If you’ve ever felt like you’re spending too much of your workday on repetitive tasks that numb your brain… well you’re not alone. Whether it’s sorting through email attachments, approving leave requests, or responding to customer inquiries, small tasks quickly add up.
That’s where IT automation can help. With the right tools, you can let technology handle many of the time-consuming, repetitive jobs so you and your team can focus on more meaningful work that needs more of the human touch.
One of the most versatile tools for this is Microsoft Power Automate. It’s designed to help businesses of all sizes automate workflows, reduce manual effort, and get productivity sky high. So, what can it actually take care of?
What is Microsoft Power Automate?
Microsoft Power Automate (formerly known as Microsoft Flow) is a cloud-based service that allows users to create automated workflows between different apps and services. You don’t need to be a developer to use it, you just spend a little time setting up “flows,” which are basically rules or instructions that trigger specific actions.
Not sure that’s making sense? Let’s give you an example:
“When I get an email with an attachment from my accountant, automatically save it to my SharePoint folder.”
See, easy, peasy!
What else can Microsoft Power Automate help me with?
If that example has got you excited for what you could achieve with Power Automate, you’ll be glad to know that’s just scratching the surface and there’s so much more it can do! Including:
Automating email attachments to cloud storage
Manually downloading and organising email attachments isn’t just a dull task; it’s also a great way to lose track of important files. With Power Automate, you can set up a workflow that saves attachments from specific senders or with certain subject lines straight to your cloud storage (like OneDrive or SharePoint). This means less time spent organising and more time actually working with those documents, rather than trying to track them down again.
Streamlining employee leave requests
Have you ever had an employee email you about a vacation request while you’re juggling a deadline, a client call, and a mysteriously blinking printer? Yeah, it’s not really ideal. With Power Automate, you can build a leave request system where employees submit a quick form, it gets routed to the right manager, and everyone gets notified once a decision’s made. No more lost emails or awkward “I thought you said yes?” chats.
Social media monitoring and notifications
You want to know what people are saying about your business online, but constantly refreshing Twitter is a full-time job in itself and probably not the best use of your time. Instead, Power Automate can monitor mentions of your business or keywords you care about. When something pops up, it sends a notification to your inbox or Microsoft Teams channel. So, you stay in the loop without getting trapped in the doomscrolling.
Automating invoice processing
Do you want invoices that practically pay themselves? Okay, not quite, but kind of close! If you’re manually entering invoice data into your accounting system, there’s a better way. With Power Automate, you can set up a flow that extracts data from incoming invoices and plugs it into your records automatically. It speeds up payments, reduces errors, and gives your finance team one less reason to stress on a Friday afternoon.
Enhancing customer support with automated responses
Customers expect quick replies when they reach out. But if your support inbox is flooded, that’s not always the easiest task to complete. Power Automate can monitor your support inbox and instantly reply with a friendly “Thanks for reaching out, we’ve got your message!” type of email. It can also route the message to the right person on your team based on keywords in the message. It’s a small thing that makes a big difference in customer satisfaction.
Free vs. Premium: What’s the difference?
Microsoft Power Automate offers both free and premium plans. Here’s a quick overview of what each includes:
Free Version
- Cloud Flows: You can create and run basic workflows using standard connectors.
- Desktop Flows: You can build and run flows on your local machine in attended mode (you need to be present).
- Sharing: Flows created in the free version are for individual use only.
- Connectors: It’s limited to standard connectors; think basics like Outlook, OneDrive, and SharePoint.
Premium Version
- Cloud Flows: No limits, plus, access to premium connectors (like Salesforce, SQL Server, or even custom apps).
- Desktop Flows: Can run both attended and unattended desktop flows, perfect for round-the-clock automation.
- Process Mining: Analyse and visualise how your processes work, and where they can be improved.
- AI Builder Credits: Get 5,000 credits per month to add AI features (like form processing or sentiment analysis) to your workflows.
- Dataverse Storage: Includes 250 MB of database storage and 2 GB of file storage.
The premium version is built for businesses that want to scale automation across departments and integrate more complex systems. But for small teams or individual users just getting started, the free version still offers plenty of value.
For a full list of what’s included in each plan, check out the official Power Automate licensing guide.
Need support with workflow automation or any part of your IT setup? Book a free, no obligation chat with Mark to talk about how we could work together!