Automate Excel Online (Business) Using Power Automate

Introduction

Excel isn't just a spreadsheet tool anymore when combined with Power Automate, it becomes a powerful engine for automation. Whether you're managing leads, tracking inventory, or generating reports, Power Automate's Excel Online (Business) connector enables you to interact with Excel files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint seamlessly.

In this blog, we’ll walk through all available Excel Online (Business) actions and explain how and when to use them.

Overview

The list of available actions under the "Excel Online (Business)" connector in Microsoft Power Automate. These actions allow users to automate interactions with Excel files stored in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint. The actions are grouped into functional categories.

Data Operations

  • Get a row: Retrieve data from a specific row using a key.
  • List rows present in a table: Retrieve all rows from a table.
  • Add a row into a table: Insert new data into an Excel table.
  • Update a row: Modify data in a specific row.
  • Delete a row: Remove a specific row from a table.

Structure & Table Management

  • Get worksheets: Get a list of worksheet names from a workbook.
  • Get tables: List all tables in a worksheet.
  • Create table: Convert a cell range into a structured table.
  • Create a worksheet: Add a new worksheet to an existing Excel file.
  • Add a key column to a table: Add a unique identifier column to support row-level operations.

Scripting & Automation

  • Run script: Execute an Office Script in the Excel workbook.
  • Run script from SharePoint library: Run a script from an Excel file stored in SharePoint.
  • For a selected row: Trigger a manual flow by selecting a row directly in Excel.

These actions are essential for building robust, no-code Excel automation workflows that handle tasks such as reporting, approvals, data entry, and data syncing across systems.

Excel automation

How to use Them?

To use these actions, certain details are required. I will demonstrate this using the "Create worksheet" action as an example.

Create worksheet

Trigger

The flow begins with a Manually trigger flow step, meaning the user must run it manually (e.g., via a button in Power Automate).

Action – Create a worksheet

This is the main action being demonstrated. Here's how its parameters are configured.

Field Description
Location Set to OneDrive for Business, indicating where the Excel file is stored.
Document Library Selected as OneDrive, which is the default document library for personal files.
File The path to the existing Excel file where the new sheet will be added. (The path is blurred for privacy.)
Name The new worksheet will be named DemoSheet.

Conclusion

The Excel Online (Business) connector in Power Automate offers a wide range of actions to automate and manage your Excel files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. Whether you're updating rows, creating worksheets, or running scripts, each action requires specific inputs like file location, table name, or worksheet name. By understanding how to configure these actions, like we demonstrated with the Create worksheet example, you can build powerful, code-free workflows that save time and boost productivity. Start small, experiment, and soon you'll be automating Excel tasks with ease.