Category: Sharepoint

Chartered Accountancy (CA) firms are constantly inundated with emails, attachments, and client documentation. Whether it’s invoices, bank statements, tax documents, or compliance reports, managing these files efficiently while maintaining audit readiness is critical.

To address this, we implemented an end-to-end automation solution using Microsoft Power Automate, Gmail, Google Sheets, and Google Drive with the objective of streamlining document management from the moment a client sends an email to when their documents are stored and logged properly.

Business Scenario

Let’s consider a typical workflow at a CA firm. Clients send compliance-related documents over email sometimes once a week, sometimes multiple times a day. These documents must be saved to the correct client folder and logged into a tracker sheet for future reference, audit readiness, and internal accountability.

Initially, one of our team members was manually downloading attachments and storing them in designated folders on Google Drive. Simultaneously, they maintained a spreadsheet recording the date, subject, and folder path of each document received. As volume grew, this process became error-prone and consumed nearly two hours daily. That’s when we decided to build an automated solution.

Technical Flow Overview

We built the automation using:

• Trigger: Gmail (when a new email arrives)
• Data Lookup: Google Sheet (Clients list with Email → Folder mapping)
• Storage: Google Drive
• Logging: Google Sheet (Receiving Log)
• Logic & Workflow: Microsoft Power Automate

Step-by-Step Breakdown

Here is the Power Automate flow which we are going to discuss in this post:

1. Trigger: New Email from Client

The Power Automate flow is triggered when a new email arrives in Gmail. This is filtered further to ensure it includes attachments.

2. Lookup Client Information

We query a Google Sheet titled Clients to determine

• Who sent the email?
• What is their designated storage folder path?

📄 Example Sheet:

‘Row Id’ is value which you have in column ‘PowerAppsId’.

Put value ‘triggerOutputs()?[‘body/From’]’

3. Set Folder Path Dynamically

4. Condition: Validate Sender and Attachment

We ensure:

• The email is from a known client (matched from Sheet).
• It contains at least one attachment.

5. Store Files in Client Folder (Google Drive)

For each attachment:

• File is stored inside the dynamic folder path.
• Naming is retained from the original attachment.
• Content is stored using the ContentBytes property.

concat(‘/Compliance/’, variables(‘clientFolderName’))

Log Entry in Receiving Log (Google Sheet)

We write a new row in another worksheet to maintain traceability.

This creates a clear audit trail of every document received and filed.

Conclusion

For any compliance-heavy business like a CA firm, automation of document workflows ensures operational efficiency and security. With Power Automate and Google Workspace, even small firms can implement smart document handling without writing a single line of code.

Introduction:

Managing IT support requests manually can be time-consuming and prone to delays. In this blog, we’ll walk you through how to build a simple yet powerful IT support automation flow using Microsoft Power Automate and Microsoft Forms. From capturing support tickets via forms to automatically creating Planner tasks, sending acknowledgment emails, and updating task details, this workflow streamlines the entire process. Whether you’re an IT manager or a Power Platform enthusiast, this guide will help you boost productivity and ensure no support request falls through the cracks.

IT support task flow:

This is a complete IT support automation flow using power automation. Which I am going to explain step by step in this blog –

Step 1: Get response from Support form

This step initiates the flow whenever a user submits a response to the Microsoft Form titled “IT Support Request“. It captures the submission event and passes the response data to the next steps in the flow.

It is connected to the next action, where form response details are retrieved. Then we will have one more action, “Get response details” to collect the response form submitted so we can use it later.

Step 2: Create a task in planner

The “Create a task” step in your Power Automate flow is using Microsoft Planner to automatically generate a task when a new IT support request is submitted. Here’s a breakdown of each setting:

Main Parameters:

• Group Id:
  Demo Teams
  ⦁ This is the Microsoft 365 Group where the Planner is located.
• Plan Id:
  Simple Plan
  ⦁ Refers to the specific Planner plan under the “Demo Teams” group where the task will be created.
• Title:
  New task from [Employee name] on [Urgency]
  ⦁ A dynamic title is created using values from the form response. This makes it easy to identify who submitted the task and how urgent it is.

Step 3: Deploy action

You need to wait for backend systems to update. You’re avoiding API throttling or race conditions. You’re ensuring sequential timing between task creation and follow-up actions (like sending notifications).

In this flow, it’s likely used to give Planner a few seconds to register the newly created task before proceeding to the next step.

Step 4: Update Task

This step adds useful information to the task, such as:

• What the request is about (Detailed description)
• Who submitted the form (responder)
• When it was submitted (submitDate)

This ensures that the assigned user has all relevant details for resolving the support request efficiently, directly within the Planner task.

