Sales reporting Process - Options available

Hi winstonlui,

>>One of the sales reporting excel files is around 160 -180 MB and is prone to crashing and other errors due to the large size. 

You can use the "direct query" mode to connect the sql database then use it as the datasource to create the report.

>>Do you think MS Power BI would be a viable option to automate the process to send to each of our reps?  From what I can see, its strength is more to design dashboard type visuals.  Can it also create basic reports (sales by sku year over year, by store) that we can easily print or email to our rep? (Power BI is free )

You can share the dashboard to other users, group, organization , but it not support the subscribe function. but it support dynamic report, then you can get the newest report without the modify. For example, use power query/ dax to show the last 6 month data(base on date).

For detail information, you can take a look at below articles:

Use DirectQuery in Power BI Desktop

Share a dashboard and reports with colleagues and others

Power BI Dynamic Date Filtering

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng