[Power BI and Power Automate] Send a Power BI Alert Notification to Contacts

[ibarrau]

I have recently answered a lot of forum posts about sending alerts to their contacts about KPI rules. I have read about it and found out it can't just be with Power BI alone. We will use free Power Automate components to build this. Let's see how the process is done.

The first thing we need is a tile in a dashboard pinned from a visualization in a report. Let's keep in mind that the only visualizations that allow alerts are gauges, KPIs and cards. In this example, we are pinning a card to a dashboard. Follow the arrows to go through.

When we have a card tile in the dashboard, we are ready to create the alert. Check the next picture:

There you have “Manage Alerts”.

addnewalert

We can configure the conditions clicking "+ add alert rule" and saving it. Let's open the alert again to check it has successfully created. Check the bottom hyperlink on the screen. Microsoft is showing a message that we can chain this behavior with an action with the Power Automate tool. In order to start Power Automate, click on the hyperlink:

hyperlinkalerttoautomate

This will redirect us to Power Automate, with the suggested template as a default for our alert requirement. Let's click "Continue":

powerautomatealerttemplate

From now on, the work is in Automate. The flow starts with a Power BI connection, in which we can pick up alerts created. In my case, the alert's name is "Alerta de Alerta".

pickanalertinautomate

Then, we can continue this flow with "+ New Step" to chain the next action that should be a notification to our contacts. For the notification I recommend two actions:

• Teams: We can send a chat to a team or personalized channel with our account (requires a team license).
• Email: Send an email to specified addresses.

In the email case, there are five different ways to do this. The difference is in the "From" sending the mail.

1. From our Office 365 account with an exchange license.
2. From an Outlook account.
3. From a Gmail account.
4. From a custom SMTP server.
5. From Power Automate send by Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate <microsoft@powerapps.com>

The configuration is straight forward except for the smtp option. You can use one or more of them in parallel. This post will pick the 5th email option. At the end, save the flow.

NOTE: Keep in mind that you can use the alert title in the body of the mail.

sendmailwithautomate

Now we are ready. Our contacts will receive an email each time the data is refreshed with the rule working. It's important to mention that all the components we have used in Automate are free. You don't need an additional license for this at the moment.

I hope you can alert your mates faster now!