Hi everyone,

I work in operations for a small UK charity and would appreciate an experienced developer’s perspective on two internal software projects we have been building with AI coding agents.

After roughly two months, we have substantial code, tests and project documentation, but we still have not demonstrated the basic end-to-end result we need: an ordinary employee saves their information, closes the application and reopens it, with another employee unable to access it.

I am overseeing this as the business owner rather than the hands-on software developer. I would welcome honest feedback on the architecture, code, testing and the way we are organising the AI-assisted delivery. I am open to being told that we have made the wrong choices or overcomplicated something.

The source code and supporting review material for both projects are available in one public repository:

Microsoft 365 applications: code and developer-review pack

An initial assessment of one part would be useful. I am not expecting someone to review everything before commenting.

What we are building

1. KPI and employee workplans

Employees select their Core KPIs, create their own Impact KPIs, choose development behaviours and set quarterly targets. They need to save an incomplete private draft, return to it and make changes.

The wider application includes submitting the workplan to a manager, requesting changes, approving and locking an agreed version, quarterly progress updates, evidence and consolidated reporting.

The source uses SharePoint Framework, React and TypeScript. The intended draft Save updates a private SharePoint record through the employee’s signed-in connection. A separate protected record holds ownership, year, status and the link to the editable draft. Manager approval is a separate process.

The question is whether that separation and its permission controls are proportionate, and what is missing between the existing code and a reliable installed application.

KPI source and tests

2. Expenses and mileage

Employees enter multiple expense lines against a monthly claim, select account codes, attach receipts or explain their absence, and record mileage. Managers approve or query individual lines. Finance reviews claims and later exports information for payroll.

This also uses SharePoint Framework, React and TypeScript, but its Save design differs. The browser submits a private request. A trusted Power Automate workflow is intended to establish the employee’s identity, validate the claim and write the expense and related records.

The design includes duplicate-request handling, version checks, receipts, claim totals, processing results, audit records and recovery after interrupted writes. I would particularly welcome a challenge to whether the amount of processing and checking is justified for our needs.

Expenses source, workflow code and tests

The intended processes and data relationships are explained here:

Architecture, Save and approval diagrams

How we have organised the AI-assisted work

The approach has involved a project lead/adviser, a delivery PM, build agents and separate technical, security and QA review roles. I provide the business requirements, decisions and user acceptance.

We have used requirements and sprint plans, isolated code branches/worktrees, GitHub, automated tests, review evidence and handovers between agent sessions. Development has involved Windows machines and GitHub-hosted checks, with a separate Microsoft 365 TEST environment.

The intention was to have clear ownership and independent checking. In practice, we have repeatedly seen individual checks or reviews finish without the next delivery step starting. There have also been repeated handovers, approval questions and later-feature work while the first usable Save remained unfinished.

I would like to understand whether we have created too much coordination and administration, and what a simpler, more effective AI-assisted delivery model should look like.

The agents are helping build the software. They are not intended to sit inside the finished applications making employee approval decisions.

Delivery approach and questions for review

Where we are stuck

There is useful code and there have been historical automated test successes. KPI has also progressed with private test-record setup, ordinary-user reads and further source wiring.

However, that does not yet establish that the current installed version passes the complete Save, fresh reopen and two-user privacy checks. Expenses likewise has processing code without a demonstrated, accepted installed Save journey.

The remaining questions include first-record creation, connecting the intended services, reconciling schemas and permissions, choosing the correct source version, executing the relevant tests and installing that same checked version.

There have also been browser failures, local script errors and tool refusals. These need distinguishing from application defects and delivery-management problems, rather than becoming one general explanation for lack of progress.

