Power BI Report Bursting Examples and Templates

The sales report is ready, but your Monday work is not. You select a branch, export its figures, rename the PDF and find the manager’s email address. Then you repeat the process. By the time the final file leaves your inbox, someone has asked for a workbook, a copy in SharePoint and last month’s comparison alongside it.

Report bursting takes the repeated selection and delivery work out of that routine. You keep a shared report design and give PBRS a set of instructions for each recipient. PBRS applies the appropriate filter or parameter, generates the output and sends it to the configured destinations.

For one branch, the instructions might mean “email the manager and save a copy in the branch archive.” Another may need a protected workbook in an SFTP folder. You can maintain those differences in the driving data without creating a separate report design for every person.

PBRS handles more than the split

The real value appears when the report needs preparation before anyone receives it. PBRS can personalize filenames and messages, format supported Excel outputs, apply document security and assemble several reports into a package. The manager gets something ready to use, while the reporting team maintains one understandable process.

Supported Power BI Pro and PPU configurations can use PBRS bursting without adding Premium or Fabric capacity. PBRS still needs its own license and authorized access to the reports. Finished files can go to external recipients without giving them Power BI viewer licenses; access to an interactive Power BI report remains separate.

Here, “bursting” means generating recipient-specific reports. It is different from Fabric’s use of the term for compute capacity.

Start with two recipients whose results should be visibly different. A small test makes it easier to see how the delivery record, report filter and finished file fit together.

The existing downloadable examples use synthetic regional sales data. They are labeled North and South so you can compare the split: source data CSV, recipient mapping CSV, first regional PDF and second regional PDF. The PDFs illustrate the intended result; they are not evidence of an executed Power BI or PBRS job.

A delivery template you can adapt

For your own branch reporting, begin with the fields below. These are suggested business-data columns, not a ready-to-import PBRS schedule. Map them to the actual controls in your job.

PBRS data-driven schedules use SQL or JSON records. The CSV is a planning and learning aid: prepare the supported driver source, select a unique row identifier and use Data-Driven Inserts to map values into the relevant filters and destination fields.

You can extend the record with a worksheet name, CC or BCC address, message, output choice or destination details. Inserts places those values into supported fields when the job runs. A filename containing BR101 does not filter the report by itself; the report filter and delivery settings must each be mapped.

Use your approved test destinations first. Keep recipient information paired with the branch it is authorized to receive, and reject missing branch values rather than silently dropping a filter.

Once the two branch reports are correct, build the rest of Monday’s handoff around them. This is where PBRS adds value that a simple export loop leaves for someone else to finish.

Send the same report to multiple destinations

A branch’s sales PDF can be emailed to its manager and saved to an archive folder as part of the same configured job. Add the required destinations in PBRS and give each its own settings. You do not have to wait for the email and then manually forward or upload the attachment.

That approach also works when delivery routes differ: email for the manager, SharePoint for the internal team, or SFTP for a partner’s agreed location. PBRS supports multiple destination entries, so the reporting requirement can include distribution and recordkeeping together. Check the result for each destination; a successful email does not prove that the archive copy arrived.

Merge several reports before distribution

Suppose the manager also needs stock availability and outstanding orders. A PBRS package can generate those reports, apply the branch’s data selections and assemble the outputs before sending them.

Merge compatible PDF outputs into one document in the configured report order, or combine Excel exports into one workbook with named worksheet tabs. If the original files should remain separate, deliver them together as attachments or in a ZIP package. The recipient gets the complete pack without having to collect several messages.

With a data-driven package, the driver can control the reports and personalization for each recipient. One manager can receive a sales-and-stock pack while another receives additional operational detail. The PBRS package guide explains the configuration.

Make the workbook useful when it arrives

For a finance reader, a raw export may only begin the work. PBRS can export summarized or underlying data from supported visuals, apply Excel formatting, add selected row and column totals and populate an existing Excel template. Data-driven worksheet names help each recipient recognize what is on every tab.

Choose paginated-report exports when you need to preserve the report’s designed layout, or data-only output when the recipient needs figures for analysis. Apply password protection to the final merged workbook so its contents are protected together.

Protect the PDF and explain the delivery

PBRS includes PDF encryption, opening and permissions passwords, supported printing and copying controls, watermarks and document metadata. Configure protection for the finished document before distribution. These are built-in options, so routine PDF security does not require another script or third-party add-in.

The message matters too. Use Inserts to supply the recipient’s name, reporting period and other useful context, alongside To, CC and BCC addresses, filenames and supported delivery settings. “Your September branch pack is attached” tells the manager more than an unexplained file named Report.pdf.

Run when the business is ready

Schedule the process on a recurring timetable or custom business calendar, or use a supported event such as a database change or arriving file. Configure dataset refresh before report generation where required, and define what should happen if refresh or export fails. Retries, empty-report handling and notifications help make the job dependable without someone watching every run.

Native dynamic subscriptions can personalize a report’s email delivery, but standard-report dynamic subscriptions require capacity and do not provide this complete multi-report, multi-destination preparation process. Building the equivalent in Power Automate means maintaining the loops, exports, assembly, routing and recovery logic. PBRS provides those reporting capabilities in one product.

You can set up bursting in the PBRS interface. An API integration becomes useful when your own application already manages the recipient instructions and needs to configure reporting jobs around them.

The important relationship stays simple: one driver record supplies the branch value, and the report’s filter uses it. Delivery is configured separately, so changing a report filter cannot accidentally be treated as changing the recipient.

{
  "BasicFilters": [
    {
      "TargetField": "Sales.BranchCode",
      "FieldDataType": "String",
      "FilterLevel": 0,
      "Operator": "In",
      "BasicValues": [
        "<[r]BranchCode>"
      ],
      "IgnoreBlankDataDrivenInserts": false
    }
  ]
}

Keep the driver identifier with the reporting period and execution record. When someone asks where their pack went, that gives your team a practical way to trace the instructions and delivery result.

Bring the example back to the Monday routine. Choose two branches, send each report to an approved test mailbox and archive destination, and open every finished file. Then add the stock report or workbook that turns the individual export into a useful pack.

Check the data inside each output, the report order, worksheet names, passwords and final locations. Test a branch with no activity and an invalid delivery address as different cases. If one destination fails, inspect what already succeeded before resending so people do not receive unnecessary duplicates.

PBRS works with published reports in Power BI Service, Power BI Report Server and SSRS, rather than exporting directly from Power BI Desktop. Choose the supported source and rendering method for your setup; Microsoft source/export limits, your PBRS license and destination limits still govern the workload.

Once the complete delivery works, expand the driver records instead of repeating the manual export routine. Explore PBRS report bursting and Power BI Report Automation, then use the evaluation guide to plan a test with your own reports and destinations.

Download the PBRS Internal Evaluation Guide