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Welcome! Power Automate is a service that helps you create automated workflows between your favourite apps and services to synchronise files, get notifications, collect data and more.
Types of flows
Power Automate is one of the pillars of Power Platform. It provides a low code platform for workflow and process automation. Here’s a list of the different types of flows:
| Flow type | Use case | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Automated flows | Create a flow that performs one or more tasks automatically after it’s triggered by an event. | Connectors for cloud or on-premises services. |
| Button flows | Run repetitive tasks from anyplace, at any time, via your mobile device. | |
| Scheduled flows | Create a flow that performs one or more tasks on a schedule. | |
| Business process flows | Define a set of steps for people to follow to take them to a desired outcome. | Human processes |
| UI flows (Preview) | Record and automate the playback of manual steps on legacy software. | Desktop and Web applications that do not have APIs available for automation. |
You can design and manage all flows from the My flows tab in Power Automate.
If you are a Dynamics 365 user, you’re probably aware with Classic Common Data Service processes which include, workflows, actions, mobile task flows, and dialogues.
The first step is to sign up, or, if you already have an account with Power Automate, sign in on your tablet, desktop computer, or even your phone.
Check out the start page
On the start page for Power Automate, you can explore a diverse set of templates and learn about the key features for Power Automate. You can get a quick sense of what’s possible and how Power Automate could help your business and your life.
With Power Automate, you can:
- Rapidly search for templates and services.
- Select from the most popular services.
- Check an overview of each flow.
Every template is made for a specific purpose. For example, there are templates for sending you a text message when your boss emails you, adding Twitter leads to Dynamics 365, or backing up your files. These templates are just the icing of the cake. They’re inspirational creations which help you to design customised flows for the exact processes you need.
Create your first flow
- Pick a template that’s useful for you. A simple template is Get daily reminders in Email:
- Pick Continue.
- Type the e-mail addresses to which the daily reminder will be sent. Next, enter the reminder message. Finally, press Create flow, and then verify that your flow is running as expected.
Note: You can explore the conditions that trigger the flow and the action that results from that event. Play around with the settings to make the flow your own. You can even add or delete actions.
- Click Done.
Follow this tutorial to learn more about creating flows from templates.
Get creative
Since that you’ve designed your first flow from a template, use any of the more than 150 data sources that Power Automate supports to create your own flows from scratch.
After you produce a fresh flow, you control the entire workflow. Here are some starting ideas:
Peek at the code
You don’t need to be a developer to create flows, however, Power Automate does supply a Peek code feature that enables anyone to take a closer look at the code that’s formed for all actions and triggers in a flow. Peeking at the code could offer you a deeper insight of the data that’s being used by triggers and actions. Follow these steps to peek at the code that’s generated for your flows from within the Power Automate designer:
- Pick the … menu item at the top right corner of any action or trigger.
- Choose Peek code.
- Observe the full JSON representation of the actions and triggers. This contains every input, like the text you enter directly, and expressions used. You can pick expressions here and then paste them into the Dynamic Content expression editor. This can even proivde you a method to confirm the data you expect is present in the flow.
Find your flows easily
When your creative juices start flowing, you might create many flows. Don’t worry, getting your flows is easy – just use the search box on the My flows, Team flows, Connections, or Solutions screen to highlight only flows that match the search terms you enter.
Note:
The search filter only finds flows that have been loaded into the page. If you don’t find your flow, try selecting Load more at the bottom of the page.
Get notifications when something’s wrong
Use the Power Automate notification centre(located at the top right of the designer) to easily view a list of flows have failed recently. The notification centre presents a number that reveals the number of flows that failed recently.
From the notification centre, you can navigate to the Activity page of Power Automate to see all your flows that recently ran, sent notifications, or failed.
Use the mobile app
Download the Power Automate mobile app for Android, iOS, or Windows Phone. With this app, you can monitor flow activity, manage your flows and create flows from templates.
We’re here to help
We’re excited to see what you do with Power Automate, and we want to ensure you have a great experience. Be sure to check out our guided learning tutorials and join our community to ask questions and share your ideas. Contact support if you run into any issues.