How to Publish a Report to an App in Power BI
You’ve built a fantastic report in Power BI, but sharing the raw link to the workspace can feel a bit messy and unfinished. Power BI apps are the solution, letting you package and distribute your reports and dashboards like a polished, professional product. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about publishing your reports to an app, controlling who sees your data, and managing updates with ease.
What Exactly Is a Power BI App?
It's easy to get confused with all the different terms in Power BI: reports, dashboards, workspaces, and apps. Think of it this way:
A Report is a detailed, multi-page deep dive into a specific dataset. It’s where you do your core analysis with different visuals.
A Dashboard is a single-page summary, often pinning key visuals from one or more reports to provide a quick overview.
A Workspace is your collaborative workshop. It’s a staging area where you and your team build, modify, and store reports, dashboards, and datasets. It's often filled with works-in-progress and multiple versions.
An App, on the other hand, is the final, published package. It bundles selected reports and dashboards from a workspace into a clean, easy-to-use experience for your end-users. Consumers of the app see only the content you’ve chosen for them, without all the behind-the-scenes clutter of the workspace.
So, Why Bother Using an App?
Publishing your content as an app offers several huge advantages over simply sharing access to a raw workspace:
Simplified User Experience: Instead of navigating a busy workspace, users get a clean-looking application with a clear navigation pane. It’s much more focused and less intimidating for non-technical colleagues.
Centralized Content: You can bundle related reports and dashboards together. For example, a "Quarterly Marketing Review" app could contain a Google Analytics traffic report, a Facebook Ads performance report, and a high-level KPI dashboard, all in one place.
Controlled Access & Permissions: Apps give you granular control. You can create different "audiences" within a single app, showing an executive team one set of high-level reports while showing the marketing team more detailed, tactical reports — all from the same app.
Professional Branding: You can add a logo, a description, and a theme color to your app, giving it a professional look that aligns with your company's branding.
What You Need Before You Start
Before you can publish an app, make sure you have a few things in place. This will save you from hitting frustrating roadblocks later on.
A Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) License: App creation and consumption require a paid Power BI license for both the creator and the consumers. If your organization has Power BI Premium capacity, then consumers with a free license can view the app.
Content in a Workspace: You cannot publish an app from "My Workspace." Your reports and dashboards must be published to a collaborative workspace. If you don't have one, you’ll need to create one first.
The Right Workspace Role: You must have an Admin, Member, or Contributor role in the workspace. Viewer roles cannot create or update apps. The creator role determines who can publish, but the content itself still respects the data sources' security rules.
Completed Reports: Your reports, datasets, and any dashboards should be finalized and published to the workspace you plan to use for the app.
Step-by-Step: Publishing Your First Power BI App
Once you’ve got your prerequisites in order, the publishing process is straightforward. Head to your workspace in the Power BI service (app.powerbi.com) and find the "Create app" button in the upper-right corner.
Clicking this takes you to a configuration screen with three main tabs: Setup, Content, and Audience. Let's walk through each one.
Step 1: The 'Setup' Tab – Branding Your App
This is where you give your app its identity. It’s the first thing your users will see, so spending a moment here makes a big difference.
App name: Give your app a clear and descriptive name like "Marketing Performance Dashboard" or "Monthly Sales Report." Avoid generic names that won't make sense to your users.
Description: This is your chance to provide context. Briefly explain what the app is for, who it's for, and what kind of data it contains. You can also include contact information for the report owner if people have questions.
Logo: Uploading your company or team logo adds a professional touch and makes the app instantly recognizable.
App theme color: Choose a theme color that matches your company's branding. This color will be used for the app's header bar.
Step 2: The 'Content' Tab – Choosing What to Include
This tab is where you decide which reports and dashboards from the workspace will be part of your app. At the top, you'll see a button to "Add content."
You can add dashboards, reports, and links. A best practice here is to only include the finished items that are relevant to your end-users. Leave out any draft reports or underlying datasets they don't need to see.
Organizing Your App's Navigation
Once you’ve added your content, you can organize it for easy navigation. You can reorder the items by dragging and dropping them. More importantly, you can group them into sections.
For example, you could create a "High-Level Summary" section with your main dashboard, and then a "Detailed Reports" section with your multi-page reports. This creates a clean, collapsible menu on the left side of the app, making it much easier for users to find what they're looking for.
Step 3: The 'Audience' Tab – Managing Access and Permissions
This is arguably the most important step. Here, you define who can see the app and what they can do with it.
In the upper right of this screen, you’ll see the "New Audience" button. You can create multiple audiences for a single app. This is an incredibly powerful feature. You might have one audience named "Leadership Team" who sees only the executive summary dashboard, and another audience named "Regional Managers" who sees both the dashboard and detailed regional performance reports.
To add people, simply enter the names of individuals or company email groups (like marketing-team@yourcompany.com).
Fine-Tuning Permissions
For each audience you create, you have two key checkboxes:
Allow users to connect to the app's underlying datasets using a separate Power BI Desktop connection: This is a powerful setting. If you check this, users will be able to connect to the dataset your app is built on and create their own reports in Power BI Desktop. It's a great way to empower other analysts, but keep it unchecked if your audience only needs to view the curated reports.
Allow users to share the datasets and create content with them: This lets app users not only build their own reports but also share the datasets with others. It offers maximum flexibility but also requires you to trust that your users understand the data properly.
It’s important to understand that giving someone access to the app doesn't automatically grant them access to the underlying datasets. You may need to manage those permissions separately if you're using row-level security or other advanced data governance features.
When you're happy with your audience setup, select the reports or dashboards that each audience should be able to see using the eye icon next to each item.
Step 4: Publish and Share
Once you’ve configured everything, hit the "Publish app" button in the bottom right. Power BI will ask you to confirm, and after a few moments, you’ll get a pop-up with a shareable link.
Copy this link and send it to your users. They can click it to install the app, which will then appear in their "Apps" section in Power BI for easy access anytime.
Keeping Your App Updated
Reports are rarely "done." Your data changes, stakeholders ask for new visuals, and you make improvements. Updating an app is just as easy as creating one.
First, make any needed changes to your report in Power BI Desktop.
Save and publish the updated report to the same workspace, overwriting the old version.
Go back to the workspace in the Power BI service and click the "Update app" button.
You can now adjust any of the settings in the Setup, Content, or Audience tabs. For example, you might add a newly created report to your content.
Click "Update app" again to publish the changes.
The best part? Users who already have the app installed don't need to do anything. The app will automatically update for them with your new changes. It’s a seamless way to keep everyone on the same page.
Final Thoughts
Publishing your Power BI reports as an app is a great way to elevate your work from a simple data file to a polished, professional tool for your organization. By bundling content, controlling permissions, and creating a great user experience, you ensure that your insights are not only seen but also easily understood and utilized by the people who need them most.
While Power BI is a powerful tool, learning all of its specific workflows - from building reports to publishing apps - can feel complex. At Graphed, we made it our mission to bypass steep learning curves. Instead of spending hours in a complex interface to build reports and configure distribution settings, you can simply use plain language to create real-time, shareable dashboards from all your marketing and sales platforms in seconds.