Create SharePoint List Item Using Copilot Studio [Step By Step]

One day, a team member asked whether there was an easier way for employees to apply for leave without having to fill out forms or update SharePoint lists manually.

That’s when I thought, why not create a Copilot in Copilot Studio that can handle this automatically?

With just a few simple steps, you can build a smart Copilot that asks employees for their leave details, calculates the total days, and instantly adds the information to your SharePoint list, all without writing a single line of code.

In this tutorial, I will show you step by step how to create a Leave Request Copilot that adds new items to your Employee Leave Requests SharePoint list.

Create a SharePoint List Item Using Copilot Studio

Before we start, make sure you have:

• Access to Microsoft Copilot Studio
• A SharePoint site
• A SharePoint list named Employee Leave Requests with the following columns:

Column Name	Type
Title	Single line of text
Department	Choice (HR, IT, Finance, Sales)
Leave Type	Choice (Annual Leave, Sick Leave, Casual Leave, Work from Home)
Start Date	Date and Time
End Date	Date and Time
Total Days	Number
Reason for Leave	Multiple lines of text
Status	Choice (Pending, Approved, Rejected)
Manager Comments	Multiple lines of text

Steps to Create a Copilot that Adds Items to SharePoint

Now that we’ve set up our Employee Leave Requests SharePoint list, let’s build a Copilot in Copilot Studio that can automatically add new leave requests to the list.

Follow these simple steps to create your Copilot:

1. Go to Copilot Studio -> click Create -> + New agent.
   • Enter a name like Leave Request Copilot.
   • Description: Helps employees submit leave requests and automatically creates items in a SharePoint list.
2. Click Create.

Now we will save the leave details in SharePoint. Follow the steps below to add a Create item action:

3. In the above agent, select the “Tools” tab, then click the + Add a tool button. Select “Create item” from the SharePoint connector.
4. Then, click Add and configure.

5. Next, expand the ‘Additional details’ section, then select ‘Maker-provided credentials’ under credentials to use.

6. In the Inputs section, add the Site Address where you create the SharePoint list. Then, in the List Name, change ‘Dynamically fill with AI’ to ‘Custom value’ under ‘Fill using’, and select your SharePoint list, in my case, ‘Employee Leave Requests’.

7. Then, click the + Add input to the column where you want to add the item. In my case, the fields are Email, Department, Leave Type, Start Date, End Date, and Reason for Leave.

Note:

You might not see all the input field names exactly as they appear in your SharePoint list. For example, instead of Reason for Leave, you might find something like item.ReasonforLeave or item.LeaveType.value.

Then we need to customise the above input parameters. Here, I will customise one; you need to customise the rest of the field.

8. Click Customize in the Leave Type input field. Then, under Description, provide the following details:

Type of leave the employee wants to take. Choose from Annual Leave, Sick Leave, Casual Leave, or Work from Home.

9. In the same way, add a description for Total Days, Start Date, Reason for Leave, End Date, Employee Name, and Department.

Employee Name	Name of the employee applying for the leave.
Department	The department the employee belongs to (HR, IT, Finance, or Sales).
Start Date	The first day of the employee’s leave period.
End Date	The last day of the employee’s leave period.
Total Days	Automatically calculate the total number of leave days between Start Date and End Date.
Reason for Leave	The reason the employee is applying for leave.

10. After that, save the action by clicking the “Save” button on the top right side.

Add Instructions to Copilot

Now that the Create item action is ready, we need to tell our Copilot how to behave when users interact with it.

These instructions help the Copilot understand what to ask, how to collect information, and what to do if any required field is missing.

1. Go to the Overview tab -> click Edit under the Instructions section -> then add the following text:

When a user says something like “Apply leave” or “Submit my leave request”,
you need to collect all the required details to create a new leave item in the SharePoint list.
Ask the employee for:
Employee Name
Department
Leave Type
Start Date
End Date
Reason for Leave
If any of these details are missing, politely ask the user to provide them before submitting the request.
For example:
“To apply for leave, I need your Start Date and Leave Type. Could you please share those?”
Once all the required details are collected, automatically calculate the Total Days by finding the difference between Start Date and End Date,
and then create a new item in the Employee Leave Requests SharePoint list.
Finally, confirm with the employee by saying something like:
“Your leave request has been submitted successfully! I’ve shared it with your manager for review.”

2. Click Save once you’ve added the instructions.

Test Copilot in Copilot Studio

Now that your Leave Request Copilot is built and published, it’s time to test how it works in action.

Follow the steps below to ensure your Copilot can successfully collect inputs, calculate total days, and create a SharePoint list item.

1. Go to your Agent in Copilot Studio and click Test your copilot (available on the top-right corner of the screen). This will open a chat window where you can start talking to your Copilot just like an employee would.

2. Type something like:

“Apply for leave”
or
“Submit my leave request”

The Copilot will start asking questions such as:

3. If you skip any information, the Copilot will politely ask again because we’ve added instructions to ensure all required fields are captured.

4. Once the Copilot confirms submission, go to your Employee Leave Requests SharePoint list.

5. You’ll see a new item created with all the details you entered, including the total number of days.

Now our Copilot is live and ready to handle leave requests automatically.

Also, you may like some tutorials:

• SharePoint List as Knowledge in Copilot Studio
• Set up Manual Authentication in Microsoft Copilot Studio
• Create Multi Agent in Copilot Studio
• Add Copilot Studio Knowledge Files Using Power Automate
• 404 Not Found Error in SharePoint