How to enable email notifications within Microsoft Power BI

If you didn’t know this already, Power BI is a real game-changer when it comes to reporting that enables countless customisations for real-time insights, however it is often the case that we don’t always have the time to go and manually review a report. 

However, you are in luck as Power BI has a feature that can help you to overcome this issue. This is what we will be showing you in our latest blog article. 

Time to see hello to Power BI Report Subscriptions 

You will find that report subscriptions enable you to put into place automation that sends report updates to selected participants no matter what device they are using or where they are located. 

These criteria can be created for a specific time or date, such as weekly or when the data in the report is refreshed. Are you able to subscribe to a report? The answer is yes and here is how you do it! 

How to setup a report subscription 

The first action you need to complete is to login to your Power BI account if you aren’t already signed in. After you have completed this, simply go to the report you wish to subscribe to within either the ‘Workspaces’ or ‘Apps’ section, open it and then complete the following actions: 

Select the ‘Subscribe to report’ option which you will see in the top right corner. 

After you have done this, you should see a subscription screen which will prompt you with a button that says ‘create a subscription’ so hit this button. 

At this point, you will have to configure the subscription settings: 

• Recipients: Put in this section, the email addresses of those who want to receive the notifications. 
• Frequency: Pick how regularly you want notifications to be sent out. 
• Time: Select what time of day you want these notifications to be sent out. 
• Time Zone: Pick which time zone you, or the person subscribing to the notifications is in. 
• Start Date: Pick when you would like the notifications to start. 

Once you have completed the above information, you can now choose whether or not you want the whole report sent to you (can only do this if you have a Power BI premium account) or a simply a link to the report (you will need a Power BI Pro account). 

As well as the above, you can then choose to put a message into the email that will be going out to the recipients along with the report updates, however you don’t have to do this so can leave it blank. 

Next, it would be advised to quickly check that you are happy with all the settings you have selected and once you have done this, simply select ‘subscribe’. 

Furthermore, you can manage your subscriptions by going to your profile picture in the top right-hand corner and choosing the ‘settings’ button. 

This is where you will be able to both view, edit or delete your existing subscriptions, if you so desire. 

Then you are done! You have subscribed yourself and others to a specific Power BI report, and you will be now getting updates dependent on the settings you chose above. Say goodbye to having to login to Power BI over and over again. 

Next Steps? 

If you are a business that is looking to maximise your use of Power BI or require any further assistance around the Microsoft Power Platform then please give our Power Platform experts a call today to discuss exactly what you need. 

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