How To Use Flow To Pull Excel File From Outlook Email And Update Power Bi Dashboard

Sending Emails from Excel with Microsoft Flow

In this mail service nosotros're going to learn how to send emails from Excel. It's possible to practise this using VBA, but that's the old way from the 90's and nosotros're in 2018.

We are going to explore Microsoft Flow. This is a new product from Microsoft that allows united states to automate workflows between apps. It's not just Microsoft Office apps that tin be automated. There are a ton of tertiary party connections bachelor. We can hands create rules that automatically do things like:

• Save any electronic mail attachments to a OneDrive folder.
• Become a notification on your phone when someone updates a table in your spreadsheet.
• Runway all company Twitter mentions in a spreadsheet.
• Sync your Outlook calendar to your Google calendar.
• Forrad emails to Slack.

The awesome role about Microsoft Flow is that it requires no lawmaking! We can design and build out your process (period) in a couple minutes with an easy to use graphical interface.

In this post, we'll be building a flow that schedules and sends an e-mail template from Outlook based on the data in an Excel file.

Sign Upwards for Microsoft Menstruum

For this post, we'll need to sign up for a Microsoft Flow account or sign into an existing Role 365 account.

There's a free version which allows for 750 flows a month. If you accept Role 365, then you already have Microsoft Flow and tin use upwardly to 2,000 flows per month.

Head to the Microsoft Flow website at https://flow.microsoft.com and click on either the Sign in or Sign up gratis button. So either log in with your Role 365 credentials or provide the necessary information to create an business relationship.

In the flow recipe we'll be creating in this post, nosotros'll also need a OneDrive business relationship. If you have Function 365, so you already have a OneDrive account. If non, then you tin easily create a free one here https://onedrive.live.com.

A Quick Tour of Microsoft Flow

My Flows

In the My Flows tab of the site, nosotros run into all our flows listed that we accept built. There'southward a lot that tin be done from this folio.

• There's an icon that shows which connections accept been used for the flow.
• The name of the flow is listed.
• Nosotros can deactivate a flow to temporality finish information technology from running.
• Nosotros can share a flow with another user.
• We can edit a catamenia.
• We can create new flows either based on an existing template or starting from scratch with a bare flow.

Approvals

Flows allow us to create blessing steps in our processes.

Imagine creating a flow to automatically email a quote generated from a spreadsheet to a potential customer. You might want someone to review it and approve the electronic mail before it is really sent. This is a step that can be added to any flow and is all managed from the Approvals tab.

Templates

A lot of what nosotros may want to create might take already been built by the Microsoft squad or someone else. In the Templates tab, there are a ton of pre-built flows that yous can use as is, or customize for your utilise.

Click on any of the templates and run across a more detailed explanation of what the menstruum does and what it needs to connect with to piece of work.

Connectors

Connectors are the pieces you use to build out your automated procedure. In the Connectors tab, there are a ton of connections available for just about every popular online service including all the office applications.

In that location are many connections.

• Office apps like Excel, Outlook, OneDrive etc…
• Other Microsoft products like PowerApps and Ability BI.
• Google role productivity suite.
• Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social apps.
• Many other online tools.

Nosotros can click on whatsoever of the connections to see further details about what type of deportment nosotros tin exercise with it.

Setting Upward Our Excel File

The commencement thing we're going to need to do is prepare our Excel File in OneDrive. We tin create a new Excel workbook in OneDrive and add data to information technology for use with our emails.

In this example, we're going to exist creating and sending emails from Outlook based on the data in Excel. For each row of data, we are going to be sending the client an email telling them the current business relationship balance that is owed.

We don't demand to create the whole email in Excel, simply the data for the parts that will be different for each email we want to transport.

• Engagement – We are going to delay sending out our emails based on this date.
• Email Address – This is the electronic mail accost we are going to send an email to.
• Name – This is going to exist used in body of the email to accost the recipient by name.
• Account Balance – This is going to be used in the body of the e-mail to tell the recipient their electric current account balance.

We will need to add the data into an Excel Tabular array, every bit this is the simply Excel object that Microsoft Menses volition recognize.

To create a tabular array, nosotros can select the information and get to the Insert tab and use the Table command. We can also utilise the Ctrl + T keyboard shortcut to create a tabular array.

One time we take a tabular array with our data, we need to make certain to requite it a good name instead of the default Table1 proper noun. With the table selected we can go to the Tabular array Tools Pattern tab and requite it a new proper name from the Backdrop section. We will name the tabular array Emails.

This will make whatsoever flows created with the information a lot easier to sympathize later. Proper column heading names will assist after too.

Creating Our Offset Bare Flow

When logged into Microsoft Flow, go to the My flows tab and click on the Create from Bare button. The next screen will testify you some popular triggers to showtime your flow with, but we want a blank flow, so we tin click on the Create from bare button again.

Adding Our Flow Trigger

The first thing we demand to exercise when creating our menstruum is add a trigger. This is exactly what it sounds like, it's something that will trigger the menstruation to execute.

