Have you ever wanted to send customized reports to each recipient of an email subscription but weren’t sure how? Microsoft has introduced a feature in Power BI called Dynamic Report Subscriptions, which allows you to dynamically subscribe to a report by applying custom filters based on recipient data stored in a Power BI semantic model.Â
This model maps each recipient, such as the regional manager, to specific filters that determine what data they will see in their report. For example, in a sales report, a manager in charge of the East Coast region would receive a version of the report that only includes sales data for employees under their supervision in that region. The filters are applied dynamically during distribution, ensuring each recipient receives a personalized report copy based on their region.Â
In this blog, we will learn how to create Dynamic Subscriptions in Power BI.
Prerequisites
The following are the prerequisites needed to create Dynamic subscriptions in Power BI:
A report that you want to share which is published to Power BI Premium Capacity or Fabric Capacity workspace
The Power BI semantic model must contain data for the recipients of your dynamic subscription, including email addresses.
You should have a Contributor, Member, or Admin Role in the workspace.
Â
Steps to Enable Dynamic Report Subscriptions
In this blog, we will use a Regional Sales report as an example to demonstrate how to send personalized sales performance reports to regional managers using Dynamic Report subscriptions in Power BI. The following are the steps to create a Dynamic Report Subscription.
A. Connect to Recipient Data
Open the Regional Sales report, which is published in either Power BI Premium Capacity or Fabric Capacity workspace, and click on Subscribe to report
A new window opens on the right. Click on Create a subscription > Dynamic per recipient.
Choose the semantic model that contains your recipient data. This model comprises columns like email address, a filter that may vary per recipient and optionally, attachment type and email subject.
B. Select and Filter Data
This window lists the fields that can be set dynamically. Select the fields from the Recipients table that can dynamically filter your report. These fields from the recipient’s semantic model can be tied to the subscription.
C. Enter Email Details
In the Email details window, fill in the required fields and any other optional fields you want to include. Use the dropdowns to auto-populate content from the Recipient semantic model. In this example, we use dynamic content for Recipients. The link icon in the Recipients field indicates that dynamic content is being used.
For Recipients, select the dropdown option for Get from data and choose the email address column (Recipients. Manager Email ) from the Recipients table.
For the email subject, select the dropdown option for Get from data, choose the relevant column from the Recipients table, or enter the subject manually.
Include optional details. You can type a message to recipients and use the dropdown to select a specific report page. If you toggle the Link to report in Power BIÂ option, the link takes you to this report page, which will also be shown in the Report page preview. The preview image displays the report with the recipient’s unique filters applied.
To attach the full report, choose a format in the dropdown menu. Note that sensitivity labels are applied to the email attachment, and the attachment respects all privacy labels for the report. The attachment size is limited to less than 25 MB.
D. Add Dynamic Filters
Use Map your data window to set the dynamic filters. Select Include my changes if you want to create the subscription with the updates you made to the report, such as applied filters, drilling, spotlights, and more. If you don’t want to include the updates you made to this report, uncheck Include my changes. Select the report field to map to a value in the Recipients Semantic model.
E. Set the Subscription Schedule
Create a schedule for your dynamic subscription in the Set the Schedule window.
Select a Start date and End date (optional) for your subscription. By default, the date you created the subscription will be your start date, and the end date will be one year later. You can define the end date at any time before the subscription ends. When a subscription ends, it stops until you re-enable it. You will receive notifications before the scheduled end date to ask if you’d like to extend.
Use the Repeat dropdown to select a frequency (daily, weekly, or monthly) for your subscription. You can also select your time zone.
You can schedule the subscription to run on the hour 15, 30, or 45 minutes past a specified time zone.
When you turn off the Active subscription, you can trigger this subscription manually instead of having it run regularly.
F. Review and Finish
Select a heading to review your settings in the Review and Finish window. If any settings need changes, select the pencil icon to make edits. If all the settings look correct, select Save and Close.
New subscriptions will be listed in the Subscriptions pane. You can review your subscription by selecting the down arrow to display details. As with other subscriptions, you can edit, delete, and turn on the subscription.
Limitations
The recipient semantic model has a limit of 1000 recipients. If the recipient list exceeds 1000 rows, only the first 1000 recipients will receive the subscription email, and the subscription creator will receive an error email.
If the semantic model’s metadata is changed while the subscription is being processed, dynamic filters may not be applied appropriately.
Report rendering consumes some amount of capacity. It is categorized as an interactive activity in the Capacity metrics report.
This feature only supports single-value filters. It does not support filters with multiple value options.
When a recipient receives a subscription email, it doesn’t guarantee access to the report. Report access should be provided separately.
Closing
The Dynamic report subscriptions feature in Power BI is a powerful feature that allows developers to send customized reports to end users so that end users can see the data that is only relevant to them. Implementing Dynamic report subscriptions will improve the effectiveness of the report distribution process. While this feature enhances the report distribution process, it is important to consider its limitations, the recipients limit, the ability to support only single value filters, and the need to manage the report access separately.Â
For additional questions regarding implementing Dynamic report subscriptions or other Power BI features, don’t hesitate to contact phData’s experts.
FAQs
What are Power BI Subscriptions?
Subscriptions in the Power BI Service allow for regular reporting sharing. The workspace contributor, member, or admin can send an email containing a snapshot and a link to a Power BI Service report to a designated group of individuals. This ensures that recipients receive the report on a recurring schedule.
What is the maximum subscription limit per Power BI report?
Each Power BI report or dashboard can have up to 24 subscriptions, each with its own set of recipients, schedules, and frequencies. However, this limit does not apply to paginated reports.
