Hi everyone - basics of building my first flow

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Posted on by AC-28031958-0

Hi everyone,

Power Automate is totally out of my normal wheelhouse, which is Sales. Based on the templates, however, it looks like it can streamline and systemize many of my organization's day to day workflows, so I am very excited at the potential to incorporate Power Automate flows.

Some of my questions might be very basic, so I appreciate anyone and everyone's input - and answers that are detailed and specific are especially welcome.

Business Summary: I work in a financial services organization. I have multiple employees who live remotely around the US, and we need to send company brochures and flyers and custom proposal documents to those employee clients, which are fulfilled out of a central office. The employees need to request each mailing. There are different types of mailings, different types of mailing options (standard mail vs next day mail), some options might require a special approval process by a manager, and most of all, there should be transparency around notifications - mail request is received, mail is sent out, mail is expected to arrive in XYZ.

I'd like to setup a workflow with the following:

- The employee enters in all of the required information on a Microsoft Forms form

- Based on how they answer one of the questions (eg. Question 3), it might require a special approval process by the manager for Next Day mail, which is more expensive. Once that is approved, the normal flow applies.

- Based on how they answer another of the questions (eg. Question 12), the forms output might go to one of 3 support groups to fulfill the request.

- Automated notification should go out to the employee requester upon: completion of the form, manager approval (if required), receipt of the request to mail out, and mail is actually sent out.

Categories:

Building flows

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AC-28031958-0 10 on at

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To explain what I've done so far

1. I've built the Microsoft Forms form. It's fine and great, and don't need any help at this step.

2. I've built out a preliminary Power Automate flow. This is where I need the most help.

To take it step by step:

What does "Get my profile" do? Whose profile does it track - the submitter or me (Allen)?

I'd like to send a notification to the submitter of the form to let them know that the mail request has been received. (I know I can do it via Microsoft Forms, but using this to learn as an opportunity).

How do I build out the approval process for Question 3, where the request needs to get escalated to me (Allen) for approval

If I approve, the process continues

If I decline, the original requester has two options - they can cancel the request, or they can modify their request and change to a slower shipping option

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ronaldwalcott 3,847 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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This page explains how to configure approvals Create and test an approval workflow with Power Automate - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,433 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @AC-28031958-0

Let me explain and answer your questions below (inline gonna copy it) then After that continue my answers ok :-)

1. I've built the Microsoft Forms form. It's fine and great, and don't need any help at this step.

--We all need help, so says my wife lol ;-).. oh wait that's just aimed at me nm :-)

2. I've built out a preliminary Power Automate flow. This is where I need the most help.

To take it step by step:

What does "Get my profile" do? Whose profile does it track - the submitter or me (Allen)?

Get My Profile gets your profile information. My guess is its doing that so that it can send the email as you. You would have to open the Send email to see if the Dynamic property from Get my profile is there, which I assume it is.

I'd like to send a notification to the submitter of the form to let them know that the mail request has been received. (I know I can do it via Microsoft Forms, but using this to learn as an opportunity).

This is easy. So what you can do (and btw... I'd rather just show you a pseudo flow than answer like this but lets do it this way first.
Soon as you get the Trigger and right after Get my profile here is what you do

a) Add a Send Email V2

b) Fill in the From with the Email Dynamic property from the Get my profile or just.. hard code your email OR use a shared account or... whatever you want here :-)

c) In the To: you will put the Requester Dynamic property from the Get Response Details (which you have to do, because the trigger doesn't have the details). But from the Get Response Details you will get the Email address of the Requester (per the start of my sentence)

d) fill in the Email with whatever message you want, hard code it, have it as an Environment Variable etc.


How do I build out the approval process for Question 3, where the request needs to get escalated to me (Allen) for approval

If I approve, the process continues

If I decline, the original requester has two options - they can cancel the request, or they can modify their request and change to a slower shipping option

Ok so this is, but the thing that throws me off as you don't mention this in your questions is your Statement about Question #12 so i will not talk to it yet as this is a lot already

Steps
1. Trigger when a Response is Submitted

2. Get Response Details

Get My Profile will get your information. For me this is overkill. You should decide who the email will go out as and either:
Make it an Environment Variable and populate the From using that.

