cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Reply
JonL
Power Participant
Power Participant

How do you use Microsoft Power Automate in your work?

Hey Power Automate Community!

We are wondering, Do you use Power Automate at work? In production? 

If so, tell us a bit about it! Tell us how you use the flows, what they help achieve, and if they help make life easier!

 

Thanks!

 

- Jon

131 REPLIES 131
coachalanyuma
New Member

I coach dozens of college student-athletes and I use Flow to automate several Yammer messages that are triggered by events like lightening in the area or high temperature "black flag" weather conditions to cancel practices or move to indoor locations. I use the Flow buttons to also send pre-scripted Yammer messages (one-to-many) to all the students as routine class updates. Yammer - yes! Email - no!
benzed
New Member

I've beeing using it to solve business automation requests from department managers. Some examples are:

- File migration from SP to OneDrive

- Ticket assiging in SharePoint

- Resolved ticket notifications in SharePoint

- Ticket / File archiving in SharePoint

 

I've also used it in conjuction with PowerApps to retrieve PDF files from SharePoint libraries using the HTTP request blocks. Perhaps one of the coolest things I've done with it though is a weekly ticket report I created for the executives at my company. This lists how many tickets are open, resolved, and closed in the past week.

barret
MVP

A couple of ways that we're currently using Flow at work:

 

First, we are using it to process and output results from Microsoft Forms entries. In one, we're outputting the results of the form into a shared Excel doc. In another form, we're using the results to populate a Word template and then emailing the completed form to the user.


I'm also looking at ways to integrate Flow into our Dynamics work, since that's the team I head up. A couple of experiments include populating leads from our Contact Us form. Another idea is to use Flow to watch Twitter for possible client leads, people complaining about their ERP system and so forth.

 

I've blogged about several of these on my personal site. I'm really excited about the potential things I can do with Flow and getting it integrated into everything I can.

 

-Barret

geneZebra
Resolver II
Resolver II

I am looking to create a flow now to send out reminder emails for people that have not entered expenses that are tracked in an excel sheet

I'm interested in this as well! From my limited understanding, though, I believe you'd have to convert your Excel sheet into a SharePoint list...

@geneZebra  and @jlawrence 

 

I have a few of those. The trigger for mine is just a "Recurrence" so it says every day (M-F) at 8 AM go look at this spread sheet or SPList (either will work) and see if there are any items listed that have a certain criteria missing or a certain status and if so send the Salesman listed or whatever column you have for the person an email reminding them to do this.

 

I do feel it would work BETTER if you had it in a SharePoint list but you could still do it in excel if you just really needed it there. Especially for something like this because with a SharePoint list you can have a people field that will show the name but also have available their email address. If you do it in excel you will either need a column for name and a column for email or have in the flow where it looks for the email address based on the name. I don't like the Excel options for this personally because if there is a typo or something then it won't pull through the correct data. 

 

Be sure to think through if a single person may have multiple. If they will have multiple on the list do you want it sending out an email for each item (each row) or do you just want a count. You can do it either way but it will be slightly different so think that through first. 

 

Go start a new thread for this and I'm sure you will tons of good input. Tag me if you don't and I will post more detail on there. 

soylaunica
Helper II
Helper II

When I started with Flow, I handled the purchasing on one of our accounts. Back then, the process was to have to add a PO to each invoice and send to our AP department for processing, one invoice per email. So I decided to cut some corners and for each invoice I added a PO to, I saved in a folder and it was automatically sent to the department for processing. Eventually we used Flow on the account for time off, purchase order, vendor setup, onboarding and termination. Now we are using it at the corporate level for multi level approvals by threshold amounts for work orders. 

hjaf
Kudo Commander
Kudo Commander

I use and develop flows daily!

 

Examples:


Orders

Improving communication, e.g. delivering orders between departments

  • Old way:
    The requestor sends information from his sheet over the phone/email and the recipient inputs the same information into his sheet.
  • Flow way:
    Upon the requestors sheet fulfills the criteria for a specific order to be placed flow updates or adds the order recipients sheet, making this kind of communication redundant.

 

Making use of Planner
Planner is a great and intuitive tool, but few people have the time to even look at it (possibly because they spend a lot of time organizing their tasks with sticky-notes). I use Flow to create and assigns a task when certain conditions in a sharepoint group(Document library, document or List) are met. The assigned users then get notifications from planner instead of an email for them to write down on a sticky note.


Enforcing consistent file-structure / templates
Use Flow to creates and maintain file-structure, copies templates and resources with conistent naming conventions in sharepoint or common areas. 

