Lab - Create an expenses app for your organization

  • 5 minutes

Read this first - before you start the lab!

Important

For this lab, do not sign in with your credentials. Use the following steps to sign in to your lab environment with the correct credentials.

  1. Select Launch VM mode in this unit.
  2. You'll see a PowerShell window and a Windows Command window appear. After about two to three minutes, they'll close, and Power Apps will open automatically. Wait for the Power Apps home screen.
  3. To see the lab instructions, select the Instructions tab on the lab side bar.

You can now begin your work on this lab.

In this exercise, you'll create an expenses app for mobile devices. This app will start from the My Expenses template. Many templates are available for you to choose from, each preconfigured with different logic/functionality to support its use case. As a first-time app creator, make sure that you explore these templates further to help inspire you when you're creating custom apps.

Keep in mind that you can use data from many other sources, including Microsoft Dataverse, SharePoint, cloud services like Salesforce, and on-premises sources like Microsoft SQL Server.

Note

Power Apps requires a Microsoft Office 365 license or a free trial. For more information, see Licensing overview for Microsoft Power Platform.

Before you begin, watch the video for a brief overview of what to expect when creating your first canvas app with Power Apps. The video demonstrates the app's capabilities and how to add new items and edit existing ones.

Create your first app

To create your first app, follow these steps:

  1. Open your browser and go to https://make.powerapps.com. When prompted to sign in, enter your organizational account credentials. If you are using the virtual environment, skip to step 2.

  2. From the Home screen, on right side of the screen, select More create options.

    Screenshot of the More create options button.

  3. In the Search all templates field, enter Expenses.

  4. Under Start from template, select My Expenses.

    Screenshot of the My Expenses option under Start from template.

    Note

    After you've selected the template, select Preview to test it.

  5. In the App name field, enter My Expenses App and then select Create.

    Screenshot of the App name field, showing My Expenses App entered and the Create button.

    After a few moments, an "Almost there" pop-up window might display. If so, select Allow.

  6. On the Welcome to Power Apps Studio pop-up window, select Skip.

    As a best practice, after you've created the app, immediately select Save to save your app. Power Apps has an AutoSave feature that will save your app every two minutes; however, that feature doesn't start until the app has been saved for the first time.

  7. In the upper-left corner of the screen, select File.

  8. On the Save as tab, name the app My Expenses and then select Save in the lower-right corner.

  9. When the app has saved successfully, in the upper-left, select the back arrow to return to the app.

Explore and edit your new app

Your newly created My Expenses app will open in Power Apps Studio, which will allow you to review the various screens, controls, and functionality that make this app work.

If you want to play/preview the app, select the Play button in the upper-right corner. When you're ready to return to edit mode, select the X in the upper-right corner.

Note

This sample app includes locally saved information by using collections. If you want to use the app for business purposes, you'll need to create a data source to mimic the existing collections. Then, you'll need to add the connection to this app.

When you're finished, you can close the app by going to File > Close. To view the app on your phone, make sure that you install Power Apps for mobile first.

Install Power Apps for mobile devices

When building or updating an app, you should test it in the same form factor as the users. This app was designed for phone factor, so make sure that you test it on a phone before putting the app into production.

  1. Download Power Apps for mobile from the app store for the platform that you want to use.

  2. Sign in by using your Office 365 username and password.

  3. On your phone or tablet, run the My Expenses app** in Power Apps for mobile. If you don't want to install the app, you can run it in a browser.

  4. If the My Expenses app doesn't show in Power Apps for mobile, select the user account menu and then turn on the Show non-production apps toggle. You might need to swipe to the left or tap your profile icon to get this option.