Send Email V2 -- Send an email to the Request using previous defined details (Email for you or whomever and Dynamic Req

Add a Condition - here you would check to see what value they gave you for Question 3 (I am going to pretend that Yes means it needs Approval)
No Side - Do nothing as you do not need to have special approval and you just want it to continue whatever that means

Yes Side -
--This is where we would add another condition IF the answer to #12 means it will decide if it needs to go to one of 3 groups. now, I don't know if you mean the Approval does, or that the final 'output' needs to go to them. If it's the latter then please ignore this for now and we will do it at the end. For now I am going to ignore #12

6. Add a Start and wait for an Approval Action
-Populate the fields how you need them especially the Assigned Too. You also have to decide in the First Approval/Type if its first response is approved, or if everyone must respond etc etc.

7. Add a Condition right after the Approval Action
-In the condition check the Response (dynamic property of the Approval) and check if its is equal to the word Approve (just the word)
---In the YES side, you can do whatever you want to do, but you can also email the Requester (a second time) to let the know it was approved and exit)

---In the NO side, you should email the recipient to let them know it wasn't approved, and possibly send the comments from the approver etc.
Create and test an approval workflow with Power Automate - Power Automate | Microsoft Learn

You can of course add a secondary email that just goes to you or whomever to let you know, or just BCC yourself or CC yourself

Now, as for them resubmitting. They would need to fill out another form. Well.. respectively you could set the form to let them resubmit.. I do not suggest this. Just have them fill out another.

you can send them the link when you let them know it failed.

And thats what you do.

Please mark as the answer if this helps. If you need help after you build it out feel free to open another post for those things.

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,433 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @AC-28031958-0

Did my lengthy response help you? Did you still have questions?

If no questions or if you feel my post helped I'd appreciate having it marked as the answer and maybe a like :-)

If you have more questions, please let me know.

Cheers

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,433 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi @AC-28031958-0

Any response on this? If you post, its respectful to come back and update people so they have they aren't wasting their free time :-)

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AC-28031958-0 10 on at

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Hi Michael,

This is one of those things where I need a large chunk of time to digest and think through - and those large chunks of time are rare in my world, but I do appreciate the detailed response. I'm right about to sit down and comb through your response.

Allen

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AC-28031958-0 10 on at

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I'd like to send a notification to the submitter of the form to let them know that the mail request has been received. (I know I can do it via Microsoft Forms, but using this to learn as an opportunity).

This is easy. So what you can do (and btw... I'd rather just show you a pseudo flow than answer like this but lets do it this way first.
Soon as you get the Trigger and right after Get my profile here is what you do

a) Add a Send Email V2

b) Fill in the From with the Email Dynamic property from the Get my profile or just.. hard code your email OR use a shared account or... whatever you want here :-)

c) In the To: you will put the Requester Dynamic property from the Get Response Details (which you have to do, because the trigger doesn't have the details). But from the Get Response Details you will get the Email address of the Requester (per the start of my sentence)

d) fill in the Email with whatever message you want, hard code it, have it as an Environment Variable etc

1. Pseudo-flow or actual flow screenshots would help. I conceptually understand the text, but actually knowing what to type in or do is challenging.

2. Dumb question. What is the difference between Send Email and Send Email V2? I see V2 with a lot of the actions. In general, should I always use the V2 or V3 if given a choice (higher version is better?)

3. Got it!

4. Need help. I am not able to pull up the Requester Dynamic property from Get Response Details, which I was able to do in the From (Send as) field.

In the To: field, I am not able to activate any of the dynamic options. See Video.

Power Automate - ...

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AC-28031958-0 10 on at

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Ok so this is, but the thing that throws me off as you don't mention this in your questions is your Statement about Question #12 so i will not talk to it yet as this is a lot already

The Approval process has nothing to do with Question 12, which simply identifies one of three email addresses to where the request should be routed. The request will always be routed to one of the three email addresses.

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AC-28031958-0 10 on at

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Add a Condition - here you would check to see what value they gave you for Question 3 (I am going to pretend that Yes means it needs Approval)
No Side - Do nothing as you do not need to have special approval and you just want it to continue whatever that means

Yes Side -
--This is where we would add another condition IF the answer to #12 means it will decide if it needs to go to one of 3 groups. now, I don't know if you mean the Approval does, or that the final 'output' needs to go to them. If it's the latter then please ignore this for now and we will do it at the end. For now I am going to ignore #12

More specifically for Question 3:

If the submitter answers Choice 1 ("Standard Mail"), then this mail request should move forward as normal

If the submitter answers Choice 2 ("2 Day Mail"), then this mail request should move forward as normal

If the submitter answers Choice 3 ("Special Requests for Mailing"), then this mail request will need to be routed for Approval

So to be clear, it's only if they answer Choice 3 will this trigger the Approval process. And once the Approval process is approved, it reverts to the same normal workflow as the others.

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