 

App / PowerApps Development

Flows usually triggers upon modifications in SP-lists and Excel documents, then updates list items and rows in excel tables. Its a bit tricky, and it requires a lot of careful coalesce usage to avoid data being overwritten where input is allowed in both PowerApp and Excel. 

  1. Establish a data-flow for input like this:
    Powerapps -> SharePoint Lists <- Flow -> Excel-sheets 
  2. Then eventually achieve a data-flow like this: 
    (Input)Powerapps/Application -> SharePoint /CDM/ SQL -> PowerBI / Excel (output/analysis)

 

We have a large amount of excel sheets that functions both as user data input and output / analysis, some of the sheets have been developed for maybe 2 decades, if not longer. It's not easy for people that have been working with excel for so long to transition into something completely different, so I have to create a middle-ground. I believe that it not possible to improve something that is not fully understood, and I often imagine every person who works in excel have their own mental application where the sheet is the database; there is no way for me to understand it all at once. Finding a common ground for all users and their tasks is a challenge, but in my opinion the best way to improve something. Flow allows me to introduce and adjust alternative methods in parallel, that way it is their choice if they want to use the new methods I create instead. And as a bonus, this works as a kind of quality assurance for the new methods. 

DanHansen
Frequent Visitor

Hello,

 

I built a workspace that is to be used as a document repository for Work Instructions for the operational teams in the organisation I am in. I learned using Flows by trial-and-error and built an approval flow that will notify a team manager in one of the processes, with an email, that a Work Instruction has been sent for review. Then the manager can approve/reject it and leave a comment if required. 

 

Fingers crossed that there will be an option to make an annual review reminder, at some point.

 

Best regards,

Dan

Hey Dan, sounds like a great solution!

On the 'annual review' aspect, if you can add a column for 'annual review' date, you could set a daily/weekly flow to check all the dates and action if the annual review is imminent. Let me know if you want some more details.
Hth,
Eddie

Hi Eddie,

 

Well my challenge is that, I would like to have this work based on the last modified date of an item. Ideally to add 6 or 12 months on top of that date, and then send a reminder. This would keep it more dynamic, but it is currently beyond my abilities.

 

Best regards,

Dan

365-Assist
Multi Super User
Multi Super User

I have set up a recurring flow to read the SQL Server Database Log File. When the Flow finds an error record logged it sends the System Administrator a High Priority email warning that shows what error occurred.

pcand1001
Helper I
Helper I

I am very hesitant to put any trust in Flow. it fails, it is hard to debug, it is unreliable.

I need this to run once a month when I get the email because after that, it is gone forever.

If I get Lucky, Flow will work but this is a gamble. I need to find something more dependable.

If it was just for a trivial thing OK but for mssion critical things I guess thie si not the right tool.

Gto me Flow is a cool toy, not a production ready tool.

There a re many instances of issues, here is an example.



{
"error": {
"code": 500,
"message": "Request to the backend service timed out",
"source": "flow-apim-msmanaged-na-centralus-01.azure-apim.net",
"path": "choose[3]\\when[1]\\choose\\when[1]\\choose\\when[1]\\send-request",
"clientRequestId": "fbd5a8e1-6644-496a-bc7e-dffcc82642d3"
}
}
bgsca
Advocate I
Advocate I

I'm just a newby, just created my first 3 flows...

- an enquete (in Forms), I get the e-mail adressen from Excel, keep track for who responded en send an reminder after 2 weeks. The results are stored in an Excel-file. If I find the time I want to use this file in PowerBI to make management rapports and push them to other people (using PowerApps??)

-2 flows with information mails to 2 different groups, also using Excel, Forms.

 

 

Strange that you see such issues. I have been using Flow for numerous production uses for months now and have yet to see a single failure I could attribute to the Flow infrastructure. I do agree, however, that when a flow does fail, it can sometimes be somewhat difficult to debug the problem. But 99% of the time, when I struggle to find the reason for a failure, it's because the remote system that Flow connects to didn't provide any error details beyond a generic failure message. But that's hardly something I would blame on Flow, but rather on the remote API providers.

 

Best of luck to you!

Where would you want me to start.

 

We have a number of Flows working within our Education Tennat from creating Contracts from Word Templates, extracting Data from Excel and publising to CDS then refreshing Power BI as well as generating dynamic piping variables for MS Forms Pro Surveys that are tied back to Competence Managment Records in Dynamics 365.

TiagoFreire
Kudo Kingpin
Kudo Kingpin

I use Flow as a connective tissue to collate information across heterogeneous systems. 

