How to Create Scheduled Flows in Power Automate (Step-by-Step)

What Are Scheduled Cloud Flows in Power Automate?

There are three kinds of flows in Power Automate: automated flows, instant flows, and scheduled cloud flows. This tutorial will deal only with scheduled cloud flows.

Scheduled cloud flow is set up using the Recurrence trigger to be executed automatically on a scheduled basis (every hour, every day, every week, or any other schedule chosen by you), regardless of whether someone does anything to trigger them or not. They keep working on this schedule until they are disabled or deleted. You can find information about scheduled flows on the official Microsoft Power Automate pages. Scheduled flows are available to all those who have Microsoft 365 with Power Automate included.

What Are Scheduled Flows Best Used For?

A scheduled flow would be best suited in cases where an activity needs to be performed periodically at a certain time, irrespective of whether there is a trigger or not. Examples could include:

The benefit of using scheduled flows is that automation becomes independent of any action by the users.

How to Create a Scheduled Cloud Flow in Power Automate

Step 1: Login and go to Power Automate

Login to your Microsoft 365 account. Click on the app launcher button (the waffle icon) at the top left corner of the screen and find Power Automate.

Step 2: Go to Create > Scheduled cloud flow

On the Power Automate homepage, click Create, and then click on Scheduled cloud flow. Alternatively, you can access this from My flows > + New flow > Scheduled cloud flow.

Step 3: Set up the flow schedule

Fill out the following information in the Build a scheduled cloud flow dialog box:

• • Flow name: a meaningful name (e.g., "Weekly Status Report, Project Alpha")
  • Starting: date and time for when the flow should start running
  • Repeat every: number and frequency unit (e.g., 1 Minute, 1 Day)
  • Time zone: important for flows that need to run at a specific local time
  • Start time: Format is YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ (example: 2026-06-09T08:00:00Z)
  • At these hours / At these minutes: only available when the Frequency is set to Day
  • On these days: only available when the Frequency is set to Week
  • Before activation test: activate manually once before the first scheduled execution from the designer.
  • Name them properly: so that other people understand the flow purpose just by looking at the list.
  • Watch the flow's run history: visit My flows > [Flow name] > 28 day run history from time to time.
  • Monitor run history: so that if something went wrong then you will receive an alert about it.
  • Mind time zones: especially if your team operates in different ones.

Then click Create.

Step 4: Setup the Recurrence trigger

You will now be taken to the flow designer. Click on the Recurrence trigger card, and edit the Interval (number) and Frequency (Second, Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month).

Step 5: Set advanced options

Choose Show advanced options for greater precision:

Proper time zone handling often becomes a source of mistakes at this step. Never rely on the flow without checking first that Start time and Time zone have been configured correctly to result in your expected run time.

Step 6: Set up actions and finish

Click + New step under the Recurrence trigger to set up your actions (Get items (SharePoint), Send an email (V2) (Outlook), Post message in a chat or channel (Teams), Create item / Update item (SharePoint)). Then click Save. The flow is now ready to work.

Advanced Recurrence Options: Quick Reference

How to Make the Most of Recurring Flows

Scheduled flows have the highest value when they can replace a regular and manual process which needs to be performed regardless of whether someone remembers or not. A company where employees start receiving scheduled reminder emails during their first 30 days about the tasks and meetings to prepare for. Another company has a team for project management and they use monthly scheduled flows for preparing and distributing the status reports.

Some suggestions to help create the reliable flows:

For more ideas, see 5 Power Automate Templates to Stay Informed While Working Remotely and 5 Ways to Boost Collaboration in Microsoft Teams Using Power Automate.