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ClickRuntime

Connect Microsoft Excel to Outlook

For teams on Microsoft 365, Excel holds the lists and registers and Outlook handles the email. Connecting the two lets your workbook drive the emails you send, and turns invoices, timesheets and requests arriving in Outlook into rows in Excel, without retyping.
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Ideas

What you can do with Microsoft Excel and Outlook

Subscriber newsletters, invoice and timesheet capture, new-row alerts and VIP email triage between Excel and Outlook. These are ready-made starting points. Anything else you can describe works too.
DailyAI

Send a daily topic digest to subscribers in an Excel list

Each subscriber in your Excel list gets a daily email digest of news on the topics they chose, sent from your Outlook.

See how it works
Every 15 minutesAI

Add emailed invoices to your Excel register

Invoices emailed to you are read, added as rows in your Excel invoice register, and the PDF is saved to OneDrive.

See how it works
Every 15 minutes

Get an Outlook email when a new row is added in Excel

When new feedback or requests are added to your Excel table, you get an email listing them.

See how it works
Every 30 minutesAI

Turn emailed PDF timesheets into rows in Excel

PDF timesheets emailed in by contractors are read and their hours added to your Excel timesheet table, and you are told about any that can't be read.

See how it works
Every 10 minutesAI

Flag and summarise emails from your VIP list

Emails from anyone on your Excel VIP list are flagged in Outlook and you get a short summary of each, so important messages never wait.

See how it works Your own logic

Any other automation you can describe in words

Your own rules, schedule and AI steps with Microsoft Excel and Outlook, plus any other app. Describe it and your assistant builds it.

See how to build your own

Build your own

Build any Microsoft Excel and Outlook automation you can describe

The ideas above are ready-made starting points, not a fixed list. Describe what should happen between Microsoft Excel and Outlook in your own words, with your conditions, other apps or an AI step, and your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

For example, ask your assistant

Every Monday, email each customer in my Excel AR table whose invoice is more than 14 days overdue, using a firmer tone for anything past 30 days.

When an Outlook email has an Excel attachment from our supplier, read the price list and update changed prices in my Products table, then email me what changed.

Use cases

Why people connect Microsoft Excel and Outlook

How the two apps work together

  • The script reads the Excel workbook on OneDrive or SharePoint through Microsoft Graph, checking for new or changed rows every few minutes.
  • New Outlook messages can be picked up through Microsoft Graph change notifications to a trigger link, or by checking every few minutes.
  • Results such as extracted fields or sent dates are written back to the Excel table.

  • Finance teams capture invoice data from email

    Invoice emails in Outlook are read, and supplier, amount and due date are added to an Excel table on OneDrive. Payables stay up to date without retyping.

  • Account managers send emails from a workbook

    Rows in an Excel table of customers drive renewal or follow-up emails from Outlook. Status columns show when each was sent.

  • HR teams send onboarding emails

    A new hire row in the Excel tracker triggers a welcome email with start date and first-day details. The tracker remains the single list.

  • Managers get a daily summary of a shared workbook

    Changes to an Excel tracker, like new orders or open items, are summarised in a morning Outlook email. They do not need to open the file.

More apps

Microsoft Excel, Outlook and other apps in one automation

An automation isn't limited to two apps. Add the next step in another app and it runs as part of the same automation.

Excel tracker updates in Teams and Outlook

When a row in my Orders Excel table changes to Shipped, email the customer from Outlook and post the order number in my Teams Orders channel.

Outlook invoices to Excel and QuickBooks

When a supplier invoice arrives in Outlook, add it to my Payables Excel table and create a bill in QuickBooks with the same amount and due date.

Save invoice PDFs next to the workbook

For each invoice email in Outlook, save the PDF to my OneDrive Invoices folder and add a row to my Excel table with a link to the file.

Setup

Connect Microsoft Excel and Outlook once

Every idea on this page uses the same two connections, so you set them up once. If one is missing, your assistant tells you and links to the right place.

Microsoft Excel

Spreadsheets

  1. At entra.microsoft.com, open App registrations and create one with the Web redirect URI https://clickruntime.com/oauth/callback, or reuse your existing Microsoft registration.
  2. Under Certificates & secrets, create a client secret and copy the value.
  3. Under API permissions, add Microsoft Graph delegated permissions Files.ReadWrite and offline_access, plus admin consent if your organisation requires it.
  4. In the ClickRuntime dashboard, open Connections, choose Microsoft Excel and enter the Tenant ID, Client ID and client secret.

Outlook

Email

  1. At entra.microsoft.com, go to Identity → Applications → App registrations → New registration. Choose single tenant for a work account, or any organisation plus personal accounts for Outlook.com, and add the Web redirect URI https://clickruntime.com/oauth/callback.
  2. Under Certificates & secrets, create a new client secret and copy its value straight away.
  3. Under API permissions, add Microsoft Graph delegated permissions Mail.ReadWrite, Mail.Send, offline_access and User.Read, then grant admin consent if your organisation requires it.
  4. In the ClickRuntime dashboard, open Connections, choose Outlook and enter the Tenant ID, Client ID and client secret.

FAQ

Questions about connecting Microsoft Excel and Outlook

Where does the Excel file need to be?
In OneDrive or SharePoint, so ClickRuntime can reach it through your Microsoft account. Files only on your computer can't be read.
Does the data need to be in a table?
Yes, for most automations. Format the range as an Excel table (Insert › Table) so rows can be read and added reliably.
Can my organisation's admin control access?
Yes. You connect your Microsoft account in your ClickRuntime dashboard, and some organisations require an admin to approve that first.
Which address are emails sent from?
Your own Outlook address, so they appear in Sent Items and replies come back to you.
Does it work with work or school Microsoft 365 accounts?
Yes. Some organisations require an admin to approve the app before users can connect it.
Can it read .xlsx attachments from emails?
Yes. The script can download attachments from Outlook and read their contents with Python.
Will it break my formulas?
It writes only to the cells or table rows you specify, so formula columns stay as they are if you keep them out of the write.

Related pages

Keep exploring

Tell your assistant what Microsoft Excel and Outlook should do together

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