EXCEL FORMULA INTEGRITY VALIDATION USING POWER AUTOMATE

Hello JKPieterse​ 

You’re correct with AutoSave enabled in Office 365, every small edit to a workbook is saved to OneDrive/SharePoint almost immediately. Because the Power Automate trigger is “When a file is modified,” each AutoSave event can indeed fire the flow.

That doesn’t make the design wrong, but it does mean you need to add a way to control trigger frequency so the solution scales. Microsoft’s documentation confirms that flows tied to Excel in OneDrive/SharePoint will run whenever the workbook is modified, which includes AutoSave saves

Microsoft Documentation: Use flows with Excel

A few practical approaches:

• Debounce with Delay: Add a short delay (e.g., 3–5 minutes) after the trigger so multiple AutoSave events collapse into one validation run.
• Scope the trigger: Point the trigger at the validation table or worksheet rather than the whole workbook, so cosmetic edits don’t fire the flow.
• Batch notifications: Collect all errors during the delay window and send a single digest email instead of multiple alerts.
• Checkpoint validation: Run validation at key points (end of day, before distribution) rather than every keystroke, if real‑time alerts aren’t strictly necessary.

So yes, AutoSave will cause multiple triggers, but with debounce or batching logic you can keep the workflow efficient and avoid alert storms while still preserving the integrity checks.