53% of business leaders say productivity must increase.
Yet 80% of employees say they lack the time or energy to meet those demands.
The problem isn’t always workload.
It’s the work happening between the work.
- Manual approvals.
- Email follow-ups.
- Document routing.
- Repeated data entry.
- Status tracking.
These repetitive processes slow teams down and leave employees spending time on tasks that can be automated.
SharePoint workflow automation helps change that.
By connecting SharePoint with Power Automate, organizations can automate approvals, document management, task assignments, notifications, and other business processes while keeping information centralized within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
What is Workflow Automation in SharePoint?
Workflow automation in SharePoint refers to the process of automating, optimizing, and streamlining business processes and tasks within the SharePoint environment.
SharePoint, as a powerful collaboration platform developed by Microsoft, provides robust workflow automation capabilities that enable organizations to automate repetitive tasks, enforce business rules, and facilitate efficient communication and collaboration among employees.
There are several built-in options in SharePoint workflow. Additionally, it improves the ability to develop customized workflows enabling organizations to automate document approval, integrate data, etc.
Implementing automated workflows using SharePoint not only improves efficiency but also helps organizations maintain consistency, reduce errors, and enhance collaboration among team members.
SharePoint’s flexibility allows businesses to customize these workflows according to their specific requirements, making it a powerful tool for process automation.
In modern SharePoint Online environments, Power Automate provides the automation layer for triggers, approvals, notifications, conditions, and integrations with Microsoft 365 and other applications.
7 Sharepoint Workflows to Automate your Business Processes
Document Approval Workflow
- Automate the process of document approval by routing documents to the appropriate stakeholders for review and approval.
- SharePoint workflow automation for document approval workflow helps to ensure timely approval, track the document’s status, and maintain an audit trail of approvals.
- Set up automated notifications, approval stages, and conditional branching based on responses.
Request Workflow
- Automate the leave request process, allowing employees to submit leave requests online and managers to approve or reject them.
- Reduces paperwork, provides a centralized leave management system, and ensures accurate tracking of employee leaves.
- Using SharePoint workflow automation, you can create a form for leave requests, automate notifications to managers, and integrate with calendars for leave scheduling.
Task Assignment Workflow
- Automate task assignment, tracking, and reminders for team members, ensuring that tasks are completed within specified deadlines.
- Improves task accountability, enhances collaboration, and reduces the chances of missed deadlines.
- Set up task assignment forms, automate notifications for task assignments and deadlines, and integrate with calendars and project management tools.
Issue Tracking Workflow
- Automate the issue tracking and resolution process, allowing users to report problems, assign tickets to support teams, and track the status until resolution using SharePoint workflow automation.
- Improves customer support efficiency, provides transparency in issue resolution, and maintains a record of support interactions.
- Develop an issue reporting form, automate ticket assignment based on priority, and integrate with support ticketing systems for detailed tracking.
Employee Onboarding Workflow
- Automate the employee onboarding process, guiding new employees through necessary steps, and ensuring that all required information and documents are collected.
- Enhances overall experience by reducing manual data entry errors and ensures consistency in onboarding processes.
- An effective onboarding workflow helps new hires acclimate to their roles, understand the company culture, and become productive team members quickly.
Reimbursement Workflow
- Automate the reimbursement process by allowing employees to submit expense claims, which are then reviewed and approved by relevant authorities.
- SharePoint workflow automation streamlines expense reporting, reduces processing time, and maintains transparency in financial transactions.
- Develop an online expense form, automate approval workflows based on expense categories, and integrate with accounting systems for reimbursement.
Compliance & Policy Acknowledgement Workflow
- Automate the acknowledgment of policies, procedures, or compliance-related documents by employees, ensuring that they have read and understood the content.
- Ensures regulatory compliance, provides an audit trail for policy acknowledgments, and enhances legal protection.
- Create acknowledgment forms for policies, automate reminders for pending acknowledgments, and maintain a database of acknowledged documents.
Turn SharePoint Into a Workflow Engine
Setting up your SharePoint Environment
Setting up a SharePoint environment involves several steps to ensure that the platform is configured correctly, secure, and optimized for your organization’s needs. Below are the steps to set up your SharePoint environment.
Defined Planning
Clearly outline your goals and objectives for using SharePoint, whether it is for document management, collaboration, workflow automation, or intranet development.
Select SharePoint version
Deploy SharePoint Server on-premises if you require complete control over the environment. Utilize the cloud-based SharePoint Online service provided by Microsoft as part of Microsoft 365.
Infrastructure set up
Ensure your server hardware meets SharePoint’s requirements in terms of processor, RAM, and storage.
Workflow & Automation
For SharePoint Online, use Power Automate to build modern cloud workflows connected to SharePoint lists and libraries
Monitoring & Support
Utilize SharePoint’s built-in monitoring tools and reports to track site usage, performance, and errors.
Backup & Disaster Recovery
Implement regular backup procedures to ensure data integrity and develop a disaster recovery plan.
Important: SharePoint 2013 workflows were fully retired in SharePoint Online on April 2, 2026. Organizations using legacy workflows should evaluate migration to Power Automate or another supported solution.
When to implement SharePoint Automation Tools?
Implementing SharePoint automation tools is beneficial for organizations that want to enhance productivity, streamline processes, and reduce manual effort. When to implement them?
