Power Apps enables regular people (not just tech experts) to make apps that standardise business processes, save time, and unlock massive efficiencies. A Forrester study reports that Power Apps projects lead to 206% ROI. However, if you are unfamiliar with Power Apps, you might be asking yourself, how is this possible?
In this article, we’ll share 10 Power Apps examples that our consultants delivered to clients over the years. These are the real-world use cases that delivered a return on investment. We hope that these examples give you ideas on how Power Apps can be applied within your organisation.
Power Apps is a tool made by Microsoft. It helps you create your apps without needing to be a coding expert. You don’t need to know any complicated computer language.
It’s as easy as dragging and dropping things — like playing with Lego blocks!
With Power Apps, you can make apps for your phone, tablet, or computer. These apps can:
There are three main types of Power Apps:
If you want to learn more about Power Apps components, integrations and best practices, you should refer to our Power Apps Guide.
Before we take a look at the examples, it is important to talk about the use cases for implementing Power Apps. Based on our experiences, Power Apps makes the most impact on organisations that want to achieve one of the following:
A lot of companies still use paper forms or emails to raise requests. This can be slow, messy, and data can easily get lost. With Power Apps, you can build an app where people fill out forms online, and the data gets saved automatically. No more piles of paper or searching for lost emails.
We have worked with a company where all the vacation requests were raised over email. Employees had to send a request to their manager via email, but were unable to track the status of it.
With Power Apps, you can create a simple app where employees send vacation requests in seconds, and managers can approve or reject them with one click. Everyone can track the status, too — no need for back-and-forth emails.
Most businesses use many different tools. For example, you might use Outlook to send emails, SharePoint to store documents, and a CRM like Dynamics 365 to manage customer information. Jumping between these tools wastes time and reduces visibility throughout the whole process.
Power Apps can bring data from all these places into one app. This way, users don’t need to open multiple websites or systems; they can see everything they need in one place.
For example, we have recently created a Power App that shows customer details from the client’s CRM and order history from a SQL database. Instead of switching tabs and logging into different systems, the team can get all the information on one simple screen.
Not everyone works at a desk. Delivery drivers, maintenance workers, or site inspectors are out in the field every day without access to a PC. With Power Apps, they can use an app on their mobile phone or tablet to enter data, take photos, or even scan bar-codes.
For example, we have created Power Apps for a logistics company. The use the app for marking when deliveries as done, report issues (like if a customer isn’t home), and taking pictures if needed. All the information is sent back to the office immediately — no need to wait until the end of the day.
Every company has a lot of small internal requests for IT support, payment reimbursement, overtime approval, etc. Keeping track of all these requests through emails or messages can be very confusing.
With Power Apps, you can build a simple app where employees log their requests, and the right team can see them, work on them, and update the progress.
We have previously built an IT helpdesk Power App.. Instead of employees sending emails when their laptop breaks, they can log a ticket in the app. The IT team can see all open tickets, update them when they start working on them, and mark them as completed when done. Employees can also check the status of their requests anytime without asking anyone.
An American company was facing difficulties in tracking the health insurance policies of its employees. Before the app, the HR department relied on paper records and spreadsheets to manage policy details like coverage, premiums, and renewal dates.
This method was prone to errors and delays in updating employee records. Employees also had trouble getting up-to-date information about their benefits, and HR often missed important renewal deadlines. Managing this data manually became increasingly time-consuming as the company grew, and it affected the efficiency of the HR department.
We developed a Power App to help the company track all employee health insurance policies in one place. The app allowed HR to input policy details such as coverage type, renewal dates, premium amounts, and employee details easily.
Employees could access their policy information directly through the app, view important dates like renewal deadlines, and receive reminders about upcoming renewals. HR managers could track which policies were up for renewal, send reminders to employees, and update information in real time, ensuring that no policy was overlooked.
This Power App improved the business process in a number of ways:
An American company was facing challenges in managing and tracking contractor applications efficiently. Their HR team was handling a large number of applications, each containing confidential information and important status updates.
