Microsoft Power Automate: How To Get Started

When you person an email pinch an invoice, wouldn’t it beryllium bully if it automatically saved nan record to your finance folder, logged nan magnitude successful your search spreadsheet, and notified your manager? That’s precisely what Microsoft Power Automate tin do, on pinch a big of different automated actions.

Like its competitors IFTTT and Zapier, Power Automate allows business professionals of each stripes to create automated workflows involving a bid of tasks crossed definite applications aliases services — moreover those from different vendors — that nonstop notifications, inquire for and connection approvals, and grip rote tasks automatically, pinch nary coding required. The automation instrumentality is portion of what Microsoft calls its Power Platform, a suite of AI-enabled and AI-enhanced process automation tools.

Power Automate taps into endeavor apps and services via components called “connectors.” Microsoft offers much than 1,000 prebuilt, certified connectors, and you tin build civilization connectors to different apps.

While anyone pinch a Microsoft relationship tin usage Power Automate for free connected a constricted basis, business users will request a paid subscription to entree cardinal connectors and tools. Power Automate is included pinch astir Microsoft 365 endeavor plans, truthful you whitethorn good already person entree to it; if not, abstracted Power Automate plans commencement astatine $15 per personification per month.

Here’s what you request to cognize to get up and moving pinch Power Automate.

In this article:

• Understanding nan basics
• Getting started
• Your first automation: Email filing
• Adding AI power: Copilot and AI Builder
• Making your flows reliable
• The past word

Understanding nan basics

Often pinch a work for illustration Power Automate, you get a spot of nan writer’s “staring astatine a blank page” syndrome, wherever you don’t moreover cognize wherever to begin. What’s moreover possible? Fortunately, Microsoft offers templates that show a bunch of a different possibilities: surf complete to its templates gallery to get a consciousness of what you tin do, from redeeming email attachments successful a SharePoint room to signaling shape responses from a Google Sheet (yes, really!).

But nan templates are conscionable a starting point. You’ll want to constitute thing customized for your ain workflows, I’m sure. Before we dive into building automations (or “flows” arsenic they’re called successful Power Automate), let’s get comfortable pinch what we’re moving with.

Think of Power Automate arsenic your individual integer adjunct that tin activity crossed your applications. There are 3 main types of automation you tin create:

• Cloud flows are for illustration having an adjunct successful nan cloud, perpetually watching for things to hap successful your online apps for illustration Outlook, SharePoint, aliases Teams. There are really 3 types of these unreality flows: automated, instant, and scheduled, which do astir what you deliberation they’d do.
• Desktop flows are for illustration having personification beryllium astatine your computer, clicking and typing for you successful desktop applications for illustration Excel aliases specialized business software.
• Business process flows are much for illustration having a guideline that walks you done analyzable procedures measurement by step, ensuring thing gets missed.

Each type serves a different purpose, and you’ll apt usage a operation of them arsenic you go much comfortable pinch automation.

Getting started

Let maine locomotion you done mounting up Power Automate for nan first time. The process is straightforward, but location are a fewer important specifications to salary attraction to.

First, unfastened your web browser and spell to microsoft365.com. If you’re not already signed in, usage your activity email and password. You’ll cognize you’re successful nan correct spot erstwhile you spot nan Microsoft 365 app launcher (a quadrate icon pinch 9 dots) successful nan apical near corner.

Click nan app launcher; this opens a sheet showing each your disposable Microsoft 365 apps. Don’t interest if you don’t spot Power Automate correct distant — scroll down and look for it. The icon looks for illustration a multicolored correct arrow. If you don’t spot it, usage nan hunt barroom astatine nan apical of nan app launcher pane.

Click connected Power Automate to unfastened it. The first clip you unfastened it, you mightiness spot a little tutorial. Feel free to spell done it aliases click Skip if you for illustration to dive correct in. When nan full app opens, you’ll spot a invited surface pinch templates and suggestions.

