The problem with most “process automation examples” you’ll find online

Search for process automation examples and you’ll mostly get two things: generic definitions from enterprise software vendors, or manufacturing case studies about robotic arms and production lines. Useful if you run a factory. Not much help if your actual problem is that expense claims sit in someone’s inbox for two weeks, or that onboarding a new starter means chasing five different people for five different forms.

A spreadsheet that tracks a process is rarely just a spreadsheet. It is usually a queue, an approval route, a source of record and a workaround for a system nobody has had time to improve. If you’re an Operations or COO-level buyer trying to picture what “automation” would actually replace in your business, you need examples built on tools you already have — Outlook, Teams, SharePoint — not a factory robot.

Below are the automations we actually build for growing UK businesses using Power Automate and PowerApps, walked through step by step, so you can picture exactly what would change in your week.

Example 1: Expense claims and approvals

The manual version: an employee fills in a spreadsheet or a PDF form, emails it to their manager, the manager forwards it to finance, finance queries a missing receipt, someone re-sends the email three days later, and eventually a payment gets made. Multiply that by every employee, every month.

The automated version, step by step:

1. Submission – the employee fills in a PowerApps form on their phone or desktop, attaching receipt photos directly.
2. Routing – Power Automate checks the claim value and category, then routes it to the right approver automatically — no forwarding, no guessing who signs off what.
3. Approval – the manager gets a Teams or email notification with an approve/reject button built in. No logging into a separate system.
4. Escalation – if nobody actions it within an agreed number of days, it escalates automatically instead of sitting unread.
5. Record-keeping – approved claims are logged automatically to a SharePoint list or synced to finance systems, giving you a searchable audit trail instead of a folder of PDFs.

This is the pattern behind our pillar claim that teams using Power Automate and PowerApps builds like this typically get back 15+ hours a week in staff time previously spent chasing, re-keying, or emailing approvals back and forth, along with roughly 60% less manual data entry.

Onboarding follows the same shape (see below), which is why it’s usually the second automation businesses ask for.

Example 2: New starter onboarding

The manual version: HR emails IT to request a laptop and logins, emails facilities for a desk and access pass, emails the line manager for a first-week plan, and hopes it all lands before day one. If any single person is on leave, the new starter turns up to a desk with no laptop.

The automated version, step by step:

1. Trigger – HR fills in one PowerApps form once an offer is accepted: name, start date, role, manager, equipment needs.
2. Parallel tasks fire automatically – Power Automate creates tasks for IT (accounts, hardware), facilities (desk, pass) and the line manager (induction plan), each with its own deadline tied to the start date.
3. Status tracking – everyone involved can see progress on a single dashboard instead of hunting through email threads to check what’s done.
4. Reminders – anything not actioned a set number of days before start date triggers an automatic reminder, rather than relying on someone remembering.
5. Day one – the new starter has a working laptop, system access and a induction plan, because nothing depended on a single email getting read in time.

This is a workflow, not a piece of software you buy off a shelf — which is exactly why it needs to be built around how your teams actually work. We’ve written a longer walkthrough of this and similar builds in Real Examples of Operational Workflows You Can Automate with Power Automate This Month.

Example 3: Manual data entry between systems

The manual version: someone copies data from one system into another — a form submission into a spreadsheet, a spreadsheet into an invoicing tool, a Teams message into a project tracker. It’s tedious, it’s error-prone, and it’s usually done by someone whose time is worth more than the task.

The automated version, step by step:

1. Capture – data is entered once, at the source, via a PowerApps form or an existing Microsoft 365 trigger (a new email, a new file, a form submission).
2. Transform – Power Automate validates and formats the data (checking required fields, standardising dates, flagging duplicates) before it goes anywhere.
3. Distribute – the same data is pushed automatically to every system that needs it — a SharePoint list, an Excel workbook, a Teams channel — without anyone re-typing it.
4. Alert on exceptions – only unusual cases (a missing field, an out-of-range value) get flagged to a human. Everything else runs without intervention.

This is the piece most businesses underestimate. It’s rarely one dramatic automation — it’s five or six small ones like this, each saving an hour or two a week, that add up to the 15+ hours a week figure operations teams tell us matters most.

