Power Apps App in a Day: what the workshop covers, who it is for, and what happens in the 90 days after
App in a Day is Microsoft's one-day, hands-on workshop for people who have never built a Power Apps app. Microsoft writes the labs, partners deliver them, and every attendee leaves with an app they built themselves. This guide covers what the day contains, who belongs in the room, the environments and licenses you need before it, what you walk out with, and the 30, 60 and 90-day path that turns a training day into a governed first production app.
What App in a Day is
Microsoft runs a family of Power Platform in a Day workshops: hands-on sessions that cover the essentials of Power Apps, Power Automate and Copilot Studio, delivered by Microsoft partners worldwide, with the content also published for download so an organization can host the day internally (Microsoft Learn, Host internal training events, May 2025). Microsoft positions them for beginners: attendees go through the development process from concept to deployment in a single day (Microsoft Learn, Establish a training and upskilling strategy for makers, May 2025). The App in a Day entry in Microsoft's catalog promises to digitize processes, build apps and automate workflows without code using Power Apps (Microsoft Power Platform instructor-led training page, October 2026).
Our Power Apps App in a Day Workshop delivers that curriculum live, remote or on-site, for $1,450 per trainer-day, and adds the module Microsoft's slides treat lightly: an admin and governance close-out for the people who will live with what the makers build. It is training, not a project; the apps built on the day are training artifacts.
The standard agenda
Microsoft's published App in a Day lab manuals follow one scenario through four labs, and our day keeps that order (we could not open the current lab package to date it, so the lab list below is taken from the materials we deliver):
- Canvas app. Connect to a data source, filter results, add screens and navigation, and use controls, properties and formulas to shape the experience. Everyone builds; nobody watches.
- Dataverse. Create tables, columns and relationships, then use a form control to write records into Dataverse. This is the lab where the seeded Microsoft 365 rights stop and premium licensing starts.
- Model-driven app. Build the second style of Power Apps on the tables from lab 2: views, forms and a site map generated from the data model.
- Power Automate. Add a flow to the process, typically an approval with notifications, the pattern every real app ends up needing.
We close with environments, data loss prevention policies, maker permissions and the licensing boundaries that decide what the day's patterns cost in production, and, where agreed at booking, a working block that applies the pattern to a scenario from your own business. The labs are cumulative: a half-day attendee leaves with half an app.
Who it suits, and who it does not
Three audiences get value. Citizen developers, the analysts and coordinators who already run a process in Excel and email, learn what the platform can do and what it costs. IT administrators who will govern the tenant learn what the makers can reach, which makes the close-out the most useful hour of their day. A pilot team that owns one real process (a request form, an inspection checklist, an asset list) leaves with the shape of its first app and a clear view of what production needs. Mixed cohorts of IT and business users work well, and no prior Power Apps experience is required. Microsoft suggests a trial event of 10 to 12 people who can give feedback before a wider rollout (Microsoft Learn, May 2025).
Two groups should skip it. Professional developers who want code-first extensibility will find the labs slow, and people who cannot commit the full day will not finish an app.
Prerequisites: environments, licenses and the seeded-rights question
Microsoft's guidance for hosting the day: create a dedicated environment or use developer environments, make sure a data policy covers that environment and allows the connectors the labs use, confirm every attendee has the right license and access before the event, and either have attendees sign up for a premium trial or assign them a premium license in the Microsoft 365 admin center (Microsoft Learn, May 2025). Our intake call settles which of those your tenant policy allows.
The licensing question has a short answer. The Power Apps rights seeded in Microsoft 365 cover scenarios on Microsoft 365 data and standard connectors; they do not entitle standalone custom apps on Dataverse, premium flows or Copilot Studio agents (Microsoft Learn, Licensing overview for Microsoft Power Platform, August 2026). Lab 1 fits inside them; labs 2 to 4 do not. For production, Power Apps Premium is $240.00 per user per year, $20.00 per user per month on an annual term (Microsoft list price, October 2026 price list), or $12.00 with a 2,000-seat minimum, and each license adds 250 MB of database and 2 GB of file capacity to the tenant's Dataverse pool. Power Apps per app is $60.00 per user per year, $5.00 per user per app per month, for one app or website; Microsoft states the per app SKU is no longer available to new customers through some channels from January 2, 2026, so ask before you plan on it. The Power Apps Developer Plan (Microsoft-sponsored, subject to eligibility) gives an individual developer environment for building and testing, not production (Microsoft Learn, August 2026), with three developer environments and 2 GB of Dataverse database (Microsoft Power Apps pricing page, October 2026). The capacity arithmetic is in Dataverse capacity and pricing explained.
What you leave with
Each attendee leaves with the app they built, Microsoft's attendee materials, and a working understanding of the four building blocks. The organization leaves with IT Partner's written wrap-up: what each person built, a recommended governance starting position for the tenant, a licensing one-pager in plain language that separates what the seeded Microsoft 365 rights cover from which patterns from the day need premium licensing in production, the parked questions, and honest next steps, including the parts you do not need us for. Questions outside training scope (production deployment, tenant configuration, a specific app build) are captured and routed, not improvised at the end of a long day.
The 30, 60 and 90-day path after the workshop
The workshop creates makers; the next 90 days decide whether it creates shadow IT or a platform.
