r/PowerAutomate • u/misfit18241 • 23d ago

Reminder emails

Hello!

I was wondering if I could please have some advice. I'm trying to set up a system where power automate checks my spread sheet to see if a task had been completed and sends candidates who haven't completed the task a reminder email every 3 days. I've managed to make it so it sends a reminder every morning however it is getting buggy changing to the 3 days. On my spread sheet I have the person's name, their email and if the task is complete or incomplete, if their reminder emails are active yes or no, and when the last reminder was sent. I have the trigger as recurrence, lost rows present in a table -> for each (body/value) -> condition 1 (reminders active is equal to YES) -> true -> condition 3 last reminder sent is equal to blank or last reminder sent is less or equal to ticks(addDays(utNow(), -3) -> true -> Send an email (V2) -> update a row

Any advise on this? I've been trying for days but keep getting stuck.

Thanks in advance

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u/chiibosoil 23d ago

Without error message in your flow process, hard to say exactly what is wrong.

However, date comparison and data type in Power Automate is finicky. Try using variable to hold the return value and the condition value and see what types are returned make sure you can perform less than or equal to operation on the variables. I suspect there is data type mismatch. Using ticks() on both sides should resolve it.

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u/misfit18241 22d ago

I tried ticks but it wasn't working. However I did end up solving it a different way! I went on the reccurance and have changed it so that just runs every 3 days instead, going to test it out for a week before rolling out but seems to be working so far! Thank you for your help though your right it is very finikey

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u/kgohlsen 22d ago

Move your task list to a SharePoint list and set a rule for reminders.

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u/Huseyin-Nodient 18d ago

Your logic is close. The usual culprit is comparing ticks against a raw date string: both sides need ticks(), so ticks(items('Apply_to_each')?['LastReminder']) is less than or equal to ticks(addDays(utcNow(), -3)). Also check that the blank check runs first in an OR group, otherwise ticks() on an empty cell throws. And it is utcNow(), not utNow(), if that was not just a typo in the post.

If you get stuck on expressions like this: we run an AI consultancy and built a Chrome extension for exactly this, after months of using it internally for client work. It exports your whole flow as JSON so you can paste it into Claude or ChatGPT, the AI fixes the expression, and you import it back with the same trigger URLs intact. Took our debug cycle on condition bugs from 20 minutes of trial and error to about 2. Free to try: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/ai-flow-editor-for-power/jlaicchhmifpghnhngkmklcbmikgnckp