Your Power BI Report is Ready. Now What.

• Your Power BI Report is Ready. Now What?

Power BI Desktop

• The application for building reports
• Where you design and create data models
• You develop all visuals and dashboards here
• Think of it as the 'authoring' tool
• It is a free Windows application
• You save your work as a .pbix file

Power BI Service

• The online platform for sharing
• Accessed via a web browser
• This is where you publish your reports
• Hosts and secures your data content
• Enables sharing and collaboration features
• Often referred to as 'the cloud'

Publishing Your Report

• Open your .pbix file in Desktop
• Click the 'Publish' button on the ribbon
• Select your destination workspace
• The service processes and uploads the data
• Your report is now live online
• Refresh schedules are managed in the service

Understanding Workspaces

• Workspaces are like shared folders
• They group related reports and dashboards
• My Workspace is for your personal use
• Create new workspaces for teams or projects
• Workspaces have roles: Admin, Member, Contributor, Viewer
• Apps package workspaces for broad distribution

Sharing Reports Securely

• Share with individuals directly via email
• Set permissions: View or Build access
• Recipients need a Power BI license
• Avoid attaching .pbix files in emails
• Use Microsoft Groups for easier management
• Always audit your sharing permissions regularly

Exporting Data & Pages

• Users can export summarized data to .csv
• Export visuals to PDF, PowerPoint, or .png
• Admins can restrict export capabilities
• Exporting does not share the underlying dataset
• Be mindful of data security when exporting
• Use subscriptions to email report snapshots

Embedding Reports

• Embed securely in SharePoint Online
• Embed in public websites with publish to web
• Publish to web creates a public link
• Use the secure embed feature for internal sites
• Always validate embedding permissions
• Private embedding requires user authentication

Best Practices Recap

• Publish to the service, don't email files
• Use workspaces to organize content logically
• Share via apps for a clean user experience
• Grant the least privileged access needed
• Regularly review who has access to what
• Always consider data security first