Microsoft Power Automate
Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow) lets you automate repetitive tasks by connecting apps and services. It is included with most Microsoft 365 Business plans.
### Access Power Automate
Go to **make.powerautomate.com** or Office home → All apps → Power Automate
### Types of Flows
| Flow Type | Trigger |
|-----------|---------|
| Automated cloud flow | Triggered by an event (email received, form submitted) |
| Instant cloud flow | Triggered manually (button click) |
| Scheduled cloud flow | Runs on a schedule (daily, weekly) |
| Desktop flow | Automates tasks on a local computer |
### Popular Automation Examples
**Save email attachments to OneDrive:**
Trigger: When a new email arrives with an attachment
Action: Create file in OneDrive → save attachment
**Get notified when someone fills a Form:**
Trigger: When a new Microsoft Forms response is submitted
Action: Send me a Teams message with the response details
**Auto-create a Planner task from flagged email:**
Trigger: When an email is flagged in Outlook
Action: Create a task in Planner with the email subject
**Weekly SharePoint report:**
Trigger: Recurrence (every Monday 9am)
Action: Get SharePoint list items → Send email with summary
### Creating Your First Flow
1. New flow → Automated cloud flow
2. Search for trigger (e.g. "When a new email arrives")
3. Configure trigger (e.g. from specific sender or with attachment)
4. Click + New step → search for action
5. Configure action → Save
### Connectors
Power Automate connects to 400+ apps including:
Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Excel, Forms, Planner, Salesforce, Twitter, Slack, SAP, Google Sheets
### Monitoring Flows
My flows → select flow → Run history → see pass/fail for each run
Failed runs show exactly which step failed and why.