Introduction: PowerFin Matrix

Your financial statements in Power BI exactly as published

Finance teams know the workaround: build the report in Power BI, export it to Excel, and reformat it to match what the board actually expects. The Power BI Matrix was designed for general aggregation, not for the fixed line order, custom subtotal names and per-row formatting a published P&L or balance sheet demands.

The PowerFin Matrix closes that gap. Purpose-built for financial reporting, it lets you place subtotals exactly where finance reads them, label them the way finance names them — Gross Profit, EBITDA, Net Result — and apply row, column and cell-level formatting without a proprietary layer. Your DAX format strings, your theme, your data model: the PowerFin Matrix works with what you already have.

Key features of the PowerFin Matrix are:

• Configurable subtotal placement: Place subtotals at the top, at the bottom, or at a different position per hierarchy level or group — the way a financial statement is actually read.
• Custom subtotal labels: Replace generic “Total” labels with meaningful names such as Gross Profit, EBITDA or Net Result. When a hierarchy has only one parent, the parent’s name automatically replaces “Total”.
• “Of which” detail rows: Show selected detail rows beneath any subtotal without changing the subtotal value — every hidden row still contributes to the math.
• Drag-and-drop ordering: Reorder rows and columns by drag-and-drop. No additional dataset, no DAX index column.
• Per-group columns: When stacking column fields, show different measures per group, and hide individual measures within a specific group.
• Tree view or list view: Switch between an interactive tree view (with expanders and indentation) and a clean list view without +/− icons or indentation, ready for board-level output.
• Per-row, per-column and per-cell formatting: Set lines above subtotals, custom fonts per row, fixed column widths and extensive borders. Apply different formatting for expanded and collapsed states.
• Native Power BI formatting: Honors every DAX format string supplied by Power BI — accounting parentheses, sign flipping, scaling and currencies — without a proprietary formatting layer.
• Conditional formatting and theme support: Full conditional formatting and full Power BI theme integration.
• High performance: Optimized rendering for large financial datasets with deep hierarchies and many measures.

Sample use cases:

• Quarterly and annual reporting: Reproduce P&L, balance sheet and cash flow statements directly inside Power BI.
• Management reporting and board packs: Build executive-ready reports with the structure, subtotal labels and formatting management expects.
• Variance and budget-vs-actual reporting: Combine totals, details and “of which” lines in a single matrix, with per-row formatting for variance columns.
• Statutory and group consolidation: Produce statement-grade output for filings and group reporting.

How to use: Build visual

The basics are similar to the standard Power BI Matrix: you specify the Rows, Columns and Values. You need to fill at least the following fields: Rows and Values. Once you have the data selected in the PowerFin Matrix you can start to format the matrix to fit your needs.

• Rows: Add one or more categories that define the row hierarchy of your financial statement. Place the highest level first (e.g. account category) and work down to the most granular level (e.g. account description).
• Columns: Add one or more categories to create column groups. When you add a single category, the visual displays one column per member. When you stack multiple fields, the visual creates nested column groups.
• Values: Add one or more values. DAX format strings applied to your measures are honored automatically, including accounting parentheses, sign flipping, scaling and currency symbols.

How to use: Format visual

The available formatting options are:

• License: here you can enter your PREMIUM license information to activate the visual with a premium license. These fields are not used for the PER USER license.
• Table:
  • Display mode: Tree (default)/ List if On
    • Respect Tree expand state (On)
  • Allow expand/collapse in View mode (On)
  • Totals: Above/ Below
  • Balanced data (Off)
  • Border: Width, Color, Style (Dashed, Solid, Dotted)
• Rows:
  • Height: Auto (value must be greater than or equal to 10 or less than 100)
  • Padding: (value must be less than or equal to 10)
  • Apply settings to: All rows/ or per row/ Total position override
    • If you choose a row then Show  subtotals (On)
    • In focus mode change totals position then a Total position override gets enabled, and you can set Row headers Prefix & Indentation
  • Expand state: All rows/ Expanded rows/ Collapsed rows
  • Background: Color/ Transparency
  • Style: Font/ Size/ B, I, U/ Color
  • Border:
    • Apply settings to: top, bottom
    • Width / Color/ Style: None, Dashed, Solid, Dotted
  • Values: Display units/ Decimal places
• Row headers:
  • Title: rename here the row header
  • Background: Color/ Transparency/ Apply to header (Off)
  • Style: Font/ Size/ B, I, U/ Color
• Columns:
  • Width
  • Background: Color/ Transparency/ Apply to header (Off)/ Conditional color palette (Off)
  • Style: Horizontal alignment (L, C, R)/ Font/ Size/ B, I, U/ Color
  • Border:
    • Apply settings to: left, right
    • Width / Color/ Style: Dashed, Solid, Dotted
  • Values: Display units/ Decimal places
• Column headers:
  • Background: Color/ Transparency
  • Style: Font/ Size/ B, I, U/ Color/ Word wrap (Off)
  • Border:
    • Apply settings to: top, bottom / Width / Color/ Style: None, Dashed, Solid, Dotted
  • Apply settings to: Rows, Columns and Total
  • Horizontal alignment: L, C, R
• Subtotal columns (default Off):
  • Title: rename here the subtotal columns.
  • Position: After/ Before
  • Inherit from columns (On) if Off:
    • Background: Color/ Transparency/ Apply to header (Off)
    • Style: Horizontal alignment (L, C, R)/ Font/ Size/ B, I, U/ Color
    • Border:
      • Apply settings to: left, right
      • Width / Color/ Style: Dashed, Solid, Dotted
  • Values: Display units/ Decimal places
• Total columns (default Off):
  • Title: rename here the total columns.
  • Use unique Column title (On)
  • Position: After/ Before
  • Inherit from columns (On) if Off:
    • Background: Color/ Transparency/ Apply to header (Off)
    • Style: Horizontal alignment (L, C, R)/ Font/ Size/ B , I, U/ Color
    • Border:
      • Apply settings to: left, right
      • Width / Color/ Style: Dashed, Solid, Dotted
    • Width / Color/ Style: Dashed, Solid, Dotted
    • Values: Display units/ Decimal places

Focus mode

Open Focus mode to access to a set of options for adjusting the layout of the PowerFin Matrix directly in the report view. Click the arrow-in-box icon in the top-right (or bottom-right) corner of the visual, between the filter and More options icons.

Available options:

• Expand all: Available in Tree display mode only. Expands all row groups, showing every detail row across all hierarchy levels.
• Collapse all: Available in Tree display mode only. Collapses all row groups to the top hierarchy level, hiding all detail rows at once.
• Reset column widths: Restores all column widths to their default size, undoing any manual width adjustments made in Focus mode.
• Reset total positions: Available in Tree display mode only. Restores all subtotal rows to their original configured position, undoing any drag-and-drop repositioning made in Focus mode.
• Reset row order: Restores all rows to their original order, undoing any manual reordering made in Focus mode.
• Reset column order: Restores all columns to their original order, undoing any manual reordering made in Focus mode.
• Show all rows: Makes all hidden rows visible again, including any rows that were individually hidden using the inline hide control.
• Show all columns: Makes all hidden columns visible again, including any columns that were individually hidden using the inline hide control.