Let me know if you want to also include form answers or links in the description!

Step 5: Update assignee or employee based on task creation status via email

Send an email (V2) – success

This step attempts to send an email using Outlook (Office 365). This action will iterate over a list all assignees and then send email to them.

Send an email (V2) – Failed

The red dot indicates that this action failed during execution.

Conclusion:

By integrating Microsoft Forms, Planner, and Outlook through Power Automate, we’ve created a seamless and efficient IT support process that reduces manual work, ensures timely task assignment, and improves overall response time. With just a few steps, from capturing form responses to creating tasks and sending notifications, your IT team can stay organized and responsive. This low-code solution is not only easy to implement but also scalable to fit the evolving needs of your organization. Start automating today and let your team focus on solving problems, not managing tickets.

Introduction:

Managing job queues in Dynamics 365 Business Central can be seamless, until one fails. Job queue failures can impact automated processes, reporting tasks, and system integrations. The earlier you’re notified, the faster you can act.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through a Power Automate flow that automatically sends an email alert via Outlook when a job queue failure occurs in Business Central. This proactive approach minimizes downtime and ensures that the right people are informed instantly.

Step by Step Setup

Step 1: Trigger: When a Job Queue Failed Event Occurs (V3)

The Power Automate flow starts with the trigger “When a job queue failed event occurs (V3)”. This step listens for failure events within Business Central’s job queue system. It uses the Business Central connector to hook into the system and monitor the status of scheduled jobs. The moment a failure is logged, the flow is triggered automatically.

Parameters Section

1. Environment: This dropdown lets you choose the Business Central environment where the job queues are running. In this case, the selected environment is ENV_BC_STW_DEMO_SANDBOX. That means the trigger will only listen for failures occurring in the sandbox environment of your Business Central system.
2. Event: This specifies the type of event the trigger should listen for. Here, it’s set to Job queue task failed – 1.0 (Microsoft), which means it will fire only when a scheduled job queue task fails.
3. Advanced Parameters: This section is usually collapsed by default but may include filters or additional settings. In this case, it’s showing 1 option but doesn’t need to be adjusted unless you’re filtering further.
4. Company (optional): You can optionally specify the name of the Business Central company (e.g., “CRONUS India Ltd.”) if your environment has multiple companies. Leaving this field blank means it will trigger on any company within the selected environment.

Step 2 – Action: Find the Job Queue Entry

Once the failure is detected, this action fetches the corresponding job queue entry, pulling relevant metadata such as job name, status, and related IDs.

This screen shows the configuration for the “Find the job queue entry” step in your Power Automate flow. This step comes right after the trigger “When a job queue failed event occurs (V3)” and is responsible for fetching detailed information about the failed job queue entry from Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Parameters:

1. Environment This field specifies the Business Central environment where the job queue failure occurred. It is dynamically filled using the value from the trigger, so the action will execute in the same environment where the job failure was detected. In your case, it appears to be something like ENV_BC_STW_DEMO_SANDBOX.
2. Company This is the name of the Business Central company (like CRONUS India Ltd.) where the job is registered. Again, this value is pulled dynamically from the trigger output to ensure the flow uses the correct company context.
3. API Category This specifies the version of the Business Central API you’re using. It is set to v2.0, which is the most commonly used and stable API version as of now.
4. Table Name This tells Power Automate which Business Central API table to query. It’s set to jobQueueEntries, which corresponds to the list of job queue tasks defined in your Business Central environment. This is where all job-related data—like job name, status, and frequency—resides.
5. Row ID This is a dynamic expression—most likely something like body(‘JobQueueFailedTrigger’)?[‘JobQueueEntryId’] – that uniquely identifies the job queue entry that failed. Power Automate will use this ID to pull just the record for the failed job queue, rather than fetching the whole table.

Step 3 – Action: Find the User Contact Email

After identifying the failed job, the flow proceeds to “Find the user contact email”. This action locates the email address of the user who is responsible for the job. By doing so, we can ensure that the notification is sent directly to the person who can take the necessary corrective action, instead of broadcasting alerts to an entire team.

Step 4 – Action: Find Job Queue Log Entry URL

We extract the URL to the job queue’s log entry in Business Central. This allows the recipient to click the link and investigate the error immediately, saving time and guesswork.

Step 5 – Action: Send an Email Notification

Finally, we send a professional email with the following contents:

This screen shows the configuration for the “Send an email notification” action in your Power Automate flow. This is the final step of your flow, and it’s responsible for notifying the relevant user via Outlook when a job queue fails in Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Let’s walk through the setup in detail:

To (Recipient Email)

The To field is set to contactEmail, which was retrieved earlier in the flow using the action “Find the user contact email”. This ensures the email is sent directly to the user who scheduled or owns the failed job queue task.

