The Single Schedule is the simplest and easiest way to schedule a Power BI report for delivery.
This article applies to:
- Power BI Reports & Dashboards (Cloud - Power BI Service)
Single Reports Schedule for Power BI Service Reports & Dashboards.
The Single Schedule is the simplest and easiest way to schedule a report for delivery. It involves defining the report you wish to schedule, determine its timing, selecting parameters (if any), and setting the destination (s) of the report.
Example: Jamie is a reports developer that must send a daily report to management detailing the number of support tickets currently open. She requires a report to be sent in PDF format at 8:30AM to three individuals.
How to Create a Single Schedule Report for Power BI Service Reports & Dashboards?
- Go to Single.
- Go to For PowerBI Service and select Reports & Dashboards.
Single Report Schedule Wizard for Power BI Service Reports & Dashboards
General Wizard
- Create In: This section is for selecting the folder where you want to create the single report in.
- Power BI Account: This section is to select what Power BI Account you want to create the single report in. In this section, you may add a new account in the Add New button.
- Select Report: Click on the drop-down menus to navigate to the required report.
- Schedule Name: Write in the name of the schedule.
- Description (optional): You may write a short description to help other users identify exactly what this schedule is and what it is expected to do.
- Keyword (optional): Enter some keywords which can be used later by Smart Folders to identify this schedule.
Click Next to continue to the next wizard section.
Schedule Wizard
In this section, you will decide when the report will execute. There are a variety of options:
- Daily: Run a report every day or at a frequency of days.
- Sub options: Repeat every X Days.
Example: Run the schedule every 3 days.
- Weekly: Run a report on a weekly time frame.
- Sub options: Repeat every X weeks.
Example: Run the schedule every 2 Weeks.
- On: Select the specific days of the week the schedule will run. If only once a week, select only the day of the week it will run.
Example: Run every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
- Week Days: Run the schedule Monday through Friday.
- Working Day: Run the schedule starting on a specific day of the month. Indicate which day of the month the schedule will run. E.G. run the schedule on the 4th working day of the month.
- Monthly: Run the schedule on a monthly time frame.
- Use the following options: Checking this box will enable you to select frequency options such as the “last Thursday of the month.” Also you can include or exclude specific months from the schedule.
- Annual: Run the schedule every year at a specified time.
- Custom Calendar: Select the custom Calendar you wish to use. You can create a new custom calendar from the menu as well. Please see Custom Calendars for more information.
- Other: Other scheduling options.
- Run Schedule every X Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years.
- None: No scheduling is required for this item.
- Start Date: Enter the desired starting date for the schedule. This section can be the current date (providing schedule time has not already passed) or a date in the future.
- End Date: If the schedule is due to end after a certain date enter that here. If the schedule is to run indefinitely, then leave it blank.
- Schedule time: On the Next Run date, the package will run at this time.
- Exception Calendar: Choose a calendar that will instruct the schedule to NOT run on those specified days. Please see Custom Calendars for more information.
- Next to run on: The package will next run on this date.
- Repeat Every: Rerun the package every x minutes from the scheduled time until your specified time.
For example, you can set up a daily package to run every day at 8 am, and to run every hour until 5 pm.
- Until: After this date, there will be no automated scheduling of this package.
- Enable this Schedule: Uncheck this option to Disable the package. Disabled packages are not deleted, but they do not execute automatically. You can re-start the automatic scheduling at a later date by checking this option again. Or right-clicking this schedule from the main screen and selecting Enable.
Click Next to continue to the next wizard section.
Settings Wizard
- In this section, you may set up the dashboard/report.
Settings and JSON Rendering settings may overwrite each other so it is best to only set one or the other.
Settings
- Left margin (% of width): The size of the left margin as a percentage of the page width.
- Page Height(pixels): The height of the rendered file.
- Page width (pixels): The width of the rendered file.
- Right margin (% of width): The size of the right margin as a percentage of the page width.
- PDF Cropping: You may crop your reports by page height (pixels) and page width (pixels).
- Maximum Loading Time(secs): The maximum amount of time that the renderer will wait before timing out.
- Minimum Loading Time(secs): The amount of time that PBRS will wait for the dashboard/report to load before rendering it to file.
- PDF Compression: Select PDF compression levels.
- Rendering Method: Select the rendering method type for your Power BI report.
