It’s all well and good designing innovative, insightful Power BI reports—but if they’re difficult to share, what’s the point? Fortunately, this isn’t an issue with Power BI. The platform provides a range of flexible and secure options for disseminating reports across your organisation.
The primary way Power BI reports are shared is through the Power BI Service, which is part of Microsoft Fabric. Within the Power BI Service, there are two main ways to publish and distribute reports: workspaces and apps.
Power BI Apps are the recommended approach for broad report dissemination. They allow you to package related reports and dashboards together and easily share them with business users. Apps provide a clean, controlled experience for consumers and make it simple to manage access and updates in one place.
Power BI workspaces can also be used for sharing, but they are more commonly suited to development and collaboration. Workspaces typically involve a smaller group of users—such as report authors and testers—who need edit or build permissions during the report lifecycle.
Outside of the Power BI Service, you can also set up automated report subscriptions. These allow users to receive reports on a scheduled basis via email. Subscriptions can include a snapshot and link to the report or dashboard, or in some cases a full attachment, ensuring users receive insights without needing to actively log into Power BI.
Another powerful option is embedding Power BI reports. Internally, reports can be embedded in connected Microsoft products such as SharePoint and Microsoft Teams, while still respecting all existing Power BI security and permissions. For external audiences, Power BI reports can also be embedded on the web, enabling insights to be shared beyond your organisation when appropriate licensing and security considerations are in place.
Overall, Power BI offers a wide range of options to ensure your reports reach the right audience in the right way—whether that’s through apps, subscriptions, or embedded experiences.
If you’re looking for guidance on designing, sharing, or governing your Power BI reports, please get in touch with us.