PowerBI App with multiple audiences with preset filters?

[Brujahx]

Hi all, thank you in advance for any advice...
I have been given a requirement to create a PowerBi App, from multiple reports (15), with multiple audiences (8), (1 per department).
This i have achieved, without issue, however... But it also needs to pre filter to just that single departments data - so i applied RLS, which again works fine, where the issue is coming from is when a user (lets call him Bob), needs access to all of the different view, it shows then everything all at once, no filtering applied, i dont want to add a manual filter, as it wont apply across all of the reports, but I cant get my head round what i need to do to  get this working

Bob needs access to view A, view B, view C
Frank only needs access to view A (all reports in view pre-filtered to department A via RLS)
Bill only needs access to view B (all reports in view pre-filtered to department B via RLS)
Ted only needs access to view c (all reports in view pre-filtered to department C via RLS)

I cant quite get my head around what i need to resolve this issue, is there another way to filter each reports data when in the PowerBi App? is this even possible? or am i going to have to create multiple versions of the same report manually filtered, then displayed in the appropriate department view?
(there are 15 reports, and 8 departments, this would mean i have 15 datasets, feeding a total of 120 separate reports, which seems a tad excessive)

Any hints/tips/tricks would be appreciated!!!

[Brujahx]

Hi DataSlayer, 
Bookmarks!!! I never thought of using them for this purpose, that might just do it!! 
Would you have any suggestions as how best to impliment?

[MAwwad]

Yes, bookmarks can be a useful tool to address the issue you are facing. Here are the steps to implement bookmarks for different departments:

1. Create a filter for each department and apply it to all reports in your PowerBI app.
2. Create a bookmark for each department by selecting the filters, visuals, and page properties that you want to save.
3. Publish the bookmarks so that they are available to users.
4. Assign the appropriate bookmarks to each role that you have created in RLS for each department.
5. When a user logs into the app, the app will automatically open the department's view filtered to their assigned department.

Note: Make sure that the users who need access to multiple departments have access to all of the necessary bookmarks.

Dont forget to accept this as solution if it helped you 🙂

[Brujahx]

DataSlayer, you are the best, 
Last questions i promise...
When you say Publish the bookmarks? I have bookmarks in a published report (that are viewable in service), is that what you mean?
And how do i assign a bookmark to an RLS? 

Thank you so much again for your help on this!!!

[MAwwad · Accepted solution]

To clarify, when I mentioned "publishing bookmarks" I was referring to the process of making bookmarks in Power BI available for use in the Power BI Service.

As for assigning a bookmark to an RLS, you would need to create an RLS (Row-Level Security) role and specify the filter conditions that should apply to the role. Then, you would need to assign users or groups to the RLS role. Once the RLS is set up, the view of the report will be restricted based on the filter conditions defined for the role. The bookmark feature can then be used to navigate to a specific page in the report, and the view will be restricted by the RLS for the user assigned to the role.

[MAwwad]

There are a few ways to achieve this in PowerBI:

1. Creating multiple App Workspaces: One option would be to create a separate App Workspace for each department, with the respective reports and RLS rules set up. This way, each App Workspace would display only the relevant data for that department.

2. Using DirectQuery/Live Connection: If you have a large number of reports, using DirectQuery or a Live Connection could be a better option as you can have all the reports in a single App Workspace, but have a single backend database with the relevant filters applied.

3. Custom Filters: You could also set up custom filters that the user can apply in the PowerBI App. This way, users can view all the reports, but the custom filters allow them to only see the relevant data for the department.

4. Bookmarks: Another option would be to use bookmarks to set up predefined views for each department. This way, when a user logs in to the PowerBI App, the default view will be pre-filtered to the relevant department.

In conclusion, you can use multiple methods to solve the problem, but you will have to choose the one that works best for your needs.