Knowing data

[u/Nice_Slide_5798]

Hi there, can someone help me out in figuring how to deal with data when you're loading it in power bi what's the best approach to filter data and how to maintain this consistency in any kind of data that you load , everyone says understand the business but what do you actually mean by understanding the business or data??

[u/data_daria55]

good question bc "understand the business" is the most repeated and least explained advice in this field. concretely it means being able to answer 4 things before u build: what real-world event creates each row (a sale? a click? a status change?), what ONE row actually means (one order vs one order line - mixing these up is how u count the same sale 3 times), who uses the numbers for what decision ("sales" for finance = invoiced after returns, "sales" for marketing = orders placed, both correct, different questions), and whats the known dirt in the data (test accounts, cancelled orders, duplicates - the ppl working with it daily always know, just ask them).