Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Nós temos acesso antecipado ao relatório.

Nós temos acesso antecipado ao relatório – completely correct, but the Nós is not necessary.
Temos acesso antecipado ao relatório – also correct and more natural in European Portuguese in neutral contexts.

In Portuguese, the verb ending (temos) already shows the subject (we), so the pronoun Nós is only needed for:

emphasis (Nós have early access, not them),
contrast,
or when the context is unclear.

In everyday speech, European Portuguese often omits subject pronouns when there is no ambiguity.

Why is the verb ter used here? Could I use estar or ser instead?

You need ter here because ter means to have in the sense of possession or access.

ter acesso a = to have access to

So:

Nós temos acesso antecipado ao relatório.
= literally: We have early access to the report.

Using estar or ser would be incorrect in this structure:

Nós estamos acesso… – wrong.
Nós somos acesso… – wrong.

If you wanted to use another verb, you’d change the entire structure, e.g.:

Podemos aceder ao relatório mais cedo.
= We can access the report earlier.

But with the word acesso, the natural verb is ter.

Is ter acesso a a fixed expression in Portuguese?

Yes, ter acesso a is a very common and natural expression and works much like to have access to in English.

Patterns:

ter acesso a + noun
- ter acesso à internet – to have access to the internet
- ter acesso aos dados – to have access to the data
- ter acesso antecipado ao relatório – to have early access to the report

You can also use the verb aceder a (to access), especially in European Portuguese:

Acedemos ao relatório – We access the report.
Podemos aceder ao relatório mais cedo – We can access the report earlier.

But when you use the noun acesso, the idiomatic collocation is ter acesso (a).

Why is there no article before acesso? Why not o acesso antecipado?

Here acesso is used in a kind of set expression, so it usually appears without an article:

ter acesso a (have access to)

So:

Temos acesso antecipado ao relatório. – natural.
Temos o acesso antecipado ao relatório. – grammatically possible but sounds heavy and less idiomatic in this context.

Portuguese often drops the article with certain abstract nouns in fixed phrases or when they function almost like a verb complement:

ter medo de – to be afraid of
ter paciência para – to have patience for
ter acesso a – to have access to

You can use an article if you’re talking about a specific, previously mentioned access in a more technical or bureaucratic text, e.g.:

O acesso antecipado ao relatório será revogado.
(Here o acesso antecipado is a defined entity being discussed.)

What exactly does antecipado mean here? Is it literally “anticipated”?

Literally, antecipado comes from antecipar (to bring forward / to anticipate).

In this context, acesso antecipado is best understood as early access or access in advance.

So:

acesso antecipado ≈ early access / advance access

It’s also commonly used in marketing / services:

venda antecipada de bilhetes – advance ticket sale
pagamento antecipado – advance payment
check-in antecipado – early check-in

Why is it antecipado and not antecipada? What is it agreeing with?

Antecipado is agreeing in gender and number with acesso:

acesso – masculine singular
antecipado – masculine singular adjective

So we have:

acesso antecipado – masculine singular
entrada antecipada – entrada is feminine, so antecipada
pagamentos antecipados – pagamentos is masculine plural, so antecipados

Even though relatório is also masculine, the structure is:

acesso antecipado (early access) ao relatório (to the report)

The adjective is attached to acesso, not to relatório.

Can I change the word order and say temos acesso ao relatório antecipado?

You can say temos acesso ao relatório antecipado, but the meaning changes subtly.

Temos acesso antecipado ao relatório.
- acesso antecipado goes together: we have early access to the report.
- Focus: the access is early.
Temos acesso ao relatório antecipado.
- Now it sounds like relatório antecipado – “an early/advance report” (e.g. a preliminary version).
- Focus: the report itself is an early/advance report.

In your original sentence, you want to emphasize when you can access it (earlier), so acesso antecipado is the most natural and usual order.

What does ao stand for in ao relatório? Why not just a relatório?

Ao is a contraction of the preposition a and the masculine singular article o:

a (to) + o (the) → ao

Because relatório is masculine singular and specific (the report), you need a + o relatório:

acesso a + o relatório → acesso ao relatório

You cannot say a relatório; the article o is required here because you’re talking about a specific report, not reports in general.

Why do we use a in acesso a and not para or de?

With acesso, the natural preposition is a:

ter acesso a algo – to have access to something

So:

ter acesso ao relatório – have access to the report
ter acesso à informação – have access to the information

Other prepositions would change or break the meaning:

ter acesso para o relatório – sounds wrong/unnatural.
ter acesso do relatório – also wrong in this sense.

Think of it as a fixed pattern:

acesso a ≈ access to

Is the tense of temos strictly present, or can it also refer to the future (like in English: “We get early access”)?

Formally, temos is present indicative (we have).

However, in context, Portuguese can use the present tense to talk about scheduled or typical future events, similar to English:

Amanhã temos acesso antecipado ao relatório.
- Literally: Tomorrow we have early access to the report.
- Meaning: We will have early access tomorrow.

So in many real situations, temos acesso antecipado can refer to:

a permanent situation (we always have early access),
a current situation (we now have early access),
or a planned/scheduled future (tomorrow/next week we have early access).

Is this sentence the same in Brazilian Portuguese, or would Brazilians say it differently?

The sentence Nós temos acesso antecipado ao relatório. is perfectly fine both in European and Brazilian Portuguese.

Differences in practice:

Brazilians are a bit more likely to keep the subject pronoun:
Nós temos acesso… is very normal in Brazil.
In European Portuguese, dropping Nós (Temos acesso…) feels a bit more natural in neutral context.

Vocabulary and structure (ter acesso antecipado a, relatório) are the same in both varieties.

How would I replace ao relatório with a pronoun? Can I say temos acesso antecipado a ele?

Yes, you can say:

Temos acesso antecipado a ele. – We have early access to it.

Here:

ele stands for o relatório (masculine singular),
a + ele does not contract; it stays a ele, not aole or anything like that.

More examples:

Temos acesso a ele. – We have access to it.
Não temos acesso a eles. – We don’t have access to them (masculine plural things).

Is there another natural way to say this without using the noun acesso?

Yes. You can use the verb aceder (to access), especially common in European Portuguese:

Podemos aceder ao relatório mais cedo.
– We can access the report earlier.

Some alternatives:

Vamos poder aceder ao relatório mais cedo. – We’ll be able to access the report earlier.
Temos possibilidade de aceder ao relatório antes dos outros. – We have the possibility to access the report before the others.

But if you want the idea of “early access” as a kind of benefit or feature (like in marketing, subscriptions, memberships), ter acesso antecipado is very idiomatic and natural.