What Is Microsoft Lists and How Can It Help Your Business?

Could Microsoft Lists Replace Some of Your Spreadsheets and Manual Processes?

Many businesses depend on spreadsheets to track everyday information.

They may use Excel to record:

• Company equipment
• Customer enquiries
• Employee onboarding
• Marketing content
• Health and safety incidents
• Holiday requests
• Projects
• Supplier reviews
• Compliance actions
• Stock or inventory

Excel is an excellent tool for calculations, analysis and financial modelling.

However, a spreadsheet can become difficult to manage when several employees need to update it, receive reminders, attach supporting information or see only the records relevant to their role.

Microsoft Lists provides another option.

It is an information-tracking application within Microsoft 365 that allows teams to collect, organise, share and manage structured business information. Microsoft describes Lists as a tool for tracking areas such as issues, assets, routines, contacts and inventory.

Microsoft Lists can provide a more controlled and collaborative alternative to many basic spreadsheets.

It can also connect with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Power Automate to create simple business processes without immediately purchasing a separate specialist application.

What is Microsoft Lists?

Microsoft Lists is a Microsoft 365 application used to store and manage structured information.

A list is made up of rows and columns.

Each row represents an individual record, known as a list item.

Each column stores a particular type of information about that record.

For example, an IT equipment list might contain columns for:

• Device name
• Assigned employee
• Serial number
• Manufacturer
• Purchase date
• Warranty expiry
• Location
• Condition
• Replacement date

Microsoft Lists supports different column types, including text, numbers, dates, currency, choices, people, yes-or-no fields, calculated values and lookups to other lists.

Employees can then sort, filter, group and display this information in different ways.

Where is Microsoft Lists stored?

Microsoft Lists is closely connected to SharePoint.

Lists can be created through:

• The Microsoft Lists application
• A SharePoint site
• Microsoft Teams

When a list is created in a Teams channel, it is stored in SharePoint and can also be opened and edited through SharePoint.

This is important because Lists benefits from many of the collaboration, permission and information-management capabilities available through SharePoint.

A business should still consider where each list is created.

A list connected to an appropriate SharePoint team site will normally provide better ownership and continuity than important business information being stored in one employee’s personal area.

How do you create a Microsoft List?

A list can be created in several ways.

The business can start:

• With a blank list
• From a Microsoft template
• From an existing list
• From an Excel spreadsheet
• From a CSV file

Microsoft currently supports these creation options through the Lists application and other Microsoft 365 interfaces.

This makes it possible to move an existing spreadsheet-based process into Lists without manually recreating every column.

However, importing a spreadsheet is only the beginning.

The business should still review:

• The structure of the information
• Column types
• Permissions
• Ownership
• Views
• Rules
• Retention
• Automation

A poorly organised spreadsheet can become a poorly organised list if it is imported without reviewing the underlying process.

What templates are available?

Microsoft provides templates for common tracking scenarios.

Available templates can vary, but Microsoft’s guidance includes examples designed to help organisations track information and begin building business processes more quickly. Lists can also be created from scratch or from existing Excel and CSV information.

Common business uses may include:

• Issue tracking
• Employee onboarding
• Asset management
• Recruitment
• Content scheduling
• Work progress
• Event planning
• Travel requests

Templates can provide:

• Suggested columns
• Example formatting
• Default views
• Forms
• Automation

Some templates, including certain recruitment, content and work-progress templates, may create associated Power Automate flows as part of the setup.

A template should be treated as a starting point.

The business should remove unnecessary fields and adapt the list to match its actual process.

Benefit 1: Replace uncontrolled spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are often emailed between employees or saved under several different names.

This can result in files such as:

• Equipment List Final.xlsx
• Equipment List Final 2.xlsx
• Equipment List Updated.xlsx
• Equipment List Latest.xlsx

Nobody may know which version contains the correct information.

Microsoft Lists provides one shared source that authorised employees can update.

Instead of emailing the entire file, users can work with the current records in one central location.

This can reduce:

• Duplicate files
• Conflicting versions
• Accidental overwriting
• Information stored on individual computers
• Confusion about who made a change

Lists may also support versioning and approval settings through its SharePoint-based list settings, depending on how the list has been configured.

Benefit 2: Make information easier to understand

A large spreadsheet may contain hundreds of rows and many columns.

Not every employee needs to see all that information at once.

Microsoft Lists supports custom views that can:

• Show or hide columns
• Sort records
• Filter information
• Group related items
• Display records in different layouts
• Create personal or public views

Microsoft supports list, compact-list and gallery-style views, together with filtering, sorting, grouping and saved public or private views.

