I want to create a prompt from a Vacation planner where a specific column in Excel(located in one drive/sharepoint) says vacation, we get a notification on teams/outlook email one week ahead

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I want to create a prompt from a Vacation planner where a specific column in Excel(located in one drive/sharepoint) says vacation, we get a notification on teams/outlook email one week ahead

Pina Singh 0

I want to create a notification from Excel, which is located in One Drive/SharePoint (whenever a person is on leave/vacation) to my mailbox or group Teams chat one week prior to the holiday date.

How do I create this? Require guidance for it

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Answer 1

Liora D 11,125 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Dear @Pina Singh,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A.

Thank you very much for your question. From what you described, I understand you would like to use an Excel file stored on OneDrive or SharePoint to trigger an automatic vacation‑notification flow sending a reminder in Teams or Outlook one week before someone’s holiday begins.

At the moment, Excel itself doesn’t provide a built‑in way to automatically send notifications from a column stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. That means the reminder you want (one week before a vacation) can’t run directly from Excel alone.

However, there is another practical approach you can consider: using Power Automate to read your Excel table and send the notification by Teams or Outlook email at the right time. This method is commonly used in Microsoft 365 because it does not require coding and works reliably with files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint.

I’m currently testing this scenario myself to confirm the most stable setup (especially with date formats and Excel serial numbers), so I may need a little more time to fully validate the workflow. While waiting, you can already explore a few useful references that explain the techniques involved:

Note: Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. The sites are not controlled by Microsoft. Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. Please make sure that you completely understand the risk before retrieving any suggestions from the above link

I hope this gives you a helpful direction while I continue checking the full end‑to‑end scenario.

If you want, you can also share a small example of your Excel structure, and I’ll be happy to guide you through the exact steps.

Please understand that our initial response does not always resolve the issue immediately. However, with your help and more detailed information, we can work together to find a solution.

Looking forward to hearing back from you with any updates or additional details.

Warm regards,

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Liora D 11,125 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-02T15:02:20.6633333+00:00

Hi Pina Singh, Thank you for your patience. I’m still running a few additional checks on the Power Automate setup to make sure I can give you the correct and simplest workflow. I haven’t been able to get it to run successfully yet, so I’d like a little more time to verify the behavior.

I’ll follow up shortly as soon as I have a stable configuration for you. Thank you again for your understanding.
Liora D 11,125 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-03T15:05:25.67+00:00
Hi Pina Singh, thank you for your patience.

You can set up automated day‑off reminders directly from your Excel file stored in OneDrive or SharePoint by using Power Automate. This flow will check your vacation planner every day and send a notification email with the upcoming leave information.

1/ Before Power Automate can read your file, your Excel must be set up correctly.

Store the file in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint. Make sure your data is formatted as an Excel Table, not plain rows. Open Excel > Highlight the data > Select Insert > Table

Give it a name (example: VacationTable)

Your table must have clean headers: “Name”, “Day Off”

2/ Create Your Flow

Go to: https://make.powerautomate.com

Click Create (left menu) > Choose Scheduled cloud flow. This opens the Recurrence trigger.

3/ Configure “Recurrence” (the Schedule)

Set when you want the flow to run:

Interval: 1

Frequency: Day

Time zone: choose your local zone

At these hours: e.g., 10

At these minutes: e.g., 40

Preview should show: Runs at 10:40 every day

This means Power Automate will check your Excel table once a day automatically.

4/ Add “List rows present in a table”

Click the + sign under Recurrence > Choose Excel Online (Business) > Select List rows present in a table

Fill in:

Location: OneDrive for Business (or SharePoint)

Document Library: Usually "Documents"

File: Browse and select your Excel file

Table: Select your table name (e.g., VacationTable)

Filler Query: utcNow('MM/dd/yyyy')

This action loads the Excel rows into the flow.

5/ Add “Create HTML Table”

Click + > Choose Data Operations > Create HTML table

In From, select value from the Excel step

Change Columns > Custom

Add the columns you want:

NameValueNameName (from Excel)Day OFFaddDays('12-30-1899',int(item()?['Day OFF']),'MM-dd-yyyy')

The HTML table will be clean & email‑friendly.

6/ Add “Send an email (V2)”

Click + > Choose Outlook > Send an email (V2)

Fill in:

To: your email or group

Subject: List day off

Body: Click inside > choose output from Create HTML table

Leave format as HTML

Now the email will contain a nice table with vacation details.

7/ Test the Flow

Click Test (top right) > Select Manually > Run the flow> Check your email

I hope this information helps point you in the right direction. If you run into any issues while trying the steps, or if something still doesn’t feel quite right, please don’t hesitate to reach out again. I’ll do my best to support you however I can.

Looking forward to hearing back from you with any updates or additional details.

Warm regards,
Liora D 11,125 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-04T14:59:42.2566667+00:00

Hi @Pina Singh,

I just wanted to follow up to see how things are going with the information I shared above. I truly hope it was helpful and brought you closer to resolving the issue.

If you’ve had a chance to review it and have any updates, questions, or if you ran into any difficulties along the way, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I’m more than happy to assist further if needed.

It would be great to hear back from you!

Warm regards,

Liora.

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I want to create a prompt from a Vacation planner where a specific column in Excel(located in one drive/sharepoint) says vacation, we get a notification on teams/outlook email one week ahead

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