Create Power Automate flows for different business scenarios
In the previous units, you explored how to use Power Automate together with Business Central. We explored the configuration of email notifications for minimum inventory or approvals. You can use flows in Power Automate with Business Central in many various scenarios, for example, integrating Business Central with SharePoint, Teams, with Microsoft Dataverse or even with external services.
In this unit, you'll see some ideas on how you can automate your business processes in Business Central with Power Automate.
You know by now how to start Power Automate and how to sign in. In all examples that we will use from here, we'll create automated flows from blank, so always start with selecting Create in the left menu and choosing the Automated flow tile.
Specify the trigger in Business Central
In the following examples, you'll see how to make a flow when you're using events in Business Central as triggers.
Create an item in SharePoint when the item is created in Business Central
If you want to publish all your new items from Business Central with some details on your SharePoint product list, this flow can automate it.
Fill in a Flow name and select the trigger When a record is created (Business Central). Select Create and follow these steps.
Select PRODUCTION as the Environment name and select the Company name you want to use. In the Table name field, select items and then select +Next step to add an action.
Find the Business Central connector and select the Get record action to acquire content from the chosen table in the previous step.
Use the same Environment name, Company name and Table name as you already used in the trigger.
As a Row ID, select Row ID from Dynamic content, as Dynamics content represents content you can take from another action as expressions and Row ID is an unique identifier of the row to retrieve.
Click +Next step to add an action.
Find the SharePoint connector and select the Create Item action.
Enter a value in the Site Address with field in the following format:
https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename. Select a value in the List name field as one of the available lists in your SharePoint.In the Title, select displayName from Dynamics content.
In the Code Name, choose number from Dynamics content.
In the Notes, enter Unit price is: and add unitPrice from Dynamics content. That means you'll get dynamic text with the combination of your written sentence and the real Unit Price as the unitPrice is a field in the Item table in Business Central.
Click Save to save this flow.
Check your SharePoint Product List and verify if all items from Business Central are published. Check in Runs (when you open your flow) if the flow has successfully ran.
Request approval when you change company information in Business Central
If you need control over the Company Information page data, and you don't want to allow everybody to change this data, then the changes approval process is something to consider. Watch the following video to see a demonstration of this type of flow.
Create new channel in Teams when you create new project in Business Central
If you're working with Jobs in Business Central and Microsoft Teams, then you can automate the creation of new channels in Teams for new Jobs in Business Central.
Fill in the Flow name and select the When a record is created (Business Central) trigger, select Create and complete the following steps.
Choose PRODUCTION as the Environment name and select the Company name you want to use. In the Table name select projects and click +Next step to add an action.
Find the Business Central connector and select the Get record action to acquire content from the table selected in the previous step.
Use the same Environment name, Company name and Table name as you already used in the trigger.
For a Row ID, select Row ID from Dynamic content.
Click +Next step to add an action.
Find the Microsoft Teams connector and select the Create a channel action.
Select a specific team in the Team field (for this exercise, we will use a team named Projects. Next, enter the Display Name from Dynamics content as this represents your Job Description in Business Central. If you want the channel name to be populated with the job description, choose displayName. If you want the channel name to be the Job No., select number.
Click Save to save this flow.
Check if your flow executed successfully in Runs. To do this, select your flow from My flows and look at the Runs tab. Also check in Microsoft Teams if the new channel has been created.
Inventory level notification
In the beginning of this module, we explored how to create a flow that runs when the inventory of an item goes below a defined quantity. We used a Send an email action in Outlook for this flow. In the next demonstration, we'll show you how to use the Send me a mobile notification action in a flow, if you'd like to use something more urgent compared with an email.
Specify the trigger in an external service and action in Business Central
In the previous examples, we explored how to use specific events in Business Central as triggers in Power Automate. In the upcoming example, we'll focus on how you can use Power Automate when you want a triggered event in an external system to cause an action in Business Central.
Integrate a Dataverse based solution with Business Central
If you want to integrate other external solutions with Business Central, you can make an integration flow. Let's explore how you can integrate in this way a Dataverse based solution and Business Central. In the following demonstration, we'll create an integration between Dynamics 365 Human Resources and Business Central. That means if you want to complete this example, a prerequisite is to deploy this solution before the creation of this flow (you can find this solution as a trial for demo purposes). You can integrate other Dataverse based solutions similarly.