For example, one equipment list could provide separate views for:

• All company devices
• Laptops due for replacement
• Equipment assigned to remote workers
• Devices with expired warranties
• Unassigned equipment
• Equipment at a particular office

The information remains in one list, but employees can view it in the way most useful to them.

Benefit 3: Improve consistency

Free-text spreadsheets often contain inconsistent information.

One employee may enter:

In progress

Another may use:

• Ongoing
• Started
• Work underway
• Part complete

This makes filtering and reporting difficult.

Microsoft Lists allows the business to define controlled column choices.

For example, a status column could be limited to:

• Not started
• In progress
• Waiting
• Completed
• Cancelled

The business can also define required fields, date columns, people fields and yes-or-no questions.

This can make information more consistent and easier to analyse.

It may also reduce the time employees spend correcting incomplete or inconsistent records.

Benefit 4: Assign responsibility

Lists can use people columns to record who owns a task, request, asset or action.

For example, a compliance action list could record:

• Action required
• Department
• Person responsible
• Due date
• Priority
• Status
• Evidence
• Completion date

This creates clearer accountability than a spreadsheet where actions are recorded but not assigned.

Views can then show:

• Actions assigned to a particular employee
• Overdue actions
• High-priority items
• Completed actions
• Work awaiting approval

Lists should not be used to assign sensitive or important responsibilities without also agreeing how employees will be notified and how overdue work will be escalated.

Benefit 5: Create automatic notifications

Microsoft Lists includes rules that can automate simple notifications.

For example, a rule could send a notification when:

• A new item is added
• A record is modified
• A status changes
• A value meets a defined condition

Microsoft’s current Lists guidance allows users to create rules that trigger notifications when list information changes.

A business could use this to:

• Notify IT when new equipment is requested
• Inform a manager when an incident is recorded
• Alert an employee when an action is assigned
• Notify finance when a purchase reaches approval stage
• Tell marketing when content is ready for review

Rules are suitable for straightforward notifications.

More complicated processes may require Power Automate.

Benefit 6: Automate business processes with Power Automate

Microsoft Lists can connect with Microsoft Power Automate.

Power Automate allows businesses to create workflows between Lists and other Microsoft or third-party services.

Microsoft documents deep integration between Power Automate and SharePoint, including lists created through Microsoft Lists. Supported scenarios include approvals, notifications, permission changes and creating or updating list items.

For example, an employee onboarding process could work as follows:

• A manager adds the new employee to a Microsoft List.
• The manager provides their start date, department and job role.
• Power Automate sends an approval request.
• IT receives a task to create the account and prepare equipment.
• Human resources receives a reminder to provide employment documents.
• The manager is notified when the main actions are complete.
• Overdue work is escalated automatically.

Another workflow could:

• Create a Microsoft Teams notification
• Send an email
• Request approval
• Add a calendar event
• Update another application
• Create a task
• Change permissions

Power Automate licensing and connector requirements vary according to the services and capabilities being used. The business should confirm whether a proposed process uses standard or premium Power Automate features before deployment.

Benefit 7: Work within Microsoft Teams

A Microsoft List can be added as a tab inside a Teams channel.

Employees can then view and update the information alongside their existing conversations and files.

Team members can create a list from a blank list, template, existing list, Excel workbook or CSV file, and existing SharePoint lists can also be added to a Teams channel.

This can be useful for:

• Project tracking
• Team actions
• Customer enquiries
• Equipment registers
• Marketing schedules
• Departmental risks
• Event planning

Putting the list in Teams can improve adoption because employees do not need to remember another website address.

However, adding a list to Teams does not change its underlying permissions automatically.

The business should make sure the SharePoint site, Teams membership and list permissions reflect who should genuinely have access.

Benefit 8: Share information without sharing everything

Microsoft Lists supports sharing at different levels.

Depending on permissions and organisational settings, a business can grant access to:

• An entire list
• Individual list items

Available permission choices can include allowing people to view, edit items or edit the list structure itself. Item-level sharing can also allow somebody to view or edit a specific record without providing access to every other item.

This may be useful where:

• A department needs access to the complete list
• An external person needs access to one record
• A manager can edit the structure
• Employees should update items but not change columns or views
• Some users require view-only access

Sharing should be carefully controlled.

An employee who can edit the complete list structure may be able to:

• Add or remove columns
• Change views
• Delete records
• Alter how the process works

The business should assign the lowest level of access required.

Benefit 9: Attach supporting information

List items can contain file attachments.