The existing system was manual, spread across multiple spreadsheets and documents, which made it difficult to access real-time data. As a result, HR personnel struggled to keep track of each contractor’s progress, missed deadlines, and changes in application status. This disorganisation led to confusion, delays in processing, and potential security concerns regarding sensitive information.
To solve this problem, we built a Power App specifically designed to help HR staff track all contractor-related data in one central place. The app was custom-built to manage each contractor’s application status, track key milestones, and store confidential information securely.
We set up the app with user-friendly screens that allow HR staff to quickly add, update, and view contractor details like application stage, status updates, and documents. It also included a secure database to store confidential data, ensuring that only authorised users could access sensitive information. The app was made accessible on both desktop and mobile devices, allowing HR staff to access the data anytime, anywhere, improving workflow and efficiency.
The implementation of the Power App eliminated the confusion caused by manual tracking and reduced the risk of data entry errors. The app provided HR staff with real-time updates on each contractor’s status and made accessing confidential data faster and more secure. With all information in one place, HR personnel could make quicker decisions, ensuring that contractors were processed on time. The company saw a significant improvement in operational efficiency, reduced delays, and improved compliance with data security policies. HR staff reported being much more organised and productive, and contractors experienced faster responses, improving their overall satisfaction.
At American Express, employees needed a better way to submit their expenses for reimbursement. Earlier, people had to fill out long Excel sheets, attach receipts manually, and email everything to their managers. Sometimes, managers missed these emails, and employees had to keep following up. This made the whole process slow, frustrating, and caused a lot of delays in getting reimbursed. Also, the finance team found it difficult to track expenses properly because the information was scattered in emails and files.
We built a simple and user-friendly Power App to enable employees to fill in their expense details, and upload receipts in just a few clicks, all from their phone or computer.
As soon as employees submit an expense, their manager gets a notification to approve or reject it directly from the app. If the manager wants, they can add a quick comment too. The app also sends automatic reminders if a manager forgets to approve in time. Finance teams can see real-time reports and download all the expense data easily for their records.
The new app made the expense submission and approval process much faster and easier.
Approval times were reduced by over 65%, and employees no longer needed to send reminder emails. Managers could approve expenses from anywhere — even from their phones while travelling.
The finance team also loved it because now they had all expense data in one place, which helped during audits and monthly closing. Overall, employees felt more satisfied, and there were fewer mistakes and delays in payments.
This app was developed in the midst of covid-19 crisis when vaccination and social distancing was especially important. Our client needed a way to keep an updated log of covid vaccinations and enable employees to book desks in advance to ensure social distancing.
We developed a user-friendly Power App that allowed employees to easily book desks through a simple interface. Employees could check desk availability in real-time, choose their preferred desk, and book it with just a few clicks.
The app automatically showed available desks based on location and time slots, preventing double bookings. Office managers could view all desk bookings in a central dashboard, manage bookings, and even make adjustments when needed.
The desk booking app reduced desk booking errors by 90% and made the whole process faster and more efficient. Employees no longer had to walk around the office looking for a spare desk, which reduced the risk of covid infections. Office managers saved hours of administrative work since the app automated desk management and booking tracking.
As a result, the company saw improved employee satisfaction, a more organised office environment, and better space utilisation.
Our client provides plants for offices and they needed a more efficient inventory management process. Before the app, they used paper-based systems and spreadsheets to track stock, which led to frequent errors, stockouts, and overstocking.
Employees would sometimes miscount inventory, and updating stock records was slow, causing delays in restocking products on time. Managers also found it hard to get an accurate and real-time view of inventory, which made it difficult to plan stock for future purchases.
We developed a simple yet powerful inventory management Power App. With the app, employees could easily scan product barcodes and update stock levels instantly, all from their mobile devices.
The app allowed them to quickly track stock coming in and going out, automatically updating the inventory database in real-time. Managers had a clear view of current stock levels, low-stock alerts, and product trends, which helped them make better purchasing decisions.
