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J_S_A's avatar
J_S_A
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1 year ago
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Automation of Excel generation from Power BI

Hi, I have a visual table created in a Power BI Report in Power BI Desktop. I would need to export this table to Excel daily and save it in Sharepoint. Is there any way to achieve this in an automa...
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  • Olufemi7's avatar
    Olufemi7
    1 year ago

    Automating Excel Generation from Power BI (Without Premium)

    Hi J_S_A , 

    I had a similar need  exporting a visual table from a Power BI report daily to Excel and saving it to SharePoint and I found a practical solution using Excel, Outlook, SharePoint, and Power Automate, all without needing Power BI Premium or PPU.

     

     Here’s how I achieved it (No Code Required):

    1. Export the Visual Table to Excel

    • First, I manually exported the visual table from Power BI Service to Excel.
    • I saved the file in a SharePoint document library.

    2. Automate the Daily Email with Power Automate

    • I created a Scheduled Flow in Power Automate:
      • Trigger: Recurrence (daily at a set time).
      • Action 1: Get file content using path from SharePoint.
        • Site Address: Your SharePoint site.
        • File Path: /Shared Documents/YourFile.xlsx
      • Action 2: Send an email (V2) via Outlook.
        • Attach the Excel file.
        • Customize subject and body.

    This setup sends the Excel file automatically every day via Outlook and keeps it stored in SharePoint.

     

    Benefits

    • No need for Premium or PPU.
    • No coding required.
    • Fully automated using Microsoft 365 tools.

    Let me know if you'd like a step-by-step guide, happy to share what worked for me!

     

     

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
1 year ago

Hi J_S_A ,

Yes, it is possible As BA_Pete said and Thanks for your time solution. To automate exporting a table visual from Power BI and saving it to SharePoint but this can’t be done using Power BI Desktop alone. If you're okay using the Power BI Service, you can set up a daily export of your report (or just the table) and save it as an Excel file to SharePoint.

  • Power BI Pro license
  • Your report published to Power BI Service
  • Access to Power Automate
  • SharePoint access (where the Excel file will be saved)
  • (Optional but recommended) Power BI Paginated Reports if you need real Excel output

If excel output is a must.

  1. Create a Paginated Report (.rdl) using Power BI Report Builder (this allows you to export exactly what you see as an Excel).
  2. Publish it to your Power BI workspace.
  3. In Power Automate:
    • Use the “Export paginated report” action.
    • Set the format to Excel.
    • Add a “Create file” step to drop it into your SharePoint folder.
  4. Set it to run daily using the Recurrence trigger.

This gives you a true Excel with your table, on schedule, saved right to SharePoint.

If paginated reports aren’t available:

  • You can use Power Automate to run a DAX query or export dataset rows as CSV, then save it to SharePoint.
  • This won’t give you exactly the visual layout, but you’ll get the raw data.
  • Another workaround (less ideal) is exporting as PDF or PowerPoint, but Excel won’t be available for regular visuals.

Licensing Tip, if Paginated Reports require Power BI Premium Per User (PPU) or Premium capacity. If that’s not an option, CSV export is the next best fallback.

Regards,
Akhil.