In this case, nosotros're going to create a button that we can press from the Microsoft Flow app to run the catamenia.

1. Search for button to narrow down the list of available triggers and find the mobile button.
2. Select Flow button for mobile from the connection options.
3. Choose the Triggers section of the results. Each connexion might have several trigger and action options available.
4. Click on the Period button for mobile trigger.

Getting Data from Excel to the Menstruum

After we trigger our flow with the button, we're going to want it to practise something. These volition be the actions we add together in the next steps of our catamenia procedure.

The offset activity nosotros want to do is become the data from our Excel tabular array.

Click on the New stride button to add the side by side step to the flow. So select Add an activeness from the menu.

Search for Excel to narrow down the list of connections and then select the Excel – Get rows action. This action will get all the rows of data from the specified table in a given workbook.

Now nosotros can select the File proper name from our OneDrive using the file icon and and so select the advisable Table name from the drop down carte du jour, our table was named Emails.

Creating a Delay Based on the Date Field in Excel

In this instance, we desire to send each e-mail out at a particular appointment and time based on the Appointment field in the Excel data. We can add a schedule step into the menstruum to accomplish this.

Create a New step and Add an action. Then search for filibuster and choose the Schedule – Filibuster until action.

The delay step will require a timestamp input. We tin can hard code a unmarried value hither, simply it's also possible to Add together dynamic content so the timestamp depends on the values in our Excel file. Note, that menstruum will interpret the timestamp data in Excel equally being UTC.

Click into the timestamp input field and the dynamic content pop upwardly will display.

Nether the Become rows section of the dynamic content pop upward, select the Appointment field from our Excel table.

When nosotros add the date from our Get rows activity, something sort of magical happens. Flow will automatically identify the filibuster stride inside an Use to Each pace. Flow realizes nosotros don't want to just perform our actions once, but nosotros probable want to perform our deportment for each row of data in the Excel table.

This is exactly what we want. We could have added this in ourselves before adding the delay stride. Only information technology'due south dainty to know it'll tell us if nosotros forget.

Create the E-mail Template for Each Row of Information

Now we are fix to add our email step after the delay. This will be added inside the Employ to Each pace since we want to send an email for each row of the data in our table.

Press the Add together an action button found inside the Use to each pace.

This fourth dimension we tin can search for Outlook to narrow down the results and cull the Office 365 Outlook – Send an email action.

We can then create an e-mail template, referencing fields from our data where appropriate. In the To input section nosotros would add our E-mail Address field from our data since this contains the e-mail address to which we want to send the email.

Add together a Notification Step

Since this menstruation will delay the emails, we might desire some sort of confirmation when each email is actually sent. For this, we could add a notification step. This will send us a notification when each electronic mail is sent.

Again, nosotros desire this footstep inside the Utilize to each footstep, so press the Add an activity push at the bottom of the Apply to each pace. Search for notification to narrow down the results and cull the Notifications – Send me a mobile notification activity.

We can so add Text to the alert to specify which email was sent.

To actually receive the notification on our mobile device, we will need to install the Microsoft Flow app. Nosotros can download either the Android app hither or the Apple app here.

Saving and Naming the Menstruum

Now that nosotros've finished building our flow process, we need to save it. Click on the Save icon in the upper right mitt corner of the web app.

We'll too want to give the new flow a descriptive proper noun. Click on the default proper noun establish in the height left hand corner of the web app then rename it appropriately.

Running the Flow

Now that nosotros've built our flow process, named and saved it, we are prepare to use it. We tin can now run the flow a few different ways.

Since the trigger we created to run the menses was the mobile app button, we can run the menses from our mobile device with the app installed. Become to the Buttons section of the mobile app, then press the push for our e-mail menstruum.

We can also run the flow from the web app in the My flows tab. Click on the 3 ellipse icon on the right side of the flow and choose Run now from the options.

Either method will outset the menstruum.

If the date field is in the past, then those emails will be sent immediately. Future dates volition have emails delayed. Even though future dated emails are not sent, they are still created by menstruum, so changing the information in the Excel table after running will non change time to come dated emails.

Conclusions

Microsoft Flow is simple to employ and very powerful. We're in the modern era and no longer need to exist programmers to create useful automation'southward that save tons of time.

Nosotros were able to easily create a flow that sends emails based on the data in a connected Excel table.

If you can utilize a mouse and have some ideas about processes you'd like to automate, so Microsoft Menstruum is meant for you lot.

I'd love to hear nearly all the cool things you build with Microsoft Flow, so let me know in the comments below!

About the Writer

John is a Microsoft MVP and freelance consultant and trainer specializing in Excel, Power BI, Power Automate, Ability Apps and SharePoint. You can detect other interesting articles from John on his blog or YouTube aqueduct.

Source: https://www.howtoexcel.org/sending-emails-from-excel/

Posted by: smithaftervare.blogspot.com

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