Owner

What it is

Owner is a special lookup that holds a user or a team. It appears in the form header and as a field on the form. Each person shows an avatar and, where presence is available, a presence dot. Teams use a team icon. Select the name to open the user or team row.

You change the owner with the lookup or with the Assign command. Both set the same column.

When to use it

Use it as it is: every row of a user-owned table has exactly one owner, and security roles use it to decide access at user, business unit or organisation level.

If you need to track a second person (a reviewer or a lead), add a normal Lookup to the user table. An organisation-owned table has no owner column at all.

Licensing and configuration

No extra licence. The owner column exists on every user or team owned table and cannot be removed. Whether it appears on a form is set in the form designer. Users and teams are available in the lookup only when both tables are part of the app. Teams are created in the Power Platform admin center.

Pitfalls

• Changing the owner can remove your own access to the row, because access often depends on ownership.
• Assigning to a team gives the team the row, not each member, and team security roles then decide what members can do.
• Cascade rules on relationships may reassign child rows too, which surprises people when they assign a parent.
• Presence depends on the user's Microsoft 365 setup and is not shown everywhere.

Try it in the demo

1. Open the first accelerator and find Owner in the form header.
2. Select the owner and choose another user or a team from the flyout.
3. Look at the avatar and presence dot next to each name.
4. Save and note the owner in the header.