Power BI Report Usage Metrics – Workspace-Level and Organization-Level Usage
Power BI Report Usage Metrics – Workspace-Level and Organization-Level Usage Hi everyone, I am working on a Power BI governance requirement around report usage metrics, and I am trying to understand the recommended approach at both the workspace level and organization/tenant level. I have some initial understanding of the available options, but I would like to get confirmation from the community and understand if there are better/native approaches. Workspace-Level Report Usage If I have multiple reports within a single workspace, I would like to see the usage metrics for ALL reports in that workspace in one place. For example: Workspace A Report 1 → Views / Unique Viewers / Last Viewed Report 2 → Views / Unique Viewers / Last Viewed Report 3 → Views / Unique Viewers / Last Viewed Instead of opening Usage Metrics separately for each report. My understanding is that the Usage Metrics semantic model can potentially be used to create a custom usage report for the workspace. However, I would like to confirm: How exactly can we get usage metrics for all reports within a single workspace? Is there a supported way to remove/modify the report-level filtering so that the Usage Metrics semantic model covers all reports in that workspace? Is this the recommended approach for workspace-level usage reporting? Are there any limitations with this approach? Organization-Level Report Usage The next requirement is to go beyond a single workspace. I would like to build a centralized view such as: Organization → Workspace → Report → Views → Unique Viewers → Last Viewed → Other Usage Metrics For example: Organization Workspace A Report 1 Report 2 Report 3 Workspace B Report 4 Report 5 Workspace C Report 6 Report 7 All of this should ideally be available in one centralized Power BI governance report. For this requirement, I know there are some possible approaches, such as: Using Power BI/Fabric Admin Portal capabilities with the required admin access Using Power BI Admin APIs Using Power BI Activity Log APIs Building a custom data collection process and storing the information in a Fabric Lakehouse/Warehouse/SQL database But my questions are: Are these the only practical/supported ways to achieve organization-wide report usage? Is there any native Power BI/Fabric feature that already provides tenant-level usage metrics across all workspaces? Can the standard Usage Metrics semantic model be consolidated across multiple workspaces? Is there another Microsoft-supported API or Fabric capability that is better suited for this requirement? What permissions/admin roles are actually required for the different approaches? Workspace-Level vs Organization-Level I am particularly interested in understanding whether the recommended architecture is different for these two scenarios: Scenario A: Single Workspace → All Reports → Usage Metrics Scenario B: Entire Organization → All Workspaces → All Reports → Usage Metrics Would we use the Usage Metrics semantic model for Scenario A and Admin APIs/Activity Logs or another centralized source for Scenario B? Or is there a common approach that can handle both? Historical Usage Another concern is data retention. My understanding is that the current Usage Metrics experience has a limited historical window, with the new Usage Metrics experience retaining 30 days of data. If we need to retain usage information for: 6 months 1 year Multiple years what is the recommended approach? Would this be the appropriate architecture? Power BI / Fabric Usage Data → API / Activity Log / Other Source → Fabric Lakehouse / Warehouse → Historical Usage Table → Centralized Governance Dashboard Or is there a Microsoft-native approach that can retain this historical information without building our own storage layer? Final Architecture Question Ultimately, I am trying to determine the recommended approach for: Organization ↓ Workspace ↓ Report ↓ Usage Metrics ↓ Historical Usage I would appreciate guidance on: How to achieve workspace-level usage for all reports How to achieve organization-wide usage across all workspaces Whether Admin Portal/API/Activity Log approaches are the only options Whether there is a native Fabric/Power BI capability I may be missing How to handle the 30-day Usage Metrics retention limitation Recommended architecture for long-term Power BI governance and usage tracking Thanks in advance to anyone who can share their experience or recommended approach.Share your thoughts on the New Power Query experience in Power BI Desktop (Preview)
Update (September 2026): The new Power Query experience in Power BI Desktop now includes both Get Data and Power Query Editor in preview. When we opened this thread in May, the preview focused on Get Data and the new editor was still ahead of us. You can now try the redesigned editor too, and we'd love your feedback on the full experience. We're working toward a more consistent, accessible, and streamlined way to prepare data across Power BI Desktop and other Power Query experiences. The preview now covers: Get Data: Discover data sources, use recent connections or the OneLake catalog, and start a connection in the redesigned flow. Power Query Editor: Shape your data using the ribbon, Queries pane, data preview, and Applied steps. You can also explore schema and diagram views, and edit M in the formula bar or Advanced Editor. How to try it: In Power BI Desktop, go to File > Options and settings > Options > Preview features, select New Power Query experience, and choose OK. The same preview setting enables both Get Data and the