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Martin_How
Frequent Visitor

Analyze in Excel loophole ?

Hi Guys, 

 

I think I've read the entire forum about Analyze in Excel and it seems to be a bit conflicting, So I am hoping to get a final answer via this post: 


Case:

I am a PBI Pro User (my company doesn't have the premium license). I make reports/datasets in PBI desktop and publish them to a number of workspaces regarding for whom the report is meant (finance, sales, marketing....). 

I add al the users who need the report in the workspace and give them rights to "build new content using the underlying dataset". I allso share the (blank) report with them in the PBI Service. The dataset is refreshed during the night. 

Finally I "Analyze in Excel" that report/dataset and build the pivottablereport based on that ODC.? file and share it with the users who need the report. 

A bunch of these users just have a free License, yet they are capable of opening the Excel; en the data inside keeps refreshing (based of the dataset in the PBI service). 

So on the one hand I read that Analyze in Excel is a PBI pro user feature, I assume this is just for the actual analyse in excel button in the workspace, and not for using an Excel with a data connection to the dataset in the service ? 
Alls the scheduled refresh should be a PBI pro user feature ?  (https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Confused-about-what-qualifies-as-quot-Power-BI-Pro-content-...)

And on the other I read that as long there is no direct query connection of the DATASET and the DATASources (SQL in my case), the free users should be good to explore the dataset (with scheduled refresh) without any issues (https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Confused-about-what-qualifies-as-quot-Power-BI-Pro-content-...)

Question:
As I am planning to roll out this approach on a largers scale in my small company, I was hoping for a once and for-all solution regarding this issue? 
So can a free users (with acces to the workspace that holds the dataset) use/refresh an Excel report that was initially created with the 'Analyze in Excel' command by a PBI Pro User ? 
If I am in some sort of a loophole (because the fact that my current Free users, are allready using the Excel reports in this fashion for several months), what are the chances that Microsoft decides to close this loophole ? 

 

Kind regards, 
Martin

 

edit : corrected some typo's

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Hi @Martin_How ,

 

I read some related docs and found something as follows. The link is here.

v-yuaj-msft_0-1610432273767.png

As a personal opinion, I infer that when a free user is added to the workspace and has built permission to the dataset, although he cannot access the corresponding workspace, but still has the permission of the dataset, then the free user can open the .xlsx file shared by others and download it to the local. Generally, The downloaded .xlsx and the license of pbi are not directly related as long as free user has the permission.

 

Hope that's what you were looking for.

Best Regards,

Yuna

 

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

 

View solution in original post

7 REPLIES 7
lbendlin
Super User
Super User

1. would mean that your free users access the Power BI service as refreshing the "OLAP cube"  actually queries the dataset on the service.  That "should not be possible". 

@Ibendlin yes I feared this was some sort of loophole. I probably should have kept my mouth shut 🙂 
No, i will upgrade the current free users who use this style of report to a pro-license. I was just hoping this was a "legit" loophole and I could continue to deploy reports like this...
Anyone from Microsoft or @v-yuaj-msft  who can finally set the matter to rest ? 

 

Hi @Martin_How ,

 

I read some related docs and found something as follows. The link is here.

v-yuaj-msft_0-1610432273767.png

As a personal opinion, I infer that when a free user is added to the workspace and has built permission to the dataset, although he cannot access the corresponding workspace, but still has the permission of the dataset, then the free user can open the .xlsx file shared by others and download it to the local. Generally, The downloaded .xlsx and the license of pbi are not directly related as long as free user has the permission.

 

Hope that's what you were looking for.

Best Regards,

Yuna

 

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

 

Martin_How
Frequent Visitor

Hi Yuna, no they have not. They are free users but they seem to be capable of using & refreshing an Excel I made (with analyze in Excel). 

 

Hi @Martin_How ,

 

1. Do you use the "analyze in Excel" function to download the xlsx file locally and share it with other free users? Or after sharing your report, other free users can use the Analyze in Excel function to download xlsx files by themselves?

2. Could you use "Audit log" in Admin Portal to check the "analyzed power bi report " activity and share the screenshot to me?

v-yuaj-msft_0-1610087985306.png

 



Best Regards,

Yuna

Hi @v-yuaj-msft 

1. I - as a pro user - use the analyze in Excel function to download the XLSX file. Then share this with the free users. The free users never acces the PBI service nor the desktop version. 
They just use the "Excel Report" I provide them. Usually I build a pivottable and when they open the Excel the pivottable refreshes (an OLAP cube) so they can see the scheduled refreshed data each day. 

2) I can't select anything in the Admin portal. Maybe because we don't have PBI Premium? 

Kind regards, 

HOW

v-yuaj-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @Martin_How ,

 

Have those free users who can use "Analyze in Excel" tried the features of Pro License for 60 days?

v-yuaj-msft_0-1608799603198.png

 

Best Regards,

Yuna

 

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