Connecting the CRM to Power Automate

With Illizeo’s custom connector, Power Automate reads and writes in the CRM (accounts, contacts, opportunities, activities) and starts a flow as soon as a CRM event occurs, for example an opportunity won. The connector is described in an OpenAPI file that you download from Illizeo and import into Power Automate. This article is intended for CRM administrators and for the people who build flows.

Before you start #

• The CRM module must be enabled, and your Illizeo subscription must include webhooks for triggers to receive events.
• A Power Automate account that allows custom connectors.
• To download the connector file: “CRM settings — View”.
• An API token, created in Settings › Manage Illizeo › API Tokens (see Creating and managing API tokens), with under Scopes: Write for “CRM — webhook subscriptions” (triggers); Read for the objects your flows read or receive; Write for those they create or edit.
• The token acts with the permissions and scope of the person who created it. For triggers, that person needs “CRM settings — Create” (to subscribe) and “CRM settings — Delete” (to unsubscribe); for actions, the screen permissions on the object (“CRM accounts — View”, “Create”, “Edit”…).

Downloading the connector #

1. Open Settings › CRM › Webhooks and integrations.
2. In the Integrations card, under Power Automate, click Download the connector.

You get the illizeo-crm-power-automate.swagger.json file, an OpenAPI 2.0 description of the CRM’s API v1 and of its trigger. It contains no secret and no token: the key is entered in Power Automate.

Importing the connector into Power Automate #

The labels below are Power Automate’s; they may vary with your version.

1. In Power Automate, open Data › Custom connectors, then New custom connector › Import an OpenAPI file.
2. Name the connector (for example “Illizeo CRM”) and choose the downloaded file.
3. Check the Security tab: the file sets authentication by API Key, parameter name Authorization, location Header. The host and the /v1 base path also come from the file.
4. Click Create connector.
5. Create a connection: when Power Automate asks for the key, enter Bearer, a space, then your API token.

Starting a flow on a CRM event #

1. Create an automated cloud flow and choose the connector’s When a CRM event occurs trigger.
2. In the Event field, choose the event, for example crm.opportunity.won.
3. Add your actions. The content received is that of a CRM webhook: id (the event ID), event, occurred_at, tenant and data, which carries object_type, object_id and, for an account, contact, opportunity or activity, object, the record in its API v1 form.
4. Save the flow.

When you save, Power Automate subscribes to the CRM webhooks with your token: the subscription, named “Power Automate”, appears in Settings › CRM › Webhooks and integrations. When the flow is deleted, Power Automate unsubscribes; only the token that created the subscription can remove it this way. The subscription only sends what the token can read, and follows the CRM webhook rules: retries, suspension after five failed retries in a row (see CRM webhooks).

The trigger offers ten events:

For another CRM event (account archived, quote sent, dues overdue…), create a subscription by hand pointing to a Power Automate HTTP trigger (see CRM webhooks).

Actions #

For accounts, contacts, opportunities and activities, the connector brings an action to list, read a record, create and edit. It brings no deletion.

• Lists accept a full-text search (q), “modified since” (modified_since), the owner (owner_id; for activities, the assignee), a tag (tag) and are paged by cursor (cursor, limit: 50 by default, 200 at most). The response carries items, next_cursor and has_more: loop while has_more is true, passing next_cursor.
• A creation or an edit follows the screen’s rules: same checks, same permissions, same scopes. An account or contact that resembles an existing record returns 409 DUPLICATES_FOUND until the body sends confirmer_doublon set to true.
• If your organisation submits a write to human approval, the action returns 202 without writing anything, with the request’s ID (see Getting records and sendings approved).

Bodies and responses have the API v1 shape, with keys in French: see Importing, exporting and using the API.

Good to know #

• Revoking the token cuts off both the actions and the triggers of every flow that uses it.
• A flow that is turned off without being deleted keeps its subscription; if its deliveries fail, the subscription ends up suspended. Delete the flow, or the subscription in the list, when you no longer need it.
• Demonstration data never triggers a flow.

FAQ #

Saving the flow fails. #

Check that the token carries Write for “CRM — webhook subscriptions”, that its creator has “CRM settings — Create”, and that the chosen event is one of the ten offered.

The flow does not start. #

Check that the token carries read access to the object (“CRM — opportunities” for an opportunity won) and that its creator can read the record within their scope. Then open the “Power Automate” subscription in Settings › CRM › Webhooks and integrations: its delivery log shows whether the event was sent and what Power Automate answered.