A canvas app provides a flexible interface for data entry, while Dataverse is the core data platform with built-in, robust security features like row-level security (RLS). RLS allows you to define rules so that front-desk staff can create records but only clinical roles can view the sensitive clinical data within those records, meeting the core security requirement simply and effectively.

The fundamental distinction is in their design philosophy. Canvas apps offer pixel-perfect, drag-and-drop design freedom starting from a blank screen, ideal for task-specific interfaces. Model-driven apps start with your data model and relationships in Dataverse, and the app’s forms, views, and navigation are automatically generated from that structure, providing a consistent experience centered on the data.

An automated (trigger-based) flow is ideal for this scenario. The event “a new file is created in a folder” (e.g., in OneDrive or SharePoint) is a perfect, consistent trigger to start the process. The flow can then extract data, create a record, and use the Power Automate approval action to send it through a digital approval workflow, removing the manual trigger and paper-based routing.

In Power Platform, a solution is a container for bundling customizations—apps, cloud flows, custom connectors, site maps, and Dataverse entities. Its primary purpose is application lifecycle management (ALM), enabling developers to cleanly export these components from a development environment and import them into a test or production environment.

Power Virtual Agents is the tool specifically designed for creating no-code, AI-powered chatbots. It allows the team to design conversational topics and integrate with systems like a knowledge base or Dataverse to answer FAQs about billing. This directly addresses the goal of deflecting common calls via a conversational website interface.

Power BI’s strength in time-based analysis comes from a properly modeled date table and DAX time intelligence functions (like SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR, TOTALYTD). This allows you to create measures that automatically calculate metrics like “Sales MTD Last Year” for a dynamic, accurate comparison that updates with filters and slicers, providing the interactive experience requested.

While Excel can be a data source, it is not ideal for multi-user, business-critical apps. Network drive files can have conflicts, lack version history, and offer poor concurrent access. They also don’t provide granular, record-level security. A cloud source like Dataverse or SharePoint Online is designed for scalability, real-time co-authoring, integrated security, and reliability, making it a much better practice for a shared app.

When a previously working flow fails, especially on a connection step, the first action should be to check for service health. Microsoft maintains status pages for all its services, including connectors. A widespread outage or degradation would affect many flows and is the most efficient thing to rule out before investigating local configuration changes (like passwords) or rebuilding components.

Canvas apps have a dedicated offline capability feature. You can enable it and configure which data to cache locally on the device. This allows users to read and write data while offline; the app will then synchronize changes with the cloud data source (like Dataverse) once a network connection is re-established. This is the direct, built-in solution for the offline mobile requirement.

A canvas app provides a flexible interface for data entry, while Dataverse is the core data platform with built-in, robust security features like row-level security (RLS). RLS allows you to define rules so that front-desk staff can create records but only clinical roles can view the sensitive clinical data within those records, meeting the core security requirement simply and effectively.0