Refresh, upload and share SMART BI.pbix

How SMART BI.pbix is made

Open SMART BI.pbix in Power BI Desktop
By default on the SMART Migration server, where the reporting database is within reach.
Click Refresh
Power BI Desktop connects to the PostgreSQL reporting database and pulls in the current data.
Save it and click Upload to Nextcloud
Upload to Nextcloud is in the App panel in SMART Migration. It puts the file in the SmartBI folder of the SMART Migration Reports team folder in Nextcloud Files — SMART Migration Reports/SmartBI/SMART BI.pbix — and the Dashboard offers it for download. The SmartBI folder is created with the team folder.

This is done by hand: Power BI Desktop cannot refresh a file on a schedule by itself, and the copies offered on the Dashboard are the ones someone uploaded. While the app is open, a notification says when a new upload has arrived.

A refresh on a schedule needs the Power BI service

Power BI Desktop refreshes only when someone clicks Refresh. When the figures must stay current without anyone doing so, your organisation can publish the report to the Power BI service — Microsoft's online portal, the only part of Power BI that carries a licence fee — and set a scheduled refresh there. A reporting database inside your network then needs Microsoft's on-premises data gateway. The report is then read in the browser by users with Power BI licences; the app plays no part in it.

Refresh it anywhere the database can be reached

The reporting database does not have to run on the SMART Migration server: it can be on any machine, or a hosted service, that the server can reach. Anyone with access to that database can refresh the report in their own Power BI Desktop, so up-to-date figures never wait for someone to refresh and upload the file. A managed PostgreSQL that is reachable from outside the network works well when the reports are refreshed elsewhere.

When to refresh

After runs have finished, to see what they found and moved.
After Run History rows were deleted, once the mark on the Dashboard's Power BI heading is no longer red — until then, the report still shows the deleted runs.
After a run's title, description, tags or group was changed, once the mark is no longer amber — until then, the report still shows what the run had before.
At every milestone, to keep a copy as a record.

A file, and that is its strength

Opens anywhere

Opening a refreshed file needs only Power BI Desktop: no database, no credentials, no network path and no SMART Migration — during an outage, or years later.

Shared like any document

Mail it to a manager, drop it in a Team Folder, hand it to the auditor. Whoever receives it opens it for free, in Power BI Desktop. Nextcloud keeps it like any other file: downloadable, shareable, versioned.

Point-in-time evidence

Every copy keeps the data it had when it was refreshed. Save one at each milestone, or at regular intervals, for a history of the migration or the protected set.

Yours to change

The report is not locked. Change a visual, add a page, apply your own colours — anything Power BI Desktop can do to a report.

The report as project documentation

Because a refreshed file keeps its data, each saved copy documents the project as it stood on its refresh date: what had been found, what had moved, what was left behind, and where every file went. Put the refresh date in the copy's name — SMART BI 2026-10-11.pbix — and keep it beside the project's other records. The copy made when the project closes is the handover document, and it still answers where did this file go? years later, when the server, the database and the app are long gone.

Manage the Power BI files in the SmartBI folder

The SmartBI folder of the SMART Migration Reports team folder holds the Power BI files the Dashboard offers. It can hold any number of them, and it is managed like any other folder in Nextcloud Files.

Any number of .pbix files

Every .pbix in the folder is listed on the Dashboard, the latest upload first: the current SMART BI.pbix, dated copies and reports of your own, side by side.

Any upload works

Upload to Nextcloud in SMART Migration is one way in. Files in the browser, drag and drop, the Nextcloud desktop client or WebDAV are others — by anyone who can write to the team folder.

Anyone with database access can refresh

Anyone who can reach the PostgreSQL reporting database can refresh their own copy in Power BI Desktop and upload it. No SMART Migration server, and no wait for someone else's refresh.

Some files are snapshots

A refreshed file keeps the data of its refresh date. A copy named with that date — SMART BI 2026-10-11.pbix — shows how things stood at that point, for as long as it is kept.

*Keep SMART BI.pbix as the current one* and give every snapshot its date, so the list reads as a history.
Rename, move or delete an old copy in Files, as any file; the Dashboard follows the folder.
Uploading a file of the same name replaces it; Nextcloud keeps the previous one among the file's versions.

Download the report

At the top of the Dashboard, beside Progress, Power BI lists every Power BI file (.pbix) in the SmartBI folder, each with its size and when it was uploaded; click a file's name to download it — your browser asks where to save it, or saves it where it saves downloads. Until there is one, the box says No report file uploaded yet. Open SmartBI folder opens the folder in Files. Power BI Desktop itself is a free download from Microsoft, for Windows. Never used it? See "Power BI for first-time users" in the links below.

See also