Ever felt like you’re trying to fit a square peg in a round hole with off-the-shelf software? You know there’s a better way to handle a specific business process, but a full-blown custom software project feels like overkill. This is exactly where Microsoft Power Apps comes in.
It’s a low-code platform that puts the power to build custom apps right into your hands, often without writing a single line of code. Think of it as a set of digital building blocks for creating everything from a simple holiday request form to a sophisticated on-site job management system.
What Is Power Apps and How Can It Help Your Business?
At its heart, Power Apps is about letting the people who actually do the work, build the tools they need. It breaks down the traditional walls between your operational teams and the IT department, enabling your staff—the real experts in your processes—to create solutions. For a small or medium-sized UK business, this is a massive advantage.
Instead of wrestling with clunky spreadsheets or out-of-date paper forms, you can build modern, user-friendly apps that work on any phone, tablet, or computer. This is your chance to finally digitise that pile of paperwork, automate that multi-step approval process, and link up data from all the different systems you’re already using.
The Real-World Impact on Business Operations
The benefits here aren’t just theoretical; they translate into real, measurable improvements in efficiency and data accuracy. Picture this: one of your field engineers finishes a site inspection. Instead of jotting down notes to type up later, they use a simple app on their phone to upload photos, fill out a checklist, and get a client signature on the spot. That data is instantly available back at the office.
Power Apps helps your business by:
- Solving unique problems that standard software just doesn’t cover.
- Reducing the bottleneck in IT for creating small but crucial business tools.
- Improving data quality by ensuring information is captured correctly the first time.
- Boosting team productivity by automating those repetitive, manual tasks that drain time.
When you empower your employees to build their own solutions, you become much more agile. The conversation shifts from “Can IT build this for us?” to “How can we solve this ourselves?”, which dramatically speeds things up.
Integrating with Your Existing Tech Stack
One of the biggest wins with Power Apps is how seamlessly it works with the tools you likely already use. If your business runs on Microsoft 365, SharePoint, or Dynamics 365, you have a massive head start.
Power Apps is a core part of a much bigger picture, and you can learn more about how it fits into the Microsoft Power Platform in our detailed article. For those who want to get straight into the visual side of development, this guide to using a canvas app builder offers some great practical tips.
This guide is your end-to-end walkthrough, designed to get you from zero to confidently building and deploying your very first app. Let’s get started.
Getting to Grips with Power Apps Licensing and Environments in the UK
Before you jump into building your first app, there are a couple of foundational pieces you need to get right: licensing and environments. It might sound a bit dry, but sorting this out from the get-go will save you a world of headaches later on. It’s all about staying compliant, keeping costs in check, and creating a secure, organised space for your apps to live.
First up, let’s talk about licensing. It can feel a bit like a maze, but for most UK businesses, it boils down to a few key choices. The good news is you might already have what you need. Many Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 plans include the rights to build and use Power Apps, as long as you’re connecting to standard data sources like SharePoint or Excel.
However, if your plans are more ambitious and you need to connect to premium sources like SQL Server or use the powerful Dataverse, you’ll need to look at a standalone licence.
What Are My Licensing Options?
When you step into standalone licences, the main decision is whether to go ‘per app’ or ‘per user’.
A per app plan is brilliant for when you have one or two specific apps you want to roll out to a lot of people. Think of a company-wide expense claim or holiday request app. The cost is tied to an individual user for each specific app they need to access.
On the other hand, the per user plan is your golden ticket for developers, IT pros, or any team members who need access to a whole suite of apps. It gives one person the keys to run unlimited applications, making it ideal for your power users.
To make things a bit clearer, here’s a look at the common licensing scenarios for businesses in the UK.
Power Apps Licensing Options for UK Businesses (GBP)
The table below gives a simplified overview of the main Power Apps licences. It’s designed to help you quickly figure out which path makes the most sense for your specific needs, with estimated costs to give you a ballpark figure.
| Licence Type | Best For | Key Feature | Estimated Monthly Cost (GBP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Included with Microsoft 365 | Teams needing simple apps connected to Office 365 data (e.g., SharePoint, Excel). | Build and run unlimited standard apps without additional cost. | Included in subscription |
| Power Apps Per App Plan | Businesses deploying a single app to a broad user base (e.g., company-wide expense claims). | Cost-effective for limited, focused app usage. | Approximately £4.10 per user/app |
| Power Apps Per User Plan | Developers, IT staff, or employees who need access to multiple apps. | Run unlimited standard and premium apps. | Approximately £16.40 per user |
Remember, these prices are just estimates and can change. It’s always a good idea to chat with a licensing expert to make sure you’re on the most cost-effective plan for your business.
