Report for an external user with excel data source saved on his company's network - how to approach?

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I built a PBI report for an external client (different company and domain) on my Power Bi Desktop based on a sample excel file (the production excel file is saved on the client's network and is updated every day).

I now need to "hand over" the report to the client and connect it to his excel file. I've already created a Power BI Pro account for the client.

How do I:

1. Make the report available to the client  AND
2. Replace the sample excel file data source link with the production excel file which is located on the client's network AND
3. Have the client be able to refresh the report on his own

I've been struggling with this for a week now and can't find a way to figure it out. Feeling pretty discouraged.

This is what I attempted so far without success:

1. Tried saving the report on the client's PBI desktop -> changing the data source settings to point to the network file -> publish to Service – report did not update data when hitting the "refresh" option in Service.
2. Tried to create a dataflow with enterprise gateway on client's PBI Service. The gateway connection seemed successful but the dataflow gives an error message " invalid credentials" although I checked the windows credentials and they are correct.
3. I also tried sharing the report from my user to the client's user but realized there was no way I could have it connected to the client's excel since we are in two different locations (both physical and domain wise). Is there such a way?

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

Does the customer have a guest account into your Power BI tenant?

Or does the customer have a Power BI Pro account in your tenant?

From my understanding the user would need to have a Power BI Pro account in the tenant where the data resides in order to use the Excel functionality

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Hi @GilbertQ ,

Thanks for your reply!

If tenant means domain (the term tenant really confuses me) then no. We are in two completely none related company with different domains and office subscriptions.

I already gave up the idea of me owning the report and sharing it with the user.

Instead i created a user id for him, moved the report I built him to his User id , opened it on hi PBI desktop and published it to PBI service under a workspace I created for him.

I also managed to create a dataflow on his workspace connecting to the production excel file that will be "feeding" the report and replaced the original dataset script with the dataflow script.

My problem is now, that the PBI Service report will not update when the dataflow updates.