Couple of questions regarding Microsoft Access Frontend with Dataverse for teams Backend

The date format is not really a problem in that the actual date value saved in the table is the same in both cases. That's true regardless of the database in use. I assume that Dataverse is no different in this regard although there other, more problematic differences.

However, you are using Dataverse, which imposes a degree of overhead in the way it handles things. Check the settings in your M365 account where the Dataverse tables are located. Perhaps you can adjust regional settings there. You may need assistance from an administrator, depending on how the account was set up. I don't know how to advise you on finding it yourself, unfortunately. M365 is a labyrinthic maze to navigate unless you live and breathe it as an administrator.

With regard to your second question, you might be able to work around that limitation in Dataverse by requerying the form's record source. Apparently a refresh isn't effective for retrieving other records not present in the record source when the form opens.

Since the issue is with records added by other users, you might need to requery the source prior to initiating a new record addition/update by the user.

How is performance otherwise compared to a local accdb back end? Or an accdb back end on a network location? How many records are in these Dataverse tables? I ask because it is frequently reported that performance can be quite unsatisfactory with Dataverse and large recordsets.

Hi.

I have managed to resolve the Date issue. The database FE uses UK date format (dd-mm-yy). I have used VBA to convert this to US format (mm-dd-yy) before sending to the dataverse table. It seems to be OK now.

Because it is a multi user database I initially saved the BE to a company network. This proved to be very problematic. Performance was very slow and we had major issues with record locking (up to 30 users). The guys have been using the Dataverse BE version since the beginning of the year and the feedback I have been getting has been very positive. The dataverse record sets only only have about 2k records at the moment, but this could be close to 100k by the end of 2025. I will keep monitoring perfomance.

I chose to use Access as the front end because I have several years experience building Access databases. The plan this is to replicate the Access database FE in Power Apps using the same Dataverse tables. (this is going to be a steep learning curve for me).

I'd be very interested in how things work out over time with that rate of growth. I think there are very few implementations of Access/DV so far, and not a lot of real-world information about it, only anecdotal stuff.

I LOVE the ability to create hybrid apps with PowerApps, although I prefer Azure SQL for the back end. Several pros and cons there. I have a series of YouTube videos on my own adventures with PA from the point of view of an Access developer, if you're interested.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQgLuLFqAr9-PoMhLpCWZmtzwgEulKvH5

Ok. Done some more investigating. I think my second issue is something to do with the data being cached. So my question now is how do I clear/update the cache with records created by other users

I don't recall whether requerying, rather than refreshing, the form's recordsource will resolve that problem with linked Dataverse tables. It does with other linked tables.

https://599cd.com/tips/access/requery-v-refresh/