Publishing reports in Power BI - Real Business Scenario

Scenario Mode

👤 Your Role: You are a business intelligence analyst at a retail company.

📋 Request: Your manager wants you to publish the monthly sales performance report so that the sales team can access it online and track their progress.

📊 Data: You have a Power BI report file (.pbix) that contains sales data visualizations for the last 6 months, including total sales, sales by region, and top products.

🎯 Deliverable: Publish the Power BI report to the Power BI Service workspace and share it with the sales team with view-only access.

Sample Data

Month	Region	Product	Sales Amount
January	North	Product A	12000
January	South	Product B	15000
February	North	Product A	13000
February	East	Product C	9000
March	South	Product B	16000
March	East	Product C	11000
April	North	Product A	14000
April	South	Product B	17000
May	East	Product C	12000
May	North	Product A	15000
June	South	Product B	18000
June	East	Product C	13000

1

Step 1: Open your Power BI Desktop and load the report file (.pbix) containing the sales data visualizations.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

The report with sales data visualizations is open and ready.

2

Step 2: Sign in to your Power BI account within Power BI Desktop by clicking on 'Sign in' at the top right corner.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

You are signed in to your Power BI account.

3

Step 3: Click on the 'Publish' button in the Home ribbon to start publishing the report.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

A dialog appears asking you to select a workspace.

4

Step 4: Select the appropriate workspace where you want to publish the report (e.g., 'Sales Team Workspace').

No formula needed.

Expected Result

The report is published to the selected workspace successfully.

5

Step 5: Go to the Power BI Service (https://app.powerbi.com) and navigate to the workspace where you published the report.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

You see the published report listed in the workspace.

6

Step 6: Click on the report to open it and verify that all visuals and data are displayed correctly.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

The report opens and shows the sales data visuals as expected.

7

Step 7: Click on the 'Share' button at the top right of the report page.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

A sharing dialog appears.

8

Step 8: Enter the email addresses of the sales team members you want to share the report with, set permissions to 'Can view' only, and send the invitation.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Sales team members receive an email with a link to view the report.

9

Step 9: Confirm with a team member that they can access and view the report without editing rights.

No formula needed.

Expected Result

Team member confirms successful access with view-only permissions.

Final Result

Bar Chart: Sales by Region

↓

Line Chart: Sales Trend by Month

↓

Table: Top Products by Sales

✓Sales have steadily increased from January to June.

✓South region consistently shows the highest sales.

✓Product B is the top-selling product in most regions.

Bonus Challenge

Set up a scheduled refresh for the published report so that it updates automatically with new data every day.

Show Hint

In Power BI Service, go to the dataset settings and configure the scheduled refresh with your data source credentials.