Schedule a power automate desktop flow - License

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Posted on by EleftheriaK

Hi team,

I have written a Desktop flow and I want to be run on schedule. I have read that I need to buy a license.

The desktop flow is on a desktop pc which is always on and has a window & Office 365 account "GeneralReporting". In order to schedule it should I:

Create a schedule flow on the cloud in the GeneralReporting account or in mine?

I should purchase a license for my account or for the GeneralReporting Account?

I should need a Data Gateway? I want this Data Gateway to be used for Power BI too, which one should I install and where (eg can I install it in this desktop pc that is always on?)

Thank you in advance,

Eleftheria

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Power Automate Desktop

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AS-06081019-0 1,736 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Create a schedule flow on the cloud in the GeneralReporting account or in mine?

Answer: GeneralReporting

I should purchase a license for my account or for the GeneralReporting Account?

Answer: GeneralReporting account

I should need a Data Gateway? I want this Data Gateway to be used for Power BI too, which one should I install and where (eg can I install it in this desktop pc that is always on?)

Yes, you can install it on desktop pc that is always on

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momlo 1,527 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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@EleftheriaK
Are you doing this using work account or personal?

If work:
1. Assign Power Automate per User license to you for creating flows.
2. (Optional)
If you intend to run the flows in attended mode (GeneralReporting windows user logged in all the time and screen unlocked) - no further licenses are required.
If you want to run flows in unattended mode (no user logged into the computer, power automate logges in and executes flows) - you need to buy Unattended add-on and assign it to your environment where your flows will be executed
3. In your environment - Create desktop connection to the computer, using credentials of the user that will be used for running your flows attended or untattended
4. Using your(or other developer with PA per user license) - create power desktop flow
5. Then create scheduled power automate flow that will call/trigger the power PAD flow (in PAD action you choose the desktop connection to use, so the one from point 3)
6. Enable your scheduled power automate flow. It will be triggered as scheduled, then try to connect to active user session (if ran in attended mode) so you need to have user logged in and screen unlocked. Or will try to run flow in unattended if you choose that (and have unattended addon) - then there no user session must be active on the computer.

So this is is for a very basic scenario for running Power Automate Desktop flows scheduled via Power Automate: one computer, one user creating flows (you), one windows user for attended/unattended runs (GeneralReporting)

Alternatively, you can skip step 5 if you do not want to schedule your flow via power automate cloud flow, and you can schedule your desktop flow to run using Windows Task scheduler (you still need license from step 1).

If you want to pull data via power bi, you need to install gateway on the computer and decide what operation mode you want/need:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/service-gateway-personal-mode

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EleftheriaK 27 on at

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Hi @momlo thank you for you prompt reply! May ask you one more?

In order to schedule a desktop flow which license exactly I need?
Per user plan (cost $15 per user/month) or Per user plan with attended RPA (cost $40 per User/month) because I a little bit confused...
https://powerautomate.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/

And I should purchase it for my account even though the flow will be run in another computer logged in with different office account (GeneralReporting Account)?

Thank you in advance,
Eleftheria

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momlo 1,527 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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1. Per user plan (cost $15 per user/month) does not allow you to create Desktop Flows, only cloud flows
You do not need this if you want both cloud and desktop.

2. Per user plan with attended RPA (cost $40 per User/month) allows you to create cloud flows and desktop flows, and run those desktop flows in attended mode.
So this is the one you need to build desktop flow, build cloud flows to schedule the desktop one, and to run it in attended mode.
You assign that license to you or other people who want to build cloud and desktop flows. You do not assign it to the GeneralAccoutning. That account is just a windows user where the flows will be ran.

3. Only if later you decide you want to run those flows in unattended mode - then you need to buy the Unattended RPA for 150$.
This addon license is not assignable to users but to the power automate environment.
So if you have 1 env and want to run 1 unattended bot at the same time - you need 1 addon.
If you want 2 unattended runs at the same time - you need 2 addons.
If you have 2 environments and want to run unattended runs in each - you need 2 addons, 1 for each environment.
But if attended runs are fine for you you, then you don't need it - license prom p2 is all you need then.

There are also alternative pay-per-use plans, but I do not use them so can't advise if they are any cheaper in your case, you would need to count how often and how many flows you would be running.

Please mark the answer as solution too, as now actually marked the one that is not correct and might confuse others

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