 

Fetch sale data from Salesforce

 

Save a shadow copy on Azure SQL / Cosmos DB

 

Cosmos DB / Azure SQL DB as the main databases for custom low-code automation using PowerApps interfaces

 

Prefilling SharePoint documents/columns with data from SQL

 

Complex automation as a part of a larger solution to auto-reply to client emails on a ticketing system which automatically creates DB ticket rows and saves attachments to disk on a folder specific to the client and ticket ID. 

 

Track sent emails that match same tickets to complete information control on client requests. 

 

jerryb78
Regular Visitor

Hi everyone. I work within my company's IT infrastructure organization. I currently use Flow for two main purposes:

 

1. We receive service requests from many different individuals across the company for things like server builds, capacity increases, server decoms, etc. I built a service request form in Forms, access those variables in Flow, and then create / tag / link all of the tasks associated with each specific type of request in a project in  Azure Devops. (plus sending out email notifications about the new request)

 

2. We've previously written some extensive on-prem automations in System Center Orchestrator for building/configuring servers, scheduling snapshots, and decommissioning servers. I'm now using the same combination of Forms/Flow mentioned above to give end-users the ability to trigger some of those functions themselves. Flow takes the inputs of the request and feeds them through to the gateway we've installed on our Orchestrator server where it can be picked up and run by Orchestrator. It has proven to be a great hybrid solution.

2makeitwork
Frequent Visitor

Completed my first Flow (Power Automate) and must say, its easier than I thought conceptually. I do agree with other posts than when something breaks, its tricky to troubleshoot. I had to use the "test" function to see where the issue was.

 

I used flow to automate a serial approval workflow for any new requests for R&D.  The request originates in an app I built in Power Apps, which feeds into a Sharepoint list that I also created. By default the status is pending. Once the request is submitted an automatic email to Accept or Reject is sent via Outlook. Depending on the outcome, Flow determines whether to proceed with getting the second approval. At all decision juncture, SharePoint list is updated with the latest decisions. Seems to work well. One annoyance is that once a decision is made in Outlook, it launches a website that confirms that the decision is "registered". Anyway to get rid of this? Feels like a pop up ad.

gazzo1967
Impactful Individual
Impactful Individual

i use flow to make up for the limitations in Powerapps referencing profile fields.

The Azure AD profiles should allow the use of mapped custom fields and allow them to be refernced in Powerapps to fill in user data automatically.

Helpful resources

Announcements

Power Platform Connections Ep 15 | L. Baybutt | Thursday, 1 June 2023

Episode Fifteen of Power Platform Connections sees David Warner and Hugo Bernier talk to Microsoft MVP Lewis Baybutt aka Low Code Lewis, alongside the latest news and community blogs.   Use the hashtag #PowerPlatformConnects on social media for a chance to have your work featured on the show.        Action requested: Feel free to provide feedback on how we can make our community more inclusive and diverse.  This episode premiers live on our YouTube at 12pm PST on Thursday 1st June 2023.  Video series available at Power Platform Community YouTube channel.    Upcoming events:  European Power Platform conference – Jun. 20-22nd - Dublin Microsoft Power Platform Conference – Oct. 3-5th - Las Vegas  Join our Communities:  Power Apps Community Power Automate Community Power Virtual Agents Community Power Pages Community  If you’d like to hear from a specific community member in an upcoming recording and/or have specific questions for the Power Platform Connections team, please let us know. We will do our best to address all your requests or questions.  Action requested: Feel free to provide feedback on how we can make our community more inclusive and diverse.  This episode premiers live on our YouTube at 12pm PST on Thursday 1st June 2023.  Video series available at Power Platform Community YouTube channel.    Upcoming events:  European Power Platform conference – Jun. 20-22nd - Dublin Microsoft Power Platform Conference – Oct. 3-5th - Las Vegas  Join our Communities:  Power Apps Community Power Automate Community Power Virtual Agents Community Power Pages Community  If you’d like to hear from a specific community member in an upcoming recording and/or have specific questions for the Power Platform Connections team, please let us know. We will do our best to address all your requests or questions. 

