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From Manual to Magical: �Automating Tasks �with Power Automate Desktop

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Introductions

Mangesh Kamble

Information Systems Supervisor, IT Financial & Administrative Applications

UC Davis Health

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What comes to mind when you hear the word “Automation”?

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Are you familiar with Power Automate?

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Power Automate Desktop

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🚀 Boost Productivity

Streamlines repetitive, rule-based desktop tasks to allocate more time to strategic, high-value activities across departments.

🧠 Low-Code, High Impact

Drag-and-drop UI and action recorder simplify automation for non-developers.

🔄 System Integration

Works with any app (web and desktop) —no APIs needed. Bridges modern and legacy systems effortlessly.

🛡️ Secure & Scalable

Attended/unattended automation with role-based access.

🔗 Seamless Microsoft Ecosystem Integration

Seamlessly connects with Microsoft 365 apps. Easily triggered by cloud flows for end-to-end automation.

At its core, Power Automate Desktop streamlines repetitive, rule-based desktop tasks. By automating these manual processes, teams can redirect their time and energy toward strategic, high-value work that drives real impact.

Its drag-and-drop interface and built-in action recorder make it easy for non-developers to build automations.

One of the most powerful features is its ability to work with any application—web or desktop—without needing APIs. That means you can bridge modern cloud platforms and legacy systems in a single flow, unlocking automation across your entire tech stack.

Whether you’re running attended or unattended bots, Power Automate Desktop supports enterprise-grade security. Role-based access and audit trails ensure your automations are safe, compliant, and scalable.

And of course, it integrates natively with Microsoft 365. You can trigger desktop flows from cloud flows, creating seamless, end-to-end automation scenarios that span both desktop and cloud environments.

In short, Power Automate Desktop helps you automate faster, smarter, and more securely—while empowering your teams to innovate from the ground up. It’s not just a tool—it’s a strategy. A strategy to work smarter, not harder.

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Microsoft Power Platform Overview

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Microsoft Ecosystem

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When we talk about Power Automate Desktop, it’s important to understand how it fits into the broader Microsoft ecosystem—because that’s where the real value starts to show.

Let’s start with Microsoft 365.�Power Automate connects directly with apps like Outlook, Excel, SharePoint, and Teams. That means you can trigger automations from an email, update a SharePoint list, or send a Teams message—all without writing code. It’s a natural extension of the tools people already use every day.

Then there’s Power Automate itself.�Power Automate Desktop handles what happens on your machine—clicking, typing, copying, pasting. But cloud flows handle the bigger picture. You can schedule desktop flows, trigger them based on events, or chain them together with other cloud services. It’s a hybrid model that gives you flexibility and control.

Data connectors make this even more powerful.�There are hundreds of prebuilt connectors for services like Salesforce, SQL Server, Dropbox, and more. You don’t need to build custom integrations—just plug in and go. And if you’re working with something more custom, you can still use HTTP or custom connectors.

And finally, Dataverse.�Dataverse is the secure, scalable data platform behind Power Platform. It lets you store and manage data used in your flows, apps, and reports. It’s especially useful when you need to share data across departments or build more complex solutions that go beyond a single user or team.

So when you combine Power Automate Desktop with Microsoft 365, cloud flows, connectors, and Dataverse, you’re not just automating tasks—you’re building a connected, intelligent system that works across your organization.

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Power Automate Desktop Implementation at UC Davis Health

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Environment Strategy

Build and test flow

Publish

Schedule unattended Bots

Monitor Flows

Let’s talk about environment strategy—because building automation isn’t just about creating flows. It’s about creating them responsibly, reliably, and in a way that scales.

First, we build and test in-app.�Power Automate Desktop gives us a dedicated development environment where we can safely build and test our flows before they ever touch production. This is where we experiment, debug, and refine. It’s our sandbox—where mistakes are safe and learning is fast.

Then, we publish and schedule.�Once a flow is tested and ready, we publish it to the Power Automate environment. From there, we can schedule it to run at specific times.

Next, we deploy attended or unattended bots.�Attended bots run alongside users—perfect for tasks that need human input. Unattended bots, on the other hand, run in the background without supervision. They’re ideal for overnight processing, batch jobs, or anything that doesn’t need a person watching over it. This flexibility lets us match the right automation to the right scenario.

And finally, we monitor.�Every flow we publish can be monitored in real time. We can track success rates, identify failures, and get alerts when something goes wrong. This visibility is critical—it turns automation from a black box into a transparent, manageable system.

So, when we talk about environment strategy, we’re really talking about lifecycle management. Build smart. Test thoroughly. Deploy with confidence. And monitor continuously. That’s how we move from ad-hoc automation to enterprise-grade solutions.

