How to Send Help Scout Tickets to Slack with Power Automate

make.powerautomate.com > My flows > + New flow > Scheduled cloud flow

Open Power Automate and create a new Scheduled flow

Go to make.powerautomate.com and sign in. In the left sidebar, click 'My flows', then click '+ New flow' at the top. Select 'Scheduled cloud flow' from the dropdown — this is what powers the polling loop. Help Scout does not have a real-time trigger in Power Automate's connector library, so a scheduled flow running every 1–5 minutes is the correct architecture here.

1. 1Go to make.powerautomate.com and sign in
2. 2Click 'My flows' in the left sidebar
3. 3Click '+ New flow' at the top of the page
4. 4Select 'Scheduled cloud flow' from the dropdown menu
5. 5Name the flow something like 'Help Scout → Slack: New Ticket Alerts'

Flow canvas > Recurrence trigger block

Configure the recurrence trigger interval

In the flow setup dialog, set 'Repeat every' to 1 and choose 'Minute' from the unit dropdown. Click 'Create'. The canvas opens with a Recurrence trigger block already placed. Click the Recurrence block to expand it — confirm the interval shows 1 minute. You can increase this to 5 minutes if your team doesn't need near-real-time alerts, which will reduce your action runs and keep costs down.

1. 1Set 'Repeat every' to 1
2. 2Select 'Minute' from the unit dropdown
3. 3Click 'Create' to open the flow canvas
4. 4Click the Recurrence block to confirm the interval is set correctly

Flow canvas > + New step > Search 'HTTP' > HTTP (Microsoft)

Add an HTTP action to call the Help Scout Conversations API

Power Automate does not have a native Help Scout connector, so you'll call the Help Scout API directly using the HTTP action. Click '+ New step' below the Recurrence block. Search for 'HTTP' in the action picker and select the 'HTTP' action (published by Microsoft). You'll configure it to call the Help Scout Mailboxes API endpoint and filter for conversations created in the last polling window.

1. 1Click '+ New step' below the Recurrence block
2. 2Type 'HTTP' in the search bar
3. 3Select the 'HTTP' action published by Microsoft (not an HTTP webhook trigger)
4. 4Set Method to 'GET'
5. 5Paste the URL: https://api.helpscout.net/v2/conversations?status=active&sortField=createdAt&sortOrder=desc&pageSize=10

HTTP action block > Authentication > Type: Basic

Add Help Scout API authentication to the HTTP action

Help Scout uses OAuth 2.0 for API access. In the HTTP action block, expand the 'Authentication' section at the bottom. Set Authentication type to 'Basic'. In the Username field, enter your Help Scout API key (found in Help Scout under Your Profile > API Keys). Leave the Password field blank — Help Scout's Basic auth scheme uses the API key as the username with an empty password. This is correct and intentional.

1. 1Click 'Show advanced options' inside the HTTP action block
2. 2Find the 'Authentication' dropdown and set it to 'Basic'
3. 3In the 'Username' field, enter your Help Scout API key
4. 4Leave the 'Password' field completely empty
5. 5Click elsewhere to confirm

Flow canvas > + New step > Data Operation > Parse JSON

Add a Parse JSON action to extract ticket fields

The HTTP action returns raw JSON from Help Scout. You need to parse it before you can map individual fields like subject or customer name to your Slack message. Click '+ New step', search for 'Parse JSON', and select the 'Data Operation - Parse JSON' action. In the Content field, click inside and select 'Body' from the dynamic content panel — this is the HTTP response body. For the Schema, click 'Generate from sample' and paste a sample Help Scout conversations API response.

1. 1Click '+ New step'
2. 2Search for 'Parse JSON' and select 'Data Operation - Parse JSON'
3. 3Click in the 'Content' field and select 'Body' from the dynamic content panel on the right
4. 4Click 'Generate from sample'
5. 5Paste a sample Help Scout /v2/conversations response and click 'Done'

Flow canvas > + New step > Control > Apply to each

Add an Apply to Each loop over the conversations array

The Help Scout API returns an array of conversations. You need to loop over them to process each ticket. Click '+ New step', search for 'Apply to each', and select it. In the 'Select an output from previous steps' field, click into it and from the dynamic content panel select the conversations array from your Parse JSON output — it will likely appear as '_embedded conversations' or similar depending on your schema. All subsequent steps for filtering and posting to Slack go inside this loop.

1. 1Click '+ New step'
2. 2Search for 'Apply to each' and select it under Control
3. 3Click in the 'Select an output from previous steps' field
4. 4From the dynamic content panel, select the conversations array from the Parse JSON output
5. 5Confirm the loop block expands to show an 'Add an action' button inside it

Apply to each loop > Add an action > Control > Condition

Add a Condition to filter only tickets created in the last polling window

Without a filter, you'll re-notify on the same tickets every minute. Inside the Apply to Each loop, click 'Add an action' and select 'Condition' under Control. Set the left value to the createdAt field from the current conversation item. Set the operator to 'is greater than'. For the right value, use the expression: addMinutes(utcNow(), -2). This compares each ticket's creation time against 2 minutes ago, catching only tickets created since your last poll. Adjust -2 to match your recurrence interval.

