Question

What’s the best way to schedule Power BI paginated reports and ensure data accuracy?
I need to automate the scheduling of Power BI paginated reports while ensuring that the data is refreshed and accurate at the time of distribution. What is the best approach using Power BI service, data refresh settings, and subscriptions to ensure scheduled reports contain the most up-to-date information?

Answer 1

These best practices help you schedule Power BI paginated reports in a timely manner and ensure data accuracy.

Power BI Service Subscriptions: For Paginated Reports delivery scheduling, the Power BI Service (Premium or PPU) utilizes email subscriptions. Here, the complete set of report recipients, the format in which to email subscription reports (PDF, Excel, etc.), and the job's schedule on the basis of business necessity are defined.

Ensure Data Refresh Completeness: The report may only be scheduled if the underlying datasets have been confirmed to refresh successfully. When the data for the report is being drawn from a Power BI dataset, scheduled refreshes should be set up in service to complete prior to the report execution. In cases where data retrieve reports are from direct database connections, ETL processes, and all data pipeline activities should complete updating prior to any execution of the report.

Validate Report Execution Order: Use SQL Agent Jobs, Azure Data Factory, or Power Automate to trigger the paginated report only after the data refresh is complete, thus avoiding the situation of sending out outdated or incomplete reports.