Why Environments Are Non-Negotiable
With licensing sorted, the next crucial piece of the puzzle is setting up your environments. Think of an environment as a separate container for your apps, data, and workflows. Getting this right is the bedrock of good governance and prevents simple mistakes from turning into major problems.
You would never build and test a new machine on a live factory floor, and the same logic applies here. At the very minimum, you need three distinct environments:
- Development: This is your workshop. A safe, isolated space to build, tinker, and experiment without any danger of breaking things that are live and in use.
- Testing: Once you think an app is ready, it moves here. A small group of trusted users can put it through its paces, hunt for bugs, and give you honest feedback.
- Production: This is the big stage. Only fully tested, approved, and battle-hardened apps make it here for the entire company to use for their day-to-day work.
This structured approach is absolutely vital for security and stability. As cloud adoption in the UK continues to grow, with a projected 94% of enterprises using cloud services by 2025, adopting these best practices is more important than ever. Creating distinct environments through the Power Platform admin centre ensures you’re building on a solid, secure foundation that aligns with UK data governance standards. You can read more about these trends in these UK cloud adoption statistics on SQ Magazine.
This decision tree helps visualise when to build a custom Power App versus using an off-the-shelf solution.
As the flowchart shows, if you’re facing a common business challenge, an existing tool might be all you need. But for those unique problems that are specific to your way of working, building a custom app is often the best way forward.
Setting up that first environment in the Power Platform admin centre is your first practical step. It lays the groundwork for everything that follows, enabling you to build scalable and secure apps that you can actually manage properly.
A well-planned environment strategy is the ultimate safety net. It protects your live business operations from accidental disruption and ensures new apps are properly vetted before they are rolled out to your team.
With your licences understood and environments in place, you’re officially ready to start building.
Need a hand navigating your licensing or setting up a rock-solid governance strategy? Give us a call on 0845 855 0000 today or Send us a message.
Your First Project: Building a Leave Request App
Theory is great, but there’s no substitute for getting your hands dirty. The best way to really get to grips with Power Apps is to build something you can actually use. So, let’s walk through creating a simple but genuinely useful employee leave request app from scratch. This little project will give you a tangible result and the core skills to start solving your own business challenges.
For this walkthrough, we’re going to build a Canvas App. I’ve chosen this for a reason: canvas apps give you total control over the user experience, which is perfect for a focused, mobile-friendly tool like this. You start with a blank canvas and can design the app exactly how you envision it—a key part of what makes low-code development so empowering.
To keep things simple on the data side, we’ll use a SharePoint List. If you’re on Microsoft 365, you already have access to it, making it the perfect no-fuss database for your first project.
Setting Up Your SharePoint Data Source
Before we even touch Power Apps, we need somewhere to store the leave requests. A SharePoint List is basically a smart, web-based table that’s incredibly easy to set up.
First, head over to your SharePoint site and create a new list. Let’s call it “Leave Requests”. Now, we need to add a few columns to capture the essential information.
- Title: SharePoint includes this by default. We’ll just repurpose it to hold the ‘Reason for Leave’.
- StartDate: Make this a ‘Date and Time’ column for the first day of leave.
- EndDate: Another ‘Date and Time’ column for the last day.
- RequestStatus: This should be a ‘Choice’ column. Add options like ‘Pending’, ‘Approved’, and ‘Rejected’, and set the default value to ‘Pending’.
Getting this data structure right from the outset saves a lot of headaches later. The column names you choose here are exactly what you’ll reference in your app’s formulas, so make them clear and logical.
Creating the App from Your Data
Right, now for the fun part. Go to the Power Apps maker portal. Instead of starting from a blank screen, we’re going to use a brilliant shortcut. On the home screen, look for an option like ‘Start from data’.
Choose ‘SharePoint’ from the list of connectors. You’ll be asked to point to your SharePoint site and then select the “Leave Requests” list we just made. Click connect, and watch as Power Apps works its magic, automatically generating a functional, three-screen app right before your eyes.
This auto-generated app is your foundation, complete with a browse screen, a details screen, and an edit screen.
In less than a minute, you get:
- A Browse Screen to see a list of all submitted requests.
- A Detail Screen to view the specifics of any single request.
- An Edit/New Screen that contains the form for creating or updating a request.
This feature is a massive time-saver and perfectly showcases just how fast development can be. It’s already done about 80% of the foundational work for you.