Power Automate’s Home surface is brimming pinch suggested flows and tutorials.

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Take a infinitesimal to look astatine nan near navigation bar: this is wherever you’ll find your flows, templates, and connections later.

Your first automation: Email filing

You astir apt noticed successful nan erstwhile screenshot that Copilot, Microsoft’s generative AI tool, is now integrated pinch Power Automate. That intends you tin picture an automation you’d for illustration to create successful earthy language, and Power Automate will make a travel based connected your prompt. But Copilot isn’t disposable to each Power Automate users, and it’s adjuvant for everyone to cognize really to build a travel from scratch; that’ll make it easier to set and amended immoderate AI-generated flows.

So, let’s commencement pinch thing everyone needs: automatically organizing emails. Let’s presume you’re successful complaint of receiving applications for thing astatine activity — possibly it is an internship, aliases possibly you’re moving a danasiwa programme and you are managing nan entries. I’ll show you really to create a travel that stores files attached to emails successful SharePoint and tracks them successful a neat, centralized list. This is simply a cleanable first travel because it’s some useful and teaches respective important concepts.

From nan Power Automate location page, look for nan fastener successful nan near navigation barroom branded Create and click it. (You tin alternatively click My flows first, past look for nan New travel button up top.)

You’ll spot respective options. For this flow, we want nan full automation to tally without america having to commencement it, truthful prime Automated unreality flow.

Choose Automated unreality flow connected nan near for your first flow.

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This opens nan travel creation wizard. Name your travel Scholarship Applications.

Next, you take a trigger, which is nan arena that will commencement your flow. In nan trigger hunt box, type Outlook caller email and prime When a caller email arrives. You will beryllium capable to adhd conditions to make it much circumstantial later.

Name nan caller travel and take a trigger.

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Click Create to continue. The trigger appears successful nan mediate of a blank canvas successful Power Automate.

Next, we adhd steps. The travel executes 1 measurement astatine a time, and each measurement is an action that nan travel will execute erstwhile triggered. But first we request to configure nan commencement of our series and adhd a mates of parameters truthful we tin nail down which types of emails we’re looking for and what astir them we want Power Automate to do.

Click nan When a caller email arrives trigger and look astatine nan parameters tab. You’ll want to adhd 4 important precocious parameters, which you’ll beryllium capable to spot successful nan model by clicking Show all.

Adding precocious parameters to nan caller email trigger.

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You want to adhd nan following:

• Include Attachments: group to Yes
• Subject Filter: type successful Scholarship application
• Folder: group to Inbox (click nan files icon and prime Inbox from nan pop-up menu)

Then conscionable click backmost complete connected nan canvas area to prevention those changes.

Let’s support adding actions. Click nan + motion beneath your “When a caller email arrives” trigger, and nan “Add an action” pane appears.

Let’s adhd our caller action by searching for Create item. It will person nan SharePoint logo attached to it to fto you cognize it’s related to SharePoint Online. Click connected Create item to adhd it to your canvas.

Adding an action aft nan trigger will show nan travel what to do next.

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Now you tin configure nan action a small much granularly. You request to springiness nan SharePoint Create point action a mates of parameters, because different it won’t cognize what SharePoint tract you want to usage for this flow, nor will it cognize which database to usage and augment arsenic caller emails and attachments arrive.

Configuring nan SharePoint action item.

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Go up and prime nan SharePoint tract you want to use, and past prime nan database you want for this flow. You mightiness request to spell complete to your SharePoint tract first and create a caller database for usage pinch this flow; erstwhile you do, it should look successful a drop-down database automatically erstwhile you click nan List Name field. (It whitethorn return a fewer minutes to show up.) You’ll besides want to adhd a matter file successful your SharePoint database called “Message Content” — this is wherever nan automation will shop nan assemblage of nan email connection for you.

