DelayOutOfHoursEmails flow

Purpose

This flow enables message delivery only during working hours. Messages sent outside of working hours are delayed until the start of the next business day. Company business hours are set by modifying the recurring appointment "Working Hours" in the "DelayOutOfHoursEmails" shared mailbox. An Exchange Online transport rule (also named "DelayOutOfHoursEmails") can be used to select which messages are processed.

Current version: 1.0.2

Installation

1. Create the shared mailbox "DelayOutOfHoursEmails". Make sure the account you will use to run the flow has "Full Access" and "Send As" permissions on this shared mailbox.
2. Open Outlook, navigate to the "DelayOutOfHoursEmails" shared mailbox, and then create the recurring appointment "Working Hours".
   
3. Create the transport rule. To do that:
   • Open the Exchange admin center and navigate to "Mail Flow" > "Rules".
   • Click the plus sign icon to add a new rule and name it "DelayOutOfHoursEmails". Configure the rule as shown in the image below, then save it. Note that this rule is an example; you can modify the conditions to suit your needs.
   
   
4. Open Power Automate and import "DelayOutOfHoursEmails1002.zip" as a new flow, following the Power Automate documentation.
   
5. Enter the address of the shared mailbox in the "Original Mailbox Address" field of the "When a new email arrives in a shared mailbox (V2)" trigger. Select "Inbox" in the "Folder" field.
   
6. Enter your local time zone name as the value of the strTimeZone variable (see the list of time zones here).
   
7. Save the flow.
8. Turn on the flow.
   

Testing

1. At any time during non-business hours, open Outlook and send a message. Navigate to the "DelayOutOfHoursEmails" shared mailbox and confirm that an approval request appears in the Inbox. After a few minutes, navigate to the Drafts folder of the same shared mailbox and verify that an approval response is present. Enable the "Defer Until" column in the Drafts folder to confirm that it is set to the start of the next business day.
   
   If you want to send the delayed message right away, do the following:
   • Outlook for Windows
     
   • Outlook on the Web (OWA)
     
2. At any time during business hours, open Outlook and send a message. Verify that the message is delivered immediately.

Limitations

Warning

After purchase

You will receive a download link for the ZIP file. Import it into your flows list as described in the Installation section.

Pricing and Licensing

License type

Price per unit

Single license

$199.00

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