How to create a Flow to close an Outlook Task from an email

Jane Joyce 1 Reputation point
2020-08-17T20:19:38.17+00:00

Hi there,

Is there a way to create a flow which will automatically close an Outlook Task from an Outlook Email.

When a request is raised via Service Now I receive an email with the Reference Number and description in the subject line
eg HRC1234567 - Report for Joe Bloggs
I have a Quick Step in Outlook that will then create a task from this email with the same subject line
eg HRC1234567 - Report for Joe Bloggs
When the Service Now case is closed, I receive another email with the same subject line but [Closed] in front of it.
eg [Closed] HRC1234567 - Report for Joe Bloggs

When this [Closed] email arrives I would like it to find the corresponding Task and close it automatically and then move the [Closed] email into my archived folder.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much.

Jane.

Outlook Management
Outlook Management
Outlook: A family of Microsoft email and calendar products.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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  1. Yuki Sun-MSFT 40,931 Reputation points
    2020-08-18T06:14:32.977+00:00

    Hi Jane,

    When this [Closed] email arrives I would like it to find the corresponding Task and close it automatically and then move the [Closed] email into my archived folder.

    To the best of my knowledge, I am afraid it's not feasible to automate the whole procedure using the built-in features in Outlook. Firstly, there's no option availale to automatically search for a task with specific keywords in the subject of a incoming message, so you would have to manually search for the corresponding task. Secondly, regarding the subsequent actions to close the task and move the [Closed] email, it couldn't be accomplished using a single Quick Step or other features as this involves two different items.

    Given this, you may consider taking advantage of the keyboard shortcuts which might simplize the procedure a little bit:

    1. When the "[Closed] HRC1234567 - Report for Joe Bloggs" email arrives, select "HRC1234567" in the subject line in the preview pane, press Ctrl+C to copy the reference number(supposing this is unique).
    2. Press Ctrl+4 to switch to the Tasks view.
    3. Press Ctrl+E to go to the Search box, press Ctrl+V to search for the Task "HRC1234567 - Report for Joe Bloggs".
    4. Once find the task, you can select it then click the flag button or press Insert to mark the task as complete.
    5. Press Ctrl+1 to switch back to the Mail view, select the [Closed] email, drag and drop it to the archived folder, or you can create a Quick Step for the action to move the item to the archived folder.

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