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Environment Strategy

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DEV

Personal DEV

PROD

FAA - PROD

Default Environment

Default Environment Routing

Mandatory for being a Managed Environment

Pipelines

Dataverse being deployed for extended environment security

Let’s talk about environment strategy—because how we organize our automation work matters just as much as what we automate.

Start with separation.�We’ve learned it’s important to keep development, testing, and production environments separate. This gives us space to experiment without breaking anything that’s live. It also helps us catch issues early, before they affect users or systems.

Use solutions to move flows.�When a flow is ready to move from dev to test or production, we package it in a solution. This keeps everything—flows, connections, variables—together and versioned. It also makes it easier to track changes and roll back if needed.

Set up role-based access.�Not everyone needs access to everything. We assign roles based on what people actually need to do—whether that’s building, testing, approving, or just monitoring. This keeps things secure and manageable.

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Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) in the Power Platform refers to the process of managing the lifecycle of apps, flows, and other components—from initial development through deployment and ongoing maintenance.

Development: Build apps, flows, and components in a development environment using solutions (containers for components).
Testing: Move solutions to a test environment for validation, QA, and user acceptance testing (UAT).
Deployment: Promote managed solutions to production environments for secure, stable use.
Environment Strategy: Separate environments for dev, test, and production to ensure stability and governance.
Automation: Use pipelines (e.g., Power Platform Build Tools) to automate solution export/import and deployment.
Monitoring & Maintenance: Track performance, usage, and errors using Power Platform Admin Center and Power BI.

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Solution is a container used to package, manage, and deploy components across environments. It’s especially useful for organizing and transporting customizations in a structured way. Holds apps, flows, tables, chatbots, environment variables, and more.

Supports ALM (Application Lifecycle Management): Enables version control, testing, and deployment across development, test, and production environments.
Managed vs. Unmanaged:

Unmanaged: Editable, used during development.
Managed: Locked for editing, used for deployment.

Environment-Aware: Solutions can include environment-specific settings using environment variables.
Export/Import Ready: Easily move solutions between environments or share with other teams.
Essential for Governance: Helps maintain consistency, security, and compliance in enterprise-scale deployments.

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High level overview of Power Automate Desktop

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Let’s take a look at how Power Automate Desktop actually works—because once you see the interface, it’s a lot less intimidating than it sounds.

The UI is built for clarity.�When you open Power Automate Desktop, you’re greeted with a clean, organized workspace. On the left, you’ve got a list of actions—things like clicking a button, reading from Excel, or sending an email. In the center, you build your flow step by step. It’s all drag-and-drop, so you don’t need to write code or memorize syntax.

The recorder is your best friend.�If you’re not sure where to start, the recorder can help. You just hit “Record,” go through the steps you normally do—like opening a file, copying data, or logging into a website—and Power Automate Desktop captures each action. You can then review and tweak the steps to make sure they run exactly how you want.

You’re in control.�You can add conditions, loops, error handling, and variables to make your flows smarter. And because it’s visual, it’s easy to follow what’s happening at each step—even if you’re not technical.

So whether you’re automating a simple task or building something more complex, the interface is designed to help you focus on what you want to get done—not how to code it.

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Publish development code to production using Pipelines

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Development

Production

Instance : FAA – DEV - Mangesh

Solution: FAA

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HCM and Scheduling

Unmanaged container

System Solution

Instance : FAA - PROD

Solution: FAA

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HCM and Scheduling

Managed

System Solution

Pipelines

So how we move our automations from development to production using pipelines. This is one of those things that sounds technical, but it’s really about working smarter and reducing risk.

Start in development.�We always begin by building and testing flows in a development environment. This is where we try things out, make mistakes, and get everything working the way we want—without affecting anything live.

Use solutions to package your work.�Once a flow is ready, we bundle it into a solution. Think of it like a folder that keeps everything together—flows, connections, variables, and settings. This makes it easier to move and manage.

Pipelines handle the promotion.�With pipelines, we can move that solution from development to test, and then to production, in a controlled and repeatable way. No manual exporting or importing. No guesswork. Just a clear, step-by-step process.

The goal here is to make deployments predictable and safe. Pipelines help us avoid surprises, reduce errors, and keep our environments clean and consistent. Once you’ve used them, you won’t want to go back.

****“You can even add approvals, so nothing moves forward without the right sign-off. And because it’s integrated with Azure DevOps and GitHub, you can align it with your broader CI/CD strategy.”