This may allow the business to keep supporting evidence with the relevant record rather than storing it in an unrelated email conversation.

Examples include:

• A photograph of damaged equipment
• A supplier quotation
• An incident report
• Proof of completion
• A signed document
• A screenshot
• A receipt

Employees can add and edit individual list items through desktop and mobile interfaces, although some bulk editing functions do not support adding attachments to several records simultaneously.

For larger document-management requirements, storing the document in a SharePoint library and linking it to the list may be more appropriate.

A list is primarily designed to track structured information. It should not automatically replace a properly organised document library.

Benefit 10: Improve mobile access

Employees may need to review or update information while away from their desks.

Microsoft supports viewing and editing list items through mobile experiences, including Lists used within Teams. Microsoft notes that list creation and some configuration activities remain desktop or web tasks, while existing lists can be viewed and updated on supported mobile devices.

This can be useful for:

• Site inspections
• Equipment checks
• Delivery records
• Health and safety observations
• Property visits
• Event management
• Field-service work

The business should still consider:

• Mobile-device security
• Personal-device access
• Data sensitivity
• Offline requirements
• Usability

A mobile form with too many fields may become difficult for employees to complete properly.

Microsoft Lists vs Excel

Microsoft Lists and Excel can appear similar because both display information in rows and columns.

However, they are designed for different purposes.

Microsoft Lists may be better when:

• Several employees need to update the same information
• Records need named owners
• The business needs status choices
• Notifications are required
• Permissions need to be controlled
• Employees need different views
• The process will connect to Power Automate
• The information is primarily a register or tracker
• Excel may be better when:
• Complex calculations are required
• The business needs advanced formulas
• PivotTables or charts are central
• Financial modelling is required
• Employees need detailed numerical analysis
• The file must be worked on offline
• The layout is not based on consistent records

Lists should not replace every spreadsheet.

A business may use Lists to collect and manage consistent records, then export or connect that information to other tools for further reporting and analysis.

Microsoft Lists vs Microsoft Planner

Microsoft Planner is designed primarily for team tasks.

It allows teams to create tasks, assign people, set due dates and organise work into plans and buckets.

Microsoft Lists is more flexible because it can track many kinds of structured information, not only tasks.

Use Planner when:

• The main requirement is task management
• Employees need boards and task cards
• Work is organised into project stages
• Checklists and task assignments are central
• Use Lists when:
• Each record needs several custom fields
• The business is tracking assets, incidents or requests
• Custom views are required
• The process needs structured metadata
• More detailed rules and workflows are needed

A business can also use both.

For example, a list may record customer implementation projects, while Planner manages the individual tasks required to deliver each project.

Microsoft Lists vs SharePoint

Microsoft Lists is built upon SharePoint list technology.

The difference is mainly how users access and interact with the information.

A list can be accessed through:

• The Lists application
• SharePoint
• Teams

SharePoint also provides:

• Document libraries
• Intranet pages
• News
• Navigation
• Wider site permissions
• Document-management capabilities

Microsoft Lists provides a focused experience for finding, creating and managing lists.

The business does not need to choose between Lists and SharePoint because they work together.

Microsoft Lists vs a database or CRM

Microsoft Lists can be a useful lightweight business solution, but it is not a replacement for every database, CRM or line-of-business application.

A specialist system may be more appropriate when the process requires:

• Complex relationships between large amounts of data
• Advanced customer management
• Detailed financial controls
• High-volume transactions
• Complex permissions
• Customer-facing portals
• Extensive audit requirements
• Specialist reporting
• Offline applications
• Guaranteed application performance

Lists can create relationships and lookups between lists, but complexity can quickly increase.

A process that becomes critical to the entire business may eventually require:

• Microsoft Dataverse
• Microsoft Power Apps
• Dynamics 365
• A specialist business platform
• A professionally developed application

The aim should be to select the simplest tool that safely meets the requirement.

Can Microsoft Lists be customised?

Yes.

Businesses can customise areas such as:

• Columns
• Forms
• Views
• Formatting
• Rules
• Permissions
• Power Automate workflows

Column formatting can change the way values appear without changing the stored information. Microsoft supports rules and formatting that can visually highlight items based on their values.

For example:

• Overdue actions could be highlighted
• Completed items could display a tick
• High-priority incidents could be made more visible
• Warranty expiries could show a warning
• Different statuses could have different visual indicators

List forms can also be arranged and formatted to create clearer sections for employees completing or reviewing a record.

Complex customisation should be documented.

