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How to Use Microsoft Power Automate to Streamline Operations

Chelsea Sauder • Nov 06, 2019

For National Stress Awareness Day 2019, we are highlighting how you can utilize Microsoft Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow) to streamline your operations, increase your efficiency, and hopefully lower your stress levels!

This week Microsoft is holding their annual conference, Microsoft Ignite, for developers and IT professionals. Historically this event is where we hear big announcements for the Microsoft stack including new products, major enhancements to existing products, and details around their ongoing systems roadmap. 2019 was no exception, as Microsoft announced the rebranding and expansion of Microsoft Flow. Along with changing the name to Microsoft Power Automate they have added a slew of new features. If you’re a subscriber to Office 365, you have access to these capabilities already, and can get started at https://flow.microsoft.com.

Now let’s look at some of our favorite Power Automate templates you can deploy in just a few clicks.

On the Power Automate homepage, you’re greeted with options to explore the “Featured template collections”, search for a template, or browse all templates from the “Templates” link on the left-hand navigation. All of the items we discuss today can be found here in the “Templates” link.
Microsoft Power Automate How-To and Templates
Best Template for Work/Life Blance
Office365 and Google Calendar Power Automate Integration

Our first template is all about keeping your professional calendar and your work calendar in check. For many people, their Office 365 calendar is strictly for work ( and according to our HR team, that’s how it should be!). Then their personal appointments live within Google Calendar. Unfortunately, this can create quite a juggling act to confirm your schedule before agreeing to simple lunch plans with a friend. To overcome this, we’re a fan of the template called “Copy specific category of appoints from Office 365 to Google Calendar”.


This template connects between your Office 365 Calendar and your Google Calendar – shuttling events in a one-way sync to your Google Calendar. To configure this template, you’ll only need to set 4 options:
  1. The name of the Office 365 Calendar to read from (you may only have one choice here)
  2. The Outlook “Category” which you wish to sync (default option is “Meeting”)
  3. The Google Calendar to create events in which match the Category you entered in Step 2 (you may only have one choice here)
  4. The Google Calendar to create events in which do not match the Category you entered in Step 2

Microsoft Office365 Power Automate Google Calendar Integration How-To
It’s as easy at that! Flow Power Automate will start picking up your events when they are created and adding them to your Google Calendar. In more complex implementations, this can be scaled up to accommodate the synchronization of updates and deletions, too.

Did someone say lunch? My calendar looks free!
Best Template for Work/Life Blance
Office365 Power Automate HR Birthday Planning Template

Speaking of HR, something we love that our HR team at TexasPGB coordinates – Birthday Emails! Our team members never miss getting an email on their birthday which is a pretty tall order when things get hectic. Fortunately, our next featured template, called “Send wishes to employees by email as per the birth date in SharePoint list”, takes care of this for us.


Fair warning, this template is dependent on your ability to create a SharePoint list with columns for Name, Birthdate, and Email address. Once you have that in place, setting up the automation is as easy as selecting the values for 2 dropdowns and customizing the email message you would like to send.
Microsoft Office365 Power Automate Birthday Planning Instructions
Microsoft Office 365 Power Automate Birthday Email How To
Before you know it, everyone in your organization will get a happy birthday greeting at 8am on their birthday, and you won’t have to lift a finger! With a bit more logic, you can even have the system send a reminder a few days early so you can be prepared with a cake and a card.
The Template Every Business Should Start Using Today
Office365 Power Automate Approval Process Template

The last template we want to highlight is really universal for a variety of processes around any business. This template, called “Start approval when a new item is added”, can be used for just about anything – from documentation approval, to expense receipt approval, PTO approval, or anything else that requires a second set of eyes.


This template also connects with SharePoint and relies on an item being added to a SharePoint list that you have created with unique columns for your business process. Once you have that list setup, deploying the automation aspect via Power Automate is as simple as selecting the SharePoint Site and List, then specifying who the approver should be.
Microsoft Office365 Power Automate Approve Process How To Guide
Other portions of this template allow for tailoring the content of the email that gets sent when an item is Approved or Rejected, as well as error handling in case the Approval Process is unable to start. With a little elaboration, this is the basis for many complex approval workflows that can include dynamic or conditional routing, additional options other than Approve and Reject, and persisting the approval outcomes back into SharePoint with the original item. Say goodbye to chasing your boss around for signatures on a piece of paper!

Microsoft Power Automate is a hugely configurable tool that requires no coding to automate day to day tasks. The continuous investment into the tool by Microsoft, as evidenced by the growing number of connectors, makes it a great platform to scale with most businesses. For this post, we’ve only just scratched the surface by highlighting TexasPGB team favorite templates. But don’t feel restricted to a template. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can start with a blank page, using the graphical interface to build triggers and actions for accomplishing the type of automation you desire.

Have an automation project in mind but not quite ready to build it on your own? Contact us today and let’s get started.
Automation Questions? Let's Talk.
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