Estimated Time to Fix: 20 minutes

Summary

If you spend an hour every Friday downloading PDF invoices from your email and dragging them into a specific OneDrive folder, you are doing a robot's job. Microsoft Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow) is a tool built into your M365 subscription that acts as a digital assistant, quietly doing repetitive tasks for you in the background.

Before You Start

• A Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, or Premium license.

Instructions

1. What is Power Automate?

Power Automate connects two different apps together using a "Trigger" and an "Action".

• Trigger: When a new email arrives from my accountant...
• Action: ...Save the attachment into the "Tax Documents" folder in OneDrive.

You don't need to know how to code to build these. Microsoft provides a library of thousands of templates.

2. Example: Automatically Save Email Attachments to OneDrive

This is the most popular automation for small businesses.

1. Go to make.powerautomate.com and sign in.
2. On the left navigation pane, click Templates.
3. In the search bar at the top, type Save Office 365 email attachments to OneDrive for Business.
4. Click on the template block that appears.
5. The screen will show you the apps this automation uses (Outlook and OneDrive). Click the Sign in or Create buttons next to them to grant the robot permission to use your accounts.
6. Once there are green checkmarks next to the connections, click Create Flow.

3. Customize the Automation

By default, the template saves all attachments to a new folder called "Email attachments from Flow". You likely want to be more specific.

1. Once the flow is created, click the Edit button in the top left corner to see the actual logic blocks.
2. Click on the first block: On new email.
3. Click Show advanced options.
4. In the From field, type your accountant's email address (e.g., [email protected]). Now the robot will only trigger for their emails.
5. Click on the Create file block inside the "Apply to each" section.
6. Next to Folder Path, click the small folder icon and select the specific OneDrive folder where you want the invoices to live.
7. Click Save in the top right corner.

The automation is now live. Every time your accountant emails you, the PDF will instantly appear in your OneDrive folder without you lifting a finger.

4. Other Great Templates to Try

Once you are comfortable with the attachment flow, go back to the Templates menu and search for these massive time-savers:

• "Track Outlook emails in an Excel spreadsheet" (Great for logging customer inquiries).
• "Send a customized email when a new SharePoint file is added" (Great for notifying a client when their deliverable is ready).
• "Create Planner tasks for flagged emails in Outlook" (Turns your flagged emails into a proper to-do list).

Troubleshooting

WARNING

Power Automate robots run in the cloud, not on your computer. They will continue to process emails and move files even if your laptop is turned off or you are on vacation.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
The flow failed to run	Connection expired	Passwords expire. Go to Power Automate > Data > Connections, and click "Fix connection" to re-authenticate your Outlook or OneDrive.
It saved the email signature logo as an attachment	Trigger settings	Edit the "On new email" block. In the advanced settings, change "Include Attachments" to Yes, and ensure the "Subject Filter" requires the word "Invoice".

Related Articles

• Understanding Task Management in Microsoft 365 — To Do vs. Planner
• How to Manually Run Inbox Rules in the New Outlook

Did this solve your problem?