Customising the User Interface
The auto-generated app is functional, but let’s be honest, it’s a bit bland. The next step is to polish the user interface (UI) to make it more intuitive and professional. We’ll focus on the main form where users will be submitting their requests.
You can click on any element on the screen—a text box, a label, a button—and its properties will appear in a panel on the right, ready for you to tweak.
Let’s make a few simple but effective changes. Start by updating the labels to be more user-friendly; for example, find the ‘Title’ field and change its display label to something clearer, like “Reason for Leave”. You could also add a header by inserting a text label at the top, giving it a background colour, and increasing the font size. A clean, well-organised UI isn’t just about looking good—it improves usability and reduces mistakes.
A great app should guide the user. Every button, label, and control should have a clear purpose. If a user has to stop and think about what to do next, the design can be improved.
Making the App Work with Power Fx
Now it’s time to add a bit of logic with Power Fx, the formula language that drives Power Apps. If you’ve ever written a formula in Excel, you’ll feel right at home.
The most critical part of our app is the ‘Submit’ button. In the auto-generated app, this is usually a tick icon. When a user clicks this, we want to save all the information from the form to our SharePoint list.
Select the tick icon. Up in the formula bar, find the OnSelect property. This property dictates what happens when that icon is clicked. By default, Power Apps has already put in the only formula you need:
SubmitForm(EditForm1)
This one simple command is incredibly powerful. It tells the app to take all the data inside the form (which is named ‘EditForm1’ by default) and save it to the connected SharePoint list.
To make the user experience even better, let’s automatically take the user back to the main list after they submit a request. This gives them instant confirmation that it worked. We can just add to the existing formula:
SubmitForm(EditForm1); Navigate(BrowseScreen1)
The semicolon lets us chain commands together. The Navigate() function simply tells the app to switch to a different screen—in this case, back to the main browse screen. This immediate feedback is a small touch that makes a big difference.
Low-code platforms like Power Apps are rapidly gaining traction in the UK. A 2025 national survey by Productivity Insights found their use stands at 19% among firms with 50-249 employees. It’s clear that accessible tools are empowering businesses to build their own solutions. One London-based firm, for example, created a customer onboarding app in just two weeks, slashing their processing time by 53%. It’s success stories like these that show the real-world impact of this technology.
As you build your leave request app, it’s worth taking a look at some existing employee leave management software to get a feel for common features and functionality. This can spark great ideas for what to include in your own custom version. With just these few steps, you’ve already built a working application that solves a genuine business problem.
Have questions or need help turning your app idea into a reality? Phone 0845 855 0000 today or Send us a message.
Connecting Your App to Business Data with Power Fx
A polished user interface is a great first step, but what really brings an app to life is the data it uses. This is where we connect your app to the information that actually runs your business, turning a static screen into a dynamic, interactive tool.
Let’s look at how to link your Power App to common data sources and then inject some logic using Power Fx formulas.
The magic behind all this lies in things called connectors. Think of them as secure bridges that let your Power App talk to other systems. The good news is that Microsoft provides hundreds of these pre-built, making it surprisingly straightforward to link up to services you already rely on every day.
Choosing the Right Data Source
For most UK businesses, the data source you choose often comes down to what you’re already familiar with and what the app needs to do. In our leave request app example, we used a SharePoint list, but that’s just one of many possibilities.
Here’s a practical look at the most common data sources we see clients using. The right choice at the start can save you a lot of headaches down the road.
Choosing Your Power Apps Data Source
The table below compares some of the most common data sources to help you decide which is the best fit for your application’s needs.
| Data Source | Ideal Use Case | Scalability | Complexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| SharePoint Lists | Simple team-level apps, document libraries, and rapid prototyping. | Good for small to medium data volumes (thousands of items). | Low |
| Microsoft Dataverse | Business-critical applications, complex data models, and enterprise-level security. | High, designed for large-scale enterprise use. | Medium |
| SQL Server | Connecting to existing legacy databases or when you need full relational database power. | Very high, can handle massive data sets. | High |
| Excel Online | Quick, small-scale apps where the data source is a simple table. | Low, best for non-critical data with a few hundred rows. | Very Low |
Ultimately, SharePoint and Excel are fantastic for getting something up and running quickly, especially if the data already lives there. But if you’re building an application that will become central to your operations, you should seriously consider Microsoft Dataverse. Its robust security, scalability, and deep integration with the whole Power Platform make it a far better long-term choice.