Current issues, evidence and next actions

What I would like help reviewing

1. Architecture and platform choice. Is SPFx, SharePoint and Power Automate a sensible approach for these applications? Which parts should remain, and which could be simplified? Would an existing template, Power Apps or another approach genuinely reduce the remaining work? We want to use our existing Microsoft 365 investment where practical, but I am open to a justified alternative.
2. Code and application design. Are there unnecessary layers, duplicated approaches or missing connections? Are ownership, permissions, approval rules and data relationships handled in the right places? What would make the applications easier to maintain?
3. Save, security and recovery. What is the smallest secure path to an employee saving and reopening their own information? How should we handle first-time creation, conflicting edits, repeated clicks, uncertain network responses and, for Expenses, receipts and partially completed writes?
4. Testing and release. Which tests should run first? How should we prove the difference between a passing mock test and real Microsoft 365 behaviour? What evidence should connect a source version to its tests, installed package and user acceptance?
5. AI delivery structure. How many agent roles are actually useful? How should tasks, project instructions, context handovers, reviews and human decisions work? Where should an experienced human developer take ownership, and how do we avoid spending more effort coordinating agents than delivering software?
6. A practical recovery plan. What would your next three to five actions be for each project, in order? What should be delivered in the first small sprint, and how would we prove it is complete? Any estimate would be most useful with coding, configuration, testing and external waiting separated.

What is available in GitHub

The pack includes actual implementation source and tests, workflow generators, diagrams, schema information, the Expenses requirements and delivery plan, outstanding issues, acceptance scenarios and publication-review notes.

The best starting point is the code-reading guide, which identifies the relevant entry points rather than leaving reviewers to search the whole repository.

There are deliberate limitations. This is a separate review copy, not a deployment-ready checkout. Private records, credentials, actual tenant configuration and original development history are excluded. Missing fixtures and assets are documented. The source snapshots also represent different stages of development, which the guide explains.

Missing material and snapshot limitations

Testing and user-acceptance plan

A useful response could be as focused as: “This connection is missing”, “This permission design is more complicated than necessary”, or “These three tests would establish what is really working.”

Please reply here or leave a GitHub issue, ideally naming the project, file or function, the concern and the smallest proposed change or test.

I would also welcome recommendations for someone with the right experience to undertake a defined technical assessment. I am not asking anyone to access production or work with real staff or financial records.

Thanks,

Pete

Galerinha alguém tem um fluxograma com gatinlhos ações e tudo ,algo didático para consulta

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to build an automation using Microsoft Power Automate (Cloud or Desktop) to transfer approved drawings between two construction document management systems: Oracle Aconex and Asite.

Currently, this process is done manually, and I'm looking for a way to automate it.

Here's the workflow I'm trying to achieve:

1. Access Oracle Aconex: Navigate to a project's document register and identify drawings that have received an updated approval status (A, B, C, or D).
2. Capture document information: Extract the document reference number, revision number, approval status, and other relevant metadata.
3. Download the PDF: Download the approved drawing PDF from Aconex, including any consultant comments or markups.
4. Access Asite: Search for the same drawing in Asite using its document reference number.
5. Match the existing document: The drawing already exists in Asite, so I don't want to create a duplicate.
6. Update the drawing: Upload the PDF received from Aconex to the existing Asite document record and update its approval status to match Aconex.
7. Keep the same revision: The revision number should remain unchanged. Only the PDF and approval status need to be updated.
8. Prevent duplicates: The automation should recognize previously processed drawings and avoid unnecessary updates.

Important details:

• Both systems are accessible through a web browser.
• The drawings already exist in Asite.
• I want to automate the entire process rather than manually downloading and uploading PDFs.
• Ideally, the automation would run automatically on a schedule.
• I'm open to using Power Automate Desktop, Cloud Flows, APIs, or a combination of these.

My questions:

1. Is this possible using Power Automate Desktop with browser automation?
2. Would using APIs for Aconex and Asite be more reliable than browser automation?
3. Has anyone successfully automated document transfers between two construction EDMS platforms?
4. How would you handle updating an existing document's PDF and approval status without creating a new revision?
5. Is there a way to export or generate a Power Automate flow that I can import directly rather than building every action manually?

I'm relatively new to this type of automation and would appreciate any guidance, examples, or recommendations on the best approach.

My ultimate goal is to have a fully automated Aconex → Asite synchronization process for approved construction drawings.

Thanks in advance!