Subject Line

The subject dynamically constructs a descriptive subject for the email. It reads something like:

“The job [Description] scheduled by [User] in [Company] failed”

Here’s how it’s composed:

body/description: The name or description of the job from the failed queue entry.

body/userId: The user who scheduled or owns the job.

body/$company: The company in which the job was set up.

This makes it easy for the recipient to quickly understand what the email is about without opening the message.

Email Body

The body of the email provides a clear and actionable summary of the failure:

Failure Details

The first paragraph provides a detailed sentence like:

“The job [Description] scheduled by [User ID] in [Company] failed on [Date] after [X] trials.”

JobQueueEntrySystemId, userId, company, lastModifiedDateTime, and trial count (calculated via an expression) all help describe exactly what went wrong.

Quick Links

Two links are provided:

Job Queue Entry page – Takes the user to the record of the job queue task.

Job Queue Log Entry page – Takes the user directly to the error log entry for deeper troubleshooting.

These links are helpful for navigating directly to the source of the issue in Business Central.

Support Tip

There’s a helpful note for users who might want to escalate this issue:

“If you are sharing this with the support team, make sure to include these details: [Error Message]”

This error message is dynamically pulled from the job queue log and will help support teams diagnose the problem faster.

Technical Context

At the bottom, it adds:

Microsoft Entra Tenant ID

Environment

These identifiers are particularly helpful in multi-environment or multi-tenant scenarios, allowing the IT team to know exactly where the failure occurred.

Advanced Parameters

There are more options available under advanced parameters, but only 2 of 7 are currently shown. You could use these to set CC/BCC addresses, importance, attachments, or custom headers if needed.

Conclusion:

This Power Automate flow is simple but powerful. It bridges the gap between Business Central job queue monitoring and proactive team communication. With minimal effort, you can ensure that failures don’t go unnoticed—and that your team stays informed and empowered to act.

Introduction

Excel isn’t just a spreadsheet tool anymore—when combined with Power Automate, it becomes a powerful engine for automation. Whether you’re managing leads, tracking inventory, or generating reports, Power Automate’s Excel Online (Business) connector enables you to interact with Excel files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint seamlessly.

In this blog, we’ll walk through all available Excel Online (Business) actions and explain how and when to use them.

Overview –

The list of available actions under the “Excel Online (Business)” connector in Microsoft Power Automate. These actions allow users to automate interactions with Excel files stored in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint. The actions are grouped into functional categories:

Data Operations

• Get a row – Retrieve data from a specific row using a key.
• List rows present in a table – Retrieve all rows from a table
• Add a row into a table – Insert new data into an Excel table.
• Update a row – Modify data in a specific row.
• Delete a row – Remove a specific row from a table.

Structure & Table Management

• Get worksheets – Get a list of worksheet names from a workbook.
• Get tables – List all tables in a worksheet.
• Create table – Convert a cell range into a structured table.
• Create worksheet – Add a new worksheet to an existing Excel file.
• Add a key column to a table – Add a unique identifier column to support row-level operations.

Scripting & Automation

• Run script – Execute an Office Script in the Excel workbook.
• Run script from SharePoint library – Run a script from an Excel file stored in SharePoint.
• For a selected row – Trigger a manual flow by selecting a row directly in Excel.

These actions are essential for building robust, no-code Excel automation workflows that handle tasks such as reporting, approvals, data entry, and data syncing across systems.

How to use them:

To use these actions, certain details are required. I will demonstrate this using the “Create worksheet” action as an example

Trigger:

The flow begins with a Manually trigger a flow step, meaning the user must run it manually (e.g., via a button in Power Automate).

Action – Create worksheet:

This is the main action being demonstrated. Here’s how its parameters are configured:

Conclusion

The Excel Online (Business) connector in Power Automate offers a wide range of actions to automate and manage your Excel files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. Whether you’re updating rows, creating worksheets, or running scripts, each action requires specific inputs like file location, table name, or worksheet name. By understanding how to configure these actions, like we demonstrated with the Create worksheet example, you can build powerful, code-free workflows that save time and boost productivity. Start small, experiment, and soon you’ll be automating Excel tasks with ease.

Imagine driving a car that’s no longer serviced by the manufacturer. No spare parts, no safety upgrades, no technical support. Every kilometer you drive is a risk.

This is exactly what happens when businesses continue to use Microsoft Dynamics NAV beyond 2025.