1. 1Inside the Apply to each loop, click 'Add an action'
2. 2Search for 'Condition' and select it under Control
3. 3In the left value field, select 'createdAt' from the dynamic content panel
4. 4Set the operator dropdown to 'is greater than'
5. 5In the right value field, click 'Expression' tab and type: addMinutes(utcNow(), -2) then click OK

Condition > If yes > Add an action > Slack > Post message (V2)

Connect your Slack account and configure the notification action

In the 'If yes' branch of the Condition, click 'Add an action'. Search for 'Slack' and select 'Post message (V2)' — this is the current stable Slack action in Power Automate. Click 'Sign in' to create a new Slack connection. A browser popup will open asking you to authorize Power Automate to post to your Slack workspace. Select your workspace, click Allow, and the connection will appear in the Connections sidebar.

1. 1Inside the 'If yes' branch, click 'Add an action'
2. 2Search for 'Slack' in the action picker
3. 3Select 'Post message (V2)' from the Slack connector
4. 4Click 'Sign in' and authorize Power Automate in the Slack OAuth popup
5. 5Select your Slack workspace and click 'Allow'

Slack > Post message (V2) > Channel + Message Text

Map Help Scout fields to the Slack message

In the Post message (V2) action, set the Channel field to your target channel (e.g. #support-alerts). In the Message Text field, build your notification using dynamic content from the Parse JSON output. A clear format is: '🎫 New ticket: [subject] | From: [customer firstName] [customer lastName] | Inbox: [mailboxId] | View: https://secure.helpscout.net/conversation/[id]'. Click inside each part of the message and insert the matching dynamic content token.

1. 1Click the Channel field and type or select your target Slack channel (e.g. #support-alerts)
2. 2Click in the Message Text field
3. 3Type '🎫 New ticket: ' then select 'subject' from the dynamic content panel
4. 4Type ' | From: ' then select 'firstName' and 'lastName' from the customer object
5. 5Type ' | View: https://secure.helpscout.net/conversation/' then select 'id'

Flow canvas > Save > Test > Manually > Test

Save, test, and verify the first Slack notification

Click 'Save' in the top right of the flow canvas. Once saved, click 'Test' (top right), select 'Manually' and click 'Test' again. Power Automate will run the flow immediately. While it runs, create a test ticket in Help Scout from a different browser tab. After the flow completes, check the run history — click each action block to see its inputs and outputs. Then open Slack and confirm the notification appeared in your target channel.

1. 1Click 'Save' in the top right
2. 2Click 'Test', select 'Manually', then click 'Test' again
3. 3In a separate browser tab, create a new Help Scout conversation
4. 4Return to Power Automate and watch the run complete
5. 5Open your Slack channel and confirm the notification message appears

My flows > [flow name] > 28 day run history

Turn the flow on and monitor the first 24 hours

After a successful test, click the back arrow to return to the flow detail page. Confirm the flow status toggle shows 'On'. Power Automate will now run every minute automatically. For the first 24 hours, check the run history once or twice to make sure no steps are failing. Pay attention to the HTTP action — if Help Scout rate-limits you, you'll see 429 errors there. The run history is at My flows > [your flow name] > 28 day run history.

1. 1Click the back arrow from the canvas to the flow detail page
2. 2Confirm the status toggle shows 'On'
3. 3Check My flows > [flow name] > '28 day run history' after 10 minutes
4. 4Click individual run entries to expand action-level inputs and outputs
5. 5Look for any red failed steps, especially on the HTTP action

Paste this expression into a 'Compose' action placed before the Slack step, inside the Apply to Each loop. It builds a formatted message string and handles cases where the customer name is missing, falling back to the email address. Reference the Compose action's output in your Slack message field instead of manually concatenating tokens.

if(
  and(
    not(empty(items('Apply_to_each')?['_embedded']?['customer']?['firstName'])),

if(
  and(
    not(empty(items('Apply_to_each')?['_embedded']?['customer']?['firstName'])),
    not(empty(items('Apply_to_each')?['_embedded']?['customer']?['lastName']))
  ),
  concat(
    '🎫 New ticket: ',
    items('Apply_to_each')?['subject'],
    ' | From: ',
    items('Apply_to_each')?['_embedded']?['customer']?['firstName'],
    ' ',
    items('Apply_to_each')?['_embedded']?['customer']?['lastName'],
    ' | View: https://secure.helpscout.net/conversation/',
    string(items('Apply_to_each')?['id'])
  ),
  concat(
    '🎫 New ticket: ',
    items('Apply_to_each')?['subject'],
    ' | From: ',
    coalesce(items('Apply_to_each')?['_embedded']?['customer']?['email'], 'Unknown customer'),
    ' | View: https://secure.helpscout.net/conversation/',
    string(items('Apply_to_each')?['id'])
  )
)