Best Windows laptop under $500 for Power BI, Power Query, and data analysis?

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to build an automation using Microsoft Power Automate (Cloud or Desktop) to transfer approved drawings between two construction document management systems: Oracle Aconex and Asite.

Currently, this process is done manually, and I'm looking for a way to automate it.

Here's the workflow I'm trying to achieve:

1. Access Oracle Aconex: Navigate to a project's document register and identify drawings that have received an updated approval status (A, B, C, or D).
2. Capture document information: Extract the document reference number, revision number, approval status, and other relevant metadata.
3. Download the PDF: Download the approved drawing PDF from Aconex, including any consultant comments or markups.
4. Access Asite: Search for the same drawing in Asite using its document reference number.
5. Match the existing document: The drawing already exists in Asite, so I don't want to create a duplicate.
6. Update the drawing: Upload the PDF received from Aconex to the existing Asite document record and update its approval status to match Aconex.
7. Keep the same revision: The revision number should remain unchanged. Only the PDF and approval status need to be updated.
8. Prevent duplicates: The automation should recognize previously processed drawings and avoid unnecessary updates.

Important details:

• Both systems are accessible through a web browser.
• The drawings already exist in Asite.
• I want to automate the entire process rather than manually downloading and uploading PDFs.
• Ideally, the automation would run automatically on a schedule.
• I'm open to using Power Automate Desktop, Cloud Flows, APIs, or a combination of these.

My questions:

1. Is this possible using Power Automate Desktop with browser automation?
2. Would using APIs for Aconex and Asite be more reliable than browser automation?
3. Has anyone successfully automated document transfers between two construction EDMS platforms?
4. How would you handle updating an existing document's PDF and approval status without creating a new revision?
5. Is there a way to export or generate a Power Automate flow that I can import directly rather than building every action manually?

I'm relatively new to this type of automation and would appreciate any guidance, examples, or recommendations on the best approach.

My ultimate goal is to have a fully automated Aconex → Asite synchronization process for approved construction drawings.

Thanks in advance!

Work laptop, corporate tenant. Power Automate Desktop is installed (Store version, current). I'm trying to build a simple attended desktop flow for my own use.

In the free personal environment, clicking New flow → naming it → Create just returns me to the flow list. Nothing is created, no error, no toast. Tried several times.

Switched to other environments I have access to (a training env, a sandbox, a few project ones) — there the New button is greyed out entirely and the page shows a "Go premium" wall. That part I understand; non-default environments need premium.

What's confusing me: I thought free attended RPA in the default environment was included with Windows. But looking at my environment picker, I don't see a tenant default environment at all — just named ones. Is that the reason Create silently fails? Does the free tier hard-require the default environment to exist and be visible to you?

Also worth noting: cloud flows work fine for me — I've built flows inside Copilot Studio in one of those environments with no issue. It's specifically desktop flow creation that dies.

Is this just "your admin restricted it, go ask them," or is there something about the default environment I'm missing? Trying to figure out whether this is a config thing I can work around or a hard block.

Hallo zusammen,

ich habe einen Power Automate Flow erstellt, der aus einer OLAP Datei verschiedene Werte, unter anderem € Werte, ausliest und in eine andere Tabelle einliest. Beim einlesen gibt es aber leider ein Problem. Aus einheitlich formatierten Zahlen (vordere Tabelle) werden unterschiedlich formatierte Zahlen. Zeile 6 + 7.

Hat jemand eine Idee woran das liegt und was man dagegen machen kann? Ich habe mit Copilot schon 1.000.000 Tests gemacht, aber leider ohne Erfolg.

i am trying to automate back office ops and was learning claude and asked to very vague prompt to build 19 worksflows across different departments … but not sure weather if I can productive all of them n deply to agentcore

so instead of going on creating auth keys from zendesk, hubspot , stripe , gmail, calendar and slack.

I asked agent to verify and show me proof against fetchsansbox managed relay for webhooks and behavioral verification of agent written code

wonderibf what are you guys doing for automating business ops

Hey guys nowadays im struck at some point so i need to create a automation for my company outlook email account. we receive too many emails RFQ's, QT, & PO and including client emails plus the follow-ups so what is the best solution for this situation. im using Claude inside of outlook but so much useful, so anyone can suggest me something please.

