Trigger a cloud flow from any Power BI report

Empower your end-users to go from insight to action. With the Power Automate visual, end-users can run an automated flow all within a Power BI report. The executed flow can be data contextual, meaning that the inputs to the flow can be dynamic, based on the filters that the user sets. This article describes how to add visual into a Power BI report that lets you manually trigger a flow directly from the Power BI report

Add Power Automate visual to a Power BI report

To get started, launch either Power BI Desktop or Power BI Service and select the Power Automate icon from the Visualizations pane.

If you’re using Power BI Desktop, you can also access the visual from the ribbon by navigating to the Insert tab and selecting Power Automate (preview) within the Power Platform section

You can follow these steps to create button that triggers automated tasks.

The initial state of the widget shows you the getting started instructions for using flows in Power BI. Once you’ve reviewed the instructions, you can resize the button and place it where you’d like it on the report.

Using the Power Automate visual in Power BI

Follow these steps to trigger a flow from within a Power BI report.

Add the data fields that need to be passed to the flow

In the Visualization pane, add any fields from the report that you want to pass into the flow when it runs.

These fields can be used at flow design time as well to specify how you want to use the Power BI data.

Add an existing cloud flow to the Power BI report

1. Select Edit from the More options menu of the visual.

2. Select an existing flow to apply to the button.

   Your existing cloud flow is now added to the Power BI report.

Create a new flow

To create a flow, use Instant from blank or start with one of the built-in templates. The following steps detail how to create a flow from scratch for use within a Power BI report.

When you select the Instant from blank option, Power Automate automatically adds the Power BI button clicked trigger.

Apply the flow to the Power BI report

1. Add the relevant actions into your flow.

2. Select Save, and then select the back arrow to take you back to the details page.

3. Select the Apply button to attach the flow to your Power BI report button.

Once you have applied a flow to the button, you should test the flow before you share it.

Important

You can only run these Power BI flows in the context of a Power BI report. You cannot run these flows in Power Automate or elsewhere.

If your flow is data contextual, test how the filters selections in the report impact the outcome of the flow. To test the flow in edit mode of the report, select Back to report, and then press Ctrl + click on the button to run the Flow in the context of the report.

You can navigate to the edit mode or to Power Automate to view the run history of the flow to ensure its running successfully.

Share the flow in run only mode

For other viewers of your Power BI report to run the flow, you must explicitly share the flow with those users/Microsoft Entra groups. You can do so from the details page of your flow.

To share, select edit next to the Run only users tile and then specify the users or groups that you want to have access.

Format the button on the Power BI report

Optionally, if you want to change the button text, font color, font size, or fill color of the button, you can find these options along with other settings in the Format pane.

Known limitations

• The user running the flow within the Power BI report needs to have permissions to run the flow. Grant these permissions through direct sharing by the user or by sharing to a Microsoft Entra group.

• The Power BI visual only functions with flows in a tenant's default environment. Any flow created with the visual is created in the users default environment.

• Additional manual inputs to the button are not supported at this time.

• Create flows that you will use with the Power BI button trigger directly within the Power BI report. Do not go directly to Power Automate to create these flows as the trigger will not have access to the data fields necessary for creating the flow.

• Power BI data is sent to, and processed in, a geography where the flow is deployed.

• The Power Automate visual isn't supported for PaaS-embedded scenarios, nor in sovereign cloud scenarios.

• The Power Automate visual will not work for published reports because the users are unauthenticated.

• The Power Automate visual is limited to process a maximum of 1000 records.