How to Schedule a Power BI Report

Sending out the same Power BI report every Monday morning can feel like a chore, but it's a vital one for keeping your team on the same page. Automating this task with scheduled reports ensures everyone gets the data they need, on time, without you having to click "send." This tutorial will guide you through setting up scheduled report subscriptions in Power BI and share a few tips to make sure it runs smoothly.

Why Schedule Power BI Reports?

Before jumping into the how-to, it’s worth thinking about why this feature is so useful. Manually exporting and emailing reports consumes valuable time that you could spend on analysis. Scheduling automates this routine task, freeing you up to focus on higher-impact work.

Automated reporting also builds consistency. When stakeholders get their key performance indicators (KPIs) at the same time every day, week, or month, they build a habit of checking in on performance. It removes the "out of sight, out of mind" problem and keeps important metrics top of mind for decision-makers. This regular flow of information helps create a more data-driven culture, where decisions are based on the latest facts, not guesswork.

Prerequisites for Scheduling Reports

Before you can set up a schedule, you need a few things in place. Running through this checklist first will save you from hitting roadblocks later.

A Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) License: Scheduling reports via subscriptions is a Pro feature. Users with a free license can receive subscriptions, but they cannot create them. The recipient also needs a Pro or PPU license to view the report in Power BI, or the report must be in a workspace backed by a Premium capacity.
Report Published to a Workspace: Your Power BI report must be published from Power BI Desktop to a workspace in the Power BI Service (app.powerbi.com). While you can publish to "My Workspace," using a shared workspace is the standard practice for team collaboration.
Workspace Permissions: You need to be an Admin, Member, or Contributor in the workspace where the report is located. Viewer roles cannot set up subscriptions.
Configured Data Source Credentials: Power BI needs to be able to access your underlying data sources to refresh the report. For cloud sources like SharePoint or Azure SQL, this usually involves storing your credentials.
Data Gateway for On-Premise Sources: If your report pulls data from an on-premise source (like a local SQL Server or an Excel file on a network drive), you must have a Power BI Gateway installed and configured. The gateway acts as a secure bridge, allowing the Power BI Service in the cloud to access your local data for refreshes.

Step-by-Step: How to Schedule a Power BI Report Subscription

Scheduling a report in Power BI is handled through a feature called "Subscriptions." A subscription sends an email to specified users on a set schedule, with the report attached as a PDF or PowerPoint file and a link to the live report.

Step 1: Navigate to Your Report in the Power BI Service

First, log in to your Power BI account at app.powerbi.com. On the left-hand navigation pane, find and click on the workspace containing the report you want to schedule. From there, click on the report to open it.

Step 2: Create a New Subscription

Once your report is open, look at the top menu bar. You will find a button labeled "Subscribe to report." Click on it. A pane will slide out from the right side of your screen where you’ll configure the details.

Step 3: Configure Your Subscription Details

This is where you define the who, what, when, and how of your automated report delivery. Let’s break down each option in the subscription pane.

Recipients and Contact Information

Subscribe: Click "+ Add a new subscription." You will see you are automatically added as the first recipient.
To: Start typing the email addresses of the people you want to receive the report. These can be individuals or Microsoft 365 groups within your organization.
Also include: You are added by default, but you can remove yourself if you are only setting it up for others.
Subject: The email subject line is pre-filled with the report name, but you can customize it to be more descriptive (e.g., "Weekly Sales Performance Report - Week Ending 10/26").
Optional message: Add a brief message or context to the body of the email. For example, "Here are the latest sales figures. Please review the 'Sales by Region' page for performance details this week."

Report Content and Frequency

Report page: Use the dropdown to select a specific page from your report to send as the main image in the email. If you leave it on the default, it will send the page you were on when you created the subscription.
Frequency: This is the core of the scheduling. You can choose from:
- Hourly: Sends the report at a specified hour or intervals (e.g., every 15, 30, or 45 minutes past the hour).
- Daily: Sends at a specific time each day.
- Weekly: Allows you to pick which days of the week to send the report (e.g., every Monday and Friday at 8:00 AM).
- Monthly: Lets you choose specific days of the month (e.g., the 1st and 15th of every month).
Scheduled Time: Select the time of day and the correct time zone for the delivery.
Start and End Date: Set a date for the subscription to begin and, if necessary, an end date.

Pro Tip: You are limited to 24 subscriptions per report, per day. If you need more frequent delivery, you'll need to explore other options like Power Automate.

Step 4: Attachments and Permissions

Attach full report: This is a crucial setting. Toggle it on to attach the report to the email.
Format: Choose how you want the report attached — either as a PDF or a PowerPoint (PPTX) file. A PowerPoint export is great because it creates a separate, high-resolution slide for each page of your report, making it presentation-ready.
Link to report in Power BI: It's best practice to keep this checked. It provides a direct link for users to access the fully interactive report in the Power BI Service.
Preview image: This includes a preview image of your selected report page in the body of the email.
Permission to view the report/app: Always keep this enabled. It grants the email recipients permission to access the report content. If they don't have permission and you send them a link, they'll hit an access-denied page.

Step 4: Save and Manage Your Subscription

Once you are happy with your settings, click "Save and close" at the bottom of the pane. Your scheduled report is now active!

To manage it later, just go back to the report and click "Subscribe to report" again. You will see your existing subscription listed. You can click the pencil icon to edit it, the trash can icon to delete it, or the "Run now" button to immediately send a test email to your subscribers.

Data Refresh vs. Report Subscription: An Important Distinction

Many people get confused about the difference between refreshing a dataset and subscribing to a report. It's a critical concept to grasp:

A Data Refresh Schedule updates the dataset inside Power BI by pulling the latest data from your sources (e.g., a SQL database, a Salesforce account).
A Report Subscription Schedule emails out a copy of the report, showing a snapshot of the data as it exists at that moment.

If your report subscription runs at 8:00 AM but your data refresh is scheduled for 9:00 AM, your stakeholders will receive an email with yesterday's data. To avoid this, always align your schedules.

Best practice: Go to the dataset settings for your report and schedule the data refresh to run shortly before your report subscription. For example, set the data refresh for 7:30 AM and the report subscription for 8:00 AM. This ensures everyone receives the freshest possible data.

Troubleshooting Common Subscription Issues

Sometimes, things don't work as expected. Here are a few common problems and how to fix them:

Emails aren't being delivered: First, ask subscribers to check their spam or junk folders. If that’s not the issue, verify with your IT department that emails from Power BI aren't being blocked by an organizational firewall.
Data in the attached report is outdated: This is the classic refresh vs. subscription issue. Check the dataset's refresh history (in the workspace, find the dataset, click the three dots, and select "Refresh history"). Look for any failed refreshes and fix the underlying issue, which is often expired data source credentials.
Recipients can't open the report link: They either lack a Power BI Pro license or don't have permission to the workspace. Double-check that you enabled the "Permission to view the report" option when setting up the subscription. If it's a licensing issue, they’ll need to get a Pro license or you'll need the workspace to be under a Premium capacity.
The attached file is missing visuals: Some custom visuals from the marketplace may not render correctly in email subscriptions. Stick to standard Power BI visuals if you encounter this, or alert your team that they'll need to use the live report link to see everything.

Final Thoughts

Scheduling Power BI reports through email subscriptions is a powerful way to automate information delivery, save hours of manual work, and ensure your team consistently has access to the insights they need. By carefully configuring the subscription and aligning it with your data refresh schedule, you can create a reliable, hands-off reporting system.

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