Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

Currently, Power Automate only supports creating CSV files or populating existing Excel templates. There is no simple way to generate a new Excel (.xlsx) file directly from a dataset (e.g., SQL query, SharePoint list, Power Apps data).

This is a major limitation because Excel is a core Microsoft product and widely used for reporting and collaboration.

Why this matters:

Users need formatted Excel files for meetings, annotations, and offline work.
Workarounds using templates, third-party connectors, or custom code are complex and inefficient.
CSV exports lose all formatting and usability features like filters and tables.

Requested functionality:

Add a built-in Power Automate action to:

Create a new Excel (.xlsx) file from any dataset.
Automatically include headers and filters.
Optionally apply basic formatting (table style, column widths).

Allow saving the file to OneDrive, SharePoint, or returning it to Power Apps for download.

This feature would eliminate unnecessary complexity and make Power Automate more powerful and user-friendly for real-world business scenarios.

Categories:

Connector development

Hi @MJ-03020107-0,

I agree and I don't have a solution for your problem - my recommendation is to submit an idea in the community: https://ideas.powerautomate.com/d365community/forum/086dd68e-597f-ec11-8d21-0022482e8f9f

Anyway, although I understand that you find templates/code inefficient (and you're right), I'm sharing a design that I often use when I need to generate Excel reports, since it can be a temporary workaround for you or other users that find this thread in the future:

- Keep a report template of the .xlsx in SharePoint. Whenever possible, it must contain a table, which you will populate using Add row into a table action, Graph API or Office Scripts. If a static table doesn't fit your needs, then Office Scripts is probably the best option for manipulating the Excel file with more freedom, including the modification of the headers and filtering.

- Inside the flow, you read the data from the data source (e.g., SQL) > get the file content of the template > create a new file using the template's file content > add rows to the table/run office scripts/send graph API request.

Let me know if it works for you or if you need any additional help!

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