Power BI User Group July 2026

Gabriela Zelaya

Business Intelligence User Group -2nd Wednesday of each month

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https://youtu.be/0rfwm-QupY0

Hackathon Participation and Office Hours: Erik informed the group about the ongoing hackathon leveraging Blackbaud APIs, encouraged members to collaborate on projects, and announced upcoming office hours for support, inviting participants to join and ask questions.

• Hackathon Overview: Erik described the hackathon as a challenge-based competition with prizes, focused on projects utilizing Blackbaud APIs. Participants can collaborate, experiment, or share ideas, and Erik provided a link for further information.
• Collaboration Opportunities: Erik encouraged members to explore existing projects, join teams, or add comments and suggestions. He also invited those with their own ideas to seek collaborators within the group.
• Office Hours Announcement: Erik announced the first office hours session scheduled for Friday, where participants can ask questions about the competition or seek help with their projects, with facilitation provided for submissions.

 

Regional Workshops and BB Con Sessions: Erik shared details about upcoming in-person regional workshops in Silicon Valley and DC, as well as BB Con sessions, highlighting tracks for Power BI and Power Automate and options for both beginners and advanced users.

• Workshop Locations and Dates: Erik announced two-day workshops in Silicon Valley (August 25-26) and DC (October 27-28), offering opportunities for in-person learning and networking.
• Workshop Tracks and Content: The workshops will feature separate tracks for Power BI and Power Automate, including beginner and advanced sessions, with bbcon offering an advanced Power Automate session and a beginner Power BI class.
• Future Venue Plans: Erik mentioned plans to expand to more East Coast venues next year, noting challenges with scheduling at the Microsoft office in New York and the possibility of revisiting it.

 

New Blackbaud API Features and Updates: Erik updated the group on recent Blackbaud API enhancements, including the single row layout in the query API, new gift notes, a prospect API, opportunity API updates, web hooks, and expanded consent and query API documentation.

• Query API Enhancements: Erik highlighted the availability of a single row layout in the query API, which improves data handling for BI users.
• Gift and Prospect API Updates: New gift notes are now accessible on the gift V2 endpoint, and a new prospect API has been released, expanding data access options.
• Opportunity API Improvements: The opportunity API now supports notes and web hooks, enabling notifications before new opportunities are added and facilitating integration workflows.
• Consent and Query API Documentation: Erik referenced updated API documentation with more details on consent and query processes, aiding users in understanding data flows and query mechanics.

 

Azure Warehouse IP Whitelisting for Power BI: Kate raised a question about managing changing IP addresses for Azure warehouse access in Power BI, and Alex explained the need to update IP whitelists periodically or use IP ranges, clarifying the process for both desktop and cloud scenarios.

• IP Whitelisting Challenge: Kate described the issue of needing to whitelist office IP addresses, which change every 90 days, for connecting Power BI Desktop to Azure warehouse tables.
• Workarounds and Best Practices: Alex advised updating the IP whitelist every three months or using IP ranges if possible, noting that once reports are published to Power BI Service, the issue is resolved.
• Power Automate Flow Timeout and Query Optimization: Tia sought advice on Power Automate flows timing out due to long-running queries, and Rebecca and Alex provided guidance on chunking data, using SharePoint folder connectors, and separating one-to-many relationships to optimize performance and avoid data modeling issues.
• Flow Timeout Issue: Tia explained that her Power Automate flow times out after a few minutes when processing large queries, seeking strategies to mitigate this problem.
• Conditional Handling and Throttling: Rebecca recommended using conditional statements to handle throttled states, referencing Alex's flow template and suggesting breaking queries into smaller chunks for improved performance.
• SharePoint Folder Connector Usage: Rebecca explained how to use Power BI's SharePoint folder connector to combine multiple files with identical layouts, enabling efficient data union and reducing query complexity.
• Data Modeling and Relationship Separation: Alex advised separating one-to-one and one-to-many relationships into distinct queries to prevent row duplication and double counting, illustrating with examples from gift and opportunity data.
• Flow Sharing and Licensing: Rebecca clarified that Power Automate flows using premium connectors can be shared with other users, provided they have a Power Automate Premium license, allowing collaborative management and scheduling.

 

Row-Level Security in Power BI with Fabric Free License: Beth asked about implementing row-level security in Power BI reports for users with a Microsoft Fabric free license, and Rebecca and Lucy explained licensing scenarios, Active Directory integration, and potential complexities with embedded applications and paginated reports.

• Row-Level Security Licensing: Rebecca confirmed that row-level security works for users with Fabric free or Pro licenses when reports are shared through Fabric capacity, as user authentication is handled by Microsoft.
• Embedded Application Considerations: Rebecca noted that when reports are shared via Power BI embedded licenses, user authentication and row-level security depend on the organization's application, adding complexity to access management.
• Active Directory Integration: Lucy shared that row-level security in Fabric is based on Active Directory, allowing granular access control, but warned that additional security layers can introduce complexity.
• Report Builder and Paginated Reports: Lucy explained that Microsoft's Power BI Report Builder tool is used for paginated reports, which may have limitations in printing and layout, and advised caution when preparing reports for distribution.