Are you looking for a way to publish reports from Power BI Desktop for external users? In this article, we will explore a new feature that allows you to do just that. Thanks to an update in Azure Active Directory, you can now sign into another tenant in Power BI Desktop and publish reports to PowerBI.com. Let’s dive in!

Signing into Another Tenant

Before we begin, it’s important to note that as of June 21, 2022, you cannot publish directly from Power BI Desktop to an external tenant. However, with the new update, you can easily sign into another tenant and publish your reports. Here’s how:

1. Click the Sign in button in Power BI Desktop.
2. Enter your email address (i.e., username@domain) and click Continue.
3. When the sign-in dialog appears, select Use another account.
4. Select sign-in options.
5. Select Sign in to an organization.
6. Enter the organization’s domain (e.g., mycompany.org) and select Next.
7. You will then be shown a list of users with your user signed in to the external tenant. Select that user.
8. Now, you will be signed in with your B2B user to the external tenant.

By following these steps, you can easily switch to another tenant and start building “thin” reports off of shared datasets. Additionally, you can publish your reports to PowerBI.com directly from Power BI Desktop.

Minor Gaps to Consider

While this new feature is incredibly useful, there are a couple of minor gaps to be aware of. First, sensitivity labels don’t get applied if you publish from Power BI Desktop using an external user. This is something to keep in mind when working with sensitive data.

Secondly, once you publish your report, the link in the success dialog won’t work because it doesn’t contain the CTID (Content Type ID) in the URL. If you try to open the link labeled “Open ‘WoW2022 Week 24.pbix’ in Power BI,” it will attempt to open the report as if it were in your own tenant, resulting in an error message. However, you can still access the report by including the CTID in the URL and visiting the external tenant.

Conclusion

This new feature in Power BI Desktop makes it easier than ever to publish reports for external users. By signing into another tenant, you can build reports off of shared datasets and publish directly to PowerBI.com. While there are a few minor gaps to be aware of, this feature streamlines the publishing process and reduces the number of clicks required compared to using the Upload a file dialog in PowerBI.com.

We hope that Microsoft will continue to enhance the B2B features in Power BI, such as including the CTID in all generated links and potentially adding a tenant switcher. In the meantime, give this new feature a try and see how it can simplify your report publishing workflow.