A list may become difficult to support if its forms and formatting depend on code that only one person understands.

Can Microsoft Lists require approvals?

SharePoint-based lists can be configured with approval and versioning settings, and Power Automate can be used to create more detailed approval workflows.

This may be useful for:

• Purchase requests
• Policy changes
• Marketing content
• Equipment requests
• Supplier approval
• Compliance exceptions

A simple process might include:

• Draft
• Submitted
• Approved
• Rejected
• Completed

The business should define:

• Who can submit
• Who can approve
• What happens when an approver is unavailable
• Whether the requester can edit an approved record
• How decisions are recorded
• How overdue approvals are escalated

Automation should support a clear process rather than attempting to compensate for an unclear one.

Example 1: IT equipment register

A Microsoft List could track every company device.

Columns might include:

• Asset number
• Device type
• Manufacturer
• Model
• Serial number
• Assigned employee
• Office
• Purchase date
• Warranty expiry
• Encryption status
• Replacement year
• Condition

Useful views could include:

• Devices due for replacement
• Unassigned equipment
• Laptops without confirmed encryption
• Equipment at each location
• Devices with expired warranties

A rule could notify IT when a warranty is approaching its expiry date.

The list should not replace device-management and security tools such as Microsoft Intune.

It provides a business register, while Intune provides technical information and management of enrolled devices.

Example 2: Employee onboarding

An onboarding list could include:

• Employee name
• Start date
• Department
• Manager
• Job role
• Required equipment
• Microsoft 365 licence
• Application access
• Training status
• Completion status

Power Automate could notify:

• IT
• Human resources
• The employee’s manager
• Facilities
• Finance

The workflow could create tasks and reminders based on the start date.

Access should still be approved according to the employee’s role.

A list should not become an informal route for granting administrator access or confidential system permissions without management approval.

Example 3: Customer enquiry tracker

A business could use Lists to record enquiries that are not yet ready for a full CRM system.

Columns might include:

• Customer name
• Company
• Contact details
• Enquiry source
• Service required
• Assigned employee
• Next action
• Follow-up date
• Status
• Estimated value

Views could show:

• New enquiries
• Follow-ups due today
• Enquiries assigned to each salesperson
• Opportunities awaiting quotation
• Closed enquiries

As the number of customers, communications and sales processes increases, a CRM may become more appropriate.

Lists can provide a useful starting point but should not be stretched indefinitely beyond its intended scale.

Example 4: Health and safety actions

A Microsoft List could record:

• Date reported
• Location
• Type of incident
• Description
• Risk level
• Person responsible
• Required action
• Due date
• Completion evidence
• Status

Rules could notify the responsible manager when a high-priority record is created.

Views could identify:

• Overdue actions
• Open incidents
• High-risk items
• Actions by location
• Completed work

Access must be restricted appropriately because health and safety records may contain sensitive personal information.

Example 5: Marketing content schedule

A content list might include:

• Article title
• Content type
• Target audience
• Owner
• Draft date
• Review date
• Publication date
• Website address
• Status
• Campaign

A calendar or grouped view could help the marketing team understand the publishing schedule.

Automation could notify an approver when content changes to “Ready for review”.

This may provide a more structured alternative to managing the entire content schedule through email or an unprotected spreadsheet.

Security and permissions

A list may contain sensitive business or personal information.

Security should be considered before employees begin adding records.

The business should decide:

• Which SharePoint site will own the list
• Who can view it
• Who can add or edit items
• Who can alter columns and views
• Whether external sharing is allowed
• Whether individual items need restricted access
• Who will own the list when an employee leaves

Microsoft Lists permissions are based on SharePoint access and can be applied to the complete list or, in suitable cases, individual list items. Organisational administrators may also restrict external sharing options.

Avoid creating unnecessarily complicated item-level permissions.

They can become difficult to understand, audit and maintain.

Where different teams require entirely separate access, separate lists or sites may sometimes provide a clearer design.

Data protection considerations

Microsoft Lists may be used to store personal information.

Examples could include:

• Employee details
• Customer contact information
• Incident records
• Recruitment information
• Health and safety actions

The organisation should consider:

• Why the information is being collected
• Who needs access
• How long it should be retained
• Whether every column is necessary
• How inaccurate information will be corrected
• How information will be deleted
• Whether external sharing is appropriate

The convenience of creating a list does not remove the business’s data-protection responsibilities.

Employees should not create uncontrolled lists containing confidential information simply because Microsoft makes the process easy.

• Common Microsoft Lists mistakes
• Creating too many lists

Employees may create separate lists for similar purposes.

