Salesforce Reports Connector and Power Query - Does it even work??

Question

Hello,

We have been trying to connect to a Salesforce Report through Power BI (Power Query) using the Salesforce Reports Connector. We have already submitted a case through Salesforce Support and they have said the account we are using is set up correctly through by the Admin with the appropriate permissions and pushed the issue back to Power BI.

We have followed this documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/connectors/salesforce-reports

I have verified I can connect with these credentials using the Salesforce Objects connector but I am unable to access a specific report I would like to use in Power BI. I don't want to build an entire data model inside of Power BI, I just want to build visuals/measures from a report in Salesforce.

Copilot did say there is an alternate method of connecting (see below step by step which I haven't tried yet but plan to once I receive more info from our client)

What Copilot Says:

Technical Summary – Power BI + Salesforce Report Integration

Root Cause of Error Salesforce Reports are not standard sObjects and therefore do not support the sObject Describe REST endpoint. Any call to: /services/data/vXX.X/sobjects/Report/describe will return 404 Not Found by design. Power BI surfaces this error when a connector or query assumes Reports behave like objects.

Supported API for Reports Salesforce exposes reports exclusively through the Reports & Dashboards (Analytics) REST API, not the sObject API.

Correct Endpoint Pattern To run and retrieve data from a report: /services/data/vXX.X/analytics/reports/{ReportId}?includeDetails=true

· {ReportId} is the 15- or 18-character Salesforce Report ID (prefix 00O)

· includeDetails=true is required to return row-level data

· Authentication must be OAuth 2.0 using a user with access to the report

Power BI Implementation

· Use Get Data → Web (Advanced)

· Provide the Analytics API URL above

· Authenticate using Salesforce OAuth (Organizational Account)

· Do not use the Salesforce Objects connector

Response Structure (Expected) Salesforce returns JSON containing:

· reportMetadata (column definitions, grouping)

· factMap (actual data)

Row-level values are located at: factMap → <key ending in .T!T> → rows → dataCells

Power BI must expand and flatten these nodes during transformation.

Operational Considerations

· Report changes (column order, filters) can require Power Query step updates

· Reports are subject to Salesforce row and execution limits

· Tabular reports without complex groupings are the most stable for refresh

Why This Approach Is Required

· Reports are not first-class sObjects in Salesforce

· Salesforce intentionally separates reporting APIs from data APIs

· The Analytics REST API is the only supported mechanism for consuming report data externally

This design avoids object-based modeling, aligns with Salesforce API architecture, and prevents Web.Contents describe failures in Power BI.

Answer 1

I think the connector isn’t failing because of permissions. Salesforce reports sit behind the Analytics API, not the sObject API the connector uses, so Power Query can only reach them through the /analytics/reports/<id>?includeDetails=true endpoint.

Answer 2

if connecting to object is successful then the issue can be due to report settings itself. Any chance the report is a private report?