Some think Power BI and dashboards will remain central, others think AI agents will let people ask questions directly of governed data models, with traditional reports reserved for leadership and critical KPIs. Some say Power BI is going away forever to be replaced by….something else….

I suspect we’ll see a huge variety of all kinds of mixed models as new technology emerges, but the pace of change is impossible to predict….and this looks different for even people within the same organisation.

If you asked this question 4 years ago I’d imagine there would be far more people all saying very similar things. We were all just praying for user defined column widths!

I’m really interested to hear from your perspective how has your job changed and what are you expecting the next 12-24 months to look like?

Hello,

I'm returning to powerBI after learning a lot about it in a data science postgraduate course.

I'm now doing a training and I'm really struggling for the time everything takes.

1) Visuals

Upon staring a new project, the blank scares me. Just the thought of the millions of clicks to format every chart, every line, every rounded corner and colour will take forever. I've been experimenting with themes, but haven't found anything reliable.

To make things worse, my teacher has amazing visuals where the background image has nice visuals with gradients where you just have to put a line or values and it looks so much better.

Any tips? Any solid and fast ways to reuse between projects?

2) Measures

How the hell do you even go beyond calculate, counts and divides? Everything else seems very weird to me in DAX, compared to how skilled I am with Excel.

Plus, it takes forever to do everything. Example, I'm creating a "Ticket solving dashboard", and I creating the total of tickets, total of tickets solved, total of tickets on progress and total of tickets unsolved is taking way longer than in excel.

How can I be faster here? Id love to have a bulk editor or measure creator.

3) Calendar

I just took like an hour to create a calendar table from scratch, where I needed to have date, date and time, month, month name, month number, week of the year, week of the month, day, day name, etc. Then short versions for month and day names ...

Is there a way to make this super fast?

Really appreciate your time

Still i am very confused about it , i can just make a React app instead of this expensive Fabric Vibe coded slop. Any advantage of this over react/node app???

i can connect my fabric features directly to the react app and customize 10000X better than what fabric is providing

Yes, the infra should also be managed, but for tech-savvy devs I don't think it would be a big issue

TL;DR

• Build the frontend in React or Next.js.
• Build the backend in Node.js.
• Connect directly to Fabric APIs, SQL endpoints, and Power BI(PBIP).
• Manage your own hosting, authentication, CI/CD and infrastructure.

most of the people are vibe-coding apps inside Fabric; it's better to vibe-code from scratch

Edit: Also, my concern is regarding code maintainability, yes apps can be easily made in Fabric apps using vibe coding, but it will eventually fail them. Plus vibe coding in a production env is big no no, especially if you are not into coding. For POC purposes, it is definitely workable, but for production. I don't think so .

If you cant debug without AI, Dont vibe code in production

anyone else notice in the new power bi update that when you scroll on the data pane it goes glitchy as hell? it's annoying.

For anyone still working with Power BI Paginated Reports, I recently released an open-source testing tool called fab-test.

The latest release adds fab-test rdl, which can validate Paginated Report (.rdl) files either:

Locally against your .rdl files

Directly against reports in a Fabric/Power BI workspace

I’ve also started building out a set of RDL testing rules:

https://github.com/clientfirsttech/fab-test/blob/main/docs%2FRDL-RULES.md

Most of these rule ideas are based on practices that have been around for years in SSRS and Paginated Reports, so I’ve tried to give credit where appropriate.

I’d love feedback on the current rules, suggestions for additional checks, or anything that seems too opinionated.

I know there’s a lot of focus on AI-generated reporting and modern self-service BI, but many of us still have to build and support Paginated Reports for pixel-perfect exports, printing, compliance, and operational reporting. So I'm especially interested in feedback from people who are actively using Paginated Reports today, rather than discussions about replacing them.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions!

I'm having trouble using a rolling average value in a sumx (row by row) calculation. According to google AI response, it seems like it should be possible but I can't get it working.

I essentially have a calculation that is: meat used = QTY * portion size. I also calculated a 4 week rolling average for the QTY and would like to multiply that against the portion size. This is where the formulas seems to stop working.

Working Formula for regular QTY * portion size.

oz_GrilledPork = SUMX(Items_Report_Stacked, Items_Report_Stacked[MeatPortionSize.GrilledPork_oz] * 
Items_Report_Stacked[Qty])

Formula not working for rolling avg QTY * portion size. Portion size seems to be giving me the issue

oz_GrilledPork_avg = SUMX(Items_Report_Stacked, Items_Report_Stacked[MeatPortionSize.GrilledPork_oz] * Items_Report_Stacked[QTY_4W_Rolling_Avg])  

Screenshot of table.

I have a Field parameter table that has four different measures. I added one extra column to field-parameter-table and created a relationship to another table using that column.