- Transparent Background: You have the option to have your Power BI report in a transparent background.
- View Style: How the report fits on the page: Fit to Page, Fit to Width, or Actual Size.
- Page To Render: The Power BI page(s) to render. Only applicable to Power BI reports. Leave blank for all report pages or you can specify a page range e.g 1-5 or specific e.g. 1,3,5. You can enter page names e.g. Monthly Report Page, Weekly Summary Reports.
You can drag and drop Inserts constants into Pages To Render textbox.
- Enable snapshots and keep snapshots for "X" Days.
- Preview: By clicking here you may see the preview dashboard/report.
JSON
- Use JSON string for rendering settings: Check this option to use JSON string for the rendering settings.
- Enter the JSON string.
You can drag and drop Inserts constants into JSON textbox.
Click Next to continue to the next wizard section.
Report Filters Wizard
- In this section, you will determine the filters for your report (if any). If your report has no filters, you may skip this section by clicking next.
For more information about Report Filters Wizard, click here.
Filters
Filter Definition
- Filter Type: You may choose between Basic Filter, Advanced Filter, or Filter Function.
- Ignore filter when insert values are blank: Check this option when the filter values are blank.
- Preview: View the dashboard/report output given the selected filters.
- Filter using this field (Table.column): Choose the table and column you would like to set up the filter.
Basic Filter
- Click Add.
- Enter the Table.Column names in Filter using this field textbox.
- Select the Field Data Type.
- Select an operator in Show items when the value matches.
- Show items when the value matches: Insert the value you would like to add and then click Add.
- Click Save Filter.
Advanced Filter
- Click Add.
- Select Advanced Filter.
- Enter the Table.Column names in Filter using this field textbox.
- Select the Field Data Type.
- Show Items when the value: In this option, you have the option to show items and select an option from the drop-down menu.
- Click Save Filter to add the filter.
Filter Function
- Select the Filter Function option to enter an advanced Filter JSON string so you don't have to manually configure filters in PBRS.
- Click Build.
- Enter the Filter JSON string.
- Click OK.
- Click Save Filter.
Filter Level
- Report: Check this option to filter the level of the report based on the filter field (Table.Column) value.
- Slicer: Check this option to filter the report based on the slicer visual icon and the filter field value. Using Slicer, all the values of the slicer will be displayed and only the entered value on Filter Field will appear checked.
In order to use the Slicer filter, you must have a Slicer visual in your Power BI Report.
Slicer
Visual Title
- Visual Title: Using this option, you can select the slicer selection based on the Visual Title of the report. Select the slicer visual title using the drop-down menu.
- Click Save Filter.
Filter Field
- Filter Field: Using this option, you can select the slicer selection based on the Filter Field (Table.Column).
- Click Save Filter.
Bookmarks
Bookmark and Filters may overwrite each other so it is best to only set one or the other.
- If you have a Bookmark in the report you have the ability to select the bookmark using the drop-down menu.
- Check Apply the following bookmark to enable the Bookmarks option.
- Select the bookmark from the drop-down menu.
Row Level Security
This feature can only be used with a Service Principal account.
- Row Level Security allows the user to better control the data in the report by being able to enter a JSON definition into the Report Filter.
- After clicking Row Level Security, check the Use the following Row Level Security Settings box and enter your definition.
Click Next to continue to the next wizard section.
Destination Wizard
In this section, you will decide where your schedule will be delivered. The list in the center will display the list of destinations you have added to the schedule. You can organize the various destinations’ order by clicking on the green up and down arrows.
- Add: Click here to add a destination. You have several options which are: Email, Disk, Fax, FTP, ODBC, Printer, Sharepoint, SMS, and Dropbox.
- Edit: Select a destination and click to edit it's properties. Or simply double-click on the destination.
- Delete: Select a destination and click this button to delete it.
- Import: Click here to import from the list of default destinations.
- For more information about Type of Destinations, click here.
- For more information about Output Formats, click here.
Click Next to continue to the next wizard section.
Exception Handling Wizard
- Treat as “error” if not completed in X minutes: If a report takes longer than the specified amount of time to run, this option will treat the schedule as an error and follow the appropriate action. The “Auto-calculate” option instructs PBRS to automatically determine how long a schedule should take to run the report. If it takes longer than the calculated amount of time, then it is an error.
