Microsoft Power Automate

What it is

Power Automate is Microsoft's automation platform, and it does two jobs. Cloud flows are the familiar kind of automation: when something happens in one app, do something in another, across 1,400+ connectors. Desktop flows are the second job, and the more distinctive one: robotic process automation (RPA), where the software literally operates a Windows application the way a person would, clicking and typing through systems that have no modern integration at all.

Its real home is the Microsoft 365 world. Flows live next to Outlook, Teams, Excel, and SharePoint, and automating between those tools is where Power Automate feels native rather than bolted on.

Who it's for (and who it isn't)

If your business already runs on Microsoft 365, Power Automate is the default candidate for connecting your apps without a developer: approval flows in Teams, Excel rows that trigger emails, SharePoint documents that route themselves. IT departments tend to prefer it because it lives inside the Microsoft admin and compliance surface they already manage.

The desktop automation side fits a narrower, valuable case: businesses stuck with legacy software, think an old ERP or a supplier portal with no export button, where RPA is the only way to automate at all.

It's a weaker fit outside the Microsoft world. If your stack is Gmail, Slack, and modern SaaS tools, a platform like Zapier connects them with less friction and a much shorter learning curve, and Microsoft's licensing model is more complex than a simple per-plan subscription.

Pricing

Power Automate is paid software: Premium starts from EUR 13 per user per month, billed annually and excluding VAT, with prices varying by region. Heavier RPA options are licensed per bot at higher price points. There is a 30-day free trial, and basic automations within Microsoft 365 are often already covered by licenses you have, which is worth checking before buying anything.

Set it up

Official guide: Exercise - Monitor incoming emails

1. Go to make.powerautomate.com and sign in with your Microsoft 365 work or school account. It needs Outlook and SharePoint, and the Microsoft 365 plan is billed separately. Have a SharePoint site you can store files in. Power Automate has a 30-day free trial, then Premium costs from EUR 13/user/mo, billed annually, excl. VAT, and prices vary by region. You now see the Power Automate home page.
2. Select "My flows" in the left menu, then "New flow", then "Automated cloud flow". A flow is a small automation that does a job for you each time something happens. Under "Choose your flow's trigger", enter Outlook, select "When a new email arrives (V3)", and select "Create". The flow now starts with that trigger, the event that sets it going.
3. Select the trigger, then select "Show all". Fill in the sender's email address in "From", set "Include Attachments" to Yes, enter Daily report in "Subject Filter", set "Importance" to Any, "Only with Attachments" to Yes, and "Folder" to Inbox. The flow now watches for emails that match these rules.
4. Select the + (plus) button below the trigger. Search for Create file and select the "Create file" action under SharePoint. A connector is what links Power Automate to an app, and SharePoint is one. The "Add an action" panel now shows your Create file action.
5. For "Folder Path", choose /Shared Documents. Click in the "File Name" field and type / to open the dynamic data picker, which is a list of values from the email. Select "Attachments Name". In "File Content", type / and select "Attachments Content". Power Automate now wraps the action in "Apply to each", so an email with several attachments gives one file for each.
6. Select "Save". Power Automate now saves your flow.
7. Send yourself an email from the sender address you entered, with the subject Daily report and a file attached. The flow now runs and the file appears in your SharePoint library.

When this works, an email with the subject Daily report and an attachment puts the file into your SharePoint library by itself. To see each run, select "My flows", select your flow, then "Details", and look under "28 day run history". To use it for your own work, change the sender and the subject filter to match the emails whose attachments you want to keep.

Strengths and limitations

Power Automate's strengths are its native place in Microsoft 365, the IT-friendly governance around it, and desktop RPA for legacy systems that nothing else can automate.

The limitations: licensing is genuinely confusing, with per-user and per-bot tiers that take effort to price correctly, and outside the Microsoft ecosystem the experience loses its main advantage. Non-Microsoft businesses usually get further, faster, elsewhere.