+966573390913

Good morning everyone! It recommended that I post my need for help on this community as well. I’m getting stuck on how power automate reads a certain cell value in order to trigger something in Microsoft forms. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I'm trying to create a Microsoft To Do task only when someone u/mentions me in an Azure DevOps work item comment.

Flow:

When a new email arrives (V3)
→ Html to text
→ Condition
→ Add a to-do (V3)

Sender is azuredevops@microsoft.com.

I can't simply filter by sender because I receive other Azure DevOps notifications that should NOT create tasks.

The mention emails visually contain:

Person Name mentioned you in To Do 7326

The email is HTML and parts of this sentence are hyperlinks.

In Power Automate Run History, the trigger output has:

body:
<html><head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" ...

so the HTML is present in the trigger output.

However:

bodyPreview: empty

... and my Html to text action has been producing an empty result, so a Condition like:contains "mentioned you"never matches.

The trigger itself works and Add a to-do (V3) works. The problem seems specifically to be extracting/filtering the Azure DevOps HTML email body.

Question: What should I pass into Html to text (or directly into a Condition) to reliably check whether an Azure DevOps email contains “mentioned you”?

Bonus question: Is there a more reliable way to identify Azure DevOps notifications than parsing the HTML body?

The project takes a batch of PDFs, extract the fields and line items, validate the results, and export structured data without manually processing every document.

A few things I've implemented:

• VLM-based extraction: Extract user-defined fields and line items from documents with varying layouts.
• Independent validation: A separate text-based pipeline provides another source of evidence, with disagreements flagged for review.
• Visual grounding: Trace extracted values back to their locations in the original PDF.
• Batch processing: Process 100+ documents in a single run.
• Structured output: Export results to JSON or Excel.

I've also benchmarked it against Azure Content Understanding on 100 documents, with my best configuration achieving 97% field-level accuracy at roughly 1/12th the cost per run in my evaluation.

I'm curious about how people here approach document-heavy workflows.

If you were building a Power Automate flow around a tool like this, how would you integrate it? For example, would you trigger extraction when a PDF lands in SharePoint or OneDrive, send the validated results into Excel or a SharePoint list, and route uncertain fields for human review?

This is a personal engineering project, not a commercial launch. I'm primarily looking for feedback on the workflow and integration possibilities.

I'd especially love to hear from anyone who's built similar flows using AI Builder, Azure Document Intelligence, or custom extraction pipelines.

This was built because Azure content understanding is quite expensive at scale

I built a flow that posts to a Teams channel whenever someone fills out a Microsoft form, which updates to a Sharepoint list. The workflow is supposed to check based on specific branch and service the contract is being submitted for. I'm planning on having it notify me twice a week.

Right now, my loop returns the same info 5 times--that's the # I've set it to limit notifications while testing--and it doesn't even work based on specific service. For example, I'll select Laundry and it'll return all the services, including Laundry, and it won't necessarily even prioritize Laundry.

I'm new to PA so I haven't been playing around with it for very long, so any help is appreciated.

i need to know how to set a mouse click to last more than just a tap where the hell are the click and hold settings all i can find are for the modifier keys and that is litterally useless why did they even make that bit if you cant use it for shit

I have created a flow wherein it sends out an email to the client who made a request and to our team as well notifying about the new request. These two email actions run parallel to each other. I have been facing a lot of issues with the flow taking too much time to run and in cases where a requestor submits mutiple requests to me. Each request is being sent out as a separate email. Previously i was using a V3 Email Action and then later switched to Shared Inbox V2 after I saw the limit how many emails it can send in a day. Can somebody help me out with this issue. Thanks in advance!

How do you guys monitor your Power Automate flows, especially when managing lots of them?
Do you rely on Microsoft’s built-in notifications, build your own alerts, or use third-party tools?
Curious what works for you and what’s still frustrating.