Days 1 to 30: governance. Before the first maker ships anything, the tenant needs an environment strategy (the default environment locked down and renamed, personal developer environments through environment routing, separate development, test and production environments for business solutions) and data loss prevention policies at tenant and environment level with an exceptions process. That is the scope of Power Platform Governance and Center of Excellence Setup, $4,950 per project over three weeks, which also installs the CoE Starter Kit and runs the first admin handover.
Days 31 to 60: the first production app. Pick the one process from the pilot team with a named owner and a measurable outcome. Rebuild it as a solution with a publisher, connection references and environment variables, and ship it through pipelines with an approval before production; Power Platform ALM and Pipelines Implementation ($3,950 per project, three weeks) does exactly that for one pilot solution. If the app replaces an Access database, Microsoft Access Database Migration to Power Apps is the scoped route, and trained makers make that migration shorter.
Days 61 to 90: the Center of Excellence as a habit. Publish the maker guidelines, run the monthly maker office hour, review the inventory and usage dashboards, and schedule the next in-a-day event; Microsoft's CoE Starter Kit includes training-in-a-day components for registering attendees (Microsoft Learn, May 2025). Managed Power Platform Governance and Support ($750 per month) runs that cycle for tenants that do not want to staff it: environments and DLP, four engineer-hours of fixes for failing flows and apps, orphaned-app and capacity watching, and the office hour.
Frequently asked questions
Is the workshop content from Microsoft?
Yes. Microsoft publishes the App in a Day curriculum for download and partners deliver it; what you pay for is the instructor, the pacing and the governance close-out.
How many people should attend?
Microsoft suggests a trial run of 10 to 12 people; we confirm the cohort at intake, and mixed IT and business groups work well.
Remote or on-site?
Either, at the same per-day fee; on-site travel is quoted in writing with the booking.
Do attendees need a Dynamics 365 license?
No. The labs run on Power Apps, Dataverse and Power Automate; a premium trial or a Power Apps Premium license per attendee covers the day.
Does the workshop cover Copilot Studio?
Not this one. Microsoft's in-a-day family has separate Copilot Studio content; App in a Day is canvas apps, Dataverse, model-driven apps and Power Automate.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn source files on GitHub (MicrosoftDocs/power-platform), opened: "Host internal training events" (guidance/adoption/in-a-day.md), ms.date 05/14/2025; "Establish a training and upskilling strategy for makers" (guidance/adoption/training-strategy.md), ms.date 05/14/2025; "Licensing overview for Microsoft Power Platform" (admin/pricing-billing-skus.md), ms.date 08/25/2026; "Power Platform licensing FAQs" (admin/powerapps-flow-licensing-faq.md), ms.date 08/14/2026
- Microsoft Power Platform instructor-led training page and Microsoft Power Apps pricing page, opened October 2026
- Not opened: Microsoft's App in a Day lab package; the lab list is taken from the curriculum IT Partner delivers (content/services/ITPWW220TRNOT)
- IT Partner price list, October 2026 (US), Commercial segment: Power Apps Premium (CFQ7TTC0LH2H, SKUs 0002 and 000X), Power Apps per app (CFQ7TTC0J4GS, SKU 0002)
- IT Partner services: content/services/ITPWW220TRNOT, ITPWW890IMPOT, ITPWW1050IMPOT, ITPWW0800DEVOT and ITPWW450MSPRC
| Power Apps rights in Microsoft 365 | Power Apps per app | Power Apps Premium | Power Apps Developer Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| List price, annual term, per user per month | Included with qualifying Microsoft 365 plans | $5.00 ($60.00 per year ÷ 12); availability varies by channel since January 2026 | $20.00 ($240.00 per year ÷ 12); $12.00 with a 2,000-seat minimum | Microsoft-sponsored, subject to eligibility |
| Dataverse | Dataverse for Teams only | Yes, one app or website per license | Yes, unlimited apps | Yes, in a developer environment |
| Premium connectors | No | Yes | Yes | Yes, for development |
| Production use | Yes, on Microsoft 365 data and standard connectors | Yes | Yes | No |
| Dataverse capacity added to the tenant | None | 50 MB database, 400 MB file | 250 MB database, 2 GB file | 2 GB database inside the developer environment |
| App in a Day labs it covers | Lab 1 with standard connectors | Labs 1 to 4 for one app | Labs 1 to 4 | Labs 1 to 4 for training only |
Key takeaways
- App in a Day is Microsoft's beginner workshop: four cumulative labs (canvas app, Dataverse, model-driven app, Power Automate) in one day, delivered by partners from Microsoft's published content.
- Send citizen developers, the IT administrators who will govern them, and one pilot team with a real process; keep professional developers and half-day attendees out.
- Lab 1 fits the Power Apps rights seeded in Microsoft 365; labs 2 to 4 need premium rights, which in production means Power Apps Premium at $20.00 per user per month on an annual term (Microsoft list price, October 2026).
- Prepare a dedicated or developer environment with a data policy and licenses assigned before the day, as Microsoft's own hosting guidance says.
- The 90 days after decide the outcome: governance in the first 30, one production app through ALM by day 60, a running Center of Excellence by day 90.
Book a workshop day at $1,450 per trainer-day; the intake call settles the cohort, the environments and whether the closing block runs the standard scenario or one of yours. If you are deciding between the workshop and going straight to a build, Book 30 minutes with Mike with the process you have in mind, and we will say which order makes sense. Governance for the 30 days after is Power Platform Governance and Center of Excellence Setup at $4,950.
Questions this article didn’t answer?
Thirty minutes with Mike — our CEO, not a sales rep. Bring the hard version of the question.