant or contact centre — A single KPI, or Layout set to Hero, shows one large forecast readable across the room. With several KPIs, Rotate KPIs every n seconds cycles through them, with rotation dots and a visible pause control. The Dark theme and Weather animation set to Continuous (wall screens) suit a screen that runs all day.
• Management meeting status table — For a board pack where weather art would feel out of place, Layout set to Boardroom table shows status shape, word, actual, target, variance and trend per KPI. Weather words set to Business reads On target, Within tolerance, Below target and Critical, and one measure in the Comparison well adds a vs prior year column, free.
• Budget outlook for the rest of the year (Premium Outlook) — A finance team keeps monthly budgets in the Target measure through December and leaves future actuals blank. With Periods ahead set to 3 in the Outlook card, the Forecast strip shows the weather for the next three months per KPI, each judged against its own month's budget, with the chance of meeting target and a storm warning in the weather report sentence.

Troubleshooting

Articles

• KPI status thresholds in Power BI: good, warning, bad, and which way is up

Accessibility

• Not colour alone — The shape of the weather glyph is the status (sun, cloud, rain, storm, fog), so it reads in greyscale. Each KPI can also show its weather or business word, and the trend arrow points in its direction.
• Screen readers — The visual is announced as a list of KPIs with their count and the weather report sentence. Each KPI is announced with its name and group, weather word, period, actual, target, performance, variance and comparisons, and whether it is selected. On a rotating Hero it also says that Space pauses.
• High contrast — In a Windows high-contrast theme the visual uses only the host's foreground and background colours, draws the weather art as outlines, ignores custom colours, and turns off Sky scenes, status stripes and animation. Focus and selection use the host's selected colour.
• Reduced motion — When the operating system asks for reduced motion, every weather animation is switched off. By default animations play once and then rest; the lightning flash is limited to small, slow changes in brightness. A rotating Hero has a visible pause button and pauses while the pointer is over it.
• Languages — Format pane and visual text in English, Czech, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil) and Slovak.

More answers are in the KPI Weather page FAQ. Found a bug? Report it here.

SmartVisuals Scoreboard

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), then:

1. Map a competitor column to Side and a measure to Score. The match centre shows the scores and who leads. Or skip Side and map two measures to Score to play them against each other.
2. Add Period for the linescore and momentum, and Event with Event Time to turn rows into goals in the events feed.
3. Add a Match field to page through fixtures and build the league table, and Start and End for the game clock.
4. Pick a layout and theme, set lower is better or a tie margin per measure, and you're done. Everything is free.

Licensing

The Scoreboard is completely free. There is no licence to buy, no key to enter and no premium tier: every feature renders for every viewer.

Use Cases

• Plant against plant in a monthly shipping challenge — An operations team maps Plant to Side, a Units Shipped measure to Score, Week to Period and the order number to Event with its timestamp in Event Time. A Start and End measure for the challenge window drive the clock. The wall screen shows both plants' totals, "PLZ LEADS BY 1,250", a weekly linescore and every new order arriving in the events feed, newest first.
• Revenue this year against last year — Finance leaves Side empty and puts Revenue This Year and Revenue Last Year in Score. The two measures play each other: the title reads "Revenue · This Year vs Last Year", the short codes are TY and LY, and the lead is the gap in revenue. Set Numbers > Display to Compact (1.2K) for a small tile, or let Layout > Auto pick the Score bug when the tile is short.
• Production lines where fewer defects wins — Quality maps Line to Side and a Defects measure to Score, then turns on Measures > Defects > Lower Is Better. The line with fewer defects leads, the arrow points at it, and with Layout set to LED board the result reads like a stadium display. A Tie Margin under Match Rules calls a draw when two lines are within a few defects of each other.
• A plant duel on several KPIs at once — Two plants on Side, with Units Shipped, OEE, Scrap Rate and On-Time Delivery in Score. The first measure is the headline; the others appear as mirrored stats underneath with the better side marked, and Scrap Rate is set to Lower Is Better. Switch Match Rules > Score to Measures won and a plant that wins three of the four KPIs leads 3-1.
• A league table from a season of fixtures — A results table with one row per plant per fixture: Fixture on Match, Plant on Side, Units Shipped on Score. Layout > League table builds the standings with played, won, drawn, lost, for, against, goal difference, points and the form guide. Match Rules sets the points per result and names a top and bottom zone, such as Cup final and Improvement plan.
• Sales teams on an office TV — Region on Side, Revenue on Score and Week on Match, so the board pages through each week's fixtures on its own (Paging and Screen > Seconds Per Match). Hovering the board or pressing P pauses it. On an always-on OLED screen, Burn-In Guard (Shift 1 px) moves the board by one pixel every five minutes.

