Creating Multiple sub report Reports from the same Report

[RY33]

Hi,

I have built a big report with 20 odd tabs (master file). Now I need to create a number of versions (5 or 6) targetted at specific groups of users. For example, team heads should see tabs 1,5,7 only, directors should see tabs 10-15, etc.

First I published the entire report and made a copy for the Team heads and deleted all the tabs apart from 1,5,7. The problem is as far as I can tell, copies of report do not update when I make changes to the master file (which I do a lot as still developing). I.e. these copies loose the connection to the datasource (master file) - a bit like an excel file with links deleted.

What is the best practice to create a number of "trimmed down" versions of the reports (i.e. only certain tabs), so it is easy to maintain. Ideally, I want to keep all development / code) in a single file. 

(p.s.  I considered building a dashboard for each type of users but it appears that you cannot have persistent (user saved) filters in dashboards, so went down the multiple reports route.

Thank you,

RY

[v-jayw-msft]

Hi @RY33 ,

If i understand you correctly, it seems you want something like Row-Level security.

Here's a simple example for Row-Level security.

Once you have managed roles in Power BI Desktop and publish the report to Power BI Service, you can assign a role to users.

For more details, please refer to the documents below.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-rls.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-admin-rls.

Best Regards,

Jay

Community Support Team _ Jay Wang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[kentyler · Accepted solution]

You might look into the (relatively) new "what if" parameters, which can be changed by the user but are stored as part of the model.
https://medium.com/dm-p/dynamic-filtering-with-power-bi-what-if-parameters-43ab4953de68
You could also look into shared datasets (if you're using the service)

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-report-lifecycle-datasets

You can also do all the data modeling in one power bi file and then use that as a datasource for different report front ends. You can share a source file by using OneDrive

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-desktop-files

You might also be able to use a power bi template 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-templates

As you can see, there is not a standard way to "develop in one file" and then distribute variations on that file.

[RY33]

Hi @kentyler kentyler. Thanks for your suggestions. As you say, there seems no easy / quick way to do what I wanted. I followed your suggestion to use the master file as the data source. I created a new file, picked my master file as the data source and copied the visuals that I need from the master file (CTRL+A to select all visuals on a page, so I fairly quickly replicated the tabs that I needed on the new report – probably not the neatest solution but an interim quick fix). I am hoping this new file will update when I update the master file without having to “publish” it again. Will explore Row Level Security in the future – sounds like a mega project right now as I am fairly new to Power BI