Automate tasks such as data entry, document approvals, or status updates that consume considerable time and effort.
Automate business processes involving multiple steps, stages, and decision points.
Connect SharePoint with multiple systems, databases, or applications to exchange data without manual intervention.
Apply validation rules and transform data before it is stored or processed.
Automate task assignments based on workload, skills, or availability.
A business is especially ready for workflow automation when employees rely heavily on email follow-ups, spreadsheets, manual approvals, repeated data entry, or individual knowledge to move processes forward.
Manual Requests Were Slowing Approvals
Benefits of SharePoint for Workflow Automation
- SharePoint & workflow automation enables the automation of complex business processes with its intuitive interface and pre-built templates.
- Integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft Office 365 applications and services, including Outlook, Teams, Excel, and Power Automate.
- Users can create workflows that span across various applications, improving collaboration and data sharing among teams within the familiar Microsoft ecosystem.
- Offers a highly customizable platform where organizations can design workflows tailored to their unique requirements.
- User-friendly interface allows non-technical users to design and manage workflows easily.
- SharePoint services support advanced approval workflows with multi-stage, parallel, and conditional approval processes.
- Facilitate real-time collaboration and communication among team members. Teams can collaborate on tasks, projects, and documents, enhancing productivity and reducing delays in the workflow process.
- Robust architecture ensures scalability and high performance, even with large volumes of data and complex workflows.
- Automated workflows maintain data security and compliance, ensuring that sensitive information is handled appropriately and in accordance with regulatory requirements.
SharePoint Workflow Automation vs. Manual Processes
- Employees send emails to follow up on approvals.
- Documents are manually routed between teams.
- Teams track processes using spreadsheets.
- Employees repeatedly enter the same information.
- Managers manually follow up on pending approvals.
- Employees manually check task status and deadlines.
- Teams rely on individual employees to move processes forward.
- Automated notifications remind the right stakeholders.
- Documents are automatically routed based on predefined rules.
- Process status is tracked centrally in SharePoint.
- Data can be automatically updated across connected systems.
- Approval requests are automatically sent to designated approvers.
- Automated reminders help teams stay on track.
- Workflows automatically trigger the next step based on defined conditions.
Power Automate and SharePoint: How They Work Together
SharePoint provides the lists, libraries, documents, and data, while Power Automate provides the workflow automation layer. A flow can detect SharePoint changes, apply conditions, route approvals, send notifications, update records, and connect with other applications.
Common triggers include:
A new list item is created.
Migrating Legacy SharePoint Workflows
Organizations using legacy SharePoint workflows should first identify existing workflows, dependencies, and business-critical processes. Suitable workflows can then be redesigned or migrated to Power Automate, tested, and monitored after deployment.
This is particularly relevant for SharePoint Online environments because SharePoint 2013 workflows were fully retired in April 2026.
How does HexaCorp help your Business with SharePoint for Workflow Automation?
HexaCorp provides SharePoint services & process automation workflow that can handle complex workflows intelligently. It offers seamless integration with SharePoint through its connectors and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).
Utilizing SharePoint workflow automation services from HexaCorp, organizations can automate and streamline various processes with robust data integration & connectivity.
By integrating HexaCorp’s SharePoint services, organizations can benefit from sophisticated workflow orchestration, data manipulation, real-time monitoring, and reporting.
We offer customized workflow assistance along with 24/7 support that helps your organization seamlessly drive through the processes with no disturbances.
HexaCorp automates paper-based manual workflows using SharePoint workflow automation. They help you deploy SharePoint automation tools for feasible & automated business processes.
They enable effective and cost-efficient business operations using intelligent SharePoint automation, and an integrated automation ecosystem.
HexaCorp can support organizations across workflow assessment, Power Automate implementation, SharePoint integration, legacy workflow modernization, monitoring, and ongoing automation support.
Conclusion
By leveraging SharePoint for workflow automation, organizations can optimize their business processes, improve collaboration, enhance productivity, and ensure that tasks are completed accurately and efficiently. SharePoint’s flexibility and integration capabilities make it a powerful platform for automating a wide range of workflows across different departments and industries. Deploy best-in-class SharePoint service providers for workflow automation, and better business outcomes.
For SharePoint Online, combining SharePoint with Power Automate provides a modern way to automate approvals, documents, tasks, notifications, and business processes across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Ready to Stop Managing Workflows Manually?
FAQs
What is SharePoint workflow automation?
It is the automation of repetitive business processes involving SharePoint documents, lists, libraries, approvals, tasks, and data.
What can be automated with SharePoint?
Organizations can automate document approvals, employee requests, task assignments, onboarding, issue tracking, reimbursements, notifications, and policy acknowledgements.
Is Power Automate used for SharePoint workflows?
Yes. Power Automate is Microsoft’s modern automation platform for creating workflows connected to SharePoint Online, Microsoft 365, and other applications.
Can legacy SharePoint workflows be migrated?
Yes. Organizations can assess existing workflows and migrate suitable processes to Power Automate or another supported automation solution.
What are the benefits of SharePoint workflow automation?
Key benefits include reduced manual effort, faster approvals, improved consistency, better process visibility, centralized tracking, and Microsoft 365 integration.
When should a business automate SharePoint processes?
Automation is useful when repetitive tasks, manual approvals, document routing, data entry, or follow-ups consume significant employee time or cause process delays.