The app also generated reports to help with inventory planning, ensuring products were always available when needed without overstocking.
The new inventory management app reduced stock discrepancies by 80% and made inventory tracking much faster and more accurate.
Employees no longer had to rely on paper records or manually update spreadsheets, saving time and reducing errors. Managers were able to track stock in real-time and make quicker decisions, which helped avoid stockouts and improve sales.
The UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) wanted to streamline the process of collecting invoices from the many contractors that they used. Before the app, contractors were generating invoices in many different formats and it was difficult to compare agreed payments vs billed payments.
Managers had to spend a lot of time checking the timesheets against contracts and approving the invoices. Mistakes would cause payroll errors, resulting in more liaising work with contractors.
Additionally, collecting accurate data for projects and operations planning was tough because the time tracking system was not integrated and could not be accessed easily in real-time.
We developed a simple and intuitive Power App designed specifically for the MOD to log and track work hours. Employees could now use the app to easily enter their hours worked, select the correct project codes, and submit their time logs directly from their mobile devices or computers. The app automatically checked for common errors (like overlapping shifts) and sent notifications to managers for quick approval.
Managers could review and approve timesheets in real-time, making the process faster and reducing the risk of mistakes. Moreover, the app generated automatic reports that helped the MOD plan resources more accurately for various projects.
The new time tracking app reduced approval times by 50% and significantly decreased errors in timesheets. Employees no longer had to worry about missing or incorrect entries, and payroll was processed more smoothly and on time.
Managers could approve hours quickly, even when working remotely or in the field, which saved them valuable time. The MOD also benefited from accurate, real-time data, helping them better allocate resources and plan operations.
Overall, the app improved both employee satisfaction and the efficiency of the entire time tracking process.
An Australian company that processes large numbers of customer orders each day was facing challenges with printing bulk work orders.
Before the app, employees had to manually select and print each order, which was time-consuming and prone to errors. Orders would sometimes get mixed up, and employees had to spend extra time correcting issues and reprinting documents.
This slowed down the workflow, leading to delays in order fulfilment and shipping, and affecting overall customer satisfaction.
We developed a Power App specifically designed for bulk order printing. The app allowed employees to select multiple orders at once, automatically generate labels and invoices, and print them in bulk with a single click.
It integrated with the company’s order management system, ensuring that all customer details were pulled directly from the database and formatted correctly. The app also included features to check for any missing or incorrect information before printing, minimising errors.
Employees could print large batches of documents quickly and efficiently, significantly reducing manual effort and mistakes.
The bulk order printing app reduced printing time by 70% and eliminated most of the errors that occurred with manual processing. Employees no longer needed to print orders individually, which saved a lot of time and improved productivity.
The company was able to fulfill orders more quickly, leading to faster shipping and happier customers. Overall, the app streamlined the order processing workflow and contributed to better efficiency in operations.
A consultancy for managed service providers, was facing difficulties with data entry for tracking client information.
Before the app, they used spreadsheets and manual forms, which often led to mistakes in data, inconsistent formats, and delays in getting the correct information into their system.
This made it hard to maintain accurate records of clients, track their progress, and generate reliable reports. Employees spent a lot of time correcting errors and updating data manually.
We built a straightforward Power App that allowed employees to quickly and accurately input client data directly into a central database. The app simplified the data entry process by providing easy-to-use forms with drop-down lists, date pickers, and auto-filled fields, reducing the chance for mistakes.
The app also integrated seamlessly with their existing systems, ensuring that once the data was entered, it was immediately available for reporting and analysis.
Managers could track data entry progress and ensure everything was up-to-date in real time. The app even sent automatic reminders if any important data was missing.
The Power App reduced data entry errors by 75% and significantly sped up the process.
Employees no longer needed to manually enter information into multiple systems, and data was entered in a consistent and accurate format.
