How to flag dates that are about to expire when the data has been input manually

Hi All, I'll start by saying the my colleague and I have absolutely no idea what we are doing and need things explained simply!

We were tasked with creating a new database for our tutors which needed to include training expiry dates. My colleague found Power Apps and decided to give it a try, using an AI generated business solution. We are slowly finding our way around the editing side of things but cannot for the life of us how to automatically flag (or set an automatic email) when an expiry date is approaching.

All of the answers we've found by searching seem to relate to linking to documents in sharepoint (or changing code) however all of our information so far has been input manually and is not linked to an individual document. Before we tried to do this the information was scattered around 4 or 5 documents, either word or excel so we will be amalgamating everything into this 1 place. So far we've only put half a dozen example people in whilst we learn but eventually it will have 100+ and will need to be accessed by 5 administrators.

We're also confused at people mentioning buttons etc - our database is showing up similar to an excel sheet and we click on the tutor name to access their individual record form.

We access it via the Power App icon in the app launcher dots - is this right or should there magically be some sort of app icon we need to make to put on our desktops?

I swear we are normally quite good at figuring new IT systems out but are feeling very much out of our depth right now and are getting each other more confused by the day!

Thanks in advance :)

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General Discussion

Hi @AC-14031453-0

Welcome to the forums.

So let me first recommend that when you are asking for help avoid these things

1. Telling us about ChatGPT or anything like that

2. Explaining in words, without sharing details (pictures, steps, information that we won't know)

3. Long paragraphs about random stuff :-)

4. Make sure to include exact technology being used (don't just say database, explain what platform SharePoint, Dataverse, Azure SQL, Oracle etc as it all impacts the suggestions we make)

What I want to do is help you both to get what you need, but for myself, to get you thinking not in terms of coding, but in how you write business process steps and details because that will help you with doing Searches etc. for answers that already cover what you want. Just think if you were going to hire one of us, what would the process be that you need us to build, nothing more.

So, can you please just explain the business process step by step. With as concise as possible details what things means (like what is an expiry date). What is your hope that this will do.

I am assuming that it's like this

1. Someone enters data somewhere

2. The system checks if the dates are good / bad whatever

3. It can either stop them right then, or it can do some automated check after the fact and block it... email them to fix it, email you to fix it

Also, and possibly

4. You have dates that are already there, and you need to run a 1-time process to resolve those existing or, you simply want a completely automated process.

In the context of Power Platform under the covers you have data, processes and Ux. Some of those processes are Ai created/managed, some are manual, some are done via data.

In the most simplistic example imagine this.

You have a SharePoint List, or you have a Dataverse Table and you want to check if after someone enters a date is valid, OR you want to have an automated process that runs every day to check on dates.

Automated Example

1. You would create an Automated Flow, with a Trigger for

Either

a) when an item is created or modified (SharePoint)

b) when an item is (and then you select the scope) for a Dataverse Action

2. Read the Date Value for Expiry and see if it fits some range. this would be a Condition, or a Compose, but in the end its something that can return a boolean true or false, if this date matches your criteria. Now if you want to specifically say its too early, or its too late, or its missed or whatever, then you have to focus on using Complex "if" expressions, or multi-level conditions

3. After #2 produces you something this is where you decide (using a condition), inside the Yes side of the Condition (meaning it Met your criteria, maybe you do nothing) and in the No side maybe you email, or delete the record, or copy it to some other table or whatever you want.

Scheduled Example

The difference between Scheduled and Automated is that automated is going to tell the Flow instance that runs exactly what record it is talking about, where-as a Scheduled flow has to actually query and iterate through all the rows to decide IF it should act on this record.

1. Create a Scheduled Flow (set the days/hours/minutes of when to run)

2. Use a List rows / Get Items depending on SharePoint or Dataverse or Excel

3. Add an Apply to each which is a looping action for all the rows that came back in #2

From here the code is nearly identical to Option 1

use a condition to check the Fields of Data to see if it meets your condition

Yes Side

-Probably do nothing

No Side

-Do something

And Scene.

Please let me know what other questions you have and details you can share.

Cheers