How to Create an App in Power BI
Building a great Power BI report is only half the battle, getting it into the hands of your team in a clean, professional package is what turns data into decisions. That’s where Power BI apps come in. This guide will walk you through exactly what an app is, why it's a game-changer for sharing your work, and how to create one step-by-step.
What is a Power BI App, Really?
You’ve built reports and maybe even a dashboard. So, what’s an "app?" A Power BI app isn't a mobile app you download from an app store. Instead, think of it as a polished, read-only container for your reports and dashboards. It bundles related content from a Power BI workspace into a professional, easy-to-navigate package for your audience.
But why not just share a link to the report directly from your workspace? Here’s why apps are often a better choice:
Better User Experience: Instead of sending links to five different reports, you send one link to an app that contains all of them, neatly organized with a custom navigation menu. It feels like a finished product, not just a bunch of loose files.
Controlled Access: You give users view-only access to a curated set of content, preventing them from seeing the messy behind-the-scenes work in your workspace. This simplifies their experience and protects your underlying datasets and draft reports.
Simplified Management: Updating is a breeze. When you need to make changes, you update the reports in the workspace, then click "Update app." All users automatically get the latest version without you having to resend links.
Branding and Context: You can add a logo, choose a theme color, and write a detailed description to give users context about the data they're seeing.
In short, sharing a report from a workspace is like handing someone a single document. Sharing an app is like giving them a well-organized binder with a table of contents and a branded cover.
Before You Build: The Essential Checklist
Before you jump into the app creation process, a little preparation will save you a lot of headaches. Make sure you have the following in place.
1. A Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) License
App creation is a pro-level feature. You'll need a Power BI Pro or PPU license to create and publish apps. And here’s a key detail: anyone you want to share the app with will also need a Pro or PPU license to view it, unless the app's workspace is hosted in a Premium capacity. Always check your licensing to avoid a situation where your team can't access the brilliant app you just built.
2. A Dedicated Workspace
Power BI apps are published from a workspace. While you could publish from "My Workspace," it's best practice to use a separate, dedicated workspace for your app's content. This allows for better collaboration with colleagues and keeps your app project separate from your personal reports and sandbox analyses.
Give your workspace a clear, descriptive name (e.g., "Marketing Q3 Performance" or "Sales Team KPI Dashboard").
3. Your Content is Ready and Published
Make sure all the reports and dashboards you want to include in your app are published to that specific workspace. An app is just a wrapper for existing content, so your foundation must be solid. Open each report in the workspace and double-check that:
Visuals are loading correctly.
Filters are working as expected.
Data has been recently refreshed.
Now that you’re prepared, let's build the app.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your First Power BI App
Creating an app in Power BI is a straightforward process handled through a three-tab setup wizard. We'll walk through each one.
Step 1: Get Your Workspace Ready
Navigate to the workspace containing the reports and dashboards you want to package. Remember, you prepared this in the checklist step. Once you're inside the workspace view, look for a button in the upper-right corner.
Step 2: Start the App Creation Process
Click the Create app button. This will launch the setup wizard, which is where you’ll define everything about your app, from its name to who can see it.
Step 3: Configure the Setup Tab
This is where you give your app its identity. It’s the first impression your users will have, so take a moment to fill it out thoughtfully.
App name: Choose a clear and concise name. Instead of "Report V4 Final," try something like "Monthly Sales Performance Review."
Description: This is your chance to provide context. Briefly explain what the app is for, what kind of data it contains, when it's updated, and who to contact with questions. Don't skip this! A good description helps users trust the data.
App logo: Upload a company or team logo to add a professional, branded touch.
App theme color: Select a color that aligns with your brand. This color will be used for the top navigation bar of your app.
Once you’re satisfied, click Next: Add content to move to the navigation setup.
Step 4: Add Your Content (The Navigation Tab)
This is arguably the most important step for user experience. Here, you design how users will navigate through your collection of reports and dashboards. You want to create a logical flow that makes it easy for them to find what they need.
Click the + Add content button and select the reports and dashboards from your workspace that you want to include.
Once you’ve added your content, you can organize it using the "New" dropdown, which lets you add:
Sections: These are like folders or chapters in your app. You could create sections for "Sales Overview," "Funnel Performance," and "Team Leaderboard." This is crucial for organizing apps with more than a few reports.
Links: You can link to external websites, such as an internal wiki with data definitions or a SharePoint folder with related documents.
Drag and drop your reports under the relevant sections to create a clean, hierarchical navigation pane. Aim for simplicity. The goal is to guide your users to insights, not to present them with a long, confusing list of reports.
After you’ve organized your navigation, click Next: Add audience.
Step 5: Control Access (The Permissions Tab)
The final step is deciding who gets to see your app. This tab is critically important for data governance and security.
You can grant access to:
The entire organization: Be cautious with this unless the data is truly for public consumption within your company.
Specific users or groups: This is the most common and secure option. Add individual email addresses or, even better, Azure Active Directory groups like "Sales Team" or "Marketing Department." Using groups makes managing access much easier as people join or leave the team.
Below the user access box, you’ll see some advanced options under the "More options" dropdown:
Install this app automatically for the audience: This will push the app to your users' Power BI service, so it appears in their "Apps" section automatically. This is very useful for ensuring adoption.
Allow users to connect to the app's underlying datasets using their Build permission: Only check this if you want your audience to be able to create their own reports in Power BI using your dataset. For standard view-only apps, leave this unchecked.
Once your permissions are set, click the Publish app button in the top right. You'll see a pop-up confirming your app has been published successfully, along with a shareable link. You can copy this link and send it directly to your users.
Best Practices for a Great Power BI App
Creating an app is easy, but creating a good app—one that people actually use and trust—takes a bit of thoughtfulness.
1. Design for Your Audience
Don’t just dump all your reports into the navigation. Curate the experience. Rename your reports and pages to have simple, intuitive titles. Order the reports logically. If your report page is named "Sales-v3_final-FINAL," rename it to "Quarterly Sales Summary" in the app navigation. Your audience doesn't need to see your file naming conventions.
2. Keep it Updated Holistically
The magic of apps is easy updates. When you edit and save a report back in the workspace, the changes do not immediately appear in the published app. You must go back to the workspace and click the Update app button. This is actually a feature, not a bug! It allows you to make several changes to multiple reports and release them all at once in a single, coordinated update.
3. Document Everything
Use the app's description field and even a dedicated report page to explain what the data means. Include details like data sources, refresh schedules, definitions for key metrics (e.g., "What exactly qualifies as an 'Active Customer'?"), and contact information for questions. This builds user trust and reduces support requests.
4. Test Before You Share Widely
Before sending the app link to a 20-person department, share it with a trusted colleague first. Ask them to click through the navigation and view a few reports. Do the filters make sense? Is the navigation intuitive? A five-minute user test can save you from a dozen confused emails later on.
Final Thoughts
Power BI apps transform a collection of individual reports into a professional, cohesive analytics product. By bundling content into an organized, easy-to-share package, you empower your team with a clear and controlled way to access the insights they need without getting lost in workspaces or broken links.
Of course, building the report in Power BI is just the final step. The real work often lies in pulling, cleaning, and consolidating data from scattered sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, Salesforce, and a dozen ad platforms. It’s a manual process that can drain hours every week. Here at Graphed, we help automate that initial messy stage. By connecting your tools to Graphed, you can use natural language to instantly build real-time reports and dashboards, turning hours of data wrangling into a 30-second conversation. We give you back the time to focus on analyzing insights, not just gathering data.