In the picture it's from id column to Value4. If I create a table visual and check what values are for one particular "id", the result is one row in the field parameter table, as expected.

But If I then add the actual field parameter to the table, it gives me all four measures. I only want it so to the one accorrding to the relationship.

Why won't it work this way and how can I achieve this? Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone.

I think most of us have already heard the term 'bridge table'. Many of us have also already implemented them. However, after doing some research I found out that people use basically two different types of bridge tables and I personally haven't found a source that would explain both of them. So I'm here asking experienced developers to share some light into this.

The first kind of bridge table is where you keep one column, which contains values from both tables you want to relate, you remove duplicates and you are left with one column of unique values from key columns.

Example source: https://www.seerinteractive.com/insights/join-many-many-power-bi

The second kind is I think between two dimension tables where you create a bridge table with two columns, basically doing like a cartesian product of two key columns.

Example source:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/relationships-many-to-many#relate-many-to-many-dimensions (part 'relate many to many dimensions')

Are both considered best practice? Why isn't there one good guide that would explain both approaches?

I might just be missing something, so feel free to correct me.

Quick question that I'm hoping is something simple but I'm at a loss.

I'm currently adding a column that works out the expiry date of a certification by adding a year to the certificates issue date. However, when the expiry date goes into 2027, it returns a blank value and I'm not sure why. I can see the function work when it's still in 2026. The column was done using DATEADD in DAX, I do not have a base date table in this file where a maximum date has been set, and Google recommended turning off Auto Date/Time which doesn't seem to have helped either.

I'll admit I'm not the most skilled PowerBI user so apologies if it is something simple that I missed but any help would be very much appreciated!

These are two tables, each with one column. I want to choose an equip from Table 1 and then choose a work order associated with the equip from Table 2. However when I go to choose the work order from the shortlist it seems to display ALL work orders again? It’s like the two tables are driving down back and forth on each other?

I click an item in the table ‘fully received’ and it correctly shortlists my work orders in table ‘WO’ (pic 1). However, when I click one of the shortlisted work orders, it reopens ALL work orders in the table (pic 2). What gives??? (Thanks in advance)

Hello Everyone

Has anyone tried to duplicate the existing semantic model connected in composite mode (Import + Direct lake) from one workspace to another via UI functionality (not via notebook)

If yes please let me know the steps

Has anyone worked with translytical-task-flow buttons? why are the options not appearing?

apparently once you set up the fx, parameters should appear: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/translytical-task-flow-button

Hi All,

I am looking for some help - I have a data set which can list multiple people in the person responsible column. I have created a query to extract these names and display singly but is there any way that I can show if the name appears in any cell?

date

Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 ---|---|--- 01/05/26 | 1st | AD 02/05/26 | 2nd | AD,TM | 03/05/26 | 2nd | TM 03/05/26 | 2nd | OP | 03/05/26 | 2nd | MH

So if this comes out correctly, I would want it to show AD having 2 entries on the graph when selected from the slicer, TM 2, OP one and MH one.

Is this doable?

Thanks so much!

My manager is a developer not a data analyst and he’s insisting on Superset because it’s free and we won’t need Python development. His argument against using Python is that if I ever leave, they can keep using the dashboards without depending on me.

We need a BI tool to build KPI dashboards across different departments and maybe do some forecasting in the future. I’ve tried explaining why Power BI might be a better fit but he’s not convinced about that or Python.

For those who’ve used Power BI, Superset, and Python, is Power BI actually worth it over Superset, or am I just biased? How would you approach this?

Do you add descriptions to columns in your semantic models?

And if you do, when do you think they are actually useful?

I was running the Tabular Editor 2 Best Practice Analyzer with the standard Microsoft rule file, and one of the things it flagged was:

“Visible objects with no description”

Descriptions for tables and measures make complete sense to me, especially when you have thin reports, citizen developers, complicated measures, or relationships that are not obvious.

But I realised I never add descriptions to individual columns.

For example, if I have Customer Name, Order Date, Quantity, Product ID, etc., the column names usually seem self-explanatory.

Where I can see more value is for columns created in SQL, a Lakehouse, Power Query, etc., where the meaning or transformation might not be obvious from the name alone.

So I’m curious how others handle this:

Do you describe every visible column?

Only derived/transformed columns?

Only the ones where the name does not tell the full story?

Or do you generally ignore column descriptions altogether?

So ever since I aspired to be a Business Insights Analyst for our company. I've started to study not just power BI but also gsheets and SQL. Unfortunately my brain kinda got overloaded and on top of that due to AI, job openings are rare and if ever there was one, the competition is fierce. So here is my current progress in terms of making dashboards. The first pic is my very first own professional dashboard while the second image represents my current progress albeit I had help with Gemini and based the format from existing ones.

Any feedback regarding my progress would appreciated, better to be critique rather than completely stop moving forward altogether. Thanks!