If manually determining the error timing, please double-check the run time of the report in order to get the correct time estimate.
- On error, retry executing schedule every: If set to 0, PBRS will deem the schedule as "Failed" the first time it encounters an error. The schedule will not run again until its next scheduled time. Change the value to tell PBRS how many times you want it to retry running the report before declaring it as "Failed."
- Check if the Report is Blank: If a report is blank because it genuinely returned no data, recipients can misconstrue this as an error with the scheduler. This option allows you to identify genuine empty reports and instruct PBRS on what to do with them.
- Ignore the report and subsequent tasks: If the report is blank, do not send the report. The report will not be delivered to the destination. No custom tasks will be run.
Method
- Select the Method that will determine whether a report is blank.
- SQL Query: Select this option to use a user made query that will determine if the report is blank. If the query returns no results, the report is blank.
- Click Build.
- Get values from a database window will appear. For more information about Get values from database, click here.
- File size check: Assume report is blank if size is under "X" bytes.
Actions
- Select an action from the task list. This task will be executed in the event that a schedule is blank.
- For more information about tasks, click here.
Tip: You can send a notification if a report is considered blank instead of sending the report. Simply select “check if a report is blank” then select “Ignore the report.” In the actions tab, select “Send Email” from the list. Compose your email and save.
Click Next to continue to the next wizard section.
Refresh Datasets Wizard
In this section select the datasets to refresh before the report is executed.
- Power BI Account: Select the account to refresh datasets.
- Workspace: The path to the required report.
- Dataset: Select the dataset.
- Notification Options: Receive a notification after the dataset refresh is completed, the Dataset refresh fails, or choose not to receive a notification.
- After refreshing the datasets above, wait 'X' seconds before running the report. Enter the required amount of time in seconds the scheduler should wait after completion of the Dataset Refresh before triggering the report.
Click Next to continue to the next wizard section.
Custom Tasks Wizard
- In the section you have the option of setting up custom tasks. Custom tasks are business process automation tools that can be auto triggered before or after a report runs.
- For more information on Custom Tasks, click here.
- If you have no desire to add a Custom Task, you can click finish to complete the schedule.
Single Report Schedule Context Menu
- Right-Click on a schedule to see the following actions:
- Properties: Edit the schedule from here. Or you can just double click on the schedule.
- Copy: Use this to copy the schedule. Right-click in the "white space" of the folder you wish to copy it to and select Paste button.
- Rename: Rename the package.
- Enabled: Schedules are enabled when there is a check icon beside this option. To stop a schedule from running, or to "pause" it for a while, select this option to remove the check icon. Disabled schedules will not run until they are enabled again.
- Move: Use this option to move the report into an existing package.
- Preview: Preview the report before execution.
- Execute: This button will execute the schedule immediately. Note that the next run date and time is not moved on as a result of a manual execution. They only move on if the schedule is run automatically by one of the schedulers
- Delete: Selecting this option will delete the schedule.
- Execute On: Use to option to execute the schedule to another collaboration server.
- Test: Use this option to test the schedule and export it to selected "test" destinations.
- Convert To Package: This button will move this report into a package. The package will have the name of the single schedule report.
- Ad-Hoc Email to Recipients: Select this option to send an ad-hoc email to all recipients of this package. You can use this to alert recipients to a planned system outage, or any other useful information.
- Create Shortcut: Use this option to create a shortcut you can save in any location on your PC. Execute the shortcut to execute the schedule in PBRS.
- Ad-Hoc View: This button allows you to preview the report.
Single Report Schedule Properties
- To access your schedule properties, right-click on a schedule and select properties.
- Similar to the schedule wizard, you can adjust settings to your schedules such as timing, error handling, or custom tasks.
- General
You can view the Schedule Unique ID in the General Wizard.
- Schedule
- Report Settings
- Report Filter
- Refresh Datasets
- Destinations
- Exception Handling
- Tasks
- Sharing: Here you can share this schedule with multiple users.
- Snapshots: A snapshot is a copy of each report a schedule or a package generates. Keeping snapshots enables you to resend past reports without generating them afresh - especially if the data has changed in the meantime.
- Simply select the number of days to keep the snapshots.
- History: Review the schedule's history. Successes, failures, and other data is located here.