Getting Started
From an empty screen to a workflow that produces a document and delivers it somewhere, in seven stages. No code, and nothing to install — every stage happens on a page of this site, and each one below tells you which page and what "done" looks like.
The seven stages
This is the order the work happens in. You can skip ahead — nothing is locked — but each stage assumes the ones above it are done.
| # | Stage | Where it happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sign in | Sign-up page |
| 2 | Connect one system | Connections |
| 3 | Build a workflow from a sample | Workflow builder |
| 4 | Run it once | The builder's Run button |
| 5 | Publish it | The builder's Publish button |
| 6 | Give it something that starts it | The builder's intake, at the top of the workflow |
| 7 | Watch it deliver | Usage and the intake panel |
1Sign in
Sign in with a Microsoft account, or make an account with an email address and a password. Either way you are asked to agree to the terms once, and then to set up a second factor — an authenticator app on your phone. Both are one-time; after that, signing in is the usual two boxes.
A new account arrives with a monthly allowance you can build and experiment on. You do not need a card, and nothing on this page needs a paid plan.
If somebody gave you the address beta.docbutterfly.com, that is another name
for this same site — the same accounts, the same data, not a separate trial version.
There is a note about the addresses if you want the detail.
Done when: you land on your console and see your name and your remaining allowance in the top corner.
2Connect one system
A connection is how we reach a system you already have: a SharePoint site, a Dynamics 365 or Dataverse environment, a SQL database, Azure Blob storage, S3, an SFTP server, or your Azure DevOps project. You set one up once, on the Connections page, and it is stored on your account.
Two things worth knowing. The connection holds the credential — the workflow only ever names the connection, so a password never appears in a workflow and never appears in anything you export or share. And Test connection tells you right there whether it works, which is much easier than finding out in the middle of a run.
You can skip this stage if your first workflow only has to build a document out of what somebody types into a web form and email it back. Connections are for reading from, or writing into, a system of your own.
Done when: your connection is listed and Test connection comes back green.
3Build a workflow from a sample
A workflow is a short list of steps that runs top to bottom: make a document, stamp it, email it, file it away. You build it in the workflow builder by dragging actions out of the list on the left onto the line down the middle.
Do not start from an empty canvas. Open Samples and load one that is close to what you want — there is one that takes a web form submission, fills a template from it, renders a PDF, emails it and writes the row into a system of record. Then change the parts that are not yours. Every sample runs as it is, so you always have something working to go back to.
Click any card and its settings open beside the canvas. Where a setting should be "whatever the step above produced", pick it from the list rather than typing it — the list is built from the steps you already have, so it cannot name something that does not exist.
Open the builder Or try it without signing in
Done when: the workflow reads the way you would describe it out loud, and the Problems tab at the bottom is empty.
4Run it once
Press Run. The cards light up in order and the Run tab in the drawer at the bottom fills in as each step answers, with what that step produced. If a step fails, it turns red and the drawer says which one and why — you do not have to guess.
Run it before you do anything else with it. A workflow that has never run is a guess, and the run log is also where you see the exact shape of what each step gives you, which is what the next step is going to read.
Back to the builder What a step gives the next one
Done when: every card is green and the run log shows the document, the row or the message you expected.
5Publish it
Save the workflow, then press Publish. Publishing gives it a web address of its own and turns it from something you can run into something that can be run for you — by a form, by a schedule, by a folder being watched, or by any other system that can call a web address.
You can publish, change the workflow, and publish again. The address stays the same, so nothing that already points at it has to be told.
This is also the line where charging starts: work you do in the builder is free, and calls to the published address are metered.
Your saved workflows What the address is for
Done when: the builder shows the workflow's address and the state next to its name says it is published.
6Give it something that starts it
The box at the very top of the workflow is the intake: what feeds this workflow and sets it going. Click it and pick one.
| Intake | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Web form | A person fills something in. We host the form, you choose the fields, and a submission starts the workflow. Start here if you are not sure. |
| Schedule | It should just happen — every 15 minutes, daily at 06:00, weekly on Monday. Nothing has to call it and nobody has to remember. |
| SharePoint watcher | Somebody drops a file into a library and it should be dealt with. |
| Query | The workflow's input is a set of rows out of Dataverse or SQL — the query runs first, and its rows are what the rest of the workflow works on. |
| Webhook / API call | Another system calls it — Power Automate, Logic Apps, a website, a script. This one is simply the published address, so it is always available. |
A workflow can have more than one. A form and a schedule on the same workflow is a normal thing to want: people submit it during the day, and it also sweeps at six in the morning.
Your web forms Schedules, forms and watchers
Done when: the intake at the top of the workflow names what starts it — the form, or the cadence and when it next runs.
7Watch it deliver
Submit the form yourself, or wait for the schedule. Then there are two places to look.
- The intake panel in the builder lists the submissions that came in, and what happened to each one. A submission that failed can be replayed from there once you have fixed the cause — it is not lost.
- Usage lists every call, what it cost, and what it returned. This is the honest record: if something ran, it is here.
If nothing arrived at all, the most common reason is that the workflow was changed after it was published. Publish it again and try once more.
Done when: the document, the row or the message arrived where you sent it, and the run is listed on Usage.
Doing this as a company rather than as a person
An account is a person's account by default. If this is work rather than personal, turn yours into a business account on Settings: give the business a name, and the email domain your colleagues' addresses are on.
Then prove the company exists, which is the step people do not expect. On the Business page, upload the IRS letter carrying its Employer Identification Number — a Form 147C (the EIN verification letter) or a CP-575 (the notice sent when the number was issued). A PDF or a photograph is fine, and it costs nothing. Until that letter is accepted the business cannot invite anybody and its allowance is not shared, so this comes first rather than last.
Once it is verified, invite colleagues from the same page at their work addresses. An invited colleague accepts by signing in with that exact address, and their account joins the business: they share the business's allowance and the business's connections, and everyone can see who else is on it. Invitations only go to addresses on the business's own domain, so nobody can invite the world into your account.
A personal account somebody already had stays their own. Joining a business does not hand it over, and if they leave the business their own account comes back exactly as it was.
Accounts and account types has the whole of it: the four kinds of account, what happens when the letter does not match, and how a domain nobody signs in on is proved.
The words we use
| Action | One thing the platform can do — convert this to a PDF, stamp it, read the text out of it, email it, write these rows. The list on the left of the builder. |
| Step | One action, placed in a workflow, with its settings filled in. |
| Workflow | The steps, in order, plus what starts them and what comes back at the end. |
| Intake | What starts a workflow: a form, a schedule, a watched folder, a query, or a call from another system. |
| Destination | Where the result goes: a mailbox, a SharePoint library, a table, a file store, a work item. |
| Connection | A saved way in to one of your systems, credential included. Workflows name it; they never contain it. |
| Publish | Giving a finished workflow an address of its own, so something other than you can run it. |
| Token | What a metered call costs. Your plan comes with an allowance each month, and the price of an action is shown before you use it. |
What to read next
Building Workflows
The builder in depth: lanes that run at the same time, yes/no branches, doing something once for every row, and how one step uses another's result.
OpenWebhooks & schedules
Everything that can start a published workflow, and how to call one from Power Automate, Logic Apps, Zapier, a script or a build pipeline.
OpenPower Platform connector
If your team already lives in Power Automate, install the connector and use the actions there instead of building the call by hand.
OpenWhen something is wrong
The errors people actually hit, what each one means, and what to change.
Open