Paginated Reports for Operational & Pixel-Perfect Reporting

Instructor: Alaa Hady · Language: English or Arabic · Suggested duration: 1–2 days · Level: Intermediate (Level 200)

Objectives

• Know when to use Power BI Paginated Reports (.rdl) versus interactive Power BI Reports (.pbix).
• Author pixel-perfect, multi-page operational documents (invoices, financial statements, regulatory forms) in Power BI Report Builder.
• Connect Paginated Reports to shared Power BI Semantic Models, SQL databases, and Fabric Warehouses.
• Automate high-volume PDF/Excel distribution via email subscriptions and Power Automate.

Outline and contents

1. Interactive Dashboards vs. Operational Paginated Reports: selecting the right tool for the business need
2. Navigating Power BI Report Builder and understanding the .rdl page layout architecture (Header, Body, Footer, Page Setup)
3. Connecting to data sources: Shared Power BI Semantic Models (DAX query designer), Fabric Data Warehouse, and Azure SQL
4. Mastering the Tablix data region: tables, matrices, lists, stepped layouts, and complex multi-level row/column groupings
5. Formatting for print and PDF export: controlling page breaks, repeating headers across pages, and preventing orphan blank pages
6. Building Report Parameters, cascading parameters, and passing filters from an interactive Power BI report via the Paginated Report visual
7. Expressions, conditional formatting, embedded charts, gauges, and subreports
8. Publishing to the Fabric/Power BI Service, dynamic email subscriptions, and bursting personalized PDFs with Power Automate
9. Hands-on Lab: Building a multi-page formatted Financial Statement & Customer Invoice pack

Target audience

BI developers, SSRS report authors migrating to the cloud, financial reporting specialists, and operational analysts.

Expected outcomes

Participants can build, format, and automate print-ready operational reports and multi-page table exports that interactive Power BI dashboards are not designed to handle.