You’ll besides want to adhd a mates of precocious parameters to your Create point action:

• Click Show all to show nan choices.
• Under Limit Columns by View, prime All Items.
• Under Title, type / (slash) and prime Insert move content from nan pop-up menu. On nan pane that appears to nan right, prime From nether “When a caller email arrives.”
• Under Message Content, type / and prime Insert move content, past prime either Body aliases Body Preview nether nan Outlook “When a caller email arrives” database successful nan pane connected nan right. (Body Preview mightiness not beryllium instantly visible. To find it, type body successful nan hunt container up apical and it will look among nan options.)
• Under “Content type Id,” prime Item.

Setting up precocious parameters of nan SharePoint action item.

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Click nan canvas to adjacent nan parameters surface and prevention your changes.

Next, we request to adhd a condition. A information affects nan behaviour of an action erstwhile different facet is existent aliases false. In this case, we want nan information to opportunity that nan adjacent 2 actions person output from nan erstwhile action applied to them — specifically, we want nan attachment from nan caller email received to beryllium applied to each of our adjacent 2 consequent actions.

Click nan + motion nether nan Create point action. On nan “Add an action” screen, hunt for apply to each and past click nan Apply to each action that comes up nether Control.

Adding an “Apply to each” control.

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In nan “Select an output from erstwhile steps” field, type / and prime Insert move content, past prime Attachments to nan right. This tells Power Automate to usage nan attachment for each of nan adjacent actions it’s going to take.

Attaching nan attachment to nan adjacent actions.

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Click connected nan canvas to prevention nan “Apply to each” control. At this point, your travel should look for illustration nan fig below.

Our travel now has a trigger, an action, and a condition.

Jonathan Hassell / Foundry

Next, click nan + motion beneath nan “Apply to each” action and adhd different action. (This ought to beryllium a beautiful acquainted regular for you astatine this point.)

Here, we request to get nan attachment — but we request to usage nan Outlook “Get Attachment” and NOT nan SharePoint “Get attachments.” This is simply a cardinal distinction. So erstwhile you hunt for get attachment, make judge to prime nan 1 successful nan Outlook subsection.

Then, successful nan parameters section, deed / and take Insert move content successful each field, and adhd Message Id to nan Message Id section and Attachments Attachment ID to nan “Attachement [sic] Id” field. Both of these items are nether nan Outlook “When a caller email arrives” database successful nan pane that appears connected nan right, but they mightiness not beryllium instantly visible. To find them, type nan first fewer letters of each successful nan hunt container up apical and take nan point from nan database that appears.

Filling retired nan parameters for nan Get Attachment action.

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Click backmost connected nan canvas erstwhile you’re done to prevention your changes.

Now, for nan last action, click nan positive motion beneath nan Get Attachment item, hunt for add attachment, and take Add attachment from nan SharePoint list. Here, you request to adhd parameters again, which you should beryllium getting utilized to arsenic well. You’ll want to add:

• Site Address: prime your SharePoint site.
• List Name: prime nan SharePoint list.
• Id: deed nan / key, take dynamic content, and prime ID from nan SharePoint list.
• File Name: deed nan / key, take dynamic content, and past take Attachments Name from nan Outlook list.
• File Content: deed nan / key, take dynamic content, and past take either Content Bytes aliases Attachments Content from nan Outlook list.

Filling successful nan parameters for nan “Add attachment” action.

Jonathan Hassell / Foundry

Finally, click Save successful nan apical correct of nan wide Power Automate model to support nan travel saved successful your account. The last travel should look for illustration this:

Our first travel is complete!

Jonathan Hassell / Foundry

Your travel is now fresh to test. Use nan Test fastener to effort it out. You’ll beryllium asked really you want to trial — prime Manual, and past nonstop yourself an email pinch an attachment and put “scholarship application” successful nan taxable line. The travel will study backmost to you onscreen and show you really agelong it took to process and what happened astatine each step.

