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Power Automate: Email inspection reports with Outlook

Learn how to create a Power Automate flow to automatically email inspection reports with Outlook.

We understand that it's important for colleagues, managers, or even clients to review inspection reports as soon as possible. Using integration tools such as Power Automate (previously Microsoft Flow), you can automatically email your organization's completed inspection reports to specified email recipients, not only saving your frontline users from having to worry about emailing reports after completing inspections but also ensures the right people always receives the reports in a timely manner.

If your organization uses Zapier as the integration tool, you can create a Zap that delivers an equivalent solution!

What you'll need

Take note

  • This flow utilizes Microsoft Outlook as the client to email inspection reports, this can be interchanged with other connectors such as Power Automate's Mail connector and Gmail.

  • Inspection reports that get emailed are based on the inspections, which the account that generated the API token has access to. If you're an administrator, you can provide yourself inspection access or assign yourself the "data access" permission to have visibility over all inspections in your organization.

If you run into any errors or have any questions regarding the integration, please contact our customer support team for assistance.

1. Recurrence

  1. Sign in to Power Automate.

  2. Click Create from the menu on the left-hand side and select Scheduled cloud flow.

  3. Configure the following fields:

    • Flow name: Add a name for your flow so you can refer back to it easily.

    • Starting: Set the date and time you want the flow to start running.

    • Repeat every: Set the frequency to 1 Hour.

  4. Click Create to create the flow and its first step.

2. Get past time

  1. Click Plus iconNew step.

  2. Search for "Date Time" and select the Get past time action.

  3. Set the "Interval" to 1 and leave the "Time unit" as Hour.

3. Search modified inspections

  1. Click Plus iconNew step.

  2. Search for "SafetyCulture" and select the Search modified inspections action.

  3. If this is your first time using SafetyCulture on Power Automate, authenticate the connector by configuring the following fields, then clicking Create.

    • Connection Name: We recommend that you name the connection by the account username or email from which the API token is generated.

    • API token: Input your API token in the format of "Bearer <token>". Make sure there is a space between "Bearer" and the API token.

  4. Configure the following fields:

    • Modified After: Click the field and select Past time from the dynamic content list.

    • Filter by template (optional): If you only want to process inspections from a specific template, click the field to select the template from the dropdown menu, or select Enter custom value and input the template's unique identifier.

    • Archived (optional): Click the field and select true if you want to only email reports of archived inspection, or select both for active and archived inspections.

    • Completed (optional): Click the field and select false if you want to only email reports of incomplete inspections, or select both for complete and incomplete inspections.

    • Ownership (optional): Click the field and select me if you want to only email reports of inspections that are owned by your account, or select other for inspections that are owned by other users in your organization.

    • Limit: Keep in mind that each flow run can only process up to 1,000 inspections. If your organization conducts more than 1,000 inspections every hour, you should narrow the frequency in "1. Recurrence" and "2. Get past time".

4. Get a specific inspection

  1. Click Plus iconNew step.

  2. Search for "SafetyCulture" and select the Get a specific inspection action.

  3. Click the "Audit ID" field and select Inspection Audit ID from the dynamic content list. This puts the action within an "Apply to each" action.

5. Export an inspection report

  1. Click Add an action.

  2. Search for "SafetyCulture" and select the Export an inspection report action.

  3. Configure the following fields:

    • Audit ID: Click the field and select Inspection Audit ID.

    • Format: Select to export your inspection reports as either PDF or Word files.

    • Preference ID (optional): Click the field and select the report layout you want to apply. Keep in mind that only report layouts for all templates are available.

6. Do until

  1. Click Add an action.

  2. Search for "Control" and select the Do until action.

  3. Skip the fields for now.

7. Check inspection export status

  1. Click Add an action within the "Do until" action.

  2. Search for "SafetyCulture" and select the Check inspection export status action.

  3. Configure the following fields:

    • Audit ID: Click the field and select Inspection Audit ID from the dynamic content list.

    • Export Task ID: Click the field and select Export Task ID from the dynamic content list.

  4. Return to "6. Do until" and configure the following fields:

    • Choose a value (left): Click the field and select Export status from the dynamic content list.

    • Choose a value (right): Type in "SUCCESS".

8. HTTP

  1. Click Add an action not within the "Do until" action, but below it.

  2. Search for "HTTP" and select the HTTP action.

  3. Configure the following fields:

    • Method: Click the field and select GET.

    • URI: Click the field and select Export URL from the dynamic content list.

9. Send an email (V2)

  1. Click Add an action.

  2. Search for "Office 365 Outlook" or "Outlook.com" and select the Send an email (V2) action.

  3. If this is your first time using Outlook on Power Automate, authenticate the connector by signing in to your Outlook account.

  4. Click Show advanced options at the lower-left of the action and configure the following fields:

    • To: Click the field and specify the email recipients you wish to email inspection reports to. Make sure you click "enter/return" on your keyboard for each email you add.

    • Subject: Click the field and specify the email subject. You can use dynamic content items to name emails with inspection elements. For example, "[Template Name]: [Inspection Title] | [Score Percentage]".

    • Body: Click the field and specify the email body. Similar to the subject field, you can also use dynamic content items to include inspection details. Check out the following email body as an example: An example of the Outlook action in a Power Automate flow.

    • Attachments Name - 1: Click the field and use dynamic content items to create a naming convention for inspection reports. Make sure to add ".pdf" or ".docx" at the end, depending on the report format you selected. For example, "<dynamic_content>.pdf".

    • Attachments Content - 1: Click the field and select Body from the dynamic content list, under "HTTP".

  5. Click Save on the bottom or upper-right of the page to save the flow.

Test the flow (optional)

  1. Click Test on the upper-right of the page to begin testing the flow.

  2. Select Manually and click Test.

  3. Click Run flow.

  4. Click Done to monitor the test flow.

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