Beyond the Flat Table: Building an Enterprise-Grade Financial Model in Power BI

Building an enterprise-grade financial model in Power BI begins with transforming a flat table into a clean star schema. The process involves using Power Query for data profiling to identify dimensions and facts, then creating dimension tables for products and geography using the 'Reference' feature to maintain a link to the source. A dynamic date table is generated using M code to ensure it automatically scales with the dataset and supports time intelligence functions. In the modeling phase, these tables are connected into a star schema with single-direction, many-to-one relationships flowing from dimensions to the central fact table. This structured approach, framed as a practical exercise for the PL-300 certification, creates a performant and scalable model.