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SpringAndy's avatar
SpringAndy
Regular Visitor
1 year ago
Solved

Power Automate - Concatenate Power BI sheet and Excel table into an email

My experience in Power BI is moderate at best, and the only success I've had in Power Automate is an automated email with a Power BI page attached. My approaches have probably been suboptimal, so I could use some help.
 
I have a Power BI report with a single page and an Excel spreadsheet with 3 tables. My goal is to send an email through PA with a PDF attachment that includes the Power BI report and Excel tables. This feels like it shouldn't be a daunting task, but I'm struggling to figure out how to append these data sources together as an email attachment. 
 
Currently, I'm pulling the Excel tables separately with "List rows present in a table". All the tables are formatted as tables, not ranged. I've confirmed I'm pulling the correct ones in by the table names in the worksheet. When I try to "Create File" from the contents, "File Contents" is not an option. The dynamic content suggestions are metadata or the table column headers. 
 
I'm pulling the Power BI data with "Export To File for Power BI Reports". I'm able to create a pdf from this without much issue.
 
So far, I've tried:
  • Appending them together by creating an array variable and appending the outputs
  • Creating a temporary Word document to thereby generate a PDF
  • Creating an HTML table for the Excel tables
Google and ChatGPT haven't been very helpful in getting me closer to the endgoal. If anyone has a solid grasp on how to do this, I'd very much appreciate some insight. 
Need Help
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    10 months ago

    Hi SpringAndy ,

    Power Automate cannot combine a Power BI-exported PDF and Excel table data into one single PDF using native actions.
    The Power BI PDF is read-only, and Excel “List rows” outputs data (not a file stream), so they can’t be appended.

    You can try in the bellow way 

    • Attach the Power BI PDF and the Excel file (or Excel-to-PDF) as separate attachments.

    Only way to get one PDF file.

    • You can explore for more options which having third party connectors on your own. Which might be help full for you.
      OR,
    • Custom code (Azure Function).

    So your current approach of attaching them separately is the correct and supported solution.

    Thanks,
    Akhil.

     

9 Replies

  • Jai-Rathinavel's avatar
    Jai-Rathinavel
    Icon for Super User rankSuper User
    1 year ago

    SpringAndy Instead of loading the files into power BI and trying to have those excel data using List rows on your mail, try uploading the files to a Sharepoint location and attach those files into your mail body using List Files or similar action in Power Automate.

    • SpringAndy's avatar
      SpringAndy
      Regular Visitor
      1 year ago

      Oh sorry, I see how my wording was confusing. The Excel spreadsheet is indeed separate from the Power BI report. 

       

      I am using List Rows with the Excel spreadsheet, but I can't figure out how to combine the Power BI pdf with an Excel table. Any ideas? 

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    1 year ago

    Hi SpringAndy ,

    Since your question mainly involves building and combining actions inside Power Automate (like “Export to File for Power BI Reports” and “List rows present in a table”), it would get better visibility and targeted guidance in the Power Automate Community forum.

    You can post it here
    Find Answers | Microsoft Power Platform Community
    The experts there specialize in automating flows and can help you create a step-by-step solution to merge your Power BI PDF and Excel table outputs into a single email attachment.

    Thanks,
    Akhil.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    1 year ago

    Hi SpringAndy ,


    Thanks for the clarification and for sharing that.

    I understand the loop you’ve run into between forums that can definitely be frustrating. Since your scenario spans both Power BI and Power Automate, it sits right at the intersection of both products.

    Here’s what I’d suggest.

    • In the Power Automate Community, you can tag your post with both #PowerBI and #PowerAutomate to attract visibility from members who specialize in integration between the two.
    • You can also check out the following documentation and examples that might help you move forward:
      • Export to File for Power BI Reports in Power Automate
      • Send an email with multiple attachments in Power Automate.

    Meanwhile refer bellow threads.

     

    Export and email a report with Power Automate - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
    Advanced | Flow of the Week: Send multiple attachments on a single email - Microsoft Power Platform Blog

    Thanks,
    Akhil.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    11 months ago

    Hi SpringAndy ,

    Just checking in to see if the suggestions above helped you move forward were you able to get the Power BI report PDF and Excel tables combined successfully in your flow?

    If you’re still running into issues, could you share how far you got or where exactly the process is failing e.g., during the “Create File” or “Append to array” step?
    That’ll help us guide you with a more concrete example or updated steps.

    Thanks,
    Akhil.

    • SpringAndy's avatar
      SpringAndy
      Regular Visitor
      11 months ago

      I haven't been able to combine a pdf and Excel table. I've settled for attaching them seperately.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    10 months ago

    Hi SpringAndy ,

    Power Automate cannot combine a Power BI-exported PDF and Excel table data into one single PDF using native actions.
    The Power BI PDF is read-only, and Excel “List rows” outputs data (not a file stream), so they can’t be appended.

    You can try in the bellow way 

    • Attach the Power BI PDF and the Excel file (or Excel-to-PDF) as separate attachments.

    Only way to get one PDF file.

    • You can explore for more options which having third party connectors on your own. Which might be help full for you.
      OR,
    • Custom code (Azure Function).

    So your current approach of attaching them separately is the correct and supported solution.

    Thanks,
    Akhil.

     

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    9 months ago

    Hi SpringAndy 

    Just checking whether the issue is resolved now.
    If you need any further assistance in the future, please feel free to reach out to the Fabric community. We’ll be happy to help.

    Thanks,
    Akhil.