Automate data transfers between your SharePoint records and documents by combining Power Automate flow with SharePoint bots.
In this article, we will describe how to automatically send out pre-filled documents to your recipients by combining a PA flow and the workflow with the Pre-fill from SharePoint list records bot.
Requirements:
WorkFlow account
SharePoint account
Power Automate account
Example: Every time when you have a new customer, you create a new record for them in SharePoint. After that, you need to send them documents to collect more data for your record. To save time, you want to pre-fill the documents with the basic personal data you already have.
To automate the process, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Create the workflow adding the documents you need to send to the customer.
Step 2: Add and configure the Pre-fill from SharePoint list records bot.
Step 3: Create the Power Automate flow that will automatically run the workflow every time a new record is created.
Step 1. Create the workflow
Create a new workflow by clicking Start > Design workflow.
Name the workflow and click Add documents to add documents to it.
There are three different options to add a document to your workflow.
Upload documents from your device.
Import documents from the library, another application, CRM, or storage (pdfFiller, signNow, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, SharePoint). Click Show more to see more options.
Create documents using one of the popular templates.
Learn more about adding documents to a workflow in the dedicated article.
The added document will open in the editor. Start adding fillable fields to your document by dragging them from the side panel.
When you add fillable fields, it’s more convenient to name each field. This makes it a lot easier to match them with the entity fields later.
Click Continue in the bottom when you’re done with fillable fields.
Now, add execution steps for your workflow and build a diagram with the help of the drag-and-drop interface. Every step is associated with a certain role that you assign to your recipients.
Click the plus icon to add steps and branches. Steps help to configure a hierarchical execution, and branches — execution in parallel.
Name the steps to make your workflow more clear and delete them if needed.
Configure settings for each step by clicking on the gear icon. The settings include the following sections:
Assigning certain fillable fields in the document to the step.
Assigning recipients to the step from the Address Book or CRM contact.
Configuring step execution conditions.
Learn more about designing your workflow in the dedicated article.
Step 2. Add and configure the Pre-fill from SharePoint list records bot
To add the bot to a step, click the three dots in this step and select Add bot to step.
Search for the bot you need by category or using the search bar. Then, install the bot to your workflow by clicking the Install bot button.
Connection settings:
To connect the bot to your SharePoint account, select Connect in the Connection settings section.
Then, select the SharePoint account you need to connect. You can also connect a new account by clicking Add connection. You’ll be redirected to the Microsoft login screen. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be directed back to account.
Once connected, proceed to the next section.
Action settings:
In the Select objects and map fields section, indicate the SharePoint list from which the data will be transferred.
First, select the SharePoint site.
Second, select the time zone you need to make sure that dates in your documents and SharePoint records match.
Finally, select the SharePoint list to pre-fill data from.
If you need to retrieve data from a related list, select it from the base list menu. Click on the plus icon and select the related list from the dropdown. Related lists may have different hierarchical levels. To add a new level, click the plus icon near the previous level list.
Select a data transfer method. Single line method means that you transfer one data instance from field to field, such as Name, Email, and Address, while the table method transfers data from table to table, such as lists of customers or products.
Next, indicate which data must be transferred to the document by mapping the needed list fields to the respective document fields. Select list fields and link them to the document fields that should contain the corresponding values from the list’s record. To map more fields, click the Map another field button and repeat the process.
Note: When you’re pre-filling data from a related list, you have options to only pre-fill from a related list or from the entire relation (base list + related list(s)). For the first case, only map the related list. For the second, map all lists you need to pre-fill from.
Click Continue to proceed with the settings.
You can omit the Select starting record section — the record ID will be transferred by the Power Automate flow action.
Configure Conditions and Advanced settings if needed.
Step 3: Create a Power Automate flow to trigger the workflow
In SharePoint, go to the list you need to create a flow for. Then, click on the three dots and go to Integrate > Power Automate > Create a flow.
To create a Flow from scratch, click See your flows on the sidebar. Alternatively, you can select one of the proposed flow templates and use SharePoint triggers from there.
On the My flows page, click New flow and select one of the ways to create a new flow. In our example, we use Automated cloud flow.
Name your flow and from the dropdown, select a trigger that will initiate your flow. Then, click Create.
Select the site address and list name for which the trigger will work.
After that, proceed to the action. Click the plus icon under the step and then click Add an action.
Use the search bar to find action quickly and select the Create a new document action from the menu.
In the parameters, indicate the workspace where the workflow you need is located and the workflow itself.
Then, click on the Advanced options field and tick Dynamics Record ID.
Click on the lightning icon to open the dropdown and select ID.
Once everything is ready, click Save.
As a result, every time a new item is created in the SharePoint list, a new document with prefilled data will be generated. You can monitor the flow’s performance on the My flows page.
You can also build flows in Power Automate using various SharePoint triggers along with bots designed for SharePoint.