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Monitor: Desktop flow activity

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Authentication and Flow Execution Lifecycle in Hybrid Environments

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This diagram shows how session credentials are managed when Power Automate Desktop runs flows that connect your on-prem environment with cloud services like Power Platform. It’s a step-by-step view of how identity, access, and execution are handled securely across both environments.

It starts with machine registration. An on-prem Active Directory (AD) service account registers the machine. This step ensures the machine is known and trusted before it can participate in any automation. The registration is tied to the machine’s identity and is typically done once unless the machine is reimaged or reconfigured.

Next, Power Automate Desktop sends a registration request to the cloud. This request is authenticated and validated by Power Platform services. Then the cloud sends back a response confirming the machine is registered and authorized to receive jobs.

Then, a connection is created using an Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID) service account. This connection is what allows the cloud to securely communicate with the on-prem machine. It’s scoped to the permissions granted to the service account, so it can’t access anything it’s not explicitly allowed to. The credentials used here are encrypted and managed by the platform — users don’t need to store or transmit passwords manually.

When a flow is triggered in the cloud — maybe by a schedule or an event — the cloud initiates the run. It uses the secure connection to send a job to the on-prem machine. This is done over an encrypted channel.

Finally, the desktop agent picks up the job and starts executing it locally. It uses the credentials and tokens that were securely issued earlier. These tokens are short-lived and scoped to the specific job, which limits the risk if something goes wrong. Once the job is complete, the session ends and the credentials expire.

At every step, identity and access are verified. Credentials are never stored in plain text, and communication between components is encrypted. This setup helps ensure that automation can run across environments without compromising security.

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🧰 Tools Needed for Power Automate Desktop�

Power Automate Desktop App

The core tool for designing and testing desktop flows.
Offers a drag-and-drop interface with over 400 prebuilt actions.

Power Automate Portal (Cloud)

Used to schedule, monitor, and manage desktop flows.
Enables integration with cloud flows, approvals, and connectors.
URL: https://make.powerautomate.com

Machine or Machine Group

The physical or virtual machine where the desktop flow runs.
Must be registered in Power Automate and kept online for unattended runs.

On-Premise Data Gateway

Bridges cloud flows with on-premises data and systems.

Microsoft Edge or Chrome Extension

Needed for automating web applications in browsers.

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For setting up Power Automate Desktop, there are a few key tools you'll need to get everything working smoothly. Each one plays a specific role in designing, running, and managing your desktop flows.

Start with the Power Automate Desktop app. This is where you build your flows. It’s a Windows application with a drag-and-drop interface and over 400 prebuilt actions. You can automate tasks like clicking buttons, moving files, or pulling data from Excel — all without writing code.

Once your flow is ready, you’ll manage it through the Power Automate portal at https://make.powerautomate.com. This is the cloud side of the platform. From here, you can schedule flows, monitor their status, and connect them to other services like cloud-based triggers. It’s also where you register the machine that will run your flow.

Speaking of which, the machine — whether it’s a physical PC or a virtual machine — is where the desktop flow actually runs. You can register a single machine or group several into a machine group. For unattended runs (where no one is logged in), the machine needs to stay online and connected.

If your flow needs to access internal systems or data that live on-premises, you’ll need the On-Premises Data Gateway. This acts as a secure bridge between your local environment and the cloud. It lets your cloud flows reach into your network to grab files, query databases, or interact with legacy systems.

And finally, if your automation involves web browsers, you’ll need the Microsoft Edge or Chrome extension. This lets Power Automate interact with web pages — clicking through forms, scraping data, or navigating sites — just like a person would.

Each of these tools has a specific job, and together they make it possible to build and run desktop automations that are both powerful and secure.

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Licenses

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Use Cases in Action

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Use Case #1 - Missing “Reports To” in UCPath�

Before

HR team manually compiled the missing ‘Reports To’ information and sent an email to their supervisor.

After Automation

Automatically send emails to managers who are missing ‘Reports To’ information in UCPath.
Each manager receives only one email, with a file attached that includes all affected employees from their departments.

Benefits

By sending the auto notification to the department, it helps in ensuring that an updated ‘Reports To Change’ (RTC) is submitted by the department and that the ecotime approval is on time.

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This use case came from a real problem we were seeing in our HR processes. The ‘Reports To’ field in UCPath might seem small, but it plays a big role. It’s used by downstream systems like Ecotime and ServiceNow, and it drives a lot of business logic—like approvals, time tracking, and access requests.

Before automation, it was all manual.�The HR team would regularly pull a list of employees missing a ‘Reports To’ entry. Then they’d sort that list by department, figure out who the supervisors were, and send out individual emails—one by one. It was time-consuming, repetitive, and easy to get wrong.

