Skip to main content
News and Announcements icon
Community site session details

Community site session details

Session Id :
Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate - Building Flows / Help with filter query...
Power Automate - Building Flows
Answered

Help with filter query or wait command.

(0) ShareShare
ReportReport
Posted on by P_Molitor 92

I've been having an issue with a Flow that I've outlined here: I've hit a brick wall building a multi-flow process. 

I think I've found the main culprit. In the Excel Business Online documentation, it list the following as a Known Issue or Limitation:

 

  • Changes committed by operations such as Create a row, Update a row, Delete a row do not always take affect immediately after successful response from a corresponding Power Automate, LogicApps or Power Apps actions. Delays up to 30 seconds are expected due to underlying backend service limitations.

My first question is, can I insert a wait command to have the "Do Until" wait 30 seconds before cycling? I used a wait command in a desktop flow before, but I don't seem to be able to find one in the cloud Flow system.

A second option I'm considering is reworking the entire flow to be more like the process I found here: How to create a flow that will send an email 60 days after data entry date. This seems like a better option, but I have no idea how to structure a search function that will return Rows of an Excel file that contain a date in the "Received:" Column older than 6 days from todays date, and "NO" in the "Slip Complete" Column. Then I would need to take what is returned by the filter and make an HTML table out of it so I can place it in a send email command. Any help is much appreciated! Thank you!

  • Pstork1 Profile Picture
    Pstork1 67,060 Most Valuable Professional on at
    Re: Help with filter query or wait command.

    Moving the file to SharePoint from OneDrive after building the flow will require a lot of re-work.  they use the same technology, but because OneDrive is customized for the individual a lot of the actions are different.  Having said that, the timing issues will be the same and the user conflict issues will increase because more people will have access to the file.  To use SharePoint instead its mostly a matter of replacing the Excel Table with a SharePoint list.

  • P_Molitor Profile Picture
    P_Molitor 92 on at
    Re: Help with filter query or wait command.

    This Excel file that I'm tracking data with and updating via Power Automate is located on my onedrive, and when I go live with the process, it will be on a SharePoint site just in case I die in a plane crash and IT clears out my OneDrive. I dont know if that makes any difference or not as far as timing and user issues you mentioned. How can I better utilize SharePoint to track data instead of Excel?

  • Pstork1 Profile Picture
    Pstork1 67,060 Most Valuable Professional on at
    Re: Help with filter query or wait command.

    OneDrive is built on SharePoint technology, so you're not wrong to think of them as essentially the same thing.  OneDrive is just a SharePoint site that is dedicated to a single person and has been customized for that role.  But its still SharePoint underneath.

     

    The point for bringing up SharePoint vs Excel is that Excel is a familiar place to store data, but it does have lots of issues around timing and locking of the file when used by other people.  So its supported, but its not one of the best ways to stored data when working with Power Apps/Automate.

  • P_Molitor Profile Picture
    P_Molitor 92 on at
    Re: Help with filter query or wait command.

    I am building it using Excel because that is how we have been tracking this particular information for years. This flow that I was trying to push the delay in to (Linked in the OP) was extremely bloated and overly complex and I was able to achieve nearly the same result with a simpler 4 process flow that I just needed help with the date conversion (you already helped me with this one).

      I honestly don't know much at all about Sharepoint, Dataverse or SQL, and I'm not sure how begin to integrate that in to our processes. The crazy thing is, nobody in my Organization knows anything about Power Automate, and I think most of them (myself included) use the term SharePoint and OneDrive interchangeably. 

    I got an email from Microsoft a few months ago about Power Automate and slowly started looking in to it until I built my first Flow in December. It seems to hold great promise as far as task automation and more importantly, improved quality through forcing process standardization, but I would need to know a lot more about the different programs and resources that Power Automate connects with to try and guide my Organization in to more useful processes. 

  • Verified answer
    Pstork1 Profile Picture
    Pstork1 67,060 Most Valuable Professional on at
    Re: Help with filter query or wait command.

    The action you are looking for to delay for 30 seconds is the following

    image.png

    But let me ask a different question.  Is there a particular reason why this needs to be done using Excel instead of SharePoint, Dataverse, or SQL?  Any one of those would avoid the timing issues you are running into.

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

News and Announcements

Welcome to the Power Platform Communities

Quick Links

Paul Stork – Community Spotlight

We are honored to recognize Paul Stork as our July 2025 Community…

Congratulations to the June Top 10 Community Leaders!

These are the community rock stars!

Announcing the Engage with the Community forum!

This forum is your space to connect, share, and grow!

Leaderboard > Power Automate

#1
Michael E. Gernaey Profile Picture

Michael E. Gernaey 497 Super User 2025 Season 1

#2
David_MA Profile Picture

David_MA 436 Super User 2025 Season 1

#3
Riyaz_riz11 Profile Picture

Riyaz_riz11 244 Super User 2025 Season 1

Last month Overall leaderboard

Featured topics

Start and wait for an approval action

Product updates

Microsoft Power Platform Community release plans