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Managing and monitoring Power Automate flows

Once you’ve built Power Automate flows - especially those integrated with your critical Tallyfy processes - you need to manage and monitor them properly. This guide walks you through managing these flows, including collaboration, backups, environment migrations, and troubleshooting common Tallyfy connection issues.

Sharing and collaborating on flows

Automating your Tallyfy processes is rarely a solo effort. You’ll often need teammates to help build, test, and maintain flows. Power Automate’s sharing features keep your Tallyfy automations running smoothly even when team members change.

  • Why share flows?

    • Team collaboration: Multiple people can work on the same flow, testing and improving it together.
    • Business continuity: What happens when someone leaves? Shared ownership means your automations don’t break when the original creator moves on.
  • Adding co-owners:

    • You can add other users or Microsoft 365 groups as co-owners of a cloud flow.
    • Co-owners get full permissions - they can edit the flow, check its run history, and manage connections (like the Tallyfy connector) for that specific flow. They can even add or remove other owners.
    • To add a co-owner: Navigate to My flows in Power Automate, select the flow, and click Share. Type in the person’s name or email.
    • Connection sharing: Here’s something important - when you share a flow, its connections (to Tallyfy, Outlook, SharePoint) become available to co-owners only for that flow. They can’t use these connections in their other flows.
  • Run-only users (for manually triggered flows):

    • For instant (button) flows that can be triggered manually, you can grant run-only permissions.
    • These users can trigger the flow - like starting a Tallyfy process with a button click - but they can’t peek under the hood or change anything.
    • Perfect for giving teams standardized tools without letting them accidentally break the automation.
    • To set run-only permissions: Go to the flow’s details page, find the Run only users section, and click Edit.
  • Sharing desktop flows: Desktop flows for RPA work the same way. You can share them with run or co-owner permissions through the Power Automate web portal.

Exporting and importing flows

You’ll need to export and import flows for several reasons - backing them up, moving between environments, or sharing your automation solutions with other teams using Tallyfy.

  • Why export/import?

    • Backup and recovery: Export your complex Tallyfy integrations regularly. Trust me, you’ll thank yourself later.
    • Environment migration: Move flows from test to production without rebuilding everything from scratch.
    • Sharing solutions: Package a flow with all its dependencies to share with other teams in your organization.
  • Exporting a flow:

    1. Go to My flows in Power Automate, find the flow you want to export.

    2. Click the ellipsis (…) and select Export > Package (.zip).

    3. Give your package a Name and Description.

    4. Under “Review Package Content,” decide what happens on import for each resource - update existing items or create new ones.

    5. Click Export. You’ll get a .zip file.

  • Importing a flow:

    1. Go to My flows and click Import.

    2. Upload the .zip package file.

    3. During import, configure each resource:

      • For the flow: Choose Create as new or Update an existing flow.
      • For connections (like your Tallyfy connector or SharePoint): Pick an existing connection or create a new one.
    4. When everything shows green checkmarks, click Import.

Monitoring flow run history

Want to know if your Tallyfy automations are actually working? The run history tells you everything. Access it through the Power Automate interface.

  • Accessing run history:
    • Click on a flow name in My flows to see its details page with run history.
    • Or click the ellipsis (…) next to any flow and select Run history.
  • Understanding the run history: Each run shows:
    • Start time
    • Duration
    • Status: Succeeded, Failed, Cancelled, or Running.
  • Drilling into a Specific Run: Click any run’s start time to see exactly what happened step by step.
    • Expand each step to see Inputs and Outputs.
    • For Tallyfy integrations, this shows you the exact data received from Tallyfy triggers, what you sent to Tallyfy actions (like “Create task” through the Tallyfy connector), and Tallyfy’s response.
  • Resubmitting failed flows: Service hiccup caused a failure? You can often resubmit the failed run with the same trigger data right from the history page.

Basic troubleshooting

Things not working? Here’s how to troubleshoot your Tallyfy-integrated flows. (If you’re new to this, check out Power Automate basics first.)

  • Flow checker: Before running anything, click the Flow checker (look for the stethoscope icon). It catches errors before they happen.

  • Common error types & solutions:

    • Authentication errors: See “Unauthorized” or HTTP 401/403 errors? Your credentials expired.
      • Solution: Edit the flow, find the failing connection (could be your Tallyfy connector, Outlook, or SharePoint), and re-authenticate.
    • Action configuration errors: Missing required fields or wrong data types (like text where numbers should be).
    • Logic errors: The flow runs but gives wrong results? Your conditions or expressions need fixing.
      • Solution: Review your conditional logic and expressions. Add “Compose” actions to see what values your expressions actually produce during runs.
    • API limits/throttling: Making too many calls too quickly? Services (including Tallyfy) will throttle you.
      • Solution: Reduce the number of calls, add delays between actions, and check the API documentation for specific rate limits.
  • Interpreting error messages: Error messages in the run history usually tell you exactly what went wrong. Read them!

  • Using “Peek code” and “Compose”:

    • Peek code: Click the ellipsis (…) on any action and select Peek code to see its JSON structure. Helpful for understanding how Tallyfy expects data.
    • Compose action: Your best debugging friend. Add a Compose action (details here) to see what any expression or dynamic content actually contains when the flow runs.

Best practices for managing Tallyfy-Power Automate flows

  • Clear naming: Give your flows, triggers, and actions descriptive names. “Tallyfy New Employee Onboarding” beats “Flow 1” every time.
  • Regular review: Check run history weekly for your critical flows - especially those automating important Tallyfy processes.
  • Documentation: Complex flows with lots of conditional logic or expressions? Write down how they work. Future you will appreciate it.
  • Connection security: Keep your Tallyfy connector and other connections secure. Consider service accounts for flows that shouldn’t depend on individual user accounts.
  • Failover planning: What’s your backup plan if a critical flow fails? Set up alerts and document manual workarounds for mission-critical automations.

Stay on top of these practices, and your Tallyfy automations will run smoothly for years to come.

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