Sheets become a typed data layer
Columns get real types, choice sets and validation instead of a text cell someone can overwrite. Parent-child indentation becomes an explicit relationship, so a roll-up is calculated rather than maintained by hand.
Smartsheet to Power Apps migration services
Smartsheet to Power Apps migration services for teams already paying for Microsoft 365
A fixed-fee move off Smartsheet, delivered by senior US-based Microsoft engineers: your sheets become SharePoint lists or Dataverse tables with typed columns and real relationships, your forms become Microsoft Forms or Power Apps screens, and your alerts, reminders, update requests and approvals become Power Automate flows — one written price, typical delivery in 2–4 weeks, 30 days of hypercare included.
Representative dashboard — sample data
What you get
A rebuild of the process, not a copy of the grid
A sheet holds its data, its layout, its formulas and its automation in one place. The Microsoft stack keeps those apart on purpose, and that separation is most of the work.
Forms rebuilt where they belong
A simple intake stays a form. Anything that needs a lookup, a conditional section, a photo from a phone or a validated total becomes an app screen, because that is where a form stops being a form.
Alerts and update requests become flows
Every notification, reminder, update request and approval request is re-created as a Power Automate flow with its trigger, its condition and its recipients written down — auditable, and editable by someone other than the sheet owner.
Cross-sheet links resolved, not copied
Cell links and cross-sheet formulas are the fragile part of a mature Smartsheet estate. They come back as relationships between lists or tables, so one value lives in one place and every view reads it.
Sharing re-expressed as group access
Per-sheet and per-workspace grants that accumulated over years are replaced by Microsoft Entra groups, so access follows a role and leaving the company removes it everywhere at once.
An archive and a cancellation list
You finish with a full export of the sheets you retired, kept where you can still read it, plus the written list of Smartsheet seats and premium add-ons that no longer have a job to do.
How it works
Three steps from a sheet estate to a governed app
- 1
Inventory the sheets and the logic
A free consultation plus a pass over your workspaces, automations, forms and reports tells us which sheets run the business and which are abandoned. You get a written scope, a phase plan, one fixed price and a delivery date.
- 2
Build the data layer, then the screens
We stand up the lists or tables and their relationships first, rebuild the intake and working screens on top, re-create automations as flows, then load your real data and walk the process through with the people who run it daily.
- 3
Cut over, archive, cancel
The app goes live with permissions and refreshes in place while your sheets stay reachable. Once the final phase is signed off you get the export archive and the cancellation list, and we stay on for 30 days of hypercare.
The sheet is doing four jobs, and only one of them is data
Smartsheet is good at exactly the thing that makes it hard to leave: one artifact holds the records, the layout people recognise, the formulas that derive the numbers, and the automation that chases everyone. That bundle is why a team adopted it, and it is why the estate eventually stops scaling. The signs are consistent — a sheet approaching its row ceiling so someone splits it by year, a web of cell links nobody dares touch, three sheets with a slightly different definition of the same status, and a set of automations that only the original owner understands.
A move to Microsoft's Power Apps platform (opens in new tab) takes that bundle apart. The records go into a list or table where a date column is a date and a status is a choice; the screens become an app whose layout is a design decision rather than a side effect of column order; the derivations become calculated columns or measures defined once; and the chasing becomes flows that exist independently of whoever owns the data. Each of those is more deliberate than a sheet, which is the point — and it is also the honest reason the project takes weeks rather than an afternoon.
The cost argument, stated accurately
You will find vendors quoting dramatic savings percentages for this migration. We are not going to, because the arithmetic depends entirely on what you are paying today and the per-seat comparison does not favour us. Smartsheet publishes list pricing on its own pricing page (opens in new tab): as of September 2026 that is Pro at $9 per user per month billed annually, Business at $19, and Enterprise on a custom quote. Microsoft's published rate for Power Apps Premium (opens in new tab) is $20 per user per month. Seat for seat, that is more than Smartsheet Business, not less.
The real argument is about a second subscription rather than a cheaper one. If you already pay for Microsoft 365, you already own SharePoint in Microsoft 365 (opens in new tab) and its lists, Microsoft Forms, Planner, and the seeded Power Automate rights that come with those licenses — and a large share of Smartsheet workloads land inside exactly that entitlement, with no additional per-user purchase at all. Where the build stays on standard connectors and SharePoint-backed data, that is the whole licensing story. Where it genuinely needs premium connectors or Dataverse, a standalone license enters the picture, and Microsoft's documentation on Power Automate license types (opens in new tab) sets out where that boundary falls. We tell you which side of it your build sits on in the written scope, before you commit, rather than after the invoice.
