Daily Overdue Outlook Task Reminder
Every morning, query Outlook Tasks for overdue items and send a summary email with task names and original due dates.
Provided as-is, without warranty of any kind. Review and test each pattern in a non-production environment before deploying it to live automations. See our Terms.
Overview
This flow queries Outlook each morning for overdue tasks and sends a summary email to the user highlighting all uncompleted items past their due date. The flow runs at 7:00 AM every weekday, compiles a searchable list of overdue tasks with original due dates, and formats the report as an HTML email with clear visual hierarchy for quick scanning and action.
Use Case
Users accumulate overdue tasks in Outlook but often lose visibility without proactive reminders. This flow solves task deadline slippage by automatically querying for all overdue tasks each morning and delivering a concise, formatted email summary. The user can quickly identify overdue items, assess priority, and take corrective action before they become serious blockers or accountability issues.
The flow is ideal for teams that:
- Daily morning email highlights all overdue tasks in one place
- Prevents task deadline drift and lost accountability
- Shows original due dates for context and age assessment
- Formatted as HTML for easy scanning and professional appearance
- Weekday-only delivery keeps weekends clear
- Encourages daily task review and completion discipline
Flow Architecture
Recurrence
Schedule - RecurrenceRuns at 7:00 AM every weekday to check for overdue Outlook tasks.
Initialize varTodayDate
Initialize VariableSets varTodayDate to today's date for comparison using utcNow().
List Overdue Outlook Tasks
Office 365 Outlook - List tasksQueries Outlook tasks filtered to items with a due date earlier than today and not marked complete.
Check If Any Overdue Tasks Exist
If conditionTests if count of returned tasks > 0.
- For each overdue task — Iterates the returned task array to build the report body.
- Append Task to Report Body — Builds an HTML table row with task name, due date, and days overdue.
No overdue tasks — skip the email send.
Compose HTML Email Body
ComposeWraps the accumulated table rows in an HTML email template with header and styling.
Send Overdue Summary
Office 365 Outlook - Send an email (V2)Sends the HTML summary email to the current user. Marked High importance when the overdue count exceeds the configured threshold.
Environment Variables
| Schema name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| flowlibs_HighPriorityTaskCount | Integer | 5 | If overdue count exceeds this value, send the summary email at High importance. |
| flowlibs_OverdueThresholdDays | Integer | 0 | Number of days past due before a task is included in the report (0 = all overdue items, 7+ = only seriously overdue). |
Connectors & Connections
| Connector | API name | Actions used |
|---|---|---|
| Office 365 Outlook | shared_office365 | ListTasks (List overdue tasks) SendEmailV2 (Send the daily summary email) |
Note — All connections are referenced as solution connection references; the flow is portable between environments as long as a connection is mapped at import time.
Customization Guide
Almost every realistic variant of this flow can be implemented by changing environment variable values. A few cases require small edits inside the flow definition — those are called out explicitly below.
- Include task category
- Add the category field to the HTML table to group overdue items by project or type.
- Calculate days overdue
- Append a calculated days-overdue metric to each row so readers can prioritize the oldest items visually.
- Exclude specific categories
- Add a Filter Array action after List Tasks to skip personal or low-priority categories before building the report.
- Send to manager
- Add a second Send Email action that notifies the user's manager when the overdue task count exceeds a threshold.
- Add task links
- Include deep links to each task in Outlook so the email recipient can navigate to an item in one click.
- Weekly vs. daily
- Change the recurrence trigger to weekly for less frequent updates on slower-moving task lists.
Key Expressions
The flow is intentionally light on Power Fx / WDL gymnastics — the heaviest expressions are the branch-name concatenation and the approval outcome check. They are listed below in the order they appear in the flow.
EXPR.01Get today's date
Reference timestamp used to flag tasks as overdue.
EXPR.02Format today for OData filter
ISO date string passed to the Outlook task OData filter.
EXPR.03Get task name
Subject of the current overdue task inside the For each loop.
EXPR.04Get task due date
Original due date of the current overdue task.
EXPR.05Calculate days overdue
Simple day-of-year diff to estimate how many days a task is past due.
EXPR.06Count total overdue tasks
Total count of overdue items returned by the Outlook list action.
EXPR.07Set email importance conditionally
Marks the summary email High importance when the overdue count exceeds the configured threshold.
Comments
Sign in to join the conversation.
Sign inNo comments yet. Be the first to share your experience with this flow.