The simplest implementation uses Microsoft Forms as the request mechanism. Here's the full setup:
1. Create a Microsoft Form with fields: Name, Email, Report Name, Business Justification
2. Share the form link with users instead of the native Power BI Request Access button (you can embed the link in the report description or a bookmark)
3. Build a Power Automate flow:
- Trigger: "When a new response is submitted" (Microsoft Forms)
- Action: "Get response details" (Microsoft Forms) to pull the form answers
- Action: "Send an email (V2)" (Office 365 Outlook) to the requestor email from the form
- Optional: "Start and wait for an approval" to notify the report owner and let them approve/deny before sending the confirmation email
The email to the requestor can include whatever custom information you want instructions for getting access, who to contact, estimated turnaround time, links to training, etc.
If you want to skip Microsoft Forms and use something more embedded, the Power Automate visual inside Power BI reports lets users trigger a flow directly from a button click inside the report. You can pass the report name as a data field to the flow.
The limitation is users need to be able to view the report first to click the button, which may not suit your scenario if they don't have access yet.
For your use case, the Forms approach is the most practical since people requesting access don't have the report open yet.
Best regards,
Valantis
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