How to Trigger Power BI or Power Automate Actions from Excel Buttons

In this tutorial, we will show you how to trigger Power BI or Power Automate actions from Excel buttons.

Why Trigger Power BI or Power Automate from Excel?

• Automate repetitive tasks directly from your spreadsheet.
• Refresh Power BI dashboards on demand.
• Send Excel data to Teams, Outlook, or SharePoint instantly.
• Launch approval workflows without leaving Excel.
• Turn Excel into a lightweight “app” with workflow buttons.

What You’ll Need (Prerequisites)

• Microsoft 365 account with Excel for the web (for Office Scripts).
• Access to Power Automate (included in Microsoft 365).
• Power BI Service (free or Pro, depending on your dataset sharing needs).

Note: An Office Script button in Excel runs the associated Office Script, but it does not automatically trigger a Power Automate cloud flow. To trigger Power Automate directly from an Excel button, an additional trigger mechanism, such as an HTTP request, is required.

Trigger a Power Automate Flow from an Excel Button Using VBA

Step 1: Create a Power Automate Flow

• Go to Power Automate.
• Select Create >> select Instant Cloud Flow.

• Name the flow: Trigger from Excel Button.
• Choose When an HTTP request is received as the trigger.
• Click Create.

• Click on the Plus (+) icon to add an action:
  • Select Power BI >> Select Refresh a dataset.

• In Parameters
  • Select Workspace
  • Select Dataset.

• Add another action:
  • Send an email (V2)
• In Parameters
  • Insert To
  • Type Subject
  • Type Body

• Now Save the flow.

Get the Flow’s URL (HTTP Trigger):

• After saving the flow, the ‘When an HTTP request is received’ step will generate a unique URL.
• Copy this URL to use in your VBA code.

Step 2: Create a Button in Excel

• Open Excel.
• Go to the Developer tab >> select Insert >> select Button (Form Control).
• Draw the button on your sheet.

• Right-click >> select Assign Macro.

Step 3: Add VBA Code to Call the Flow

• Paste this VBA code (replace with your Flow URL):

Sub TriggerFlow()

    Dim objHTTP As Object
    Dim URL As String

    URL = "Insert URL from your Flow"

    Set objHTTP = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")

    objHTTP.Open "POST", URL, False
    objHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/json"
    objHTTP.Send "{}"

    If objHTTP.Status >= 200 And objHTTP.Status < 300 Then
        MsgBox "Power Automate flow triggered successfully!"
    Else
        MsgBox "Flow trigger failed. HTTP status: " & objHTTP.Status
    End If

End Sub

• Click the ‘Trigger Power Automate’ button to call your Power Automate flow.
• A success message will appear when the flow is triggered successfully.

Conclusion

By following the above steps, you can trigger Power BI or Power Automate actions from Excel buttons. Triggering Power Automate from an Excel button requires a genuine flow trigger. VBA sends an HTTP POST request to a Power Automate flow using the When an HTTP request is received trigger. Once triggered, the flow can refresh a Power BI semantic model, send emails, post Teams messages, start approval processes, or perform other automated actions.

This approach provides a direct way to connect an Excel button with Power Automate and extend Excel beyond workbook-level automation.