Power BI
Accessing Reports Page
For full access to report creation and editing, the IQanalytics module must be active on your IQ instance
Reporting Roles
To either view reports or build them, you’ll need Reporting roles enabled for your User. Under any User Details screen, tick the boxes for Reporting Admin (create reports) and / or Reporting User (may only run reports). There are further Reporting Permissions which are explained later in this article
Users with the Admin or Internal Role active will have access to reports by default.
Report List Page
Once your user has been assigned the appropriate role, the reports option will display in the menu under Admin -> Application:
Navigating Reporting
After clicking the Reports button you will be taken to the Reports page. Here you will see two folders; Standard and Custom. Standard contains all of printIQ's standard reports. The Custom folder will hold anything created new or copied from the Standard folder.
When no reports are selected, two buttons display. One is to toggle the tree/report list on the left of the screen and the other is to start creating a new report using the embedded PowerBI editor:
When the 'New' button is clicked, the 'Creating Report' modal appears with two options for the report type; 'Standard Report' and 'Paginated Report'. One of these options must be selected from the modal to continue creating a new report (more about report creation later in this article).
Folders can be clicked to view the reports inside. There are multiple options for each, which can be seen by clicking the 3 dots icon to the right of a report name:
View will load the report inside printIQ (same will happen when the report name is clicked from the menu).
Open in PowerBI will open the report inside the PowerBI Service.
Copy will load the Copy Report modal. The name of the report you are copying will display in the modal with '- Copy' at the end of the report name (this can be edited). Click 'Copy & Close' to save it. Once saved, the 'Editing' modal will open by default, where further changes can be made. The report will be saved to the Draft folder (unless it has been published) under Custom.
Subfolders
Subfolders can be viewed inside the standard and custom folders:
Draft - a printIQ created folder that holds any reports that are marked as 'Draft'.
Uncategorized - a printIQ created folder that holds any reports that are not placed in powerBI folders.
Any other folder - a folder created in the PowerBI Service. These folders cannot be created or managed within printIQ, this must be done in the PowerBI Service.
Standard Reports
Standard reports are typically built using the core features of Power BI Desktop and are well suited for fundamental to moderately complex data analysis and visualisation:
Purpose: Provide standard tracking of trends and foundational metrics, such as a simple sales analysis or website analytics report. Interactive data exploration and analysis.
Interactivity: Include standard interactive elements like filters, slicers, and cross-highlighting across visuals.
Typical use cases: Dashboards, trend analysis, and reports meant for online use and discovery.
Audience: Suitable for individual users or small teams not requiring extensive collaboration or sharing outside of basic viewing capabilities.
Standard reports can be identified in printIQ by the grey page icon:
Actions available in printIQ for standard reports:
- Collapse/Toggle - hides/unhides the report list
- New - Starts the new report creation process
- Edit (only displays when reports are in Custom folder) - loads the report in edit mode
- Print - opens the browser print dialogue box
- Download - downloads the report as a PDF
- Bookmarks - Loads the PowerBI bookmarks tab inside the frame
- View in Portal - opens the report in the PowerBI portal
- Share - loads an email with the PowerBI report as a link in the email body
- Refresh - Refreshes the frame
- Full-screen - changes to full-screen mode when viewing the report
Building a Standard Report
After selecting a report type, the report must be given a name. Next a view or multiple views must be selected to create a new dataset or existing dataset can be selected from the 'Existing' tab. After selecting a dataset/views to use in your report, you must choose whether to continue in the printIQ Editor or to continue in the PowerBI Service. Next, the 'Continue' button must be clicked:
The page will then change to either 'Creating Report' in the editor or you will be redirected to PowerBI Service. The image below show the Creating Report screen in printIQ:
The report must be have a name before it can be created/saved. Other fields, such as 'Full Control' and 'View' permissions can be set later. When clicked on, these fields both display a list of the reporting permissions available on the IQ instance:
Full Control - allows users with these reporting permissions full access to edit and view reports.
View - allows users with these reporting permissions to view the report only. They cannot make changes.
Below these fields, there is a checkbox to set the report to 'Show as dashboard on landing page'. The report can be created as a Draft, or it can be Published if no more changes are required and it needs to be used.
Draft - report admin users have access to all draft reports, reporting users have access to draft reports they have permissions for.
Published - Permissions set on the report are used for access:
Paginated Reports
Paginated Reports are more traditional in format. They are designed for pixel-perfect rendering, particularly for printed or PDF formats. As the name suggests, these reports are "paginated," meaning they are built to be viewed page-by-page:
Purpose: Print-ready documents with a fixed, precise layout. Used for operational, financial, and regulatory reporting where exact page layout matters.
Format: Fixed-layout, often spanning multiple pages, with exact control over design and positioning.
Typical use cases: Invoices, financial statements, operational reports, and any document that needs to be printed or exported to a PDF with a consistent, pre-defined structure.
Audience: Primarily for operational and business users who need formal & structured reports that are printed or exported documents. They are suitable for finance teams, operations and logistics, compliance and audit stakeholders and external recipients (customers, suppliers).
Building a Paginated Report
When 'Paginated Report' has been selected as the report type, most of the same fields and options display as with a Standard Report. The Report Name field is mandatory and datasets/views must be selected. There will now be no choice of whether to continue creation in printIQ Editor or PowerBI Service as a paginated report must be created in PowerBI Service:
After clicking 'Continue' the PowerBI Service will open in another tab where you can continue building your report:
Paginated reports can be identified in printIQ by the numbered list icon:
Actions available for paginated reports are:
- Collapse/Toggle button to hide the report list
- New - Starts the new report creation process
- Edit (only displays when reports are in Custom folder) - Loads the frame in edit mode for the current report
- View in Portal - opens the report in the PowerBI portal
- Share - loads an email with the PowerBI report as a link in the email body
- Refresh - Refreshes the frame
- Full-screen - changes to full-screen mode when viewing the report
There is an export button inside the frame for paginated reports, this keeps your current filters when exporting
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