These 10 business processes should be your first to automate with Power Automate. Especially for Swiss companies, there are numerous quick wins that bring immediately measurable efficiency gains.
The Top 10
1. Approval Workflows
Vacation requests, budget approvals, and procurement requests go through multi-stage approval processes. Power Automate replaces email-based approvals with structured workflows featuring automatic escalation and seamless documentation of all decisions.
2. Document Routing
Incoming documents are automatically classified and forwarded to the relevant departments. Contracts go to the legal department, invoices to accounts payable, and applications to HR – without manual sorting.
3. Notifications
Automatic notifications for critical events such as expiring contracts, overdue tasks, or system alerts ensure that no important deadlines are missed. Teams messages, emails, and push notifications can be freely combined.
4. Data Collection
Form data from Microsoft Forms or SharePoint lists is automatically transferred to central systems. Customer feedback, maintenance logs, or quality checks flow into your databases without interruption.
5. Report Generation
Weekly status reports, monthly KPIs, and quarterly reports are automatically compiled from data sources and sent as formatted documents to the defined recipients.
6. Onboarding
New employees automatically receive access, training materials, and welcome information. Checklists ensure that IT equipment is ordered, badges are created, and onboarding appointments are scheduled.
7. Invoice Processing
Incoming invoices are scanned, data is extracted, and forwarded to the responsible cost center managers for approval. After approval, the automatic transfer to the ERP system occurs.
8. Scheduling
Recurring meetings, maintenance appointments, and client visits are automatically coordinated. Power Automate checks availability, sends invitations, and creates meeting rooms in Microsoft Teams if necessary.
9. Social Media
Scheduled posts are automatically published on various platforms, and engagement metrics are consolidated in a central dashboard. Marketing teams save several hours per week this way.
10. IT Tickets
Service desk requests are automatically categorized, prioritized, and assigned to the relevant support team. Standard requests such as password resets or access permissions can be fully automated.
Conclusion
Start with the quick wins – approvals and notifications offer the fastest ROI. Then gradually build more complex automations and measure the time saved per process.