Automated PDF reports: a) custom schedule and b) more than one page in the report?

[Anonymous]

I would like to set up automated reports from Power BI to various managers in the firm. I know that Power BI supports scheduled reports of single page PDFs, I have read the blog "E-Mail Subscriptions for Paginated Reports is Now Available" by Christopher Finlan. I tried that, yes it works for one page reports. However there are two drawbacks for my own circumstances: 

• a) I would like to use a custom publication schedule to auto e-mail managers with reports to coincide with the company Board meetings, the 2nd Monday of each month. I have a calendar/table set up in SQL Server with these dates, if that helps.
• b) I would like the automated reports to contain full reports (more than one page) in a single PDF, four e-mails with four single page PDFs is not quite the same as a single four page report. I can see an option in the "Subscribe to emails" section for "Full report attachment as", but this option is greyed out and not available to me, because I don't have a Power BI Premium license ( I only have a Power BI Pro license). 

Can I do both or either of the above in Power BI? Can the SQL Server schedule be used to help automate this process? Do I need to use 3rd party software, if so what is available and can they do both of the above? I need something that runs as a centralised service, not run on my own computer.

FYI: I'm currently using Power BI: Service version13.0.15383.18 Client version2102.2.04869-train

Thanks

Peter

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi@Anonymous,

As you see in  the blog "E-Mail Subscriptions for Paginated Reports is Now Available" by Christopher Finlan.

For Paginated reports, you do have to be running with Power BI Premium license. Once that is enabled, you can create an email subscription and select to attach the report as a PDF. 

If you don't have premium license, you could use Power Automate to send PDF into email to have a try. Most of the organization are using O365/M365 for Power BI subscription. Those are still getting Power Automate licenses are free. Please check with your M365 admins.

http://dataap.org/blog/2020/03/15/power-bi-report-subscription-as-pdf/ 

Hope it helps.

Best Regards,
Caitlyn Yan

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

[lbendlin]

Have a look at Power Automate, it has scheduling flexibility and can export pages/bookmarks from Power BI Reports.