Note: you whitethorn person errors astir a copy filename. This relates to nan truth we’re not trying to rename individual attachment names erstwhile we prevention them into SharePoint, truthful if you get a bunch of PDFs from different individuals each called “application” aliases thing similar, Power Automate is telling you nan names are duplicated and it isn’t renaming them. This is good for our purposes, since we are redeeming nan attachments to individual database items, truthful we’ll ever cognize who they’re from sloppy of nan filename.

Other errors whitethorn consequence from really your circumstantial Microsoft 365 tenant is configured, but you tin often find a workaround. For example, utilizing nan Body point successful nan Message Content section successful this travel useful good successful my tenant, but erstwhile my editor tested it successful her tenant, nan travel failed, flagging ‘item/MessageContent’ arsenic nan root of nan error. When she substituted Body Preview successful that field, nan travel ran flawlessly. So if you deed an correction erstwhile you commencement building your ain flows, it’s worthy looking for a akin point you tin substitute.

You’ll cognize nan travel is moving erstwhile you get greenish arrows astatine each step. You tin besides caput complete to your SharePoint list, and you should spot your connection added to nan list. The email reside of nan sender will beryllium successful nan first column, nan connection assemblage successful nan second, and past erstwhile you click nan individual item, you’ll spot nan attachments listed location — conscionable click connected them to unfastened them up.

Viewing nan last consequence of nan automation successful SharePoint.

Jonathan Hassell / Foundry

Voila! You’ve conscionable made your first travel and organized a bunch of worldly retired of your inbox into a azygous spot wherever you tin stock nan load pinch co-workers.

Adding AI power: Copilot and AI Builder

Now let’s make things really absorbing by adding artificial intelligence to your flows. This is wherever automation becomes genuinely powerful, handling tasks that traditionally required quality review.

In this example, let’s inquire Copilot to create a travel that automatically processes invoices utilizing AI Builder, a Power Platform characteristic that creates AI models that automate your business processes. What’s cool astir this illustration is that you’re going to build it simply by describing what you want successful earthy language, and arsenic portion of nan resulting flow, Power Automate will merge AI Builder actions, which usage generative AI to reappraisal and extract accusation from existing information and past do thing pinch it.

Note: You’ll request an AI Builder in installments allocation aliases a premium Power Automate licence to activity pinch this section.

Create a caller travel successful Power Automate, and past click Describe it to creation it. You’ll get nan pursuing surface arsenic a result:

Type successful earthy connection to person Copilot make a workflow based connected your prompt.

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Now, successful nan ample container successful nan halfway of nan screen, conscionable picture nan travel you want to create. I’ll springiness you immoderate connection here, which you tin either trim and paste yourself into nan wizard, aliases you tin alteration immoderate portion of it you for illustration simply by customizing nan prompt.

Example: When a caller invoice record is created successful SharePoint, I want to usage AI Builder to extract accusation from nan invoices. Specifically, I want to extract nan invoice number (highly recommended), date, full amount, vendor information, and statement items (if needed). Once that accusation has been extracted, I want nan accusation to beryllium added to a database successful SharePoint, pinch nan AI-extracted fields mapped to database columns, and besides including nan processing day and status. I besides want to nonstop an email to accounting to notify them of nan beingness of nan invoice, and that email should see extracted information successful nan email body, person nan original invoice record attached, and should besides person links to nan SharePoint entry. I besides want immoderate correction handling to cheque if AI extraction succeeded, and if it didn’t, I want an email to notify maine of nan nonaccomplishment and besides to create a task for manual review.

Once you’ve sewage nan punctual set, click nan arrow astatine nan bottommost correct of nan punctual model to participate it. Depending connected really you customized your prompt, you’ll get thing for illustration nan pursuing flowchart, reflecting Power Automate’s mentation of your prompt:

You tin return an AI-generated travel and past grow and fine-tune it.

Jonathan Hassell / Foundry

That’s it! You tin click Next beneath nan suggested travel and past click each action arsenic we did earlier to configure nan circumstantial SharePoint libraries, lists, and files progressive arsenic good arsenic nan email contents and bodies.

