Power Automate allows you to trigger a wider variety of automated actions. When added to Power BI via the Power Automate visual, users can trigger automated actions based on the current data context with the click of a button. Below I walk you through 5 examples for using this visual in a Help Desk reporting dashboard and provide some guidance for troubleshooting flow failures.
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This post accompanies a talk I gave to the DC Power BI User Group in September 2024.
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🗒️Table of Contents
Limitations (as of early 2025)
- This visual can only process around 1,000 rows max. If you need to pass a large dataset, you'll have to filter or aggregate the data to stay within this limit.
- The visual may not work consistently with DirectQuery mode, where data is queried directly from the source. It’s better suited for Import mode.
- Although my first example below uses a report in DirectQuery mode, and in this limited example I experienced no issues.
- While the full version of Power Automate can be triggered on a schedule or by actions such as a new row being added to a dataset, the Power Automate visual within Power BI can only be triggered by clicking the button in Power BI.
- Very limited UI customization options.
Example 1: Send a Reminder Email for a Specific Ticket
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Scenario: In the Help Desk ticketing dashboard, when users have drilled through to a particular ticket, they want to send a reminder email to the assigned technician that a request is still open.
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- Insert the Power Automate for Power BI visual.
- Select your environment from the top right of the visual.
- Drag any fields you want to use in the flow to the Power Automate data well. These are all the fields I want to include in my reminder email:
- In the Power Automate visual, click the ellipses and select Edit to open Power Automate.
- You can select one of the pre-made templates or click New > Instant cloud flow to start from scratch.
- The Power BI button clicked trigger will be added to your canvas. This means every time someone clicks the button in your report, this automation will run.
- Rename your flow by typing in the top left.