Write-back from Power BI report, using Power Apps

This guide describes how to write data from a Power BI report directly to a data source (typically the same source used by report). This is often used, for example, to add comments.

To write data from the Power BI visual, you first need to connect Power BI and Power Apps – this is described in this article.

This might look like this:

But how to write-back data?

In Powerbi.com (not in Desktop), add Power Apps visual, add data into it and go to edit.

The app opens. Add some item (typically to a gallery) that writes data. It can be almost anything, but a TextInput is a common choice.

In our case, we are updating the prices of individual cars.

Therefore, we will set the TextInput property to Default, allowing the original value to appear in the table, e.g.:

Next, we need some item to confirm the updated value, like button.

Its OnSelect property will write data to database. One option is to use the Patch function, but in this case, we might use a more organized approach with Power Automate.

So let´s add a new flow:

In the first step, used parameters are set:

And in the last step, values in the data source will be updated:

Finish editing Power Automate. Then assign the button to trigger the flow, sending, for example, the row ID and the updated value:

Publish and close the Power App, and here is the result – the data entry visual:

Note that data writing to the source is almost immediate, but the updated data will only appear in the report after a refresh. It can be online in case of Direct Query, but that can only be used with certain databases, which requires a Power Apps Premium license.