What Power Automate is
Power Automate is Microsoft’s tool for building flows: when an email arrives, save the attachment to SharePoint; when someone fills in a form, add a row in Excel and post a notification in Teams. It works best where a company already lives in Microsoft 365.
When it is enough
- Data and people are in Microsoft 365: Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Excel.
- The flow is simple and has one owner who understands it.
- A failed run means a delay, not a lost order or invoice.
When it gets in the way
Trouble starts when a flow touches systems outside Microsoft, has many exceptions or becomes critical to the business. Then it matters whether anyone sees failed runs, whether the flow can be tested before a change, and who takes it over when its author leaves.
These are not flaws of the tool; they are questions for any automation. For simple flows inside Microsoft 365 the answers can be short. For processes across many systems, an integration with its own error handling usually fits better.
Before the first flow
Write down three things: what should happen, what should happen when something fails, and who is told about the failure. If the second and third have no answer, the flow is not ready to switch on.