What actually counts as “process automation” in a Microsoft 365 business

Process automation, in plain English, means using rules and triggers to move work from one step to the next without someone manually pushing it along — an approval, a notification, a record being created — instead of relying on email and memory to make it happen.

In a Microsoft 365 environment specifically, that almost always means some combination of:

• Power Automate – the workflow engine that handles triggers, approvals, routing and notifications across Outlook, Teams and SharePoint.
• PowerApps – custom forms and simple apps for capturing data cleanly at the point of entry, on desktop or mobile.
• SharePoint lists – the record-keeping layer behind the workflow, giving you a searchable, audit-ready history instead of an inbox full of forwarded emails.

If your business already has Microsoft 365 licences, you likely already own the tools to build most of this — the gap is usually expertise and time, not software cost. That’s a different starting point to buying a separate RPA or workflow platform from scratch, and it’s worth understanding before you compare vendors — our guide on choosing a process automation company for Microsoft 365 covers what to check before committing.

What if you’re still running Nintex or K2?

If your business built workflows in Nintex or K2 years ago, you’re not starting from zero — but you probably know those platforms are being wound down or priced very differently than they used to be. The pragmatic path is rarely a big-bang replacement of everything on day one. It’s usually keeping existing workflows supported and stable while planning a phased migration to Power Automate, process by process, starting with whichever workflow causes the most weekly pain. We’ve covered the decision in detail in Power Automate vs Nintex: Should You Migrate Legacy Workflows in 2026?

How to work out which process to automate first

Not every manual process is worth automating immediately. A quick way to prioritise:

1. How often does it run? Something done fifty times a week is worth more than something done once a month.
2. How many people does it touch? An approval chain with four handoffs has more room for delay than one with two.
3. How much chasing does it generate? If people are regularly emailing “any update on this?”, that’s a strong signal.
4. Is it already a spreadsheet pretending to be a system? If a spreadsheet is being used to track status, log approvals, or hold a version of the truth, it’s usually a workflow in disguise.

If you want a broader plain-English grounding in how this fits together operationally rather than technically, Workflow Management in Operations: A Plain-English Explanation for Non-IT Managers is a good next read. And if you’re wondering whether you need a dedicated workflow tool on top of what you already have, see What Is a Workflow Management Tool, and Do You Need One if You Already Have Microsoft 365?

What this looks like as a project, not just a concept

These aren’t abstract examples — they’re the kind of fixed-price builds we deliver directly, starting from £500 for a single automation like an approval workflow, through to larger multi-process builds. There’s no large project team involved: a senior consultant scopes the process with you, builds it, and hands it over working. If you want ongoing changes and fixes as your processes evolve, that’s what our monthly retainers (from £799) are for — direct access to a senior consultant rather than raising a ticket with a large consultancy and waiting for a slot in someone’s backlog.

FAQ

What are some real examples of process automation in a business?

The most common ones we build are expense claim approvals, new starter onboarding, and data entry between systems — each replacing email chains and spreadsheets with a Power Automate workflow and a PowerApps form.

What is process automation, in plain English?

It’s using rules and triggers so work moves from one step to the next automatically — an approval request, a notification, a record being created — instead of relying on someone remembering to send an email or forward a form.

Do I need to buy separate software to automate processes if I already have Microsoft 365?

Usually not. Power Automate and PowerApps are typically already included in most Microsoft 365 business plans, so the main investment is in the build and setup rather than new software licences.

We already use Nintex or K2 — do we need to rip that out to automate with Power Automate?

No. It’s usually more practical to keep Nintex or K2 workflows supported while planning a phased migration, moving one process at a time to Power Automate rather than replacing everything at once.

How much does a process automation build cost?

Our automations start from £500 fixed price for a single workflow, such as an approval process, with larger multi-process builds priced accordingly. There’s no hidden day-rate creep — the price is agreed before work starts.

How long does it take to build something like an onboarding automation?

It depends on how many systems and approvers are involved, but a single workflow like expense approvals or onboarding is typically a matter of weeks, not months, when scoped and delivered by one senior consultant rather than a large project team.