In Microsoft Power Automate, you can create a flow that can take action based on specific columns being updated in SharePoint! This can be done on a list or library. There is an action called Get changes for an item or a file, which gives you a boolean for each field, whether it was just changed or not.
Here’s how to use: Get changes for an item or a file
In my example, I have a list of projects, and I only want the project completion email to be sent when someone changes the project status column to completed.
First of all, these steps assume that you have prior SharePoint and Power Automate knowledge. Here are my classes if you’d like to ramp up.
1. Make sure that versioning is turned on in your list or library. This can be found in the versioning settings in the list/library settings.
2. Create a new flow. Use the trigger called When an item or a file is modified. Pick your site and list.
2. Add the action called Get changes for an item or a file (properties only).
3. Pick your site and list. For the ID field, pick the ID from the trigger.
4. There is a box called “Since”. This lets you tell the workflow which changes to compare. If you want to know which fields have been changed since the item was first created, you’d just type 1.0 in this box. But in this example, I want to know what just changed in this item, so I’m going to subtract 1 from whatever the current version is. Use the following expression using the expression builder. The int fuction ensures that you’re looking at the version number as an integer, and sub does the subtraction.
sub(int(triggerOutputs()?[‘body/{VersionNumber}’]),1)
5. Since I specifically want to know if the status has just been changed in this latest modification, I can use a condition to check that. My column is called project status, so I select Has Column Changed: Project Status and is equal to, true.
6. Now what would you like to happen if the status has just been changed? That part is up to you. Maybe you need to send an email or create a task, whatever your business process requires. Put these next actions in the If yes section after the condition.
BONUS
If you would like to narrow down when your flow gets triggered, and set it up to not even trigger at all if it doesn’t have a status of completed, that can be done as well, in addition to the steps you added above. Go to the trigger’s settings.
Add a trigger condition, here at the bottom. You can see here that I’ve written an expression that is a filter. Therefore, the flow won’t trigger at all unless the project status is completed. Then, once it triggers, the condition in the workflow looks to see if the status was just changed in the modification.
To learn more about flows with Power Automate, and details about triggers, check out my course on my training site at IW Mentor.