OUTLOOK > EXCEL

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OUTLOOK > EXCEL

Anonymous

Dear Microsoft Team,

I hope you're well. I'm reaching out for assistance with automating a task I'm currently handling manually, and it's become quite time-consuming.I'm responsible for tracking all email enquiries related to private dining bookings. These emails come into a specific Outlook folder, and I need to extract key information from each (such as guest name, email, number of people, and dates) and input it into an Excel spreadsheet saved on Dropbox.What I’ve Tried So Far:

Accessed Outlook via both the desktop app and web version.
Attempted to use Excel macros and the VBA editor, but ran into technical issues and memory errors.
Tried to filter and search using the received date (from February 6th, 2025 onward), but couldn't retrieve all emails correctly.
Began entering data manually into the spreadsheet, but this is unsustainable given the volume.
Explored Power Automate, but couldn't get it fully working due to limitations with account access and setup.

What I Need:

A solution to automatically extract relevant data (name, email, guest count, enquiry date, etc.) from incoming emails in a specific Outlook folder.
That data should be inserted or synced to an Excel spreadsheet hosted on Dropbox (or another compatible solution).
Ideally, I’d like to capture emails from February 6th, 2025 onward and keep the sheet updated going forward.

Please let me know if this is something you can help with, what kind of access or setup you'd need from me, and a rough idea of timeline and cost.

Additionally, I had to create a personal Microsoft 365 account with a different email address (my personal one). Meaning the same emails are not even connected.

Please help!

Looking forward to hearing from you. Kind regards,Sahara

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3 answers

Answer 1

Hi Sahara,

I’ve reviewed your post regarding automating the extraction of private dining enquiry details from Outlook into an Excel file stored on Dropbox.

Since you're working in a business context, the most scalable and supported approach would be to use Power Automate with Microsoft 365 Business features. Here's a high-level outline of how to set this up:

Prerequisites:

A Microsoft 365 Business account with access to Power Automate.
A Dropbox Business account (or OneDrive for Business as an alternative).
An Excel file with a pre-defined table (headers like Name, Email, Guest Count, Enquiry Date).
Access to the Outlook mailbox where the enquiries are received.

Setup Steps:

Create a Table in Excel
Store it in Dropbox. Ensure the table has headers like: Name, Email, GuestCount, EnquiryDate.
Build a Power Automate Flow
Trigger: “When a new email arrives in a folder” (Outlook connector).
Condition: Filter emails from February 6, 2025 onward.
Parse Email: Use “HTML to Text” and “Text functions” to extract structured data.
Action: Add a row to the Excel table in Dropbox.
Test and Monitor

Once the flow is active, test it with a few sample emails and monitor the output in Excel.

I hope this solution helps streamline your workflow. Let us know if you need help setting up the flow or if you run into any issues.

Best Regards,

Clover-L - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

Answer 2

Hi There,

thank you for all the info.

My current Microsoft 365 Business is personal, with a different email from the Outlook business emails, which I have access too.

I will need to transfer enquiries emails (from three separate business email address inbox) to my excel workplace (personal account).

Looking forward to hearing from you.

See attached doc as an example.

Kind regards,

Sahara

Answer 3

Hi Sahara, Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Community. We understand you're looking to automate the extraction of private dining enquiry details from a specific Outlook folder and sync that data into an Excel spreadsheet stored on Dropbox.Since you're working in a business context, here’s a scalable and supported approach using Power Automate with Microsoft 365 Business features:Prerequisites

A Microsoft 365 Business account with access to Power Automate.
A Dropbox Business account (or OneDrive for Business as an alternative).
An Excel file with a pre-defined table (with headers like Name, Email, Guest Count, Date, etc.).
Access to the Outlook mailbox where the enquiries are received.

Setup Steps:

Create a Table in Excel:

Store it in Dropbox.
Ensure the table has headers like: Name, Email, GuestCount, EnquiryDate.

Build a Power Automate Flow:

Trigger: “When a new email arrives in a folder” (Outlook connector).
Condition: Filter emails from Feb 6, 2025 onward.
Parse Email: Use “HTML to Text” and “Text functions” to extract structured data.
Action: “Add a row into a table” (Dropbox Excel connector).

Test and Monitor:

Run the flow with test emails.
Monitor for errors or skipped entries.

Important Notes

If your current Microsoft 365 account is personal, Power Automate’s Dropbox and Outlook connectors may have limited functionality.
For full automation, you’ll need to use a business account that has access to both Outlook and Power Automate connectors.

To proceed, could you please confirm:

Do you have access to a Microsoft 365 Business or Education account with Power Automate enabled?
Is Dropbox a strict requirement, or would OneDrive for Business be acceptable?

Once I have this info, I can help you build a working flow or even generate a sample Excel file and parsing logic for you. We look forward to hearing from you.Best regards,Hoang-D - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist.

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OUTLOOK > EXCEL

3 answers