web
You’re offline. This is a read only version of the page.
close
Skip to main content

Announcements

News and Announcements icon
Community site session details

Community site session details

Session Id :
Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / Write Date to Excel File
Power Automate
Answered

Write Date to Excel File

(0) ShareShare
ReportReport
Posted on by 10

I think Power Automate Desktop is a great tool and have been able to automate some complex processes, but right now I'm stuck on something so simple!  All I want to do is write a date into a cell in Excel, but whatever I try it writes text that Excel cannot recognise as a date.  I've broken this down to the simplest example, start with an Excel file with a date in cell A1, open this file in PAD, read the value of A1, add 7 days to it and write the result back to the same cell.  The result written back is text not a date.  Don't know if it makes a difference, but I am in the UK, using UK date formats.  I've checked everywhere, Windows, Office, Browser etc and all are set to the same UK language and date formats.  My test Flow is below along with the result after I run it.Screenshot 2021-03-18 095029.jpgScreenshot 2021-03-18 095630.jpg

 

I'm sure I'm missing something incredible simple, but can't work out what that is!

 

 

 

 

  • Verified answer
    fraenK Profile Picture
    2,125 on at

    I think the date in PAD should be set to a custom format (datetime to txt) to be recognized by Excel: yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ss

  • amaccaig Profile Picture
    10 on at

    Thanks, tried adding a "convert datetime to text" step and with the custom format set to yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss this now works as expected.  

     

    Can't help thinking you shouldn't need to do this and somewhere inside PAD it is using US date formats regardless of local settings, but I can carry on now anyway

  • fraenK Profile Picture
    2,125 on at

    Yeah, unfortunately PAD by default is using a human readable date format which Excel doesn't recognize. There is still some way to go for Microsoft to bridge the gaps between Flow and Winautomation.

  • ali320322 Profile Picture
    2 on at

    when PAD reads system date, it assumes US format, reading the day as month, Month as day... 

     

    for now, it works when i "Convert datetime to text" then:

    - format to use: Standard

    - Standard format: Full datetime (short time)

     

    I hope it keeps working.

Under review

Thank you for your reply! To ensure a great experience for everyone, your content is awaiting approval by our Community Managers. Please check back later.

Helpful resources

Quick Links

Season of Sharing Community Challenge Winners!

Congratulations to our community stars!

Kudos to our 2025 Community Spotlight Honorees

Expanding mentorship, skilling, and AI innovation

Leaderboard > Power Automate

#1
Mohsin Ali Profile Picture

Mohsin Ali 424

#2
11manish Profile Picture

11manish 328 Super User 2026 Season 2

#3
M Bilal Khan Profile Picture

M Bilal Khan 274

Last 30 days Overall leaderboard