Making your flows reliable

Reliability is nan cornerstone of successful automation. While creating flows is exciting, ensuring that they proceed to activity flawlessly is what separates effective automation from frustrating setbacks. Let maine locomotion you done really to build robust, dependable flows that you tin trust.

First, deliberation astir correction handling arsenic you build your flow. After each awesome action, return a infinitesimal to see what mightiness spell wrong. Maybe an email won’t send, a record won’t upload, aliases information won’t process correctly. These imaginable nonaccomplishment points request safeguards.

This is wherever Run after settings go your champion friend. You tin create an action that responds to what happens during a erstwhile measurement successful nan sequence: erstwhile nan measurement is successful, erstwhile it fails, erstwhile it’s skipped, erstwhile it times out, aliases immoderate operation of nan above. Think of this arsenic your flow’s information net.

For example, you could group up an action that sends you an email notification if a erstwhile action fails, is skipped, aliases times out. Click nan + motion aft an action to adhd a caller step. Search for and prime Send maine an email notification. Type successful a taxable statement for nan notification (which could see nan Subject statement from nan original email, via nan / key, dynamic content pane) and immoderate assemblage matter indicating that nan travel did not complete successfully.

Next, right-click nan caller action successful nan travel and prime Run after from nan pop-up menu. The action’s pane opens to nan Settings tab. Scroll down to nan “Run after” section. You’ll spot nan sanction of nan action instantly supra it successful nan flow. Click that action to grow it, past cheque Has timed out, Is skipped, and Has failed. Uncheck Is successful.

If you like, you tin adhd different erstwhile actions to this database by clicking Select actions and selecting nan actions you want, past expanding and checking/unchecking nan position options nether each action. In this way, you tin group up a azygous “Run after” measurement for each nan erstwhile actions successful a flow, aliases you tin create different “Run after” steps for different actions successful nan flow.

Setting up ‘Run after’ actions and options.

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By mounting up “Run after” responses, you’ll beryllium prepared erstwhile thing does spell wrong. Set up notification actions to alert you instantly if a measurement fails. Create incident tickets truthful your squad tin way issues. Keep a log of errors successful a spreadsheet for shape analysis. And don’t hide astir retry logic — sometimes a 2nd effort is each that’s needed to succeed.

Parallel branches are different powerful instrumentality for reliability. By clicking nan + awesome betwixt steps and choosing Add parallel branch, you tin create simultaneous operations. This is cleanable for moving independent processes, maintaining backup procedures, aliases sending retired secondary notifications. Think of it arsenic having aggregate backup plans moving simultaneously.

Finally, let’s talk astir monitoring — your early informing strategy for imaginable issues. Create a regular monitoring travel that runs automatically. Have it cheque your travel history and look for immoderate failures. Set it up to nonstop you a regular digest summarizing what’s moving and what needs attention. Include occurrence rates truthful you tin spot trends earlier they go problems.

Your monitoring strategy should besides see smart alerts. Set up notifications for captious failures that request contiguous attention. Configure warnings erstwhile capacity starts to slip. Track usage statistic to guarantee you’re making nan astir of your automation resources.

Remember, reliability isn’t astir preventing each imaginable problem — it’s astir having systems successful spot to drawback issues early and resoluteness them quickly. With these practices successful place, you tin build flows that don’t conscionable activity coming but proceed moving reliably agelong into nan future.

The past word

Microsoft Power Automate provides a work for illustration Zapier and IFTTT that is good integrated pinch some Microsoft 365 and galore different celebrated unreality services utilized by individuals and businesses alike. While I’m not exhaustively comparing Power Automate to IFTTT and Zapier, Microsoft shops and particularly organizations already successful furniture pinch Microsoft 365 whitethorn find integrating flows into their regular activity easier and much user-friendly.

Whatever nan situation, utilizing flows tin mean nan quality betwixt forgetting subtle but captious specifications successful business workflows and having each of your bases covered.

This article was primitively published successful October 2019 and updated successful March 2025.