This manager is asking the wrong question. The real issue isn't how to move a live Forms Excel into a private Teams channel, it's that the tool itself was never designed to protect sensitive data at scale. Microsoft Forms stores response data in a spreadsheet that lives wherever the form was created. That location is almost always accessible to anyone with the right link or folder permissions, which is exactly the problem this manager is trying to solve.
What we see here is a familiar tension: a manager wants to use a simple, familiar tool for data collection, but the tool's default behavior exposes information that should remain confidential. Overtime requests contain personal data, hours worked, reasons for extra time, perhaps even employee identifiers. Staff should not see each other's submissions, and they certainly should not have access to the master spreadsheet. The manager's instinct to restrict access is correct. The method, however, needs rethinking.
The practical path forward is straightforward. Do not try to move the existing response Excel. Instead, create a new Microsoft Form directly inside the private manager channel. That form's response data will automatically be stored in a folder only managers can reach. Staff will still submit through their own channel or a shared link, but the live spreadsheet will never leave the private space. This approach requires no Power Automate, no copying, and no workaround. It takes about ten minutes to set up and solves the access problem at its root.
The deeper lesson here is about how we think about data ownership in collaborative tools. Too often we build workflows around what feels convenient in the moment, a quick form here, a shared spreadsheet there, without asking who should see the results. This manager is right to resist creating a whole new team just for managers. That would add administrative overhead and fragment communication. But keeping the form in a public channel and hiding the Excel behind permissions is a fragile solution. Permissions can be misapplied, links can be shared, and staff will eventually wonder why they can see the form but not the results.
What this manager actually needs is not a technical workaround but a clearer separation between data collection and data access. Put the form where staff can find it. Put the response data where only managers can see it. That is not a limitation of Microsoft Forms, it is a design choice that prioritizes security over convenience. The best solution is the simplest one: build the form in the private channel from the start. Let the tool do the access control for you.