Power Apps patterns

With Microsoft Power Platform, you can easily create apps that are tailored to your organization's specific needs. Although your needs might be unique, we see some common patterns among apps that organizations typically create to meet their most-pressing needs.

Different scenarios, across different industries, often use the same basic patterns. For example, an app for doing aircraft inspections, a situational awareness app for hospitals, and an app for tracking kids' reading levels all have a similar structure, even though they have very different purposes and audiences.

In this set of articles, we've identified some of the uses we've seen for Microsoft Power Platform and the patterns that successful makers have used to bring these solutions to life. Each article contains links to real-world customer stories that include best practices for structuring data, using the elements of Microsoft Power Platform, and integrating into the overall business.

In the list below, look for a scenario that's similar to what you need and then select the pattern to learn more.

We'll continue to add patterns over time.

Approvals

Collect approval from one or more sources Illustration of the approval pattern with request, review, and respond steps.

Example use cases:

  • Automated granting of permissions
  • Employee travel request
  • Overtime request
  • Timesheet submission

Asset management

Manage inventory or other assets Illustration of the asset management pattern with find, reserve, and manage steps.

Example use cases:

  • Asset check-out
  • Asset rollout
  • Inventory management
  • Supply order management

Calculation/transformation

Calculate or transform data Illustration of the calculation pattern with input, calculation, and output steps.

Example use cases

  • Cost estimation
  • Decision support
  • Field technician app
  • Generating a work order or estimate
  • Project estimation
  • Tracking digital value
  • Tracking monthly sales goals
  • Translation of common phrases

Communication/announcement

Publish news or information to employees or customers Illustration of the communication pattern with compose, publish, and consume steps.

Example use cases

  • Announcement viewer
  • Company-wide communications
  • Corporate news management
  • Learning catalog
  • Product catalog

Inspection/audit

Create standardized questionnaires to be filled out and acted on Illustration of the inspection pattern with record, aggregate, and decide/act/report steps.

Example use cases

  • Collection of customer data
  • Daily job-site inspection
  • Incident reporting
  • IoT-based monitoring
  • Quality control checklist
  • Safety and compliance audit
  • Store audit
  • Supply tracking

Project management

Track a project from inception to completion Illustration of the project management pattern with plan, track, and review steps.

Example use cases:

  • Project management

Event management

Manage registration, planning, or conducting an event

Example use cases:

  • Attendance
  • Attendee bios
  • Registration
  • Session scheduling

Lifecycle or workflow management

Track and move a record through a well-defined process

Example use cases:

  • Contract lifecycle tracker
  • Email routing
  • Employee onboarding
  • Employee promotion evaluation
  • Expense reporting process
  • Request management
  • Service desk tickets

Scheduling

Assign resources based on calendar availability

Example use cases:

  • Book a meeting room
  • Find an available sales associate
  • Reserve a tool
  • Find rooms for employee touchdown space
  • Schedule customer appointment
  • Schedule crew members
  • Book vehicles