# How to add a Quick Steps button that runs a Power Automate flow

> A step by step walkthrough for putting an existing flow behind a button on every row of a SharePoint list. Eight steps, including the two nobody documents: SharePoint asks for the flow's ID rather than its name, and the button does nothing for your colleagues until you share the flow as run-only.

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Execute Aug 24, 2026  9 min read

Geri Crroj

Microsoft 365 consultant, Niagara, Ontario

Your team has a flow they run by hand. Somebody opens the list, finds the row, remembers the flow exists, goes off to find it, runs it. Almost all of that friction has nothing to do with the flow.

A **Quick steps** column puts the flow on the row as a button, so the whole thing is one click without leaving the list:

![A SharePoint list called Service Desk. In a column headed Actions, the row shows a clickable blue pill button labelled Update Managers, circled in red.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/qs-07-result-button.png)

The finished result

A button on every row. Clicking it runs the flow against that row.

Below is the whole build, in order, screenshot by screenshot. It takes about ten minutes, and the last step is the one that decides whether it works for anybody but you.

Before you start

You need an **instant** flow with a **manual** trigger, already built and turned on. Scheduled and automated flows can’t be used here, because there’s nothing for a button to trigger.

Check the flow’s detail page in Power Automate. Under **Type** it should say _Instant_.

## Step 1: check the flow

The example here is three steps: a manual trigger, **Create item**, then **Send an email**. It uses the SharePoint and Office 365 Outlook connectors, both of which are standard.

![The Power Automate designer showing a flow named Add an item to SharePoint and send an email with three steps: manual, Create item, and Send an email. A panel confirms it is connected to SharePoint and Office 365 Outlook.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/quick-step-flow-definition.png)

Power Automate

Manual trigger, then the work. If your flow already runs by hand today, it is almost certainly the right shape.

## Step 2: copy the flow’s ID

This is the step nobody warns you about. SharePoint does not give you a list of flows to pick from. It asks you to type in a **Flow ID**, and you get that out of the browser address bar.

Open the flow in Power Automate and look at the address bar. Every flow URL has the same shape:

```
.../flows/<flow-id>/details
```

The Flow ID is the long code between `/flows/` and `/details`. In the flow above it is `d5603052-9d34-47f0-87c3-e6c95c879a41`.

Copy it somewhere for a moment. You’ll need it in step 6.

## Step 3: add the column

Go to your list. At the right end of the column headers, click **\+ Add column**.

![A SharePoint list command bar and column headers. The plus Add column control at the right end of the header row is circled in red.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/qs-01-add-column.png)

Step 3 · the list header

It sits at the right end of the column headers, past your last column.

Choose **Quick steps** from the type list, then click **Next**.

![The SharePoint Create a column type picker showing Text, Choice, Date and time, Multiple lines of text, Person, Number and Quick steps. Quick steps is circled in red.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/qs-02-pick-quick-steps.png)

Step 3 · pick the type

Quick steps sits seventh, under Number, described as add custom action buttons.

## Step 4: name the column

Give the column a name. This is the **column header**, not the button, so something plain like “Actions” works well. You can leave the description empty.

![The Create a column panel with Name set to Actions, an empty Description, Type set to Quick steps, and a Quick steps dropdown reading Add a quick step, circled in red.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/qs-03-name-and-add-step.png)

Step 4 · name it

Type is already Quick steps. The circled field underneath is where the button gets built.

## Step 5: start a new quick step

Open the **Quick steps** dropdown and choose **\+ New quick step…**.

![The Quick steps dropdown open, listing two existing steps named Close ticket and Update Managers, with the option plus New quick step circled in red at the bottom.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/qs-04-new-quick-step.png)

Step 5 · Add a quick step

Steps already built on this list appear here too, so you build once and reuse them across columns.

## Step 6: choose Execute a flow

Four actions are offered. Pick **Execute a flow**.

![The Create a quick step dialog offering four actions: Draft an email, Start a Teams chat, Set a value, and Execute a flow. Execute a flow is circled in red.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/qs-05-execute-a-flow.png)

Step 6 · pick the action

Four actions. Execute a flow is the one that reaches Power Automate.

Now fill in the fields:

![The completed quick step builder. Quick step name reads Update Managers, Flow ID holds a GUID and is circled in red, Header text reads Notify the managers for this ticket, and Flow button text reads Send.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/qs-06-flow-id.png)

Step 6 · the fields, filled in

Flow ID is a text box, not a picker. The circled field is where the code from step 2 goes.

-   **Quick step name** is the label on the button, so write it as an instruction. “Update Managers” beats “Flow 1”.
-   **Flow ID** is the code you copied in step 2.
-   **Header text** and **Flow button text** control the panel that opens when someone clicks. Fill them in, because the defaults are generic and this panel is the last thing a user sees before the flow runs.
-   **Display conditionally** defaults to always showing. You can instead show the button only when a row matches a rule, for example only when Status is “New”.

Click **Create**.

## Step 7: save the column

Back on the column panel, click **Save**. The button appears on every row straight away. There’s no publish step and nothing to refresh.

Give the button a colour

Each step has a colour swatch next to it in the column panel. Use it as a signal rather than decoration: something final or destructive in red reads correctly at a glance, and that’s most of the point of putting the action next to the data.

You can put up to **15 quick steps** on one list.

## Step 8: let your team actually run it

Here is where a working button still does nothing for everybody else.

The flow belongs to you. Until you share it, a colleague who clicks the button gets an error, because they have no permission to run the flow behind it. Nothing in the SharePoint list warns you about this, and it will not show up in your own testing, since you are the owner.

