📥 Automate Document Scanning to SharePoint – No Special Printer Needed
Many organizations are still heavily reliant on scanned documents whether it's invoices, signed contracts, or delivery notes. Wouldn't it be great if users could simply scan a document, and it automatically ends up in the right SharePoint folder ?
✅ The good news ? This can be done without any special printer model, third-party connectors, or on-premise gateway.
✅ All you need is a printer that supports scan to email and Microsoft 365.
1 - How it works ?
The printer scans the document and sends it by email using Microsoft 365 (SMTP).
The email lands in Outlook (shared mailbox or user mailbox).
A Power Automate flow picks it up and copies the attachments to a SharePoint folder.
We’ll focus on the Outlook to SharePoint automation, as configuring scan-to-email is usually straightforward on most devices.
2 - Prerequisites
A Microsoft 365 mailbox (shared or user mailbox).
A SharePoint Document Library with folder(s) structure.
Power Automate license (included in most Microsoft 365 plans).
Printer that supports Scan to Email.
3 - Configure Send Email using M365
I'm not going to explain how to configure scan to email because it's already set up on almost all organizations.
To configure Send Email using M365 , follw this link :
So I'll move straight on to configuring the Power Automate workflow.
4 - ⚙️ Power Automate Flow
Go to Microsoft Power Automate Page : https://make.powerautomate.com/
Click "+ New flow" the select "Automated Cloud flow"
In this example, I'll use user mailbox (if you want to use shared mailbox then you should select connector : When a new email arrives to shared mailbox (V2) )
Give a name to your automated cloud flow
Type in search bar then select "When a new email arrives (V3)"
Click Create
Select trigger :
Choose the mailbox (your own or a shared mailbox)
Set conditions to filter emails (e.g., Shared mailbox address, Include attachement, or from a specific email address...etc)
Type "Create file" in the search bar.
Select "Create file" from SharePoint section.
Select Site Address : Choose your SharePoint site from the dropdown
Open Folder Picker : Click the folder icon to browse your SharePoint libraries
Choose the destination folder
Click the lightning bolt icon to insert dynamic values
Type “name” in the dynamic content search bar
Select ‘Attachments Name’
“Attachments Name” will be inserted automatically into the File Name field.
Again, click to allow dynamic values
Type “atta” or “attachment” in the search box
Select ‘Attachments Content’
‘Attachments Content’ will be inserted automatically into the File Name field.
Click Save
Now we are done with configuration settings, let's make a test and see the result.
Click on "Test"
Select "Manually"
Click "Test"
5 - Sending email with attachement and seeing workflow result :
I'll send this email with 3 pictures as attachements.
Workflow successfully executed as you can see here
And as you can see here my 3 pictures are moved to my sharePoint folder
6 - Bonus Tips 💡
✅ Use metadata : Parse subject line or email body to populate SharePoint columns.
✅ Auto-delete emails : Add a final step to move the email to Deleted Items or another folder to avoid clutter.
✅ Security : Ensure the Power Automate flow account has write permissions on the SharePoint site and mailbox.
✅ Shared mailbox : For multi-user scanning, use a shared mailbox to centralize scanned documents.
7 - Why This Method Rocks 🛡️
🔒 Secure : All traffic stays within Microsoft 365
🖨️ Compatible : Works with any printer that supports email
🔁 Automated : No user interaction after scanning
📂 Organized : Documents land directly where they belong
8 - Final Thoughts 🚀
This method simplifies document handling and increases efficiency by cutting down manual uploads to SharePoint. It’s a 100% cloud-native solution, perfect for hybrid or remote teams.
If your users are still scanning to USB or emailing themselves documents it’s time to modernize. This quick automation will save time and reduce friction across departments.
Thanks
Aymen EL JAZIRI
System Administrator