You’ll also notice a distinction between standard and premium connectors. Standard ones (like SharePoint and Outlook) are generally included with many Microsoft 365 plans. Premium connectors, which link to systems like SQL Server or Salesforce, usually mean you’ll need a standalone Power Apps licence. And for those truly unique situations, like connecting to a bespoke internal system, you can even develop a custom connector.
Making Your App Smart with Power Fx
With your data connected, it’s time to add some intelligence using Power Fx. If you’ve ever written a formula in Excel, you’re already halfway there. It’s a low-code formula language that lets you define your app’s behaviour without needing to be a full-blown developer.
Let’s break down a few essential functions you’ll find yourself using constantly, using our leave request app as the example.
-
Filter(): This is your secret weapon for showing users only what they need to see. Say a manager only wants to view ‘Pending’ leave requests. You’d set the
Itemsproperty of your gallery toFilter('Leave Requests', RequestStatus.Value = "Pending"). Instantly, the interface becomes cleaner and more relevant. -
Navigate(): We touched on this earlier. It’s simply how you move users between screens. A straightforward
Navigate(SuccessScreen)after a form is submitted provides clear, immediate feedback that the job is done. -
Patch(): While
SubmitForm()is perfect for saving a whole form at once,Patch()gives you surgical control. It lets you create or modify specific records directly. For example, a manager’s “Approve” button could have itsOnSelectproperty set toPatch('Leave Requests', ThisItem, {RequestStatus: {Value: "Approved"}}). One click, and the record is updated.
These functions are the fundamental building blocks of your app’s logic. By combining them, you can create surprisingly sophisticated workflows and user experiences. We explore this further in our guide on using Power Apps to build clever tools like chatbots to revolutionise your business operations.
Good formula writing is all about clarity. Start simple and build up from there. The goal is to make your app respond intelligently to what the user is doing, guiding them smoothly through the process.
Once you get comfortable connecting data and using a few core Power Fx formulas, you’re no longer just building simple forms. You’re creating genuine business tools that can filter information, update records, and guide users—transforming a basic idea into an indispensable part of your team’s workflow.
Ready to connect your business data and build a truly powerful app? Phone 0845 855 0000 today or Send us a message.
Getting Your App into People’s Hands: Sharing and Governance
You’ve done the hard part – you’ve built a working app that solves a real business problem. That’s a huge step. But an app is only truly useful when it’s being used by the people it was designed for. Now, we need to focus on the final pieces of the puzzle: testing it properly, sharing it securely, and setting up some simple rules to keep everything running smoothly.
Don’t worry, this isn’t about getting bogged down in complex IT policies. It’s about being practical—making sure your app is reliable, reaches the right people, and doesn’t create security headaches as more and more people start using it.
First, A Practical Approach to Testing
Before you send out that company-wide email announcing your new creation, you need to put it through its paces. And I mean really test it. This is more than just clicking a few buttons to see if they work; it’s about simulating how the app will behave in the real world, with real users.
I’ve always found a simple two-stage approach works best:
- Developer Testing: This is on you, the builder. In your development environment, try everything. Click every button, fill in every field, and actively try to break it. What happens if someone types text where a number should go? What if they skip a required field? Anticipate the unexpected.
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT): This is where the magic happens. Grab a small, friendly group of the people who will actually use the app day-to-day. Give them access in a test environment and ask them to do their normal jobs with it. Their feedback is pure gold – they’ll spot things you never would have thought of and highlight what works and what doesn’t from a user’s perspective.
Publishing and Sharing Your App
Once you’re confident the app is ready for prime time, it’s time to publish it. Publishing a Power App essentially creates a “live” version that you can then share with your colleagues.
The sharing process itself is pretty straightforward inside the Power Apps portal. You have a couple of options for getting it to your users:
- Individual Users: You can just type in their company email addresses. Simple and direct for a small group.
- Security Groups: This is the smart way to go for bigger rollouts. Instead of adding people one by one, share the app with an existing Microsoft 365 security group, like ‘All Sales Staff’ or ‘Factory Floor Supervisors’. This is far more efficient and makes managing access a breeze when people join or leave the team.
A crucial point: when you share the app, you also have to make sure users have permission to access the data it connects to. For our leave request app, this means they need the right level of access to the SharePoint list it uses. This is a common trip-up, so always double-check your data source permissions!
Introducing Some Basic Governance
As your company gets more comfortable with Power Apps and people start building their own, you’ll need to introduce some basic ground rules. Think of governance not as a restrictive barrier, but as helpful guardrails that keep your Power Platform environment secure, tidy, and manageable.
