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📌 Post Title:
How to send daily RLS-based Power BI report snapshots (PNG/PDF) by email to 800 dealers?
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📌 Post Body:
Hi Community,
I have a large-scale distribution scenario and need some help with best practices.
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My Dataset Setup:
Sales table → contains all dealer sales data (DealerCode, Amount, Date, etc.).
Dealer Access table → maps each dealer’s email address to their DealerCode. Example:
LoginEmail | DealerCode
dealer1@abc.com | D001
dealer2@abc.com | D002
dealer3@abc.com | D003
...
Relationship: DealerAccess[DealerCode] → Sales[DealerCode].
RLS Role on DealerAccess:
[LoginEmail] = USERPRINCIPALNAME()
Tested in Power BI Service → works perfectly. Each dealer only sees their own data when they log in.
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My Requirement:
I need to send a daily scheduled email to 800 dealers.
Each email should contain:
1. A PNG (or PDF) snapshot attachment of the report page, filtered to that dealer’s own sales (via RLS).
2. A link to the live report in Power BI Service (where RLS will continue to apply when they log in).
The solution should be dynamic → I don’t want to maintain 800 separate reports or flows.
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My Concern:
In the Power BI Service, RLS works because the dealer logs in and USERPRINCIPALNAME() evaluates correctly.
But in Power Automate (using Export to File for Power BI Reports), the flow runs under a service account.
By default, this means USERPRINCIPALNAME() always resolves to the service account, not the dealer.
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My Question:
👉 How can I make sure that RLS is applied correctly when exporting via Power Automate so that each dealer only sees their own data in the PNG/PDF attachment?
Should I use the EffectiveUserName property in the export action (to impersonate each dealer)?
Is this scalable for 800 dealers (performance, licensing)?
Or is there another recommended approach for large-scale personalized report distribution with RLS?
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Expected Outcome:
Every morning, each dealer receives an email with a PNG/PDF snapshot filtered to their own DealerCode.
The same email includes a link to the live report in the workspace (still protected by RLS).
Secure, automated, and scalable for 800+ users.
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