PowerTable: Reference Columns need dropdown support for new record creation (Insert Row and Forms)

[AnMatt2891]

Product: Fabric IQ Plan (preview); PowerTable sheets

Context: Built a complete EPM proof-of-concept for budget planning global offices: Fabric SQL Database (star schema with fact + dimension tables) > Direct Lake semantic model > Plan item with PowerTable and Planning sheets. Grid editing of existing records with Reference Columns works perfectly, write-back, audit trail, and approval hooks all validated.

The gap: When creating new records, Reference Columns do not support dropdown/lookup selection:

• Insert Row in the grid: clicking a Reference Column cell returns "This column is restricted for editing"
• Forms: Reference Column fields render as plain number inputs ("Enter a number") with no dropdown or search capability

Users cannot select valid dimension values (e.g. pick "US" from a country list). They would need to know internal integer foreign keys, which is not viable for production.

Expected behaviour: Reference Columns should render as searchable dropdown selectors when inserting new rows, both in grid view and in Forms. The user picks a display value; the system resolves to the correct FK integer on save.

Impact: This blocks the primary use case Plan is designed for — governed budget/forecast data entry by non-technical business users. Without dropdown support on new records, organisations cannot replace Excel-based planning workbooks with Plan.

Workaround: None within Plan. External tools (Power Apps) can write to the same SQL table with proper dropdowns, but this defeats the purpose of a unified planning platform.

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