Recurring task reminders for a team

Build a scheduled cloud flow with the Recurrence trigger (for example Interval 1, Frequency Week), have it read a SharePoint list of repeating tasks, and post one message to a Teams channel or send one email. The list holds the jobs and owners, and the flow does the reminding.

Exact names may differ on your screen. The Microsoft pages behind each step are listed at the end.

Why repeating jobs get missed

A one-time task has a due date, and a late alert can catch it. A repeating job is different. Think of the monthly backup check, the weekly safety walk, the quarterly report. Nobody assigned it on a given day. It just "happens", until one month it does not.

Common causes:

The job lives in one person's head or calendar.
When that person is out, nobody else knows it exists.
Nothing shows that the job was done last time.
The job has no named owner, so everyone assumes someone else has it.

A calendar invite does not fix this. It reminds one person and tells the team nothing. A shared list plus one team message does.

What you will build

A SharePoint list of repeating tasks. One row per job.
A scheduled flow that runs once a week, and a second one that runs once a month.
One message per run to a Teams channel, listing the jobs that are due.

If you are still tracking this in a spreadsheet, see "Replace a spreadsheet tracker with a SharePoint list" first.

Step 1. Build the list of recurring tasks

Create a SharePoint list called Recurring tasks. Use these columns:

Title: the name of the job. Use it as the task name.
Owner: a Person column. One name, not a group.
Frequency: a Choice column with numbered values: 1 Weekly, 2 Monthly, 3 Quarterly.
Last done: a Date column. The owner fills this in when the job is finished.
Notes: a short line on what "done" means.

Keep the list small at first. Ten real jobs are better than fifty guesses.

Step 2. Create the weekly flow

Microsoft describes the scheduled flow steps on the page "Run a cloud flow on a schedule in Power Automate". In short:

In Power Automate, open My flows, pick the Cloud flows tab and choose Create from blank.
Select Add a trigger and search for Recurrence. Select it.
Set Interval to 1 and Frequency to Week. That page gives this exact example: "Interval = 1 and Frequency = Week".
Set the Time zone, then the Start time. Microsoft's page shows the format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ. If you pick a time zone, leave off the Z at the end. Microsoft's Logic Apps page says a Z makes the time zone be ignored.
Choose the day and hour. In the classic designer these appear under Show advanced options as "On these days", "At these hours" and "At these minutes". One way to start: Monday, 8:00 AM.

Example from Microsoft: entering 2025-03-24T22:00:00Z specifies 3:00 PM Pacific time on March 24, 2025. Set the time zone on purpose. The Microsoft Azure Logic Apps recurrence page says that if you do not select a time zone, daylight saving time changes can move the run time by one hour. It also says that if you pick a future start date with a Day, Week or Month frequency, you should set the recurrence up in advance, or the first run might be skipped.

Step 3. Read the list

Add the SharePoint action Get items, and point it at your Recurring tasks list. The SharePoint connector page lists Get items as "Gets items from a SharePoint list." It has a Filter Query field that takes an ODATA filter. With the default options, Get items returns only 100 items. Open Advanced options, set Top Count to the number of rows you need (up to 5,000), and turn on Pagination in the action settings for a larger list.

For the weekly flow, one way to start is a filter that keeps only the weekly jobs. The numbered choice makes the text exact, so the filter looks like this:
Frequency eq '1 Weekly'

Use the same idea in the monthly flow with '2 Monthly'. This is a filter inside the flow, not a list view, so you do not need the classic view editor here.

Step 4. Post one message to Teams

Add the Microsoft Teams action named "Post message in a chat or channel". The Teams connector page describes it as "Posts a message to a chat or a channel." The older "Post a message" actions on that page are marked deprecated, so pick the current one.

Choose the team and the channel. Then write the message. Keep it short:
"Weekly jobs this week:" followed by the Title and Owner of each item from Get items.

If you add the content inside a loop, the flow posts one message per job. That is the "Too many messages" problem in What to avoid below. To avoid it, build the text first. Use one text variable, add one line per job, and post the full text once at the end.

Send an email instead of Teams

To send an email instead, use an email action from the Outlook connector in the same place as the Teams action. Send one message to a shared mailbox or group, built from the same text variable. If the jobs live in an Excel table, the Excel Online (Business) connector's List rows present in a table action can take the place of Get items. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: keep the jobs in a list, so owners and dates stay typed.

Create the flow with Copilot

Microsoft's schedule page also describes a Using copilot tab: select Create with Copilot on the Home page and describe the schedule in plain words. After Copilot builds the flow, you can ask it in the designer to make a change, such as changing the interval from every week to 2 weeks.

Step 5. Add the monthly flow

Copy the weekly flow. Change three things: Frequency to Month, the filter to '2 Monthly', and the message heading. Microsoft's page says that when a flow runs on the month frequency, "the flow runs on the same date each month." If you need the last day of a month, that is a different setting that needs code view, so start with a fixed date such as the 1st. For jobs marked 3 Quarterly, copy the flow once more with Interval 3 and Frequency Month, and filter on '3 Quarterly'. That flow runs about every 90 days, so read the 90-day note in Honest limits.

Step 6. Close the loop

A reminder alone does not show that the job was done. Add one habit: when an owner finishes a job, they update Last done in the list. Once a month, scan the list for jobs whose Last done is old. For items that are late, see "Late tasks nobody notices". For a reminder that goes out before a single due date, see "Send a reminder before a due date in a SharePoint list".

What to avoid

Too many messages. One message per run is the rule. A channel that gets ten posts every Monday is muted by Tuesday. Group the jobs into one post.
Messages with no owner. Always show the owner next to the job.
Daily noise. Do not run a flow every day for a weekly job. Match the run to the job.
Very frequent schedules. Microsoft's limits page lists a minimum recurrence interval of 60 seconds. You will never need anything near that for task reminders.
Ignoring failures. The same page says a cloud flow with a trigger or actions that fail continuously is turned off after 14 days. If your reminders stop, open the flow and look at its run history.
Treating the flow as the process. The flow reminds. A person still has to do the job and mark it done.

Honest limits

A flow owned by one person can stop when that person leaves or changes roles. Name a second owner for the flow itself. Licensing for some connectors and flow types differs by plan, so check with your admin. Microsoft's limits page says a cloud flow that is not triggered within a 90 day period might be turned off, which matters for a quarterly flow. Microsoft adds that flows owned by users with premium licenses or assigned capacity licenses are not subject to this suspension. It also says flow owners and co-owners are notified 30 days before suspension and can turn the flow back on.

Start with one weekly flow and five jobs. Run it for a month. Then add the monthly flow.

When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: $5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "What a SharePoint tracker costs to build". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

Tell me what's still manual

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: Tools I built

FAQ

Can I send a recurring email instead of a Teams message?

Yes. Use an Outlook email action after Get items and send one message per run to a shared mailbox or group.

How do I stop the first run from firing the moment I save?

Set a Start time. The Microsoft Azure Logic Apps recurrence page says that without a specific start date and time, the first recurrence runs when you save the workflow. Pick a start time in the future.

What if a job is done every two weeks?

The Recurrence trigger takes an Interval, so set Interval to 2 with Frequency Week. Add a choice such as 4 Every two weeks, and give that job its own flow.

Can Copilot build a recurring reminder flow?

Microsoft's schedule page describes a Using copilot tab: select Create with Copilot, describe the schedule, then review and keep the flow it suggests.

Why did my quarterly flow stop?

Microsoft's limits page says a cloud flow not triggered within a 90 day period might be turned off. Owners are notified 30 days before and can turn it back on.