Troubleshooting

Articles

• Head-to-head comparisons in Power BI: the data shape, the DAX and a board you can read across the room

Accessibility

• Screen readers — The board is labelled with the title, the clock, each side's score and the lead sentence, plus the page number and the keyboard help. A hidden table carries the period linescore. Lead changes ("Plzeň takes the lead"), new events and page changes are announced as they happen.
• High contrast — In Windows high contrast the board uses the system colours, hides the per-side colour pickers and ignores the transparent background setting. Your own colours come back when high contrast is off.
• Reduced motion — When the system asks for reduced motion, scores change without the odometer roll and the celebration band is not shown. Screen-reader announcements of goals and lead changes still happen.
• Not colour alone — The leader is marked by an arrow toward them or "=" when tied, and by a sentence such as "PLZ LEADS BY 1,250"; results read as W, D and L in the form guide, and table zones are named in a text legend.
• Languages — English, Czech and German, for the format pane and every string drawn on the board.

More answers are in the Scoreboard page FAQ. Found a bug? Report it here.

SmartVisuals Calendar Heatmap

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), then:

1. Map a date or date/time column to Date and a measure to Value. The year strip appears with weekly totals, a weekday profile and the insight sentence.
2. Choose the view (Year strip, Month grid or Matrix heatmap), the year type, week start and holiday country in the format pane.
3. Add a Target measure, a Small multiples field, Notes or Holidays from your data, or Matrix rows and Matrix columns for a field-by-field heatmap.
4. Set up to three rules with badges and pin notes for single days or date ranges directly in the format pane.

Licensing

The free tier works for every viewer with no licence. Premium is $1.99 per user per month or $19 per user per year, bought on Microsoft Marketplace and assigned in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Every premium feature previews free in edit mode, and unlicensed viewers always see a working visual, never a blocked one or a watermark.

Use Cases

• Daily plant output with holidays and record days — An operations manager maps the production Date to Date and Sum of UnitsProduced to Value, with the shift log's Note column on Notes. Under Calendar, Public holidays is set to the plant's country so a quiet bank holiday is hatched instead of looking like a bad day, and Rule 1 stars the five best days with the name Record day. The year strip shows weekly totals, the weekday profile and a one-line insight on top.
• Service desk tickets by weekday and hour — A service desk lead maps the ticket's OpenedAt date/time column to Date and Sum of Tickets to Value, then sets View to Matrix heatmap and Matrix > Rows × columns to Weekday × Hour. The result is a punch card of when tickets arrive, with row and column totals in the margins; Cells > Cell shape = Circle scales each dot with the volume.
• Daily output against plan (premium) — A plant controller adds Sum of TargetUnits to Target, switches View to Month grid and sets Comparison > Colour by to Versus target with Full colour at ± % set to 20. Every day is coloured by attainment, so the days under plan stand out, and the tooltip shows target and attainment per day. In the free tier the KPI line still carries one vs target figure.
• Retail sales on a 4-4-5 year, versus last year (premium) — A retail analyst maps the sales Date and Sum of Sales, sets Calendar > Year type to Retail 4-4-5 year with the chain's year-end month and weekday, and Comparison > Colour by to Versus prior year aligned by Same weekday (52 weeks back). Each day is coloured by like-for-like change, with fiscal periods P1 to P12 along the strip.
• Downtime by production line and shift — A maintenance engineer leaves Date empty, maps Line to Matrix rows, Shift to Matrix columns and Sum of DowntimeMin to Value. The matrix heatmap shows where downtime concentrates, and Matrix > Show values as = % of row tells each line's share per shift instead of raw minutes.
• Daily cash on the company's fiscal year — A finance analyst maps the posting Date and a daily cash measure, then sets Calendar > Year type to Fiscal year, Fiscal year starts in to the company's first month and Week numbers to ISO 8601. The year strips break at the fiscal year boundary, so a July-to-June year reads as one block with its own total in the header.