Now, it’s automated.�We built a Power Automate Desktop flow that checks for missing ‘Reports To’ values, groups the affected employees by supervisor, and sends one email to each manager. The email includes a file listing all employees in their department who need updates. Each manager gets just one message, with everything they need.

This saved hour of manual work each week, reduced errors, and made the process more consistent. It’s a great example of how automation can take a small but important task and make it faster, cleaner, and easier for everyone involved.

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Use Case #2 - Approaching Job End Date in UCPath�

Before

UCPath tracks each employee’s supervisor and job end date (if applicable). A scheduled process uses the Cognos system to generate a report listing employees with upcoming job end dates. This report is exported as an Excel file.
HR team manually reviews the report and prepares it for a mail merge in Outlook. Emails are then sent to each supervisor separately, informing them about their employees whose job end dates are approaching.
Manual workflow steps

Run Cognos UCP-103 with excel output.

Must run for multiple Business Units.
Select within 60 days.

Combine excel output reports and modify reports for mail merge.

Created First Name, Last Name columns for employees and supervisors.
Remove Career and Academic Staff from data set.

Mail merge date to Outlook email 30 and 60 days out email – send biweekly.
Mail merge to Outlook email 7 and 14 days out email – send weekly.

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This use case came from a process that was important but very manual. In UCPath, some employees have an expected job end date—usually for limited-term roles. When that date gets close, their system access is automatically terminated. So it’s critical that supervisors are aware ahead of time.

Before automation, it was a lot of work.�The HR team would run a Cognos report (UCP-103) twice—once for DVMED and once for DVCMP—to cover different business units. They’d filter for employees with job end dates within 60 days, export the results to Excel, and then clean up the data. That meant combining the two reports, removing academic and career staff, and creating new columns for names. After that, they’d prep the file for a mail merge and send emails to each supervisor. This happened every week or every other week, depending on how close the end dates were.

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Use Case #2 - Approaching Job End Date in UCPath�

After Automation

Reads a csv file that identify employees with job expected end dates within the next 7 to14 days (weekly) and 30 to 60 days (bi-weekly).
Group employee records by supervisor email address.
An automated email will be sent to a supervisor listed on the input file. Only one message per supervisor will be sent. All employees who work in the departments under the supervisor will be listed on an attached file.

Benefits

Its contribution to compliance, particularly in reducing or preventing reinstatements among Health students and limited contract employees, has been invaluable. It has also helped departments to better prepare for obtaining proper approvals for their extensions, especially for Physicians and those with limited appointments.
Proactively evaluate the Job End Date to prevent automatic system access termination.

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Now, it’s automated.�We built a flow that runs the report, filters and formats the data, and sends personalized emails to each supervisor. Each message includes a list of employees in their department with upcoming job end dates. The timing is handled too—emails go out 30 and 60 days in advance every other week, and 7 and 14 days in advance every week.

This automation has been especially helpful for UC Davis Health students and limited-term employees. It gives departments a heads-up when someone’s job is ending soon, so they can take action—whether that’s submitting an extension or preparing for offboarding. It’s helped reduce reinstatements and made it easier to stay on top of contract timelines, especially for physicians and other roles with strict appointment limits.

This saved hours of repetitive work, reduced the chance of missing someone, and made the whole process more consistent. It’s a great example of how automation can support HR operations without needing to change the systems we already use.

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Lessons Learned

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Lessons Learned

Start Small, Scale Smart

Begin with simple, high-impact tasks (e.g., file handling).

Engage the Right Stakeholders

Involve IT, business users, and process owners early.

Standardize Development Practices

Use naming conventions, comments, and modular design.

Integrate with Cloud Flows

Use Power Automate (cloud) to schedule, trigger, and monitor desktop flows. Combine desktop automation with cloud services for end-to-end workflows.

Licenses

Power Automate Premium, Environment Capacities (Unattended RPA Capacity)

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As we’ve expanded our automation journey, we’ve learned that success isn’t just about building flows—it’s about building the right foundation. Here are some key lessons that helped us scale smartly and sustainably.

Start Small, Scale Smart

We learned that starting with simple, high-impact tasks—like file handling—helped us build early wins. These quick successes boosted confidence, secured buy-in, and created momentum for broader adoption.

Engage the Right Stakeholders Early

One of our biggest takeaways: don’t automate in a silo. Involving IT, business users, and process owners from the beginning ensured alignment and smoother implementation.

Standardize Development Practices

We quickly realized the value of consistency. Using naming conventions, adding comments, and designing modular flows made our automations easier to maintain, scale, and hand off between teams.

Integrate with Cloud Flows

Combining desktop flows with Power Automate cloud flows allowed us to schedule, trigger, and monitor automations more flexibly. This hybrid model enabled end-to-end workflows that spanned both desktop and cloud systems.