Dynamics NAV has been a loyal companion for many companies, especially in the manufacturing, trading, and services industries. It offered flexibility, control, and customization that helped businesses grow steadily for years. However, technology doesn’t stand still—and neither should your business.

Microsoft officially ended mainstream support for NAV years ago. By 2025, even the extended support for many versions will stop completely.

The big question is, what happens if you still stick with it?

The Silent Risks That Grow Every Day

Without active support, Dynamics NAV becomes a ticking time bomb. Businesses will no longer receive security updates, leaving critical financial and operational data vulnerable to cyberattacks. In today’s connected world, one breach can cripple a business financially and reputationally.

Take, for example, a mid-sized trading company in Mumbai. They continued using NAV 2015 without upgrades. In early 2023, they suffered a ransomware attack through an unpatched security loophole. Recovery costs, customer loss, and downtime ended up costing them over ₹1.2 crore — a cost far higher than an ERP upgrade would have been.

Moreover, regulations are constantly evolving. In India alone, updates to GST e-invoicing, TDS rules, and compliance reporting standards have been rapid and frequent. Without regular system updates, your ERP can’t stay compliant, exposing you to penalties, audits, and heavy fines. One CFO shared that their team spent over 120 man-hours per month just manually adjusting compliance entries because their ERP couldn’t handle updated tax regulations automatically.

Losing the Race: Competitors Will Overtake You

While you struggle with manual workarounds, slow reporting, and error-prone integrations, your competitors are embracing automation, AI-driven forecasting, mobile access, and real-time dashboards.

They are cutting costs, improving customer service, and making decisions at the speed of light.

A manufacturer in Pune decided to move from NAV 2016 to Business Central SaaS in late 2022. In just six months, they reported:

• 20% faster order-to-cash cycles
• 15% reduction in operational costs
• Real-time inventory visibility across three locations
• Mobile approvals for purchase orders and dispatches

Their CEO mentioned:

“Earlier, I used to wait for the weekly report to understand my sales and inventory. Now, it’s on my phone, real-time. That’s the difference Business Central has made.”

Meanwhile, a peer company sticking to NAV continues to operate with last week’s numbers — making decisions based on assumptions, not reality.

Technical Challenges Will Multiply

Technology is moving towards connected ecosystems. You cannot run isolated systems anymore. Integrating NAV with new tools like Power BI, Microsoft Teams, payment gateways, CRM software, and modern supply chain platforms is becoming more complex and expensive each year.

In one case, a Bangalore-based distributor wanted to integrate their old NAV system with a new e-commerce platform. After months of struggle and ₹8 lakh spent on custom connectors and manual reconciliation, they abandoned the project and eventually migrated to Business Central — saving both time and future frustration.

Without modernization, every future innovation will cost you more, take longer, and deliver less value.

The Hidden Costs of Sticking with NAV

Many businesses hold back on upgrading thinking, “Why spend when it’s still working?” But the real costs are hidden:

• Increased IT maintenance and downtime
• Higher cybersecurity insurance premiums
• Loss of employees frustrated with outdated systems
• Customer dissatisfaction due to delayed service
• Missed business opportunities due to lack of real-time data

Over time, the “cost of inaction” becomes far greater than the “cost of migration.”

A Smarter Path: Transitioning to Business Central

Microsoft’s vision for the future is clear. Dynamics 365 Business Central is the natural successor to NAV — modern, cloud-first, continuously updated, and seamlessly integrated with Microsoft’s ecosystem.

Migration doesn’t mean you lose your data, processes, or expertise. It’s about upgrading your engine while keeping your core intact.

Companies that migrated report:

• 25–30% operational efficiency gains
• Reduced dependency on IT support
• Easier compliance management
• Happier, more productive employees

And the best part?

Business Central grows with you — whether you open a new plant, add an e-commerce channel, or expand globally.

Conclusion: Staying on NAV Post-2025 Is Like Sailing Without a Compass

If your business still runs on Dynamics NAV, think hard about your next steps.
Post-2025, it’s not just about missing a few features — it’s about risking your entire operational stability.

You owe it to your business, your team, and your customers to move to a system that’s ready for the future.

Because in today’s competitive world, being slightly slow is the same as being left behind.

Upgrade your systems before your competition upgrades their position.

Checklist

Your Scorecard:

Ready to Migrate Smoothly?

We specialize in helping businesses like yours move from Dynamics NAV to Business Central with minimal disruption and maximum benefits.

• Data migration and integrity assurance
• Customization re-alignment
• User training and post-go-live support

Let’s future-proof your business — and set you up for the next decade of growth.