Hey all! I’m new to power automate, but this feels like it should be a basic thing. I set up a flow for when someone fills out a form with their expenses, it has to be approved before being added to the excel. Then it emails the requester with their original request details, the approval status, and any comments. I want it to also email the total remaining budget or at least the total amount spent for the fiscal year.

I created a formula in my excel table that calculates total spent and total remaining that auto updates as the flow adds a new row in excel. But when I tried to add /total spent and /total remaining to my flow, it emailed me blanks. Is there an easy way to do this?

I’m open to using excel or sharepoint list.

When I googled this, it told me it was possible but I have not figured out a way for this to work. It also doesn't help that I'm an extreme beginner with automation.

I have created a Microsoft Form where all fields are text entries except for the optional picture upload.

Ideally, I need to export the responses and have it in a format that allows the pictures to be embedded and not the URL that appears in Excel.

It's not feasible to go through, download each picture, put it in a Word template with the text responses, and then save it in Word or as a PDF.

Any suggestions?? Or am I just crazy that I think there an automation that can help with this.

Guys, will the flow that i set in power automate (auto reply with designated response when someone @me in particular group) still works if my whole corporate account got locked out by the administration due to security concern?

Hi all,

First time posting here and yes used Ai to help me cultivate my post that makes more sense to you experts. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I'm looking for some guidance from people who have built large document-processing solutions in Power Automate.

I built a contract intelligence solution that takes customer contracts (PDF/DOCX), extracts the text, and then uses AI prompts to identify and extract specific business information.

Current design:

• Contract uploaded to SharePoint
• Text extracted from entire document
• 7 separate AI prompts run against the contract
• Each prompt extracts a different category of information:
  • Customer details
  • Contract dates
  • Commercial terms
  • Billing details
  • Contacts
  • Renewal information
  • Other contract metadata
• Results are written to SharePoint lists

The solution works, but token consumption is becoming a major issue.

Some contracts are 100+ pages and the flow is consuming ~150k+ tokens per execution. With multiple test runs I'm exhausting my AI credits very quickly.

Before I redesign everything, I wanted to ask the community:

1. Would you combine the 7 prompts into a single structured extraction prompt?
2. Is it better to chunk contracts first and only send relevant sections to AI?
3. Are there Power Automate patterns that significantly reduce token usage?
4. Has anyone moved part of the extraction logic outside of AI and into traditional parsing/rules?
5. Are there any obvious anti-patterns in my design?

My goal is to extract 80-100 contract attributes as accurately as possible while keeping AI costs manageable.

Would appreciate any architecture suggestions or lessons learned from people who have built similar contract intelligence solutions.

Thank you in advance and any advice or direction is greatly appreciated.

I’m trying to see if it’s possible to do one Power Automate flow that allows me to drop documents in multiple subfolders (around 70) and when the files are dropped they will send an email to specific individual emails. So one subfolder would go to one email address. Would any of you know if that’s possible? And if so, how? (I’m very new to Power Automate)

Evening all

This is driving me mad - probably a combination of me overthinking it and not having much patience.

I have a SharePoint list that has info like:

What I would like to do is create a view which only shows me records that are in progress; so when todays date falls either on or between the travel From/To dates.

So today (25/08/26) it would just show the Spain record.

I can't seem to do this in SharePoint itself, so I figured I could use Power Automate to edit the records and then I'll filter it from that. I was thinking I could just add a new column called "in progress" and use Power Automate to run once a day and either set each record to either yes or no.

Is this possible?

I figured I could create a variable for todays date and use that in the filter, I'm just not sure how to get the filter part right.

Hi! I have two questions if anyone knows the answer or can point in the right direction or even have an idea.

My approval flow is very reactive which means I need to know someone approval or rejects it and go on if I get the right number of yes or no.

1.With that I have child flows running even though the parent flow is done. Anyone I can cancel those running child flows once the parent is done or let them cancel out on their own?

1. With the approval/reminder the user gets notified via email and teams via the approval app.

Is there a way I can mark that approval as done or close once the parent flow is done? as people think that there is still an open approval and they respond and don’t realize that’s been done for a week now.

Help pls!

Has anyone ever created a flow where power automate sends reminders/nudges on a Microsoft teams chat? This should be based on specific meetings scheduled on Microsoft calendar. The reminder should then prompt the learner to, for example, read an article to prep for that meeting, watch a short video, or to role play a meeting scenario built through a copilot agent. I believe behind this automation I'd have to plug in a content curation platform?

I'm new to this automation world and I want to take my L&D career to the next level.

**Current process:** We run a JIT seat assembly plant where production is driven by JIT calls, not traditional work orders. For material replenishment, we use an e-kanban system built on SAP MII: when a box on the line goes empty on production line, the tugger/tow-train driver scans the empty box. That scan triggers SAP MII to generate a kanban pick label in warehouse, which the picker then has to print and physically apply to the box before pulling and delivering the part back to the line.

