Distribution rules

Set up rules to allocate metrics like budgets, headcounts, or marketing spends in your Power BI reports with Inforiver.

Why are distribution rules important in reports?

Distribution rules determine how totals are split between regions, time periods, departments, or products.

When distribution rules are defined:

• The same logic is applied every time, ensuring consistency

• Different reports reconcile to the same totals

• Resources are utlized optimally

Step-by-step guide to allocating values

1. Equally allocate

Let's create a rule to allocate budgets equally across all product lines and quarters.

STEP 1: Select Equally as the Distribution Method.

Select the distribution method

STEP 2: Enter the budget in the grand total cell. Notice how the budget is allocated equally across row and column dimension categories.

The values entered are allocated equally across the report

2. Allocating values by weighted measures

Let's consider a real-world example where we need to allocate discounts based on sales. The higher the sales, the higher the discounts should be.

STEP 1: Select By Weight as the Distribution Method.

STEP 2: Select the measure to drive the weights. In this case, sales.

STEP 3: Select the column dimension to drive the weights. For demonstration purposes, we'll choose Single Column and select the Qtr1 > January option. Click Create.

Select the column dimension to drive the weights

STEP 4: Let's enable the column subtotals and enter a value of 48k as the discount. You'll see that Inforiver automatically distributes the 48k based on the January Sales, i.e., the product categories with higher sales get higher discounts and vice versa.

Data input value is ditributed based on the configured dimension and measure

Configuration options for allocating data

1. Column range

In the example we looked at earlier, we distributed the discounts based on a single dimension value - the sales in January. We can also distribute based on a range of column dimensions.

Let's allocate discounts based on the sales in Q2. Select Column Range and 'Q2' in the Weights from Column section.

Allocating values based on a column range

The discounts are allocated based on the sales for quarter 2, as shown in the image.

Values are allocated based on a range of columns

2. Disable other distribution options

You can configure distribution from the context menu as well. These will override any distribution rules that have been set up.

Distributing values from the context menu

To give precedence to distribution rules, select the Disable other distribution options checkbox. The allocation options will be removed from the context menu.

Disabling distribution from the context menu