One of the most powerful tools for this is setting up Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies.
An administrator can set these up in the Power Platform admin centre to control which data sources your apps are allowed to connect to. For instance, you could create a policy that allows connectors for SharePoint, Outlook, and SQL Server but blocks connections to social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) or Dropbox.
This simple step is fundamental to good governance. It ensures that sensitive company data from a system like Dataverse can’t accidentally be sent to a public-facing service, preventing a potential data breach before it even has a chance to happen.
Knowing When to Ask for Help
Building your first few apps is one thing. Managing a whole suite of business-critical apps, implementing a robust governance strategy across multiple departments, or integrating with complex legacy systems is another challenge entirely.
As your ambitions grow, you’ll likely hit a point where you need deeper expertise. This is often when it makes sense to partner with a specialist. Getting expert guidance can help you sidestep common pitfalls, speed up your development, and ensure your Power Apps strategy is built to last. A bit of expert advice early on can save you from costly mistakes down the line.
Need a hand defining a governance strategy or getting your app securely into the hands of your team? Phone 0845 855 0000 today or Send us a message.
What’s Next? Taking Your Power Apps Skills Further
So, you’ve got the essentials down. You can see the potential in building your own apps to solve real business problems, and that’s the most important first step. The real journey begins now, as you start spotting opportunities everywhere to replace a clunky spreadsheet or automate a manual, time-consuming task.
As your confidence grows, so will your ambition. You’ll move from simple single-screen apps to more complex solutions that need to talk to multiple systems, handle intricate business logic, or meet strict security standards. This is a natural progression, and it’s where things get really interesting.
It’s also the point where many businesses find they could use a helping hand. Maybe you need to connect to a legacy system, design a rock-solid governance plan, or build something truly bespoke that goes beyond the standard templates. Tackling these challenges alone can be tough, and getting expert advice can save you from hitting common roadblocks, ensuring what you build is not just functional, but also secure and scalable for the long haul.
Think you’re ready to tackle a bigger project or need some guidance on where to start? We’re here to help you navigate the next stage of your Power Platform journey.
Give us a call on 0845 855 0000 or send us a message to chat about what you’re trying to achieve.
Common Power Apps Questions We Hear From UK Businesses
When you’re first dipping your toes into Power Apps, a few questions always pop up. Let’s tackle some of the most common ones we hear from businesses across the UK.
What’s the Real Cost of Power Apps in the UK?
This is the big one, and the answer is: it depends on how you plan to use it. Many businesses find that the basic Power Apps capabilities they need are already bundled into their existing Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
If you need a standalone licence, you have a couple of main options. For specific teams needing just one or two apps, the per-app plan is incredibly cost-effective, starting at around £4.10 per user, per month.
However, if you have ‘power users’ who will need access to many different apps, the per-user plan at roughly £16.40 per user, per month makes more sense. We always recommend a quick licence review before you buy anything – it can save you a surprising amount of money.
Can Power Apps Talk to Our Other, Non-Microsoft Systems?
Yes, absolutely. This is one of its biggest strengths. Power Apps comes with hundreds of standard connectors right out of the box for popular services like Salesforce, Dropbox, and Google Drive. In most cases, it’s a simple plug-and-play setup.
What if you’re running a bespoke, proprietary system or a UK-specific platform without a ready-made connector? That’s not a problem. A custom connector can be built, which acts as a secure API bridge, allowing Power Apps to read and write data from virtually any system you rely on.
Canvas vs. Model-Driven Apps: Which One Do I Need?
Getting this right from the start is crucial. Here’s a simple way I like to explain it:
-
Canvas Apps: Think of this as starting with a blank artist’s canvas. You have complete, pixel-perfect control over the user interface and experience. This is the perfect choice for highly specific, task-focused apps, especially for mobile, where the look and feel are paramount. Think of a simple inspection form or a stock-checking tool.
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Model-Driven Apps: This approach starts with your data, not a blank screen. It’s built on top of your data model in Dataverse and is designed for creating rich, complex business process applications. You get less control over the exact UI, but you get a powerful, responsive, and feature-packed app much faster. It’s ideal for end-to-end solutions like case management or a sales pipeline tracker.
Ready to turn your ideas into powerful apps that solve real business problems? The team at F1Group has been in the trenches, helping businesses like yours with everything from initial strategy and licensing to custom development and ongoing governance.
Give us a call on 0845 855 0000 or send us a message to chat about your project.
Phone 0845 855 0000 today or Send us a message