May 2023 Community Newsletter and Upcoming Events

Welcome to our May 2023 Community Newsletter, where we'll be highlighting the latest news, releases, upcoming events, and the great work of our members inside the Biz Apps communities. If you're new to this LinkedIn group, be sure to subscribe here in the News & Announcements to stay up to date with the latest news from our ever-growing membership network who "changed the way they thought about code".         LATEST NEWS "Mondays at Microsoft" LIVE on LinkedIn - 8am PST - Monday 15th May  - Grab your Monday morning coffee and come join Principal Program Managers Heather Cook and Karuana Gatimu for the premiere episode of "Mondays at Microsoft"! This show will kick off the launch of the new Microsoft Community LinkedIn channel and cover a whole host of hot topics from across the #PowerPlatform, #ModernWork, #Dynamics365, #AI, and everything in-between. Just click the image below to register and come join the team LIVE on Monday 15th May 2023 at 8am PST. Hope to see you there!     Executive Keynote | Microsoft Customer Success Day CVP for Business Applications & Platform, Charles Lamanna, shares the latest #BusinessApplications product enhancements and updates to help customers achieve their business outcomes.         S01E13 Power Platform Connections - 12pm PST - Thursday 11th May Episode Thirteen of Power Platform Connections sees Hugo Bernier take a deep dive into the mind of co-host David Warner II, alongside the reviewing the great work of Dennis Goedegebuure, Keith Atherton, Michael Megel, Cat Schneider, and more. Click below to subscribe and get notified, with David and Hugo LIVE in the YouTube chat from 12pm PST. And use the hashtag #PowerPlatformConnects on social media for a chance to have your work featured on the show.         UPCOMING EVENTS   European Power Platform Conference - early bird ticket sale ends! The European Power Platform Conference early bird ticket sale ends on Friday 12th May 2023! #EPPC23 brings together the Microsoft Power Platform Communities for three days of unrivaled days in-person learning, connections and inspiration, featuring three inspirational keynotes, six expert full-day tutorials, and over eighty-five specialist sessions, with guest speakers including April Dunnam, Dona Sarkar, Ilya Fainberg, Janet Robb, Daniel Laskewitz, Rui Santos, Jens Christian Schrøder, Marco Rocca, and many more. Deep dive into the latest product advancements as you hear from some of the brightest minds in the #PowerApps space. Click here to book your ticket today and save!      DynamicMinds Conference - Slovenia - 22-24th May 2023 It's not long now until the DynamicsMinds Conference, which takes place in Slovenia on 22nd - 24th May, 2023 - where brilliant minds meet, mingle & share! This great Power Platform and Dynamics 365 Conference features a whole host of amazing speakers, including the likes of Georg Glantschnig, Dona Sarkar, Tommy Skaue, Monique Hayward, Aleksandar Totovic, Rachel Profitt, Aurélien CLERE, Ana Inés Urrutia de Souza, Luca Pellegrini, Bostjan Golob, Shannon Mullins, Elena Baeva, Ivan Ficko, Guro Faller, Vivian Voss, Andrew Bibby, Tricia Sinclair, Roger Gilchrist, Sara Lagerquist, Steve Mordue, and many more. Click here: DynamicsMinds Conference for more info on what is sure an amazing community conference covering all aspects of Power Platform and beyond.    Days of Knowledge Conference in Denmark - 1-2nd June 2023 Check out 'Days of Knowledge', a Directions 4 Partners conference on 1st-2nd June in Odense, Denmark, which focuses on educating employees, sharing knowledge and upgrading Business Central professionals. This fantastic two-day conference offers a combination of training sessions and workshops - all with Business Central and related products as the main topic. There's a great list of industry experts sharing their knowledge, including Iona V., Bert Verbeek, Liza Juhlin, Douglas Romão, Carolina Edvinsson, Kim Dalsgaard Christensen, Inga Sartauskaite, Peik Bech-Andersen, Shannon Mullins, James Crowter, Mona Borksted Nielsen, Renato Fajdiga, Vivian Voss, Sven Noomen, Paulien Buskens, Andri Már Helgason, Kayleen Hannigan, Freddy Kristiansen, Signe Agerbo, Luc van Vugt, and many more. If you want to meet industry experts, gain an advantage in the SMB-market, and acquire new knowledge about Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, click here Days of Knowledge Conference in Denmark to buy your ticket today!   COMMUNITY HIGHLIGHTS Check out our top Super and Community Users reaching new levels! These hardworking members are posting, answering questions, kudos, and providing top solutions in their communities.   Power Apps:  Super Users: @WarrenBelz, @LaurensM  @BCBuizer  Community Users:  @Amik@ @mmollet, @Cr1t    Power Automate:  Super Users: @Expiscornovus , @grantjenkins, @abm  Community Users: @Nived_Nambiar, @ManishSolanki    Power Virtual Agents:  Super Users: @Pstork1, @Expiscornovus  Community Users: @JoseA, @fernandosilva, @angerfire1213    Power Pages: Super Users: @ragavanrajan  Community Users: @Fubar, @Madhankumar_L,@gospa  LATEST COMMUNITY BLOG ARTICLES  Power Apps Community Blog  Power Automate Community Blog  Power Virtual Agents Community Blog  Power Pages Community Blog  Check out 'Using the Community' for more helpful tips and information:  Power Apps , Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, Power Pages 

