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Understanding Power Automate basics

Microsoft Power Automate is a service that can help you create automated workflows between Tallyfy and other apps and services your business might use. It can be used to synchronize files, get notifications, collect data, and automate other repetitive manual tasks, potentially streamlining operations that interact with your Tallyfy processes.

Think of Power Automate as a tool that can respond to triggers—an event that starts an automation—and then perform a series of actions. For instance, when a specific email arrives, Power Automate could be configured to automatically save its attachment and notify your team via a Tallyfy task.

While Tallyfy is your primary platform for managing core processes and ensuring human-driven tasks are completed efficiently, Power Automate can automate tasks around these Tallyfy processes or integrate Tallyfy with other systems your business relies on.

Why use Power Automate with Tallyfy?

Tallyfy and Power Automate can work together. Tallyfy excels at defining, tracking, and facilitating human collaboration within structured processes. Power Automate can be used for system integrations and automating discrete, often repetitive, micro-tasks that occur before, during, or after your Tallyfy workflows.

Here are some examples of how Tallyfy and Power Automate can work together:

  • Trigger Tallyfy workflows from external events: When a new lead is added to your CRM (like Salesforce or HubSpot), a Power Automate flow can automatically launch a specific Tallyfy procedure template, such as “New Client Onboarding,” ensuring a standardized follow-up within Tallyfy.
  • Update external systems based on Tallyfy progress: When a critical task in a Tallyfy process, like “Invoice Approved,” is completed, Power Automate can update your accounting software (e.g., QuickBooks, Xero).
  • Enhance notifications: While Tallyfy has its own robust notifications, Power Automate can extend these. For example, send an SMS to a field technician when an urgent Tallyfy task is assigned to them, or post a custom message to a specific Microsoft Teams channel based on a Tallyfy event.

To facilitate these integrations, Tallyfy provides a dedicated connector for Power Automate. You can also find information on the Tallyfy Connector page on Microsoft Learn ↗, though our documentation provides Tallyfy-specific guidance.

Core Power Automate terminology for Tallyfy users

Understanding the following terms is key to effectively using Power Automate to support your Tallyfy workflows:

  • Flows: This is the core of Power Automate. A flow is an automated workflow composed of a trigger and one or more actions, often interacting with Tallyfy.
    • Cloud Flows: These are common and run in Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure.
      • Automated flows: These start automatically when a specific event occurs. For example, if a Tallyfy process step involves saving a document to a designated SharePoint folder, an automated flow can trigger when that new file is created.
      • Instant flows (Button flows): These are initiated manually by a user, typically by clicking a button. For instance, a sales representative could use an instant flow to quickly launch a Tallyfy “Client Demo Request” process. You can learn more about triggering flows manually.
      • Scheduled flows: These run at predetermined times. An example could be a scheduled flow that runs every morning to check for overdue Tallyfy tasks and sends a summary report to a manager.
    • Desktop Flows (Briefly): These are used for Robotic Process Automation (RPA), allowing you to automate tasks on a Windows desktop. This is covered in more detail in our article on RPA with Power Automate.
  • Connectors: These are bridges that allow Power Automate to communicate with different applications, including the Tallyfy connector which is essential for integrating with your Tallyfy account. Other connectors exist for Microsoft services (Outlook, SharePoint) and third-party services.
  • Triggers: A trigger is the specific event that starts a flow. Examples include “When a new email arrives” (Outlook connector), “When a file is created in a folder” (SharePoint connector), or “When a Tallyfy task is completed” (using the Tallyfy connector). You can also use Tallyfy webhooks in conjunction with Power Automate’s HTTP connector to trigger flows based on a wide array of events in Tallyfy.
  • Actions: These are the operations a flow performs after it’s triggered. For Tallyfy, actions could include “Create a Tallyfy task,” or interacting with other systems based on Tallyfy data.
  • Conditions: These allow your flows to make decisions based on data, including data from Tallyfy. This is covered in using conditional logic in Power Automate.
  • Expressions (Briefly): These are formulas for more advanced data manipulation. We explore expressions in advanced conditions and expressions in Power Automate.
  • Dynamic Content: This refers to data from previous steps in your flow (from Tallyfy triggers or other actions) that you can use in subsequent actions. For example, when a Tallyfy task completion triggers a flow, the task’s details (ID, name, completed by) are available as dynamic content.

Power Automate interfaces overview

You’ll primarily interact with Power Automate through these interfaces when setting up integrations for Tallyfy:

  • Web Portal (flow.microsoft.com): The main hub for creating, managing, and monitoring your cloud flows that connect to Tallyfy.
  • Mobile App (iOS and Android): Useful for running instant (button) flows that might interact with Tallyfy.
  • Power Automate Desktop: This application is for creating and managing desktop flows (RPA).

How these concepts enhance Tallyfy

Understanding these Power Automate building blocks empowers you to design automations that extend and complement your Tallyfy processes.

For example, consider this scenario: An automated flow uses the Outlook connector’s “when a new email arrives” trigger. If the email subject, checked by a condition, contains “Urgent Support Request,” an action (using the Tallyfy connector) creates a new high-priority task within a specific Tallyfy support process, populating the task details with dynamic content (like the email body and sender) from the email into Tallyfy.

By understanding these fundamentals, you can connect Tallyfy effectively with your broader digital ecosystem using Power Automate as the bridge.

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Enhance Tallyfy workflows with Power Automate for data synchronization, automated triggers, and system connectivity.
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