Read Outlook Emails only on weekdays based on schedule

[Debo16]

Hi Team,

I have a business case where I need to read outlook emails and attachments based on receivers mail id as well as work based on the Schedule defined(Suppose this process should only execute during Weekdays).I would like to get an advice related to schedule as I do not intend to run the process during weekends.

I am planning to build a cloud flow based on this approach:-

1)when a new email arrives(v3) based on receiver mail id(TRIGGER)

2) Check the day of week using a SWITCH

  2.1) If it is Sunday or Saturday, it will add delay 1 or 2 days correspondingly.

 2.2) Else weekdays, no delay needed.

3)Process transaction along with Business logic steps.

My question, is it a good approach to keep the cloud flows running for 1/2 days?Will that cause a timed out error.

Also, is there any alternative approach to this?

Please find the screenshot. In future, process should also not run based on different public holidays.

[lbendlin]

You could choose to terminate the flow (as success) on saturdays and sundays.  The mails will be picked up on monday anyway.

[VictorIvanidze]

You can try to use an approach like this: https://www.ivasoft.com/scheduledoofflow.shtml

[Debo16]

Hi @lbendlin : Thanks for the advise. I need to process the mails along with attachments that came in the outlook inbox (over weekends) at next monday.Since, my trigger is when a new email arrives(v3) , hence how can I pick them on Monday? Suppose 5 mails came on weekends, do I need to store them as message id in a Queue/dataverse table to be processed on monday? Or is there any alternative approach to identify and pick those 5 mails on monday?

[lbendlin]

Ah, you didn't mention that you use a trigger.  I thought you were using a schedule (as per your original post).

In case of the trigger you should be able to add the delay, but it will also depend on the number of emails you expect to come in over the weekend.

[barret]

You could add a step just after the trigger to check if it's a weekend. If it is, use the Delay Until action to hold the rest of the flow until Monday morning. No need to keep track of anything anywhere else. The flow will be on hold, and when it resumes, it will still have the email ID in the trigger and will be able to process that email then.

[Debo16]

@barret : The flow will be on running status during weekend , isn't it? So, if there are 10 emails on Saturday, then the 10 cloud flows will be showing- 'running staus' until Monday? Pls confirm if this is the behaviour you are referring.

[barret]

That would be correct. 10 emails would mean 10 flows in a "running" status until they process Monday morning. Generally shouldn't be a problem if it's a low volume. But if it's a large volume, Power Automate wouldn't be the best choice anyway.

[Debo16]

thanks for confirming. I will let you know incase I find any better approach meantime. Thanks!

[VictorIvanidze]

Hi @Debo16,

if you do not care who is the sender, you can forward weekend messages to yourself with "do not deliver before" datetime value assigned.