Summary: How to use PowerApps and Microsoft Flow (Power Automate) for your daily checks.
Date: Around 2020
Refactor: 1 March 2025: Checked links and formatting.

Here I take you through the hypothetical training of creating a Daily check list in sharepoint and then making it beautiful using PowerApps and have them approved by your manager. This is a must have in most regulated companies.

There are 4 daily checks to perform, all combined into one form in the Daily Checks List.

Doing of the checks is self explainatory. Go to the list and click on new. On the right side a blade is shown with the form. Depending on the check you select different options and explanation appear. For example, if you would select the “Begin of Day” check, a card with required info and links appears on the top and below the check selection all checks that are part of the “Begin of Day” check appear. If you encounter a finding on one of the check and set the outcome of the check to “Done with Findings” a TOPdesk option appears to note down the TOPdesk call numbers. There is also a comment option. When you're done with the check click save on the top. After saving a workflow is started using Flow. A mail with a report of the check is being sent to the ict-infrastructure team and an approval request is sent to the manager.

Depending on what you need to change you need to know what technologies are in place, or you can create this information to create your own workflow:

• A sharepoint lis
  • The default title column is not used
  • Check column, visible and of type choice:
    • Begin of Day
    • Begin of Day - FinApp
    • End of Day
    • End of Day - FinApp
  • A column per check, all invisible by default, and all of the type choice:
    • Default: Not done
    • Done
    • Done with findings
  • A comment and a TOPdesk column. Both are not required and not visible and are of the single line text type.
  • An approval column which is visible. This is also of the type choice:
    • Default: Pending
    • Approved
    • Rejected
  • A custom view, to show the created, created by, modified and modified by columns and to change the sort order (newest item first)
• A PowerApps Form
  • You can customize the form by either clicking on customize when you create a new item or by navigating to Gear Icon → List Settings → Form Settings → Modify Form in PowerApps
  • Because the form is displayed as it would be in SharePoint you can use the alt key to click on and select a test if you need to view the various cards. Alternatively you can navigate and select the correct card in the screens blade (on the left).
  • You can change the order of cards by selecting the SharePointForm1 in the screens blade (on the left) and then clicking Edit Fields in the edit blade on the right.
  • Save changes by clicking on File → Save → Publish to Sharepoint. In the mainscreen is an option to return to sharepoint after saving.
  • Visibility is managed by changing the formula for the Visible Property of a card (Note that the DataCardValue2 is part of the “Check” card:
    • Begin of Day: If(DataCardValue2.Selected.Value = "Begin of Day", true, false)
    • End of Day: If(DataCardValue2.Selected.Value = "End of Day", true, false)
    • Begin & End of Day: If(DataCardValue2.Selected.Value = "Begin of Day", true, DataCardValue2.Selected.Value = "End of Day", true, false)
    • Begin of Day - FinApp: If(DataCardValue2.Selected.Value = "Begin of Day - FinApp", true, false)
    • Begin & End of Day - FinApp: If(DataCardValue2.Selected.Value = "Begin of Day - FinApp", true, DataCardValue2.Selected.Value = "End of Day - FinApp", true, false)
    • Topdesk visibility is dependent on the Value of all performed checks. If one of them is set to Done with Findings it turns visible so the TOPdesk incident can be noted:
      • If(DataCardValue4.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue5.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue6.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue7.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue8.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue9.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue10.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue11.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue12.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue13.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue14.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue15.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue16.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue17.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, DataCardValue19.Selected.Value = "Done with Findings", true, false)
  • The default value as provided in the SharePoint list is not carried over to the PowerApps form, so you need to set it again. To do so, select the datacardvalue and go to the advanced properties. The required field for Choice fields is called DefaultSelectedItems and should be set like this:
    • For all checks: If(SharePointForm1.Mode = FormMode.New, { Value: “Not Done” }, Parent.Default)
    • For the approval field: If(SharePointForm1.Mode = FormMode.New, { Value: “Pending” }, Parent.Default)
  • Tooltips of labels and HTMLtext is used in the custom DataCards are used for extra explainations and to show the links. These cards are also configured to only show with the correct check.
    • Some html examples:
      • Show postmaster mailbox: <b> &#9993;:</b> <a href=https://outlook.office.com/mail/mysharedmailbox@getshifting.com/inbox target=_blank>MyShared Mailbox Online</a>
      • Send FinApp error mail: <b>FinApp: </b><a href=http://finappsrv-p1/FinAppDashBoard/DashboardPart1.aspx target=_blank>Dashboard</a> - <a href=mailto:finappteam@getshifting.com?cc=infrateam@getshifting.com&amp;subject=Daily&nbsp;Check&nbsp;FinApp&nbsp;Error&amp;body=L.S.%2C%0APlease&nbsp;check&nbsp;the&nbsp;error&nbsp;below%3A target=_self>Send error mail</a>
      • Office 365 Health Dashboard in PowerBI: <b>Office 365:</b> <a href=https://app.powerbi.com/groups/a320b6dd-3563-43b0-bb8e-5d90/dashboards/2f562f24-5209-4a5c-8e target=_blank>Health Dashboard</a>
      • Call Voicelogger: <b>Voicemail service: </b> <a href=tel:0031612345678 target=_blank>&#9743; 06-12345678</a>
    • Some Tooltip examples:
      • Citrix: Check for the email arrival shortly after 07:00 from CitrixHealthCheck. If the email arrived, check for deviations or issues. If found any, create a TOPdesk call and set status to Done with Findings. If the email has not arrived, perform the check manually and make a note in the comment section.
      • Appearances: Keeping up appearances. Turn on/off the infra monitors displaying the workload and other health checks. Set the correct SPOC on the monitors. Cleanup the home zone and place any loose device in the MER.
      • FW System: 1. Check tab Dashboard. 1.1. Check ACC Risk monitor (average around 3,5). 1.2. Check Systems resources resources (average below 20% and 10%). 1.3. Check high availability. 2. Check tab Monitor, section Logs. 2.1. Check Threat. 2.2. Check Systems. 2.3. Check Alarms. 3. Check tab Network, section Ethernet. 3.1. Check Link state. 4. Check tab Device, section Certificate Management. 4.1. Check certificates if they are still valid.
• A Flow
  • The flow is managed from the automation account. Go to myapps.microsoft.com → Flow → My flows and select the “Infra Daily Checks Approval Flow”
  • Trigger: When a new item is created in the Daily Checks List
    • Action 1: Approval Flow. An approval is sent to the manager to approve the check.
      • On approval the Approval column in the sharepoint list is set to Approved.
      • On rejection the Approval column in the sharepoint list is set to Rejected.
      • Note: Is is very important to keep all other columns empty. By default, the default value of the column is shown, so if these are not cleared all columns are changes back to their default value.
    • Action 2: Send an email. An email with all the check results is sent to the infra team. An condition checks the name of the check to sent different emails with different bodies so only the relevant checks are shown in the email.

Tip: In case you need to change something in the powerapps form and you are not familiar with the powerapps studio you could just simply create a testlist with some sampledata to get familiar with the look and feel.

See here on how to create a report of all itemas that were created in the previous month.

• PowerApps Default Values from SharePoint
• Understanding Data Cards
• Formula options If
• PowerApps/SharePoint/PowerBI test scenario
• PowerApps / Sharepoint Test scenario