Announcing | Super Users - 2023 Season 1

Super Users – 2023 Season 1    We are excited to kick off the Power Users Super User Program for 2023 - Season 1.  The Power Platform Super Users have done an amazing job in keeping the Power Platform communities helpful, accurate and responsive. We would like to send these amazing folks a big THANK YOU for their efforts.      Super User Season 1 | Contributions July 1, 2022 – December 31, 2022  Super User Season 2 | Contributions January 1, 2023 – June 30, 2023    Curious what a Super User is? Super Users are especially active community members who are eager to help others with their community questions. There are 2 Super User seasons in a year, and we monitor the community for new potential Super Users at the end of each season. Super Users are recognized in the community with both a rank name and icon next to their username, and a seasonal badge on their profile.  Power Apps  Power Automate  Power Virtual Agents  Power Pages  Pstork1*  Pstork1*  Pstork1*  OliverRodrigues  BCBuizer  Expiscornovus*  Expiscornovus*  ragavanrajan  AhmedSalih  grantjenkins  renatoromao    Mira_Ghaly*  Mira_Ghaly*      Sundeep_Malik*  Sundeep_Malik*      SudeepGhatakNZ*  SudeepGhatakNZ*      StretchFredrik*  StretchFredrik*      365-Assist*  365-Assist*      cha_cha  ekarim2020      timl  Hardesh15      iAm_ManCat  annajhaveri      SebS  Rhiassuring      LaurensM  abm      TheRobRush  Ankesh_49      WiZey  lbendlin      Nogueira1306  Kaif_Siddique      victorcp  RobElliott      dpoggemann  srduval      SBax  CFernandes      Roverandom  schwibach      Akser  CraigStewart      PowerRanger  MichaelAnnis      subsguts  David_MA      EricRegnier  edgonzales      zmansuri  GeorgiosG      ChrisPiasecki  ryule      AmDev  fchopo      phipps0218  tom_riha      theapurva  takolota     Akash17  momlo     BCLS776  Shuvam-rpa     rampprakash  ScottShearer     Rusk  ChristianAbata     cchannon  Koen5     a33ik  Heartholme     AaronKnox  okeks      Matren  David_MA     Alex_10        Jeff_Thorpe        poweractivate        Ramole        DianaBirkelbach        DavidZoon        AJ_Z        PriyankaGeethik        BrianS        StalinPonnusamy        HamidBee        CNT        Anonymous_Hippo        Anchov        KeithAtherton        alaabitar        Tolu_Victor        KRider        sperry1625        IPC_ahaas      zuurg    rubin_boer   cwebb365   Dorrinda   G1124   Gabibalaban   Manan-Malhotra   jcfDaniel   WarrenBelz   Waegemma   drrickryp   GuidoPreite   metsshan    If an * is at the end of a user's name this means they are a Multi Super User, in more than one community. Please note this is not the final list, as we are pending a few acceptances.  Once they are received the list will be updated. 

Check out the new Power Platform Communities Front Door Experience!

We are excited to share the ‘Power Platform Communities Front Door’ experience with you!   Front Door brings together content from all the Power Platform communities into a single place for our community members, customers and low-code, no-code enthusiasts to learn, share and engage with peers, advocates, community program managers and our product team members. There are a host of features and new capabilities now available on Power Platform Communities Front Door to make content more discoverable for all power product community users which includes ForumsUser GroupsEventsCommunity highlightsCommunity by numbersLinks to all communities Users can see top discussions from across all the Power Platform communities and easily navigate to the latest or trending posts for further interaction. Additionally, they can filter to individual products as well.   Users can filter and browse the user group events from all power platform products with feature parity to existing community user group experience and added filtering capabilities.     Users can now explore user groups on the Power Platform Front Door landing page with capability to view all products in Power Platform.      Explore Power Platform Communities Front Door today. Visit Power Platform Community Front door to easily navigate to the different product communities, view a roll up of user groups, events and forums.

Microsoft Power Platform Conference | Registration Open | Oct. 3-5 2023

We are so excited to see you for the Microsoft Power Platform Conference in Las Vegas October 3-5 2023! But first, let's take a look back at some fun moments and the best community in tech from MPPC 2022 in Orlando, Florida.   Featuring guest speakers such as Charles Lamanna, Heather Cook, Julie Strauss, Nirav Shah, Ryan Cunningham, Sangya Singh, Stephen Siciliano, Hugo Bernier and many more.   Register today: https://www.powerplatformconf.com/   

Users online (2,914)