5 types of manual data entry options in your Power BI table / matrix

Most of us would have encountered at least one Power BI report where we felt the need to enter or key in data manually inside the table or matrix. Unfortunately, the native Power BI table or matrix does not allow it. You will need to use Power Apps to enable it. Some third-party visuals allow it directly, but the capability and user experience are mostly limited.

Inforiver provides five (5) different options to manually enter data in your Power BI report.

Note:

• The ability to directly double-click a cell and edit/update values is not included in this list. We are only exploring columns you can create in Inforiver exclusively for capturing data through manual user input.
• December 2022 release introduces a new input type and an option to track changes at the row level which is explained at the end of this blog.

The Data Input feature in Inforiver

You can start inserting a column to capture your data inputs by clicking on Insert --> Data Input. This action reveals five manual data entry options:

1. Numeric values
2. Text
3. Dropdown (single-select and multi-select) 
4. Check box  
5. Date

When you select any type, you are taken to a configuration screen. Amongst several options, you can define whether data entry should be restricted to edit mode, or if you would like the report consumers in reading view to be able to enter data as well. In the example shown below, we are creating a column dedicated for capturing numeric values.

The process for creating a Text input is also similar. When I create a data input column of type Single Select, Inforiver allows me to create my own list or use one of the preset options. One such preset option is Process Status. When I hover over it, I can preview the five stages - Not Started, Started, In Progress, In Review & Completed.

When I click on Process Status, it takes me to the configuration screen that I can customize.

I have gone ahead and created columns for each of these types below. Note that the number and date column headers are automatically right aligned, while the text & dropdown column headers are left aligned. We at Inforiver have taken care of the finer details so that you can sit back and enjoy the experience.

When I choose either of the two dropdown fields (Single Select or Multi Select), I can see the options listed in a dropdown.

When I select a date field, I get to see a date picker.

Here are a few values that I have managed to enter in these columns. What do you think?

v1.8 introduces a new data input type – Person as shown below.

Once a data input column is added, two columns – Last updated at and last updated by get enabled which captures metadata for changes in data input column at a row level.

Note: These 2 columns are enabled once you add a data input column and can be found in the data input dropdown. They can also be enabled/disabled from ‘Manage Columns’. 

Note that there are other data entry options too – in the form of notes & comments, and also the simulation feature. To keep things simple, we have not covered them for now.

Note that all the data entries & updates are tracked by Inforiver’s interactive & filterable audit trail log - which helps you keep track of what has changed in the report.

Yeah, this is great. But can I write back this data to a database?

Absolutely. All of this data captured by Inforiver can be written back to a database - on-premise or cloud SQL, Snowflake, Azure and more. You can even write it to a shared folder like OneDrive. Or simply export to PDF or Excel.

Try out these features in Inforiver today.

Learn how Inforiver's writeback capability can transform your Power BI reports.