new editor. Select Transform data on the Home tab to open Power Query Editor. It's still a preview. Some connectors and workflows use the legacy experience, and there are known limitations in both Get Data and the editor. If a limitation blocks your work in Desktop, you can clear the New Power Query experience preview checkbox to return to the legacy experience; no restart is needed. The limitations article explains specific gaps and workarounds, including where that fallback applies. Learn more: Get Data in Power BI Desktop (new experience) Power Query Editor in Power BI Desktop (new experience) Known limitations and workarounds We still want to hear from you. What works well in Get Data or the editor? What's missing or getting in your way? If you encounter an issue, please tell us where it happened, what you expected, and what happened instead. Share your thoughts in the replies below, and please avoid posting credentials or confidential data. Thanks for helping us improve Power Query!
How to Configure Scheduled Refresh in Power BI for Data Connected via Zoho People API?
Hi Community, I have connected Zoho People API data to Power BI using Power Query (API calls), and the data refreshes successfully in Power BI Desktop. However, I am facing challenges when configuring Scheduled Refresh in the Power BI Service. The main issue is that the Zoho People access token expires every hour. When the token expires, the API calls fail, causing scheduled refreshes to stop working. I'm looking for advice on the following: What is the recommended approach for implementing scheduled refresh with Zoho People API in Power BI Service? How can the access token be refreshed automatically before it expires? Is it possible to use a refresh token within Power Query or Power BI Service to generate a new access token during each refresh? Does this scenario require an On-premises Data Gateway, Azure Function, Power Automate, or another middleware solution? Are there any best practices for handling OAuth 2.0 token expiration when connecting to APIs from Power BI? Has anyone successfully implemented automated scheduled refresh for Zoho People API data? If so, could you share your architecture or approach? Current Setup: Data Source: Zoho People API Connection Method: Power Query Web/API calls Authentication: OAuth Access Token Token Validity: 1 Hour I would appreciate any guidance, sample implementations, or documentation that explain how to handle token renewal for Zoho People API integrations with Power BI scheduled refresh.
Date Parameters no longer in Correct Format
Hi i updated to this version of the desktop app and now when i go to my date parameters and don't change them you can see they are fine looks correct in the format i want. however if i change it it no longer works unless i change it to american date formating. as you can see. why has this happened? the app is set to use windows settings which are australian english and you can see that is fine by looking at todays date on my desktop in australian date format and even current file regional settings is set to australia is this getting looked at as it is very frustrating. Cheers John
Fabric Data Agent Access issue
I have created a fabric data agent using semantic model of a published report, It is working fine but I'm not able to share it with others I published the agent in M365 copilot and share with my teams of 100 people only 4 or 5 people can go to M365 copilot and search the agent and added the agent to their agent tab others are not even seeing the agent but if I share the agent link from M365 copilot then they see the agent but agent is not answering the questions but it's perfectly answering for me and other 4 to 5 people who see the agent when I surfed it said it said there are 2 level of access to get answer from the agent 1. agent level access 2. underlying data level access I have workspace contributor access for workspace, read, write, reshare permission for the agent. most of them share the same access but there are not able to see the only difference I found is I'm having premium per user license and most of other have pro license so I doubted it but internet says license is not an issue can anyone pls help me with this issueShare your thoughts on date picker option in the slicer visual (preview)
Have you used the date picker (preview)? We’d love to hear from you! What is the date picker option in the slicer? This is a new option introduced in Power BI currently in public preview. As it's still in preview, it's only available in Power BI Desktop with the preview feature turned on. Slicer visual in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn How can I learn more about this new date picker option? You can check the monthly release notes for June 2026. Power BI June 2026 Feature Summary - Microsoft Fabric Community https://youtu.be/pGmUMRa6xL4?si=izCwKAVja-lHoPR6&t=636 Some guidelines to keep in mind: Be specific: Clearly describe what worked well or what didn’t, providing concrete examples where possible. Screenshots would be great and use fake data or hide your data values. Stay respectful and objective: Focus on the product or feature, not the people behind it. Offer suggestions: If pointing out an issue, recommend potential improvements or alternatives. This helps us understand what can we do differently. Be concise: Keep your comments focused and to the point to ensure your feedback is actionable. Looking forward to hearing from you! Zoe Douglas, one of the Power BI Product Managers
Retail/SME banking analytics on Azure: consolidate into Fabric or keep Databricks and Azure ML?