The other saving is the one nobody licenses: the premium add-ons. Estates that grew past the basics tend to be carrying paid extras for curated role-based views, scheduled data imports, or portfolio provisioning. Those capabilities are what a Power App and a scheduled flow are for, so they usually leave the budget along with the seats.
Where each Smartsheet artifact actually lands
Most Smartsheet estates decompose into the same handful of pieces. The table below is the mapping we work from; the inventory in your written scope is a filled-in version of it, sheet by sheet.
| Smartsheet artifact | What it actually holds | Where it lands in the Microsoft stack |
|---|---|---|
| Sheet (grid, Gantt, card or calendar view) | Records, layout, per-cell formulas and view configuration in a single object | Split three ways: a SharePoint list or Dataverse table for the records, app screens for the layout, calculated columns or measures for the derivations |
| Row hierarchy (parent and child indentation) | Visual grouping that also drives roll-up formulas | An explicit parent lookup column, or a separate child table with a relationship where the children are genuinely different things |
| Forms | Intake that appends a row, with conditional logic on the fields | Microsoft Forms for simple intake; a Power Apps screen wherever lookups, validation, offline capture or attachments are involved |
| Automations: alerts and reminders | Change-triggered and time-triggered notifications bound to one sheet | Power Automate flows triggered by item created or modified, or by a recurrence schedule, with recipients resolved from a group |
| Update requests | An emailed request asking someone to fill in specific cells | A targeted app screen or form the requester completes directly, with the response written back to the item |
| Approval requests | Approve or decline against a row, recorded in the sheet | A Power Automate approval action that records the decision, the comment and the timestamp against the item |
| Cross-sheet formulas and cell links | Values pulled between sheets, each link maintained individually | Relationships between lists or tables, so the value is stored once and read wherever it is needed |
| Reports | Saved cross-sheet queries filtered to a person or a period | Filtered list views for operational use; a Power BI report where the roll-up spans several sources or needs history |
| Dashboards | Widgets summarising sheets, reports and links | An app home screen for live operational counts, and a Power BI report page for anything analytical |
| Attachments and conversations | Files and comment threads attached to a row | A SharePoint document library with the item as metadata, plus list item comments or a Teams channel for the discussion |
| Sheet and workspace sharing (Owner, Admin, Editor, Viewer) | Per-object permission grants accumulated over years, often to individuals | Microsoft Entra groups applied to a SharePoint site or list, or Dataverse security roles where the rules are row-level |
| Premium add-ons (curated views, scheduled imports, portfolio provisioning) | Paid capabilities layered on top of the sheets | Role-filtered app screens, scheduled Power Automate flows, and site or app templates — usually inside the platform you already pay for |
Two rows in that table decide a timeline. If the cross-sheet formula and cell-link web is shallow, the project is mostly data design and screen building. If your sheets have been quietly wired together for five years, untangling that is real scope, and we price it as such rather than discovering it in week three.
Choosing the data layer: lists or Dataverse
This is the decision that shapes the fee, so we make it in the open. SharePoint lists are the right home for a single workflow with a manageable number of records and permissions that are the same for everyone who can see the list. They are covered by your existing Microsoft 365 licenses, they behave well with views, and they are easy to hand back to an internal admin. Their limits are real, though: at volume you need indexed columns and carefully designed views, and permissions applied item by item become slow to reason about.
Microsoft Dataverse (opens in new tab) is the answer when the estate is genuinely relational — several related tables, row-level security by team or business unit, auditing, or solution-based deployment between environments. It also costs more, because it needs a standalone Power Apps license per user. Our position is that Dataverse should be earned by a requirement you can name, not assumed. If your migration crosses that line, the depth of that work is scoped separately as Microsoft Dataverse consulting services and the app is built on top of it.
Who this is for
This page is for an organization that has already decided to leave Smartsheet and wants a scoped move with an end date — typically 20 to 500 staff, a Microsoft 365 tenant already paid for, a renewal date approaching, and one or two sheets that quietly became the system of record. If you are still weighing whether to build at all, read our comparison of building a Power App versus buying off-the-shelf software first; it lays out when a packaged product is the better answer, and we would rather you reached that conclusion before signing a scope than after. If what you are replacing is not a Smartsheet estate but a set of SharePoint forms that stopped opening when InfoPath Forms Services retired, the data model already exists and the work is smaller; our InfoPath to Power Apps migration services cover that narrower rebuild. And if the tool you are leaving is a relational low-code database rather than a sheet estate — tables joined by master-detail relationships, summary and formula fields, role-based record permissions — the modelling work dominates and the schema has to be rebuilt before any screen exists; our Quickbase to Power Apps migration services describe that shape of move. The same schema-first logic applies to the most common legacy source of all, a Microsoft Access database on a shared drive; our Access database to Power Apps migration services cover moving its tables to Dataverse and rebuilding its forms, queries and VBA.