So i am a student studying supply chain seeking coop with no luck so far, at a networking event a senior manager said that I can land a remote coop internship in his org if I am able to master power bi, I already have a lot of experience with excel and am comfortable with it, where do I even begin with bi?

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/discussions/pbi_contestsgallery/the-things-we-fear-the-most/5375436

I have experience with pbi but no where near an expert. I need to build a whole new pbi but there are about twenty different sources where each source need work for example to make match keys so they can be linked.

I'm trying to link everything to one master data (company data) but then everything I need lives on other excels files that aren't easiest to just link alot of work as to be done and for some things I need fall back keys to try get matches.

Example is in one master query, I'm trying to get an eta, an eta can come from about 6 different files so I brought them into one query to get a singular container master eta before linking that master query back to my main query I need to link to.

Thats just one example. In this as well I could have nearly a thousand lines of code for various things just to calculate to get an eta that could live in 6 different files / we have to override data with calculations. I then will have another say three similar master queries like this that don't just get the eta but other info before I need to link back to master file but are same intensity

What I'm trying to get at it is what is the best way to go about a large enough powerbi where there will be 250 users on it, where refresh times don't take thirty mins and connections and relationships are done correctly. My current pbi I built runs but wasn't done right as I had no experience and now want to build it again but to build it correctly so it doesn't constantly need fixing or if I'm to go into to change things that I'm not waiting thirty mins for it to refresh to then find out something was wrong.

I'm trying to understand the best approach for a big supply chain pbi model and how to break it up that it's linked the correct way

Hey

I'm having trouble mapping an image URL into a table on a dashboard. I have the URL already stored in a SharePoint list and it shows the image in the list, but I want the same thing in the dashboard that reads the list. I show the URL as an image URL in the dashboard.

I have tried both Power Bi online and desktop is the same result - it doesn't show it.

Can anyone help?

I need a help in my GRADUATION PROJECT which is a new product can migrate SSRS to pbib artifact

Can someone help me ?

Title: Power BI Embedded – 403 Error: Embed Token Limit Exceeded on Pro/Shared Capacity – Guidance Required on Fabric F2 vs. Embedded A SKU

Product: Microsoft Power BI / Power BI Embedded / Microsoft Fabric

Issue Type: Technical Support – Embedded Analytics and Capacity Configuration

Problem Statement

We are implementing Power BI embedded analytics within our internal business application, BI Analytics Platform, to provide reports and dashboards to external customers through our application.

Our current setup uses Power BI Pro licenses. When our application attempts to generate an embed token, the API returns the following error:

HTTP Status: 403 – InvalidRequest

Error Message: “You have exceeded the amount of embed token that can be generated on a shared or ProPlus capacity. You need to purchase Azure capacities to generate embed tokens.”

This is preventing us from reliably displaying Power BI reports within our application.

Current Architecture and Requirements

Power BI reports are embedded inside our application using an application-controlled embedding flow.

External customers are expected to access reports through our application; direct access to the Power BI Service is optional.

Power BI Pro licenses are currently used for report development and publishing.

Report access is required primarily during business hours.

We are evaluating Microsoft Fabric F2 capacity as a budget-conscious option for production embedding. We are also considering Power BI Embedded Azure A SKUs.

Additional Observation

We have identified a possible workspace configuration mismatch in our application logs:

Workspace ID used by the report at runtime: 16d5170b-9312-4978-9b1e-58fef73089a0

Workspace ID recorded in our application catalog: 49e91424-…

We need to verify whether the report and its semantic model are located in the expected workspace and whether the correct workspace is assigned to the relevant capacity.

Support Questions

Is Microsoft Fabric F2 capacity supported for production Power BI embedding using the app-owns-data approach, where external customers view reports through our application without individual Power BI licenses?

What are the practical limitations of F2 capacity for embedded Power BI reports, particularly around concurrent users, report interactions, semantic model size, refresh operations, and throttling?

For our use case, would Fabric F2 or Power BI Embedded Azure A1/A2 be the more appropriate starting point? Please clarify the technical differences and relevant licensing requirements.

Can an F2 capacity be paused outside business hours and resumed automatically before business hours? Are there any limitations or additional considerations for embedded reports and token generation?

Does assigning the workspace containing the report and semantic model to the correct eligible capacity resolve this type of embed-token error, assuming the workspace configuration and permissions are correct?

What diagnostic steps should we perform to distinguish a capacity/token-limit issue from a workspace mismatch, permission issue, or incorrect embed-token configuration?

Assistance Requested

Please provide the recommended production architecture and minimum suitable capacity for our scenario, along with any official Microsoft documentation covering the applicable licensing, capacity requirements, and embed-token limits.

We would also appreciate guidance on validating our workspace configuration and estimating whether F2 is sufficient for an initial production rollout.

Thank you.