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Parsware reports and Power BI paginated reports

Power BI paginated reports and Parsware reports both produce a document laid out to the page, and both can read Dataverse. They are built for different jobs. Here is where each one fits, what each costs to read, and when you would use both.

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The Charts sample report in the Parsware Samples app: two charts of amount by claim, a wide bar chart of total claimed by status, and a table of totals, next to the title "Parsware reports and Power BI paginated reports"

If you need a printed document from Dataverse, such as an invoice, a claim form or a statement, Microsoft's answer is a Power BI paginated report. Parsware for Power Apps has its own reports. Both produce pages laid out exactly, and both can read Dataverse, so it's a fair question which one to use.

The short answer: paginated reports are a reporting service. A Parsware report is part of your app. This article explains what that difference means in practice, so you can pick the right one for each job, or use both.

What each one is

A Power BI paginated report is an .rdl file, the format SQL Server Reporting Services has used for years. You design it in Power BI Report Builder, a free Windows desktop application, and publish it to a workspace in the Power BI service. People open it there, in a Power BI app, or through a link.

A Parsware report is a page you draw in the Parsware designer, which runs in the browser inside the Parsware Studio app in your development environment. You publish it into one of your own Dataverse solutions, and people open it in your model-driven app: from the navigation, or on a form.

The Charts sample report open in the Parsware Samples app: two charts of amount by claim, a bar chart of total claimed by status from a FetchXML aggregate, and a table of claims and totals per status, with Previous page, Next page, zoom and Print in the toolbar

Side by side

Power BI paginated reports Parsware reports
Designed in Power BI Report Builder, on Windows The Parsware designer, in the browser, inside Power Apps
Lives in A Power BI workspace Your Dataverse solution, as a web resource
Moves between environments With Power BI's own tools, separately from your app With your solution, in the same export and import as your forms and views
Data Dataverse, SQL Server, Azure SQL, Oracle, Power BI semantic models and more Dataverse only: a table, a view or a FetchXML query
On a model-driven form Not a documented option for paginated reports A form control, showing the open record
Output Print, PDF, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, CSV, XML and more Print, and PDF through the browser's print dialog
Delivery Email subscriptions on a schedule Opened by a person, when they need it
To read one A Power BI Pro or Premium Per User licence, unless the workspace is on Fabric F64 or Premium P1 capacity or larger The Power Apps licence your users already have

The rows below explain the ones that usually decide it.

Where paginated reports fit better

Lots of data sources. A paginated report can read SQL Server, Oracle and other sources through a gateway, and combine them with Dataverse. A Parsware report reads Dataverse and nothing else.

Many output formats. If people need the report as an Excel workbook or a Word document they can edit, paginated reports export to both. Parsware prints, and saves a PDF from the print dialog.

Scheduled delivery. Paginated reports can be emailed on a schedule, such as a statement on the first of every month. Parsware has no scheduler: a person opens a report when they need it.

Existing reports. If you already have Reporting Services reports, they're .rdl files, and Microsoft has tools to move them to Power BI. Parsware can't open them.

You already pay for Power BI. If every reader already has a Pro licence, or your workspaces are on a large enough capacity, the cost question below doesn't apply to you.

Where Parsware reports fit better

The report belongs to a record. A Parsware report sits on a model-driven form and shows the record you're looking at: the claim's own lines, the case's own summary. See A report on a form. Microsoft documents putting an ordinary Power BI report on a form by exporting the solution and editing the form's XML by hand. We didn't find a documented way to do it for a paginated report.

It moves with your app. A published Parsware design is a component of your own solution. When you export the solution from Dev and import it into Prod, the report goes with the forms and views that use it (Move designs from Dev to Prod). A paginated report lives in a Power BI workspace, so it has its own deployment, kept in step with your app by hand.

Readers need no extra licence. Parsware is priced per environment, with unlimited users. Anybody who can open your model-driven app can read its reports. To read a paginated report, each reader needs Power BI Pro or Premium Per User, unless the workspace runs on Fabric F64 or Premium P1 capacity or larger. For a few hundred people who only ever read an invoice, that difference is large.

It's drawn, not built in a grid. You place text, tables, charts, images and barcodes exactly where you want them, by dragging, in the browser.

The Barcodes and QR codes sample report: a Code 128 barcode and a QR code drawn once, then a table of claims where each row prints its own barcode, bound to that row

Nothing leaves Dataverse. A Parsware report reads rows in the browser through the Dataverse Web API, as the signed-in user, so security roles apply exactly as they do in the rest of the app. There's no second service holding a copy of the report or a connection to your data (What stays on your tenant). A paginated report runs in the Power BI service, which has its own settings, permissions and capacity to manage.

One designer for reports and screens. The same designer draws Studio screens, the interactive panels that go on forms, so makers learn one tool.

The Parsware designer with the Expense Claims report open: the layers on the left, the page with its heading, column headings, a repeating Claim band and a total row in the middle, and the toolbar with Insert, Frame, Report, Datasets and Publish

What it costs to read

Prices change, so check Microsoft's own pages before deciding. At the time of writing:

  • Power BI. Designing a paginated report is free. Publishing it to a shared workspace needs Power BI Pro, $14 per user per month, or Premium Per User, $24. Every reader needs one of those too, unless the workspace is on Fabric F64 or Premium P1 capacity or larger, where readers with a free licence can view it.
  • Parsware for Power Apps. Reports are in the Standard plan: $299 for three environments, with no limit on makers or readers. A yearly renewal buys updates and support; what you bought keeps working without it. See pricing.

Using both

They don't compete for the same space. A common split:

  • Power BI paginated reports for scheduled, high-volume output and anything that combines Dataverse with other systems: month-end statements, a nightly export, a report across your ERP and Dataverse.
  • Parsware reports for documents people open from inside the app, on a record, at the moment they need them: the invoice for this order, the claim form for this expense, the sheet for this case.

And for exploring data, with slicers, cross-filtering and dashboards, neither of these is the tool. That's what ordinary Power BI reports are for.

Next

Studio screens and canvas apps: drawing a screen for a form versus building a canvas app. The whole series is in the reading list.