
In Part one of this series, we covered the foundational concepts behind sharing Power BI reports with external users. We explained why this is more complex than it seems, outlined the key requirements, clarified essential terms like guest users and Entra ID, and defined the roles involved in setting up secure external access.
Now that we have the groundwork in place, it’s time to walk through the process step by step.
This blog is based on the walkthrough portion of my YouTube video published in April 2025, where I explained the scenario and how to implement it, from configuring the necessary settings to sharing reports across two Azure tenants.
Here’s a quick guide to the full series:
- Part 1: Understanding the Problem and Core Concepts
This post explains why external sharing can be tricky, the key requirements to get it working, important terminology, user roles, and how the whole process fits together. - Part 2: Hands-On Guide to Setup and Sharing (this blog)
A step-by-step walkthrough of how to share reports across tenants, covering licensing, admin portal settings, inviting guest users, and how report access looks from the guest’s side. - Part 3: Sensitivity Labels, Encryption, and Secure Sharing
An in-depth look at what happens when Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels are applied, including access control, encryption, and key admin settings you may need to adjust for secure collaboration.
In this post, we’ll focus on a practical scenario. One organisation, let’s call it Tenant A, wants to share a Power BI report with someone from another organisation, Tenant B. We’ll cover everything from verifying licenses to configuring the Fabric Admin Portal and inviting the external user. If you’re looking to follow along, this guide will give you a clear path to replicate the same setup in your environment.
If you like to listen to the content on the go, here is the AI generated podcast explaining everything about this blog π.
If you are someone who prefers video over reading, you can watch the full walkthrough here π.
Scenario Overview
Let’s imagine we have two different Azure tenants. One belongs to the organisation that owns the Power BI report (Tenant A) and the other belongs to a partner or customer who needs access to that report (Tenant B).
The objective is to share a report from Tenant A with a user in Tenant B, in a secure and controlled way.
We will go through the steps the admin and report owner in Tenant A need to follow to make this work properly.
Step 1: Verify Power BI Licensing
Before setting up anything, make sure both users involved have a valid Power BI license. This might seem obvious, but it is a very common reason why external sharing fails or behaves unexpectedly.
In the demo example:
- The report owner in Tenant A has a Power BI Pro license.
- The external user from Tenant B (named Nestor) also has a Power BI Pro license.
You can confirm this by clicking the Account Picker icon in Microsoft Fabric and looking at the License type. If the external user does not already have a Pro or PPU license, you either need to assign one through your tenant or ask them to obtain the license.
Continue reading “Sharing Power BI Reports with External Users β Part 2: Hands-On Guide to Setup and Sharing”