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25. Power BI Service

25.16 Paginated Reports

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In short: Paginated reports (Report Builder, .rdl) are pixel-perfect, print-ready reports that grow across pages.

Start with a problem

Finance wants a printable invoice-style list of all 8 orders with page numbers.

Explain simply

Paginated reports (Report Builder, .rdl) are pixel-perfect, print-ready reports that grow across pages.

Show the data

Order ID Order Date City Store Platform Category Amount (₹) Delivery mins Status
301 06-Apr-2026 Pune Kothrud Blinkit Dairy 400 8 Delivered
302 06-Apr-2026 Pune Baner Amazon Now Snacks 200 12 Delivered
303 07-Apr-2026 Nashik Gangapur Blinkit Dairy 300 14 Delivered
304 04-May-2026 Nashik College Road Blinkit Fruits 150 9 Delivered
305 04-May-2026 Kolhapur Rajarampuri Amazon Now Snacks 450 7 Delivered
306 05-May-2026 Pune Kothrud Blinkit Fruits 250 16 Delivered
307 05-May-2026 Nashik College Road Amazon Now Dairy 350 11 Delivered
308 05-May-2026 Kolhapur Rajarampuri Blinkit Dairy 0 Cancelled

Fictional sample data. Practice file: visuals_orders_apr_may_2026.csv (source: src/practice/).

Demonstrate

  1. Open Power BI Report Builder.
  2. Connect to the published semantic model.
  3. Insert a table with Order ID, City, Amount.
  4. Add a page-number footer; publish.

Show the result

Your result should look like this (fictional sample):

Page Rows
1 301–308 with total ₹2,100

Explain what happened

Paginated reports render every row for printing instead of interactive exploring.

Explore further

  • Good for invoices and statutory lists.

Detailed reference for this lesson:

Paginated reports are for pixel-perfect printing: invoices, statements, a table that fits a page exactly. You build them in Report Builder, not as an interactive report.

Power BI Report Builder (a separate download) builds paginated reports (.rdl). They print the same way on each page: headers repeat, rows flow onto page 2, page numbers work. A normal Power BI report is for clicking and filtering. A paginated report is for a pack slip or a monthly statement that must look identical in PDF.

You can bind a paginated report to SQL or to a Power BI semantic model you may use. It does not replace the star schema, and it does not give you a Model view full of relationships inside Report Builder. Publish the .rdl to a workspace that allows paginated reports (capacity rules apply and they change).

Worked example. Rani wants a PDF, one city per page, of fictional delivered orders: customer name, city, amount in ₹. The interactive report is the wrong tool because a matrix does not guarantee page breaks. You design that statement in Report Builder, with a parameter for city (Pune, Mumbai, Nashik, Sambhaji Nagar, Kolhapur, Nagpur). The interactive report remains the place for slicers and DAX.

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Many students try to force an invoice out of a dashboard by exporting a PDF. The alignment breaks. For a print layout, use a paginated report. For a dashboard, use a normal report. Do not think both are the same file. Remember this rule.

Fix common mistakes

Wrong result Reason Correction
Long table cut off in normal report Interactive visuals scroll Use paginated report
Cannot publish Licence/capacity Check requirements
Slow export Huge rows Add parameters

Practise independently

Practice task

Which report type for a 20-page printable order list?

Hints
  • Pixel-perfect.
Solution

A paginated report.

Think like a professional

Choose the tool by output: interactive vs printed.

Ravi Sir's Cards for this lesson

Paginated reports. Some outputs must print neatly over many pages, like invoices.Revision card

मराठी cards