The Template Temptation
Power Automate offers hundreds of pre-built templates. Save email attachments to OneDrive. Post a Teams message when a SharePoint file changes. Send approval requests when forms are submitted. It is tempting to think: why build anything custom when someone has already done the work?
Templates are genuinely useful. They provide proven patterns, reduce setup time, and help beginners understand how triggers and actions connect. Microsoft and the community have created templates for the most common business scenarios, and for straightforward needs, they work brilliantly.
But here is the thing: templates are designed for generic scenarios. Your business is not generic.
When Templates Work Well
Pre-built automations shine in specific situations. If your requirement matches a common pattern exactly, a template can have you up and running in minutes. Saving email attachments, syncing calendar events, sending notifications when files are added - these are universal needs that templates handle well.
Templates are also excellent learning tools. When you are new to Power Automate, starting with a template helps you understand the structure of flows before building your own. You can see how triggers connect to actions, how conditions branch logic, and how dynamic content passes between steps.
For quick wins and proof-of-concept work, templates deliver fast results. If you need to demonstrate automation value to stakeholders, grabbing a template and showing it working in your environment takes far less time than building from scratch.
When Custom Builds Are Worth It
The limitations of templates become apparent when your processes have any complexity or specificity. Here is when custom development delivers better results:
Your process has unique steps. If your approval workflow needs to check multiple systems, apply business-specific rules, or handle exceptions in particular ways, a template will only get you partway there. The modifications required often take longer than building purposefully from the start.
You need robust error handling. Templates typically include minimal error handling. Production automations need to manage failures gracefully - logging errors, sending alerts, retrying operations, or routing to manual processing when things go wrong.
The process will evolve. Templates are snapshots of a workflow. If your process changes frequently or needs to adapt to different scenarios, a well-architected custom flow with clear documentation will be far easier to maintain.
Multiple systems are involved. While templates often connect two applications, real business processes span many systems. Custom builds let you design the complete workflow rather than stitching multiple templates together.
The Hidden Cost of Heavy Modification
One pattern we see repeatedly: organisations start with a template, then spend hours modifying it to fit their needs. By the time they have added conditions, changed actions, rebuilt error handling, and tested the result, they have invested more time than a custom build would have required.
Worse, heavily modified templates can become difficult to maintain. The original structure may not suit your additions, creating technical debt that compounds over time. When something breaks, troubleshooting a Frankenstein flow of template pieces and custom additions is considerably harder than debugging a purpose-built solution.
A Decision Framework
Before starting any automation, ask yourself these questions:
How closely does this match my actual process? If a template matches 90% of your needs and the remaining 10% is straightforward, use it. If you are looking at 50% match and significant modifications, build custom.
How often will this change? Stable, simple processes suit templates. Dynamic processes with evolving requirements need custom architecture designed for flexibility.
How critical is reliability? For nice-to-have automations, template limitations are acceptable. For business-critical processes, invest in proper error handling, logging, and testing from the start.
Who will maintain this? If you are handing this to someone else, clean custom code with documentation beats a modified template with no explanation of why changes were made.
The Best of Both Worlds
Templates do not have to be all-or-nothing. Use them as inspiration and learning resources even when building custom. Examine how Microsoft structures common patterns. Borrow proven approaches for specific actions. Think of templates as reference material rather than solutions to deploy.
We often start custom builds by looking at relevant templates - not to copy them, but to ensure we are not missing obvious approaches. Then we design solutions tailored to the specific business context, with proper structure, documentation, and room to grow.
Getting the Balance Right
The build versus buy decision comes down to understanding your actual requirements, not just the immediate task. Quick wins with templates are valuable. But when processes are complex, critical, or likely to change, investing in custom development pays dividends in reliability, maintainability, and long-term value.
Not sure which approach suits your automation needs? Get in touch - we are happy to review your requirements and recommend the right path forward.
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