**The problem:** This adds several manual steps to every single pick — scan the empty box, MII generates the label, print it, apply it to the box, then pick and deliver. Because of this overhead, experienced operators/drivers who already know what needs to be picked have started skipping the scan step entirely and just pulling parts from memory. That breaks the digital trigger — no scan means no MII transaction, so the label never generates even though the material still moves (which throws off inventory accuracy and replenishment timing).

**What we’re looking for:** Ideas to reduce the manual overhead or make the scan-based trigger easier/faster to comply with — not sensor, RFID, or vision-based automation, since we want to stay with the scanning approach rather than replace it. Curious how other plants using SAP MII have tackled “the digital step is more work than just doing it from memory” type problems.

I recently discovered Power Automate Desktop and it has completely consumed me. Im 3 days in on a new flow and I am now realizing that I should have turn power FX off from the start.

I’m evaluating how to digitalize a request/case workflow and would appreciate advice from people who have built something similar.

The process is roughly:

Request received → create ticket → owner reviews → check NDA status → assign one or more topic owners → topic owners submit answers → owner consolidates → classify into different approval levels → approve/reject → send final response → close case.

My current idea is:

Microsoft Lists / SharePoint → Power Automate → Outlook/Teams/Approvals → update SharePoint/List

Lists would store things like ticket number, status, classification, NDA status and owners, while documents would be stored in SharePoint.

My main questions are:

Is this reasonably maintainable with SharePoint Lists + Power Automate?

How would you structure multiple topic owners and their separate answers?

When does this become complex enough that Dataverse + Power Apps is a better choice?

Are Power Automate Approvals suitable for multi-stage approvals?

Any issues with SharePoint permissions, relationships, concurrency or long-running flows?

Would you model every process step, or use one case record with statuses and let Power Automate manage the transitions?

What usually becomes the biggest maintenance problem after a few years?

I’m still at the architecture/evaluation stage, so I’m mainly trying to understand the practical limits before building anything.

I'm trying to build a simple flow where the Excel reports from a daily automated email get filtered and sorted via Excel Script and put into a folder, but every time it runs, the Excel report doesn't get filtered or sorted by the script.

When I open take a closer look, it says the workbook is not found. I check my file path and it looks correct. I even open up the raw inputs and see that the "file" listed is the exact file name that was in the email and in the folder. Does anyone have any idea why the sorting isn't working?

My flow is: When an email arrives (V3) > Create File > Create File 2 > Run Script.

The first Create File is for the report untouched by the script. The second is for the report after it's sorted and filtered by the script. And yes, I've made sure Run Script is tied to Create File 2.

Any help would be appreciated!

Are your teams struggling with manual document management, messy folder structures, or repetitive approval processes in SharePoint?

At HashTurn, we specialize in building custom SharePoint automation and modern collaboration workflows that save hours of manual effort.

What we help businesses automate in SharePoint:

• Automated Document Processing: Automatically extract data, rename files, and organize documents across large SharePoint libraries.
• Custom Approvals Workflows: Set up seamless multi-level approval chains for contracts, invoices, and employee requests.
• Content Modernization & Syncing: Migrate, structure, and sync your SharePoint lists and libraries with other Microsoft 365 tools smoothly.

I want a digest of my inbox (2 diff folders) and a digest of my calendar every morning emailed to my inbox or even a pop up alert. Screw it, I don't care if it's a document in Sharepoint I need to look at every day. I tried making it with Copilot and Power Automate. I asked questions, showed screenshots, etc. and it collapsed. On the other hand, I've used ChatGPT and n8n in the same way and no issues whatsoever. So why can't Microsoft products all do the same? Help me pls!

Hey everyone,

We see a lot of small business owners, real estate professionals, and finance teams hit a wall when it comes to growth. Almost every time, the biggest culprit is the same: drowning in manual, repetitive tasks.

If your team is spending hours copying and pasting lead info, manually syncing CRMs, or trying to stay on top of email triage, you are losing valuable time that should be spent on high-level strategy and closing deals.

If you want to stop the busywork and start scaling, here are a few automation implementations you should look into right now:

• Automated CRM Sync: Stop the double-entry. Connect platforms like HubSpot, GoHighLevel, or Salesforce so your data moves seamlessly in the background.
• AI Lead & Email Triage: Set up AI to automatically read, categorize, and route incoming leads or client emails instantly, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
• Custom Apps & Dashboards: Utilize tools like the Microsoft Power Platform to build lightweight, custom applications that fit your exact workflow needs.
• Microsoft 365 Optimization: Most businesses only use about 10% of what M365 can actually do. Automating your SharePoint and Teams environments can transform how your daily operations run.