If you have not chosen a first target, our guide to which business processes to automate first is a useful filter: the sheet worth moving first is usually the one with the most people waiting on it, not the one with the most rows. Once the move is done, ongoing app work sits under our custom Power Apps development service, the flows that replaced your automations are covered by Power Automate approval workflow consulting, and the document side — libraries, metadata and the site your lists live on — is shaped by our SharePoint intranet and document management consulting. We serve all US states remotely from our Orange County, CA base.
Delivery in three phases
Most Smartsheet estates sort cleanly into three phases. The table shows scope and typical timeline rather than prices, because an honest number requires reading your sheets first — the same principle described on how our fixed-fee process works.
| Phase | Scope | Typical timeline | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 — the sheet that runs the business | Data layer designed and built for the primary workflow, intake form or screen, the headline automations re-created as flows, group-based permissions configured, real data loaded and reconciled with the live sheet | About the first week | Fixed fee — scoped after your free consultation |
| Phase 2 — the sheets around it | Dependent sheets rebuilt as related lists or tables, cell links replaced by relationships, approvals and update requests rebuilt, reports re-created as views or a Power BI page, attachments and comment history brought across where agreed | Weeks 2–3 | Fixed fee — scoped after your free consultation |
| Phase 3 — cutover, archive and decommission | Final reconciliation and sign-off, low-traffic sheets rebuilt, consolidated or retired by agreement, full Smartsheet export archived where you can still read it, admin handover and documentation, plus the written list of seats and add-ons you can cancel | Week 4 and close-out | Fixed fee — scoped after your free consultation |
Nothing is switched off early. Your sheets keep running on their existing plan while the app is built alongside them, so both can sit on one screen while your team argues about the numbers before anyone commits. Everything produced is yours from the first day: the lists or tables, the app, every flow, and the site configuration all live in your own Microsoft tenant, never in ours.
Related services
Other ways we make Microsoft easy
Power Apps Consulting
Fixed-fee app development for the builds that start from a process rather than from an existing tool.
Power Automate Consulting
Approvals, reminders and integrations built as flows — the layer that replaces sheet automations.
SharePoint Consulting
The document libraries, metadata and site structure your lists and attachments land in.
Power Apps vs buying software
When a packaged product is the better answer, and when building genuinely wins.
What to automate first
How to pick the process that pays back fastest instead of the loudest one.
Power Automate vs Zapier
Choosing the automation layer when you already pay for Microsoft 365.
FAQ
Leaving Smartsheet, answered
No. A sheet blends data, layout, formulas and automation in one artifact, and Power Apps separates them. We export the data, rebuild it as a SharePoint list or Dataverse table with real columns and relationships, then recreate the screens, formulas and alerts from the rules they encode.
Not on seat price alone. Power Apps Premium lists at $20 per user per month, above Smartsheet Business at $19. The saving comes from retiring a second subscription: where the build fits SharePoint Lists, Microsoft Forms and seeded Power Automate, your existing Microsoft 365 licenses already cover it.
They become Power Automate flows. Alerts turn into scheduled or triggered notifications, approval requests become approval actions with a recorded decision, and update requests become a form or app screen the requester fills in directly, so the reply lands in the list instead of an inbox.
Lists are usually enough for one workflow with modest volume, and they are covered by Microsoft 365. Dataverse earns its place when you need many related tables, row-level security, or auditing, and it requires a standalone Power Apps license. We recommend one in writing during scoping.
Most moves run two to four weeks and are quoted as one fixed fee after a free consultation. What drives the number is how many sheets carry real logic, how much cross-sheet formula and cell linking exists, and whether attachments and comment history have to come across.
Yes, and we recommend it. Your sheets stay live on their existing plan while the Power Apps build runs alongside them, so both can be compared on one screen before anyone commits. The subscription is only cancelled after you sign off the final phase and export your archive.
Book a free consultation
Get more from the Microsoft tools you already pay for
Tell us what you’re trying to fix — a report, an approval process, an intranet, a Copilot rollout. We scope it as a fixed-fee project, you approve, and a senior engineer delivers in 2–4 weeks.
- Fixed-fee scope agreed before any work starts
- Senior, US-based Microsoft engineers — no handoffs
- Typical 2–4 week delivery
- 30 days of post-delivery hypercare included
The fastest way to reach us is the form — tell us the task and we’ll reply within one business day.