Pareto · Quality

The few causes behind most of the problem

A list of return reasons, defect types or complaint categories is long, and every item on it has an owner who thinks theirs matters. The Pareto chart is the classic quality tool for deciding where to start: sort the causes, add up their share, and see that a handful make most of the total. Power BI has no Pareto chart. People build one by hand with a sorted bar chart, a running-total measure and a line on a second axis, and still have to read off where 80% falls.

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Five of 12 reasons make 82% of returnsReturns by reason, Q3
Top 5 of 12 make 82% of ReturnsTotal 1,11580%100%0%The vital fewThe other 7
Light report
Five of 12 reasons make 82% of returnsReturns by reason, Q3
Top 5 of 12 make 82% of ReturnsTotal 1,11580%100%0%The vital fewThe other 7
Dark report

What it shows

Pareto sorts your categories largest first, draws the cumulative share as a line on a 0–100% axis, and marks the threshold (80% by default) with a dashed line and a divider after the last bar that gets you there. Those bars, the vital few, are fjord blue and the rest are grey. At the top it says what it found, such as “Top 5 of 12 make 82% of Returns”, next to the total. Small categories can go into one Other bar, after the top 10 bars or below a share you pick, and Other always comes last.

How to set it up

Add Pareto from AppSource or the .pbiviz file, then drag in:

Category
What you count, such as return reason, defect type or product.
Values
What you rank by, such as number of returns or refund cost.
ComparePro
The same measure for an earlier period, such as last quarter. It is drawn as an outline behind each bar, and the header adds the change in total and how many causes made 80% before.
Split byPro
One small Pareto per warehouse, line or team, each sorted on its own.

Read the full Pareto guide

In the report

  • Hover a bar for its value, its share, the cumulative share and its class; for Other, the categories in it.
  • Click a bar to filter the report to that category, or every category in Other; the rest dims. When another visual is selected, each bar shows the highlighted part.
  • Light or dark background, high-contrast mode, and your own colours.
  • Tab into the chart and move between bars with the arrow keys; screen readers hear each bar’s name, value, share and cumulative share.
  • The format pane, the labels and the messages are in English and Norwegian.

Free and Pro

FeatureFreePro
Bars sorted largest first, cumulative % line, threshold line and divider✓✓
Vital few in blue, with a summary that names them and the total✓✓
Other bar, after the top bars or below a share✓✓
Tooltips, click to filter, cross-highlighting, keyboard, high contrast, light and dark✓✓
ABC classes: A up to 80%, B up to 95%, C the rest—✓
Before and after: an earlier period as an outline behind each bar, with the change in total and the earlier vital few—✓
Small multiples: one Pareto per item with Split by—✓

Free features always work, with no key and no tag. Pro features need a licence key for Pareto or Everything. Without a valid key, Pareto draws one chart of all items added together, with the vital few and no comparison, with a short notice and a “Try Pro free” button. A paid key keeps Pro working for 7 days after it runs out, so a late renewal never breaks a report.

Your data stays in your report

Pareto makes no network calls and stores nothing outside the report. The licence key is checked inside the visual, so it also works offline, in Report Server and in locked-down tenants.

How the visuals handle data

Pro licence
$36per creator a year
$3per viewer a year

For Pareto alone. The entire suite is $90 per creator and $7.50 per viewer, or license the whole organisation.

See pricing

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