Guides

The Matrix Visual in Power BI

By Ravindra Bagale, Power BI & Data Analytics trainer · LinkedIn · Published: 30 September 2026 · Last updated: 30 September 2026

A matrix is Power BI’s cross-tab: categories down the rows, categories across the columns, and measures in the values — the same idea as a PivotTable, including totals you must check before you trust them.

Real example: city down the side, month across the top

Why a matrix: the owner wants the crossing, "Mumbai in March", not a picture. Rows are cities. Columns are months. Values are measures.

What happens:

1. The Mumbai row is a filter. Only Mumbai slips go in. March sales out: 1000.
2. The Pune × March cell uses Pune rows only. Sales out: 160.
3. The phone bill is a second measure, not a third city. March Mumbai bill out: 699. Do not add the bill into the sales total. Different question.
4. A total of sales across the two cities in March is fair: 1160, if both cities are in the filter.
5. A total of "percent of the month" is not fair if the visual merely adds 80% + 20%. The percent measure must be calculated again on all rows in that column.

Why FILTER is usually not on this visual: the matrix already filters. City and month are the filters. You write FILTER in a measure only when the cell needs an extra test, such as "sales from slips above 250".

Click Mumbai in a slicer and the Pune row should disappear. If both rows remain, the slicer is not on the same City column as the matrix.

What do I need before this guide?

• Choose a chart so you know when a grid is the right answer.
• Percent of total if a value is a percent.
• Course: Matrix.

Before and after (look at the tables first)

Field wells

1. Click empty canvas, then the Matrix icon.
2. Rows: Customer[City]. Add Sales[Channel] under it if the second level matters.
3. Columns: 'Date'[Month Name] or Year-Month. Use the Date table so months sort in calendar order, not alphabetically by accident.
4. Values: [Total Sales]. Add [Orders] only if the reader can still see the numbers.
5. If months sort as April, August, December, you sorted text. Fix the sort column on the Date table (month number), not the matrix font.

Layout and expand

1. Select the matrix → Format visual.
2. Stepped layout on: City and Channel share one column, Channel indented. Good when space is tight.
3. Stepped layout off: each level gets its own column, closer to a classic PivotTable.
4. Turn +/- icons on so a reader can expand one city without expanding all.
5. That expand is drill inside the matrix. It is not drill through to another page.
6. Switch values to rows when several measures should stack vertically under each city.

Totals that lie

1. Grand total of [Total Sales] is fair if the measure is a sum.
2. Grand total of a percent column is fair only when the percent measure uses DIVIDE and CALCULATE so the total row recomputes. A visual that adds 20% + 30% + 50% into 100% by luck is not a design.
3. A total of average delivery minutes is often nonsense. Turn row subtotals or column totals off for that value.
4. Read the total row yourself before the review. If you cannot explain it, hide it.

A readable matrix

1. Do not put ten measures in Values. Two is a lesson. Four is a meeting. More is a spreadsheet export.
2. Widen the row header so City is not cut off.
3. Repeat the question in the title: “Sales by city and month”.
4. Use the Filters pane for a year, not twenty slicers around the grid.

Ghabru naka — a matrix that needs a magnifying glass is a table that should have been filtered first.

Mistakes and calm fixes