Managers appreciated the real-time visibility of data, which allowed them to generate reports and insights instantly. Overall, the app improved workflow efficiency, saved time, and helped the client to maintain a more organised and reliable database for better client management.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals in the U.S. were overwhelmed with patients. There was a need to track people who were self-quarantining at home to reduce the pressure on hospitals. Hospitals struggled with managing the large number of individuals who needed to stay at home but still needed regular check-ins. The process of tracking and ensuring compliance with quarantine rules was manual, prone to errors, and time-consuming. Hospitals needed a better way to manage the health status of these individuals, track their symptoms, and ensure they received necessary support.
Solution:
To solve this problem, we developed a Power App specifically designed to track self-quarantine for hospitals. The app was created with an easy-to-use interface that allowed hospitals to enter details of individuals in self-quarantine. Each person could input their health status daily, such as any symptoms they experienced, their temperature, and other health indicators. Hospital staff could monitor this data in real-time and follow up with any individual who showed signs of worsening health or who missed their check-ins. The app was connected to a database, making it easy to update information, track progress, and provide necessary support like sending medical advice or scheduling check-up calls.
Result:
The app provided a simple yet powerful tool for hospitals to stay connected with patients who were quarantining at home. It improved the efficiency of monitoring patients by eliminating manual tracking and reducing errors. Hospitals could quickly identify high-risk individuals and intervene faster, ensuring they received timely medical care. The app also helped hospitals allocate their resources more effectively, as they could focus their efforts on individuals who needed more immediate attention. Ultimately, the app helped reduce the burden on hospitals, improved patient outcomes, and made the quarantine process smoother for both patients and healthcare providers.
A legal consultancy had a challenge in keeping their terms and conditions document up-to-date across various states. Every time there was a change in the legal requirements or the firm’s policies, someone had to manually update the document for each state. This was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, as different employees had to work on different versions. Additionally, the firm struggled with tracking when the terms were last updated for each state, leading to confusion and sometimes outdated legal documents being used.
To solve this, we created a Power App specifically for ShankmanLeone. The app allowed them to update the terms and conditions document for each state automatically. The app had a simple interface where users could input new updates or changes to the terms for any state. Once the updates were entered, the app automatically generated the new version of the document and ensured that the relevant stakeholders in each state received the updated terms.
The app also tracked when each state’s terms were last updated. It kept a record of the date and time of each change, so the firm could quickly see when the last update was made. This feature helped the firm maintain an organised and accurate record of updates, reducing confusion and improving overall efficiency.
The result was a major improvement in how ShankmanLeone managed their terms and conditions. The app saved a significant amount of time by automating the updates for different states, eliminating the need for manual entry and reducing the chance of mistakes. The tracking feature also provided the firm with a clear record of when each state’s document was last updated. This not only ensured compliance with legal requirements but also made it easier for the firm to manage and track changes without the need for constant oversight. Ultimately, the app streamlined the process, allowing ShankmanLeone to focus more on their clients and less on administrative tasks.
Before you start building apps, check a few things:
Be very clear about what you want to fix. If not, you might make an app that nobody uses.
Tip: Write the real problem.
Example: “Employees waste time entering orders manually. We need an app to capture orders online.”
Power Apps needs data from somewhere (like SharePoint, Excel, or SQL Server).
Ask yourself:
If your data is messy, the app might not work well.
Power Apps comes with Microsoft 365, but not always fully. You might need extra licenses for special features.
Tip:
Make sure you check if all users have access before building.
Power Apps is great for small to medium apps, not super big complicated systems. If you need a very big app (like a full accounting system), you may need a professional developer.
Tip:
Keep your app simple and focus on doing a few things well.
Building an app is just half the job. People must be ready to use it!
You need:
Otherwise, even a great app can fail.
Analysing these Power Apps examples and use cases shows it is a wonderful tool when used the right way. It helps people and businesses solve problems without spending too much time or money.
Just remember:
From small tasks like vacation requests to bigger jobs like inspections, Power Apps can help a lot. If your work feels slow, boring, or messy, Power Apps can probably fix it!
