Trigeering action for differnt excel file locking permission

(1) Share

Report

Posted on by Nithya11

Hello Everyone,

Please help me with the below requirement

We have an Excel file stored on SharePoint that contains multiple worksheets, with each worksheet assigned to a different team.

For example:

Mold Team → Mold worksheet
Resin Team → Resin worksheet
Other Teams → Their respective worksheets

The requirement is as follows:

A team should be able to edit only its designated worksheet and enter the required values.
Once the team completes its updates, it should click a Submit/Lock button.
After clicking the button, that specific worksheet should become read-only (locked), and no user should be able to modify the data in that worksheet.
Other worksheets should remain editable for the teams that have not yet submitted their data.
For example:
- The Mold Team updates the Mold worksheet and clicks the Submit/Lock button.
- The Mold worksheet becomes locked and cannot be edited further.
- Later, the Resin Team updates the Resin worksheet and clicks the Submit/Lock button.
- The Resin worksheet then becomes locked as well.
This process should continue independently for each worksheet until all teams have submitted their data.

The goal is to allow teams to work in the same Excel file while preventing changes to a worksheet after the responsible team has finalized and submitted its data.

Thanks in Advance

Categories:

Building flows

I have the same question (0)

All responses (3)

Answers (0)

Sort by

Suggested answer

Assisted by AI

RaghavMishra 261 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!
Hi there! 👋

Great requirement — let me explain what's possible with Power Automate + Excel and what the recommended approach is.

⚠️ What the Excel Online (Business) Connector Can't Do

Unfortunately, the Excel Online (Business) connector in Power Automate does not support worksheet-level locking or protection. The connector's available actions (Get a row, Update a row, Add a row, etc.) operate on table data — there is no action to protect or lock an individual worksheet programmatically.

Per Excel Online (Business) connector – Microsoft Learn, the connector's scope is table and row operations, and worksheet protection is not among the supported actions.

✅ Recommended Approach: Use SharePoint Lists or Dataverse

The Microsoft-recommended pattern for workflow-controlled, team-scoped data submission with locking is to move away from a shared Excel file toward structured data storage:

Option A — SharePoint List with Status Tracking

Each team has its own list view or dedicated list.

When a team submits, the flow updates a Status column to "Submitted" and restricts further edits using SharePoint item-level permissions via the SharePoint connector.

Option B — Dataverse Table with a "Locked" Status Field

Each team's data is stored as rows in a Dataverse table with a Status field.

The flow updates Status to "Locked" on submit, and business rules or Power Apps enforce read-only behaviour for locked records.

🔄 If You Must Keep Excel

If the Excel file structure is a hard requirement, a workaround is to use the flow to copy submitted data to a separate "archived" sheet and clear the source worksheet. This doesn't technically lock the sheet at the OS level, but it achieves a similar outcome using the connector's available table read/write operations. You can also store a "submission status" in a separate SharePoint list that your Power App or flow checks before allowing further edits.

📋 References

Excel Online (Business) connector | Microsoft Learn

SharePoint connector | Microsoft Learn

Found this helpful? Please mark ✅ "Does this answer your question?" so others searching for the same issue can find it quickly. A 👍 on "Was this reply helpful?" or a ♥ Like is also much appreciated!

Raghav Mishra — LinkedIn | PowerAI Labs

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

chiaraalina 2,425 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi @Nithya11

Use a single Excel workbook in SharePoint Online with separate worksheets for each team. All teams can co-author in real time and see one another’s submissions, but each team works on their own sheet (e.g., “Mold”, “Resin”).

Then use Office Scripts to automate sheet protection. A script associated with the workbook can programmatically protect a specific worksheet using a password that teams don’t know. This makes the “Submit/Lock” button effective in rendering a finished sheet read-only. Office scripts can be triggered by Power Automate

Hope it helps! Let me know if you have questions!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

11manish 3,333 on at

Like
a
(1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

For a long-term enterprise solution, use Power Apps + SharePoint/Dataverse and lock records through business rules.

If Excel must remain the front end, use Office Scripts and Power Automate to protect individual worksheets after submission, but be aware that Excel Online was

not designed to be a workflow and approval platform.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No