We worked on an Azure-based analytics setup for a retail and SME banking platform. Data comes from core banking systems, transaction platforms, CRM, risk engines, payment gateways and external credit bureau data. The current architecture is: Azure Data Factory + Databricks for ingestion, transformation and validation Azure Data Lake with raw, processed and curated layers, for batch and near real-time analytics Power BI for fraud alerts, credit exposure, portfolio performance and compliance reporting Azure Machine Learning for fraud detection, credit scoring, churn prediction and forecasting Event-driven workflows for data refreshes, alerting, model retraining and regulatory reporting Purview, RBAC, encryption, audit trails and lineage for FCA/GDPR requirements Volume is around 8.5-9 million transactions per day on the fraud side. If you were designing this, would you move most of it into Fabric (OneLake + Lakehouse, Data Factory/Dataflows, Power BI with Direct Lake, and Fabric's ML capabilities)? Or would you keep Databricks and Azure ML as separate components for a regulated banking workload at this scale? I'm particularly interested in how you'd handle the ML/model retraining side and governance across Fabric and Purview.Power BI Field Parameters with Paginated Reports – Looking for Guidance
Power BI Field Parameters with Paginated Reports – Looking for Guidance Hi everyone, I am trying to understand the best approach for using Power BI Field Parameters with Paginated Reports. I understand that Power BI Field Parameters allow users to dynamically switch between fields or measures in a Power BI report. My question is whether similar functionality can be achieved when working with Paginated Reports. For example, I am looking for something like: Power BI Report → Field Parameter → Paginated Report → Dynamically change the field/column displayed or used by the Paginated Report Specifically: Can a Power BI Field Parameter be passed to a Paginated Report? Can a Paginated Report consume a Power BI Field Parameter directly? Can a Field Parameter be used to dynamically determine which column/field is used in a Paginated Report query? If Power BI Field Parameters are not supported for this scenario, is there an equivalent out-of-the-box feature in Power BI Report Builder / Paginated Reports? Can this be achieved using standard Paginated Report Parameters, expressions, or dynamic query logic? Is the Paginated Report visual in Power BI the recommended way to achieve this type of interaction? For example, the desired experience would be: User selects: Customer Name OR Product Name OR Supplier Name and the Paginated Report dynamically uses the selected field/column. I understand that Power BI Field Parameters and Paginated Report Parameters are different concepts, so I am specifically trying to understand whether there is a supported way to achieve the same dynamic field-selection experience in Paginated Reports. If anyone has implemented this scenario, I would appreciate guidance on the supported approach and any limitations. Thanks!Reports shared via dashboard not showing up in Recent/Favorites areas
I shared a dashboard with several reports on it. And multiple users have experienced viewing reports, favoriting them, and then having them not show up on the Recent or Favorites areas on the Home page or Browse page. Once I shared the report with them directly and not only via sharing the dashboard, it then appeared in both areas of Power BI Service. This is incredibly annoying as sharing via dashboards is how I share most content so that I do not need to go to multiple reports to share with users and only have to share one dashboard. (We do not use Apps for the most part, just dashboards. So that's not going to be a solution). Has anyone else experienced this? I feel like it is a bug, but can't find any information on this scenario anywhere.