Licenses: Know What You Need

One of the first hurdles we encountered was understanding licensing. Power Automate Desktop is free for individual use on Windows 10 and 11, but enterprise-grade features—like unattended bots, premium connectors, and centralized monitoring—require additional licensing. The key takeaway? Plan your licensing early. Know who needs what level of access, and align it with your automation goals. Don’t wait until you hit a feature wall.

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Mangesh Kamble

UC Davis Health

mdkamble@health.ucdavis.edu

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Appendix

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Sample Modular Desktop Flow

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Sample Cloud Flow

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Future Environment Strategy

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DEV

Personal DEV (Times n)

Development Group

PROD

<department> (Times n)

Production Group

UAT/QA

<department> (Times n)

UAT/QA Group

DEV/TEST/PROD

Pipelines

Default Environment

Default Environment Routing

Mandatory for being a Managed Environment

Dataverse being deployed for extended environment security

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Sample Environments

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Let’s talk about environment strategy—because how we organize our automation work matters just as much as what we automate.

Start with separation.�We’ve learned it’s important to keep development, testing, and production environments separate. This gives us space to experiment without breaking anything that’s live. It also helps us catch issues early, before they affect users or systems.

Use solutions to move flows.�When a flow is ready to move from dev to test or production, we package it in a solution. This keeps everything—flows, connections, variables—together and versioned. It also makes it easier to track changes and roll back if needed.

Set up role-based access.�Not everyone needs access to everything. We assign roles based on what people actually need to do—whether that’s building, testing, approving, or just monitoring. This keeps things secure and manageable.

The goal here isn’t to slow things down—it’s to build with confidence. A good environment strategy gives teams the freedom to innovate while keeping everything safe, consistent, and scalable.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) in the Power Platform refers to the process of managing the lifecycle of apps, flows, and other components—from initial development through deployment and ongoing maintenance.

Development: Build apps, flows, and components in a development environment using solutions (containers for components).
Testing: Move solutions to a test environment for validation, QA, and user acceptance testing (UAT).
Deployment: Promote managed solutions to production environments for secure, stable use.
Environment Strategy: Separate environments for dev, test, and production to ensure stability and governance.
Automation: Use pipelines (e.g., Power Platform Build Tools) to automate solution export/import and deployment.
Monitoring & Maintenance: Track performance, usage, and errors using Power Platform Admin Center and Power BI.

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Sample Solutions

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Solution is a container used to package, manage, and deploy components across environments. It’s especially useful for organizing and transporting customizations in a structured way. Holds apps, flows, tables, chatbots, environment variables, and more.

Supports ALM (Application Lifecycle Management): Enables version control, testing, and deployment across development, test, and production environments.
Managed vs. Unmanaged:

Unmanaged: Editable, used during development.
Managed: Locked for editing, used for deployment.

Environment-Aware: Solutions can include environment-specific settings using environment variables.
Export/Import Ready: Easily move solutions between environments or share with other teams.
Essential for Governance: Helps maintain consistency, security, and compliance in enterprise-scale deployments.

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Sample Solutions with details

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Solution is a container used to package, manage, and deploy components across environments. It’s especially useful for organizing and transporting customizations in a structured way. Holds apps, flows, tables, chatbots, environment variables, and more.

Supports ALM (Application Lifecycle Management): Enables version control, testing, and deployment across development, test, and production environments.
Managed vs. Unmanaged:

Unmanaged: Editable, used during development.
Managed: Locked for editing, used for deployment.

Environment-Aware: Solutions can include environment-specific settings using environment variables.
Export/Import Ready: Easily move solutions between environments or share with other teams.
Essential for Governance: Helps maintain consistency, security, and compliance in enterprise-scale deployments.

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Sample Pipelines

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Sample Cloud Flow – how to run desktop flow

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To schedule a Power Automate Desktop (PAD) flow, you typically use Power Automate (cloud) to trigger the desktop flow at a specific time or interval. Here's how to do it:

Create Your Desktop Flow

Open Power Automate Desktop.
Build and save your flow.

Go to Power Automate (Cloud)

Visit https://make.powerautomate.com.
Select Create > Scheduled cloud flow.

Configure the Schedule

Set the start date/time and recurrence (e.g., daily, weekly).
Click Create.

Add the PAD Flow Action

In the flow designer, search for “Run a flow built with Power Automate Desktop”.
Select the desktop flow you created.
Choose the machine or machine group where the flow will run.
Provide any required input parameters.

Save and Test

Save the cloud flow.
Optionally, run a test to confirm everything works as expected.