Troubleshooting

Articles

• Calendar heatmap in Power BI: the date table, missing days, week start and the colour scale

Accessibility

• Screen readers — The visual is announced as a calendar heatmap of your measure, by its real name. Each day reads its full date with the weekday, the measure and its value (or no data), plus the name of a matching rule and any notes. Matrix cells read their row, column and value, year headers are headings, and the view and measure chips are buttons that say which one is active.
• Tooltips from the keyboard — Moving focus to a day or cell opens its tooltip, the same one a mouse hover shows.
• High contrast — In a Windows high-contrast theme the colour scale runs from the host's background to its foreground in steps, every cell gets an outline, and custom colours and rule fills are ignored. Selection, today, notes and unusual days use the host's colours.
• Not colour alone — Rule matches carry a badge shape (star, flag, check, cross, warning, arrows), holidays are hatched, notes are a dot, unusual days get an up or down triangle, and values are printed in cells when they fit. Viridis and Cividis are colour-blind-safe palettes.
• Languages — Format pane and visual text in English, Czech, German, Spanish and French.

More answers are in the Calendar Heatmap page FAQ. Found a bug? Report it here.

SmartVisuals Countdown & Days-Since

Quick Start

Install the visual from Microsoft Marketplace (search for "SmartVisuals" in the Power BI visuals gallery), then:

1. Drop a date column on Deadline to count down to it, or on Event dates to count the days since.
2. No date column? Type a date such as 2026-12-31 23:59 into Date (When No Field Is Bound) in the Countdown card.
3. Set the Time Zone card to the zone the deadline belongs to, and turn on Working Time if weekends and holidays should not count.
4. Bind a Caption column with many deadlines and pick Deadline board, or add Actual and Goal for Pace. Everything is free.

Licensing

The Countdown is completely free. There is no licence to buy, no key to enter and no premium tier: every feature renders for every viewer.

Use Cases

• Days without a lost-time incident on a shop-floor screen — A safety lead binds SafetyEvents[IncidentDate] to Event dates and leaves Mode on Auto, which switches to Days since as soon as event dates arrive. The screen shows the days since the last incident with the best streak on record and the date it was set underneath, and with Deadline Time Zone set to the plant's named zone (for example Europe/Prague) the counter turns over at the plant's own midnight, not UTC's.
• Project milestones as a deadline board — A project office binds Milestones[Milestone] to Caption and Milestones[TargetDate] to Deadline and sets Mode to Deadline board. Every milestone becomes a row sorted soonest first, overdue rows on top, each with a state chip (Due soon, Due today, Overdue) driven by the thresholds in the States card. Clicking a row cross-filters the milestone table beside it.
• Month-end close countdown that resets itself — A finance team needs no date column at all: in the Recurrence card they pick End of every month and set At (HH:MM) to 23:59, then set After It Reaches Zero to Roll to the next occurrence. With Layout set to Ring, the ring shows how far through the month they are, and the countdown starts again on the 1st without anyone editing the report.
• Working days left before an audit, holidays excluded — A quality manager binds the audit date to Deadline and a column of public holidays and shutdown dates to Non-working dates, then turns on Count Working Time in the Working Time card. The big number keeps the calendar countdown and the readout underneath gives the working days left, with weekends and every bound holiday taken out.
• Are we on pace for the quarterly output goal — An operations analyst binds a production measure to Actual, the quarterly target to Goal, the quarter start to Start and the quarter end to Deadline, and sets Mode to Pace. The card shows the time left plus a verdict (Ahead of plan, On track, Behind plan), the gap to plan, the rate still needed per day and the projected finish. Spread Over set to Working days spreads the remaining work across working days only.

Troubleshooting

Articles

• Days since last incident in Power BI: the DAX recipe, and why the card goes stale

Accessibility

• Screen readers — A single countdown is read as one sentence with its caption, for example Audit: 12 days 4 hours remaining, or 312 days since the last event. Updates are announced politely when the leading unit or the state changes and otherwise at most once a minute, so a ticking clock never floods the screen reader. The board announces how many deadlines it holds and the soonest one, and reads each row's caption and time left as the arrow keys reach it.
• Not colour alone — Every state has an icon and a word as well as a colour: ▲ Due soon, ● Due today and ■ Overdue, and the board puts the same word in a chip on each row. Show State Icon and Show State Label in the States card are on by default, and the words can be changed there.
• High contrast — In Windows high contrast mode the number, the state colours, the board chips and the secondary text all take the system foreground colour, and the tinted fill behind each board chip is dropped. The state is still told by the icon and the word.
• Reduced motion — When the operating system asks for reduced motion, the flip and fade effects on changing digits and the blinking separator are switched off. The numbers keep updating; only the movement goes.
• Languages — The format pane is in English. Set Language Of The Words in the Units card to Follow the report locale and the unit words (days, hours, minutes, seconds) appear in the report's language with correct plurals, in 22 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian. Digits follow the report locale too, and Arabic and Hebrew get a right-to-left layout.

More answers are in the Countdown page FAQ. Found a bug? Report it here.