This can result in duplicate information and confusion.

The business should first check whether a suitable list already exists.

No clear owner

Every important list should have a business owner who understands:

• Why it exists
• Who should have access
• Which fields are required
• How long information should be retained
• Whether the process is still needed
• Using personal storage for business-critical information

Important operational lists should normally be created within the appropriate team or SharePoint site rather than depending on one employee’s personal area.

Giving too many people structural control

Employees who need to add records do not necessarily need permission to change columns, delete views or redesign the list.

Overcomplicating the process

Lists can support formatting, lookups, rules and automation.

Adding too much complexity can make the solution difficult for employees to use and difficult for IT to support.

No testing

A workflow should be tested using realistic scenarios before it is relied upon for an important business process.

No review of automated flows

Power Automate processes may fail because:

• A connection expires
• An employee leaves
• A column name changes
• A licence changes
• An external application becomes unavailable

Important flows should have named owners and failure monitoring.

How should a business introduce Microsoft Lists?

A sensible deployment could include the following stages.

1. Identify a suitable process

Start with a process that is:

• Repetitive
• Structured
• Currently managed through a spreadsheet or email
• Used by several employees
• Not excessively complicated

2. Understand the current workflow

Document:

• Who provides the information
• Who updates it
• Who approves it
• Which notifications are required
• What happens when work is overdue
• Which reports are needed

3. Design the columns

Use appropriate data types rather than making every field free text.

4. Decide where the list will be stored

Choose the correct SharePoint site or Team and assign clear ownership.

5. Configure permissions

Give employees only the access required for their responsibilities.

6. Create useful views

Avoid showing every column to every employee by default.

7. Add simple rules

Use Lists rules for straightforward notifications.

8. Add Power Automate only where required

Do not create a complicated workflow when a simple rule or manual process would be more reliable.

9. Test with a small group

Ask employees to complete realistic scenarios and provide feedback.

10. Document the solution

Record:

• The owner
• The purpose
• Permissions
• Automations
• Dependencies
• Support process

Is Microsoft Lists included with Microsoft 365?

Microsoft Lists is provided as part of relevant Microsoft 365 and SharePoint services, but feature availability depends on the organisation’s subscription, administrative settings and connected Power Platform services. Microsoft presents Lists as a Microsoft 365 information-tracking application and allows administrators to manage its availability within Teams.

Additional licensing may be required when the business uses:

• Premium Power Automate connectors
• Premium Power Apps capabilities
• External systems
• Advanced development
• Other specialist Microsoft services

The business should confirm licensing before building a process that depends on premium features.

Is Microsoft Lists suitable for every business?

Microsoft Lists can be valuable for businesses already using Microsoft 365.

It may be particularly useful when the organisation needs to:

• Replace a shared spreadsheet
• Track consistent records
• Assign responsibility
• Create views for different teams
• Send automatic notifications
• Connect information to Teams
• Introduce simple workflow automation
• Control access through Microsoft 365

It may be less suitable when the process requires:

• Complex accounting
• Large-scale transactions
• Advanced customer relationship management
• Specialist industry functionality
• Complex offline working
• Extensive relational data
• A public customer application

The objective should be to improve the process rather than forcing every business requirement into one Microsoft product.

How can Hamilton Group help?

At Hamilton Group, we help businesses improve the way they use Microsoft 365 and reduce their dependence on uncontrolled spreadsheets and manual processes.

We can assist with:

• Microsoft Lists
• SharePoint
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft Power Automate
• Microsoft Power Apps
• Information and process reviews
• Employee onboarding workflows
• Asset and equipment registers
• Compliance trackers
• Customer enquiry lists
• Approval processes
• Permissions and security
• Data-protection considerations
• Microsoft 365 training
• Ongoing managed IT support

We can review your current processes and help answer questions such as:

• Which spreadsheets could be replaced by Lists?
• Where should the list be stored?
• Who should have access?
• Which views would help employees?
• Could notifications be automated?
• Do we need Power Automate?
• Is a specialist application more appropriate?
• Who will maintain the list?
• How should old information be retained or deleted?
• Are employees using Microsoft 365 consistently?

Microsoft Lists can provide a simple and effective way to organise information, improve accountability and automate everyday processes.

The greatest benefit comes from designing the list around a clear business need and maintaining it as the organisation changes.

Contact Hamilton Group to discuss Microsoft Lists, SharePoint, Power Automate or a review of how your organisation currently manages business information.

Call us on 0330 043 0069 or book an appointment with one of our experts.