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Database & reports
Work with your own cloud SQL databases in a spreadsheet-style grid, build relational reports and dashboards, import files, check data quality, and ask an AI assistant grounded in your live data.
Last updated August 2, 2026 (EST)
Open Database & reports ↗- Shows live counts: Providers (distinct cloud DB providers connected), Databases (connections), and Tables (across all connections).
- Click a card to jump to your Databases or to Browse.
- Go to SQL Settings → Add a database. The wizard has 4 steps and remembers your progress.
- 1) Azure account — pick 'I have one' or follow the links to create a free Azure / Microsoft 365 account.
- 2) Database — use an existing Azure SQL database or create a new one; make sure the server's Networking allows Azure services.
- 3) Grant access — click 'Grant access with Microsoft' (a one-time admin-consent popup for the 'AppFrunk SQL Connector'), ensure a Microsoft Entra admin is set on the SQL server, then run the copy-paste grant script in the database's Query editor. Tick 'I've completed steps 1–3'.
- 4) Connect — enter your server host and database name (no password needed), choose read/write or read-only, and click 'Test & connect'.
- If your Azure admin is a different person: on the Grant-access step use 'Is your Azure admin someone else?' to copy an approval link to send them, then paste your Directory (tenant) ID (Azure Portal → Microsoft Entra ID → Overview) to confirm. If Connect says AppFrunk isn't approved yet even though access was granted, paste that same Directory ID on the Connect step and try again — it verifies the approval without redoing anything.
- SQL Settings lists each connected database.
- Validate now re-tests a connection and shows when it was last validated.
- Edit opens a popup to change the display name, server host, database name, permission scope, or default database. Changing the server or database re-checks the connection with AppFrunk's identity (make sure it has access there). 'Add a database' stays for brand-new entries.
- Toggle a connection between read/write and read-only.
- Remove deletes only AppFrunk's saved connection — your Azure database and the connector login are untouched.
- Optional, default off. Limit which IP addresses can use AppFrunk to reach a database: pick the database, turn on 'Allowed IPs for AppFrunk users', and add IPs or CIDR ranges ('Add my IP' fills in your current one). You can also restrict individual tables to specific IPs.
- Database firewall (Azure SQL): view and add/remove your database's own firewall rules from AppFrunk. To let AppFrunk change them, tick 'let AppFrunk manage this database's firewall' on the Grant-access step (it adds GRANT CONTROL ON DATABASE to the script).
- Database-level rules ADD allowed IPs and are checked before server rules — they cannot remove access already granted by broad server rules (like 'Allow Azure services'). To fully lock a database to only certain IPs, also narrow the server-level firewall.
- Server firewall (advanced): manage server-level rules from AppFrunk by entering your subscription ID + resource group and assigning the 'AppFrunk SQL Connector' the SQL Server Contributor role in Azure.
- Open Browse. Pick a database (searchable), then search tables & reports and filter by All / Tables / Reports.
- Organize with Workspaces (shareable table collections) and personal Favorites (folder tree).
- Open a table to edit data in a fast grid — sort, filter, search, edit cells, and save straight back to your database. You can also edit the table structure or delete the table.
- Table Settings (the ⚙ on a table) → Column Settings: show or hide any column (including the Created date), drag to reorder, rename, lock, make a dropdown, or change a column's type. The header row stays frozen while you scroll.
- Computed columns: add a Calculation (math, IF, text tools — First/Last/Middle letters, Find text, Replace — and date tools — Weekday, Week start), Combine text (drag the pieces to reorder them), a Date calc, or a Per-key total. Pick a type first; a name is only required to save. Examples: grab 5 characters after a dash → Middle letters([col], Find("-", [col]) + 1, 5); a Monday-start payroll week → Week start([Date], 2).
- Linked columns: pull a column in from another table by matching an id — the match key can be a Combine/computed column (not just a stored one, so tables with no shared id can still be joined), and you can add an optional condition (‘only pull the value when [this table’s column] contains / is / … X’) for a Smartsheet-style IF-then-lookup — the cell stays blank when the condition isn’t met.
- Open a report to see data filtered by its saved columns/values/sort; edit the report or its columns from the header.
- Open a dashboard (admin-created) to see widgets.
- Use New ＋ to create a Table, Report, Dashboard (admin), Workspace, or Folder, or to Import.
- Share any table, report, or workspace with specific people/roles using the Share (⇆) buttons.
- In Browse, choose New ＋ → Import.
- Manual Import: drag in a CSV, TSV, or Excel (.xlsx) file. Pick an existing table or create a new one.
- Multi-tab Excel: set the Tab number (left-to-right, 1 = the first tab) to choose which sheet to import. Set a Header row number when the real header isn't the first row — everything above it is skipped, that row becomes the header, and rows below it are the data. Both apply to manual and auto-upload imports (Excel, CSV, and TSV).
- Choose row handling: Add new, Update + add missing, Update + skip missing, or Update + replace all (mirror). If updating, pick an ID column and a match mode.
- Auto Upload: watch the shared AppFrunk/Data folder (or a subfolder) so files dropped there import automatically — great for feeding data from the Sheets app's exports.
- Manage each auto-upload flow: Edit, Sync now, Pause/Resume, or Delete.
- Open Data check (from Browse or SQL Settings → Health). Editor/Admin only, read-only.
- Compare tables: pick a source and target table plus ID column(s) and an optional total column; see counts, rows missing/extra, and changed values on matched keys.
- Find duplicates: one table or across several, on one or more columns, optionally case-insensitive.
- Recent ingest failures: 'Check now' lists failed/blocked/quarantined loads with error messages.
- This is almost always your database itself, not AppFrunk — the app just connects to it.
- Serverless auto-pause: an Azure SQL serverless database pauses when idle and takes up to a minute to resume on the next connection. AppFrunk retries automatically, so it should load without a refresh.
- Free-tier monthly limit reached: the Azure SQL free offer includes a limited amount of compute per month (about 100,000 vCore-seconds ≈ ~55 hours of always-on time). If it’s used up, the database is set to pause until the 1st of next month and will NOT resume on connection — that shows as endless loading.
- What uses up the free compute: anything that keeps the database awake, because a serverless database only pauses after it has been fully idle for its auto-pause window. Leaving a table open in a browser tab, frequent auto-imports, or other tools (SSMS/Object Explorer, Power Automate) polling it all reset that timer.
- Fix it now: in the Azure portal open your database → Compute + storage and switch “Behavior when free offer limit reached” to “Continue using the database for additional charges” (serverless pay-as-you-go — small at low usage), or upgrade off the free offer. For a production database, moving off the free tier is recommended (the free offer has no SLA).
- Reduce compute use: close tables/tabs when you’re done, and pause auto-imports you don’t need.
- Open AI Chat. Ask questions in plain English — it reads your live tables to answer (uses AI credits).
- It can propose row changes (edit a cell, insert a row, delete) — nothing is written until you Approve each one (Deny/Retry available).
- Attach or paste screenshots (up to 6 images) to give it context.
- Use the memory panels to review today's conversation or earlier days, and Clear them when you want.
- Settings → Your account: change your display name, email, or password (email/password changes require your current password).
- Team access and billing are managed on the AppFrunk hub; sharing of specific tables/workspaces is done with the Share buttons in Browse.
System status: status.appfrunk.com