The Need:
Provideing routine or standard information via email
Common Approaches:
Add an email step to a Microsoft Flow to automate this effort.
What if I have to send email after a process that isn't already automated with Microsoft Flow?
As long as your process involves work in a SharePoint site/library or OneDrive for Business library, you can create a Microsoft Flow to automatically send an email to a group or individual. If you have an automated process built in Office 365 that includes other Microsoft Flow steps and decisions, you can add an email alert after any step.
Know your Microsoft Flow email options.
There several options for standard Microsoft Flow email steps. (More, probably, if you have access to upgraded subscriptions at your company, but I don't.)
"Send an email notification (V3)" (Mail)
My favorite use of this step is to add check steps to a new Flow I am testing, when I want to be alerted when the flow is triggered. It's hard to keep up with the multiple flows I have activated, especially with a flow that is new but may not run for several days. I add an Email Notification step to myself, and I put it before the new step I am experimenting with. If I put it after the process I want to test and the process fails, the email won't be deployed. I usually leave a link to the flow home page and a description of what behavior I am checking for, as well as the ID and Title information (if it is from a SharePoint list.)
"Send en email" (Office 365 Outlook)
NOTE: Although it doesn't say so, the default importance setting is "Low." If you do not set the importance to Normal or High, all emails generated and sent from this step will have a blue down arrow next to them. You will forget this five times before you develop the habit of setting it before the flow triggers.
Click here for more details about this option from the Microsoft documentation site.
"Send an email from a shared mailbox (V2) (Office 355 Outlook)"
The shared mailbox version works the same as the "Send an email" version, except for a shared mailbox. This option is useful when replies to alerts can be answered by any one person in a group, rather than one individual. If you do not want people replying to the mailbox and expecting action, then you should put DO NOT REPLY or "Sent from a shared mailbox and replies will not be read" or similar in the body of the email somewhere.
NOTE: You must be an owner of that shared mailbox to add that step to the flow. If you are not, you must share the flow with an owner of the mailbox, and that owner must log in to that step with their Office 365 credentials so the emails can deploy.
"Send email with options" (Office 365 Outlook)"
Full disclosure. I haven't used this. I don't send emails out asking people to choose from options, but I am very intrigued by it.
There is already a Polls option in Outlook, and an Approvals option in Flow. I try not to get too excited about Microsoft Flow and reinvent features that exist in other Office 365 systems (funny story about me and a coworker reinventing mail merge), and this is an option that is susceptible to that. I have no specific advice for you about using this step in a flow, but I can imagine some scenarios:
A note on a text:
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type, written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin. Cows send messages to a farmer so he can make informed choices about his next steps. It is a children's book that contains the word "ultimatum."
Provideing routine or standard information via email
Common Approaches:
- Perform a task in one system
- Go to Outlook to send an email about what you just did
Add an email step to a Microsoft Flow to automate this effort.
What if I have to send email after a process that isn't already automated with Microsoft Flow?
As long as your process involves work in a SharePoint site/library or OneDrive for Business library, you can create a Microsoft Flow to automatically send an email to a group or individual. If you have an automated process built in Office 365 that includes other Microsoft Flow steps and decisions, you can add an email alert after any step.
Know your Microsoft Flow email options.
There several options for standard Microsoft Flow email steps. (More, probably, if you have access to upgraded subscriptions at your company, but I don't.)
"Send an email notification (V3)" (Mail)
- Easiest option to set up.
- The number you can send per day is limited to 5 emails per 5 minutes, and 100 total per day.
- Comes from the sender, "Microsoft Power Automate and Flow."
- Replies go to some unread Microsoft Server.
- Recipients can unsubscribe from the messages and will not get your alerts.
My favorite use of this step is to add check steps to a new Flow I am testing, when I want to be alerted when the flow is triggered. It's hard to keep up with the multiple flows I have activated, especially with a flow that is new but may not run for several days. I add an Email Notification step to myself, and I put it before the new step I am experimenting with. If I put it after the process I want to test and the process fails, the email won't be deployed. I usually leave a link to the flow home page and a description of what behavior I am checking for, as well as the ID and Title information (if it is from a SharePoint list.)
"Send en email" (Office 365 Outlook)
- Sends emails from your personal mailbox
- Because it sends emails from your personal mailbox, the alerts will be saved to your Sent Mail folder.
- More formatting options in the body of the email, like embedded hyperlinks and bullet points.
- Replies will come to you (or to the email address you add in the advanced options)
- Can include attachments
- Can set "importance" levels (low, normal, high)
- Recipients cannot unsubscribe from the alerts (although they could set up an Outlook rule to delete them and you would never know)
NOTE: Although it doesn't say so, the default importance setting is "Low." If you do not set the importance to Normal or High, all emails generated and sent from this step will have a blue down arrow next to them. You will forget this five times before you develop the habit of setting it before the flow triggers.
Click here for more details about this option from the Microsoft documentation site.
"Send an email from a shared mailbox (V2) (Office 355 Outlook)"
The shared mailbox version works the same as the "Send an email" version, except for a shared mailbox. This option is useful when replies to alerts can be answered by any one person in a group, rather than one individual. If you do not want people replying to the mailbox and expecting action, then you should put DO NOT REPLY or "Sent from a shared mailbox and replies will not be read" or similar in the body of the email somewhere.
NOTE: You must be an owner of that shared mailbox to add that step to the flow. If you are not, you must share the flow with an owner of the mailbox, and that owner must log in to that step with their Office 365 credentials so the emails can deploy.
"Send email with options" (Office 365 Outlook)"
Full disclosure. I haven't used this. I don't send emails out asking people to choose from options, but I am very intrigued by it.
There is already a Polls option in Outlook, and an Approvals option in Flow. I try not to get too excited about Microsoft Flow and reinvent features that exist in other Office 365 systems (funny story about me and a coworker reinventing mail merge), and this is an option that is susceptible to that. I have no specific advice for you about using this step in a flow, but I can imagine some scenarios:
- Drop logo files into a SharePoint library and trigger an alert to a marketing manager about which image they prefer for a flyer. The Choices are file names. Flow can automatically generate the folder path for the body of the email, too.
- Add an item to some kind of list that has a Choice column on it, use that column inputs as your choices. "When item is created on list" is your trigger, send email with those options. The recipient replies with their preferred choice for that item, and there is another flow that starts with "When an email arrives" and ends in "Update item" (with the choice from the email)
- Even if Outlook polls already exist, create a recurrencing flow that sends an email every Thursday evening to all members of a team to vote for what restaurant the department lunch should be ordered from on Friday (dream big!). Replies can be added to a SharePoint list so you can do a group by restaurant and see which option was most popular, instead of tracking email replies to count votes by hand on a sticky note.
A note on a text:
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type, written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin. Cows send messages to a farmer so he can make informed choices about his next steps. It is a children's book that contains the word "ultimatum."
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