G2

Sarah M.

Financial Accountant

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

10/14/2026

"Microsoft Power Automate Makes Dashboard Refreshes Easy and Boosts Reporting Efficiency"

4.5/5

What do you like best about Microsoft Power Automate?

I'm relatively new to Microsoft Power Automate, but I've already found it incredibly useful for automating repetitive processes and improving reporting efficiency.

I've primarily used it to automate the daily refresh of financial and operational dashboards used by our executives and managers. By integrating Power Automate with Excel, Office Scripts and SharePoint, I've been able to create scheduled flows that update dashboard data automatically, reducing the need for manual intervention and ensuring stakeholders have access to up-to-date information.

I particularly like how straightforward it is to build flows, even without extensive technical experience. The ability to connect different Microsoft applications and automate processes has saved time and allowed me to focus more on analysing information rather than preparing it.

An additional benefit has been the opportunity to develop more interactive, self-service reporting tools for management. I'm still exploring its capabilities, but I can already see significant potential to further streamline our finance processes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Microsoft Power Automate?

As a relatively new user, I've found that there can be a bit of a learning curve when setting up flows, particularly when troubleshooting errors or working with multiple applications. I've made a few wrong turns along the way and needed quite a bit of trial and error to get some of my flows working as intended.

One challenge I encountered was trying to automate the refresh of Power Query data in Excel. I initially expected this to be fairly straightforward, but discovered some limitations with refreshing Power Query through automated flows. This meant I had to explore alternative approaches and make adjustments to my processes.

I also find that troubleshooting can sometimes be time-consuming, particularly when it's not immediately clear why a flow hasn't worked as expected.

That said, I've been able to work through most of these challenges with the help of AI for troubleshooting and guidance. While the initial setup can take some time, the ongoing efficiency benefits have made the effort worthwhile. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Microsoft Power Automate solving and how is that benefiting you?

Microsoft Power Automate is helping to reduce the time spent on repetitive manual reporting tasks, particularly when it comes to refreshing and distributing information to management.

Previously, preparing and updating financial and operational reports required considerable manual processing and setup. By automating the data updates for our dashboards, information is now more readily available to executives and managers without the need for someone to manually refresh and prepare reports each time.

This has been particularly beneficial for our debtor and resource allocation dashboards, where having access to regularly updated information helps management monitor performance and make more informed decisions.

The biggest benefit has been freeing up time to focus on more valuable activities, such as analysing results, investigating issues and improving processes, rather than simply preparing data. It's also helping us move towards more accessible, self-service reporting, which reduces the number of ad hoc information requests received by the finance team. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.