Go back to the flow’s detail page in Power Automate. On the right, under **Run-only user**, it says _“Your flow hasn’t been shared with anyone.”_ Click **Edit**.

![The Manage run-only permissions panel in Power Automate. It has tabs for Users and groups and SharePoint, a box to enter names, and a Connections Used section listing SharePoint and Office 365 Outlook. Both connection dropdowns read Provided by run-only user and are circled in red.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/qs-08-run-only-permissions.png)

Run-only user · Edit

Add the people, then fix the two dropdowns underneath. They are the part that catches everyone.

Add whoever needs the button under **Users and groups**. They get to run the flow and see the results, and nothing else.

Change the two connection dropdowns

Under **Connections Used**, SharePoint and Office 365 Outlook both default to **“Provided by run-only user”**. That means every colleague who clicks your button is asked to create their own SharePoint and Outlook connection first. Most people will not get past that prompt.

Switch both to **“Use this connection (you@yourdomain)”** and the flow runs on your connection instead, so the button just works.

The trade is worth understanding before you set it: the flow’s actions then happen as **you**. The email in this example arrives from your mailbox, no matter who pressed the button. For a notification that’s usually what you want. For anything that writes a record someone should be accountable for, it is not.

### Sharing it with a whole team at once

Naming people one at a time does not scale, and it goes stale the moment somebody joins. The **SharePoint** tab is the better answer:

![The SharePoint tab of the Manage run-only permissions panel, reading Invite a SharePoint list or library, with Site and List/Library dropdowns and an Add button.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/qs-09-run-only-sharepoint.png)

Run-only user · SharePoint tab

Pick the site, pick the list, Add. Access to the list now carries the right to run the flow.

Pick the **Site**, pick the **List/Library**, and click **Add**. From then on, permission to run the flow follows access to the list. Somebody joins the team, gets added to the site, and the button works for them with no trip back to Power Automate.

That is the setting to use for the pattern in this post, because the button lives on that list anyway. The two are meant to travel together.

## The whole build in 26 seconds

If you would rather watch it than read it, here are the seven build steps end to end. No audio, so nothing is lost with the sound off. Step 8 happens in Power Automate, so it is not in the clip.

A silent 26 second walkthrough. Each of the seven steps appears in turn with its screenshot, and a pointer travels to the control being described, presses, and a ring pulses at the click point. The sequence runs from the Add column control, through the Quick steps column type, naming the column, creating a new quick step, choosing Execute a flow, pasting the Flow ID, and finishes on the finished button sitting in the list row. ([download the clip](https://tenantcraft.ca/video/quick-steps-walkthrough.mp4))

Walkthrough · 26 seconds, no audio

The same seven steps as above, captured in a live tenant in August 2026. Everything in the clip is written out in full on this page, so there is nothing here you need to watch to follow along.

## Editing or removing it later

Quick steps are stored on the **list**, not on the column. That catches people out, because deleting the column does not delete the steps, and cancelling out of the column panel does not undo a step you just created.

To reach them, tick the checkbox next to any list item, then open **Integrate → Quick steps**. You can create another, reorder them, and switch one off. There is no delete button, so a step you no longer want gets switched off rather than removed.

![The Manage quick steps dialog reading Turn quick steps on or off to show custom actions on this list, Create up to 15 quick steps. A Create a quick step button is circled in red, and three steps are listed below it, each with reorder arrows and a toggle switched On.](https://tenantcraft.ca/images/quick-steps-manage-panel.png)

Integrate · Quick steps

Create another, reorder them, or switch one off. Note there is no delete: off is as far as this panel goes.

## Two things to check before the team uses it

**What it costs.** The button adds nothing. The flow keeps exactly the licensing it already had. Standard connectors like SharePoint, Outlook and Teams are covered by any Microsoft 365 plan. One **premium** connector (Dataverse, SQL, generic HTTP, most third-party services) makes the whole flow premium, at roughly US$15 per user per month, and putting a button in front of it changes nothing about that.

**Who can click it, and who can build one.** The flow’s _Run as_ setting still applies, so whoever clicks needs permission to run it. The button shows for everyone regardless, and people without rights get an error on click.

Building one needs **Edit** on the list, and the standard **Members** group has Edit by default. So on a default site, anyone who can upload a document can also wire a button to a flow. If that matters to you, change Members from **Edit** to **Contribute** on the site permissions page before you announce the feature. Contribute still lets people add, edit and delete items, it just takes away column creation.

One naming trap

Most walkthroughs of this feature tell you to start in an **Automate** menu. There is no Automate menu on a SharePoint list, checked in a live tenant in August 2026. Everything above happens in the **\+ Add column** panel, and the management screen lives under **Integrate**. If you’ve been hunting for Automate, that’s why you couldn’t find it.

## Bottom line

If you already have a manual flow that people run against list rows, this is a ten minute change that removes the worst part of using it. Build the flow first, copy its ID out of the URL, add the column second, and name the button like an instruction.

Then share the flow as run-only with the list and point its connections at yourself. A button that only works for the person who built it is the most common way this ends up abandoned.

Rebuilding old workflows? The playbook covers what becomes a button and what stays a flow.

SharePoint Workflow Rebuild Playbook

PDF · 7 pages · 44 checkpoints

[Email me the PDF](https://tenantcraft.ca/resources/guides/sp2013-workflow-rebuild-playbook)

TWENTY MINUTES, NO PITCH

## Tell me what is stuck. I will tell you what it takes.

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