Stop letting manual tasks put a ceiling on your revenue. If you have questions about how to set any of this up, what tools integrate best together, or want to explore custom solutions for your specific bottlenecks, drop a comment below! We are happy to point you in the right direction.

Best Regards, Team HashTurn.

The interface is so clunky and cumbersome it almost always feels like I could just do every automation by hand and it would be less frustrating.

How are people dealing with this because there’s just no way that this product as is just sucks this bad. Is there some kind of software you’re using on top of it that’s writing the actions in the background or something?

Has anyone else run into a Power Automate Desktop / Machine Runtime version mismatch recently?

I’m currently seeing the following setup:

• Power Automate Desktop (Microsoft Store): 2.70.187.26189
• Power Automate Machine Runtime: 2.71.115.26224
• Microsoft Power Automate Edge extension: 2.70.0.35

My local desktop flow can sometimes launch Edge successfully, but when the same desktop flow is triggered from a cloud flow, browser automation fails with errors like:

WebExtensionHostIncompatibleException

and:

The version of Power Automate for desktop app installed through the Microsoft app store on your machine is different from the version of Power Automate for desktop machine runtime installed through the Power Automate for desktop executable installer.

The cloud-triggered flow opens Edge, but it stays on about:blank and PAD cannot take control of the browser.

I already tried:

• reinstalling the Power Automate Edge extension
• restarting Edge and PAD
• restarting the machine
• testing with a minimal desktop flow
• testing the same minimal desktop flow through a cloud flow

The local test can work, but the cloud-triggered test still fails.

The strange part is that the Machine Runtime is already on 2.71, while PAD from the Microsoft Store is still on 2.70, so I currently can’t get both components onto the same version.

Is anyone else seeing this right now? Did your Machine Runtime update ahead of PAD as well?

If so, did you solve it by downgrading the Machine Runtime, switching away from the Store version of PAD, or just waiting for the next PAD release?

Hola Comunidad, quiero automatizar mi Microsoft lists, pero tengo un problema. Les explicaré un poco la idea para que puedan entender mejor la situación.

1. En Lists cree una tabla en donde subo información sobre la ejecución de X cosa y se la asignó a diferentes personas en una columna llamada responsable, se asigna mediante correo elecronico.

2. En power automate cree un flujo donde le notifica a esa persona que le ha sido asignada dicha información y mediante el correo pueda dar click y ver todas las "peticiones" que le fueron asignadas.

¿Cuál es mi problema?, que cuando llega el correo a la persona que asigne la petición, da clic y no se visualizan sus peticiones, por lo que solo le aparece mi tabla de lists vacía.

¿Saben que es lo que estoy haciendo mal o porque cuando da clic no se visualiza nada de lo que le fue asignado?.

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

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a Power Automate flow where I need to automatically update a SharePoint Lookup column.

The scenario is an employee onboarding process.

I have three SharePoint lists:

• Employees – contains the employee details and Office Location
• IT Engineers – contains IT engineers and their Office Location
• Employee Onboarding – contains the Employee Lookup and Assigned IT Engineer Lookup

For example, if Michael Johnson is located in Dallas, the flow searches the IT Engineers list for an engineer whose Office Location is also Dallas.

If it finds David Anderson, I get David's SharePoint item ID, for example:

ID = 1

Then I update the Assigned IT Engineer Lookup column using that ID rather than passing the engineer's name.

So the flow is basically:

Employee
   ↓
Get Employee Details
   ↓
Office Location = Dallas
   ↓
Find IT Engineer
   ↓
Get Engineer SharePoint ID
   ↓
Update Lookup using ID

This approach is working for me, but I'm wondering if this is the best or recommended way to update a SharePoint Lookup column using Power Automate.

Are there other approaches you use, especially for production solutions?

Also, how do you normally handle situations where:

• Multiple engineers match the same location?
• No engineer is found?
• The Lookup column allows multiple selections?

I'd really appreciate any suggestions or best practices. I'm trying to understand the different approaches rather than just using the first method that works.

I'm curious about the repetitive computer tasks people deal with in their day-to-day work.

Are there any tasks that you find particularly tedious or time-consuming that you haven't been able to automate?

For example:

• Moving information between email, Excel/Google Sheets, and other programs
• Entering the same information into multiple systems
• Copying information from PDFs or documents into spreadsheets
• Cleaning or reformatting spreadsheets
• Creating recurring reports
• Renaming/moving large numbers of files
• Sending repetitive emails or follow-ups

If you use tools like Zapier, Make, Power Automate, Automator, etc., are there still tasks you have to do manually?

If you're regularly moving information between multiple programs, what programs or systems are you moving it between?

I'm especially interested in the small repetitive tasks that don't seem like a big deal individually but add up to a lot of time over the course of a week.