How to add Microsoft Teams alerts and approvals to Business Central
Short answer
Business Central already has a Teams app and an approval workflow engine, so the first step is to use those. For custom alerts, adaptive card approvals and a bot that answers questions, route Business Central events through Power Automate or a small service using Entra ID and the Business Central APIs.
Teams is the one place most Microsoft-centric manufacturers already have open all day. Yet purchase approvals still arrive as email notifications, and a planner who needs to know a production order slipped learns it from a colleague. Bringing Business Central into Teams is largely about moving the right notification and decision to the right channel.
Because both products sit in the Microsoft stack, you get unusually good native options: the Business Central app for Teams, approval workflows with email and notification responses, Power Automate connectors, and Entra ID single sign-on. The skill is knowing when native is enough and when a custom adaptive card or bot is justified.
This page covers SaaS first and flags on-premises limits, since Teams-side features expect an internet-reachable endpoint.
What teams use it for
Purchase order approvals in a channel or chat
Approval requests for purchase documents arrive as an adaptive card with vendor, amount, requested receipt date and the approver's limit, with Approve and Reject buttons.
Production exception alerts
When a released production order has a late component or a capacity overload, post to a planner channel with a deep link to the order in Business Central.
Inventory and quality holds
Items placed on a quality hold or lot blocked trigger a message to the quality and warehouse channel so shipments are not picked.
Cash and credit alerts
Customers crossing their credit limit or large payments applied post to a finance channel with the customer card link.
Ask-the-ERP bot
A Teams bot answers read-only questions such as stock on hand by location or open sales lines for a customer, calling Business Central APIs on behalf of the signed-in user.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central integration surface
- The Business Central app for Teams, which embeds Business Central pages and lets users share records in conversations. Its availability and features depend on version and tenant setup.
- Approval workflows (Workflow Event Handling, approval user setup, approval limits) with email and in-product notifications, plus workflow response options such as sending a webhook.
- Power Automate Business Central connector and Approvals connector for event triggers, approval actions and Teams posting.
- REST API v2.0 and custom API pages, secured with Entra ID OAuth 2.0, for building a bot or card that reads or acts on records.
- Deep links with company, page and record filters so a Teams message opens the exact document in the web client.
How it works
- 1
Start with the native app
Install the Business Central app in Teams for the relevant users, so records can be shared and opened in context without any custom work.
- 2
Map approvals to Teams
Keep the Business Central approval workflow as the system of record for limits and delegates. Add a Power Automate flow that listens to the approval event and posts an approval card.
- 3
Return the decision to Business Central
The button response must call back into the application, via the connector action or a custom API page, so the workflow entry advances and the audit trail shows the approver.
- 4
Pick channels deliberately
Use direct chats for approvals tied to a person, channels for operational alerts. Avoid sending every event everywhere.
- 5
Add a bot only for questions that repeat
Build a Teams bot with Entra ID single sign-on, call Business Central under the user's delegated permissions, and keep the first version read-only.
- 6
Package and govern
Publish the app to your tenant catalog, restrict who can install it and document flow owners so alerts do not break when an employee leaves.
Example flows
Purchase approval via adaptive card
Trigger: A buyer sends a purchase order for approval.
- The approval workflow creates an approval entry for the next approver.
- A flow reads the order header and top lines through the connector.
- An adaptive card goes to the approver in Teams.
- The approver taps Approve, the flow updates the approval entry.
- The buyer is notified and the order can be released.
Result: Approvals complete in minutes without opening the ERP, and the audit trail still lives in Business Central.
Late component alert for planners
Trigger: A scheduled job detects a production order component with no supply before its due date.
- A Job Queue or flow queries the production order components through a custom API page.
- It groups exceptions by planner code.
- It posts one digest card per planner with links.
Result: Planners see a short action list each morning instead of discovering shortages on the shop floor.
Keeping data on-prem
Teams is a Microsoft cloud service, so an air-gapped site cannot use it. With on-premises Business Central connected to Microsoft 365, host the integration service in your network, publish only the required endpoints for the Teams bot, and use an on-premises data gateway for Power Automate to reach the service tier. For a bot that answers questions, the language model can run on a local server, with only the final answer text crossing into Teams. Check which Business Central versions support Teams and API features before planning.
Security checklist
- Prefer delegated permissions so a bot answers with the asking user's Business Central rights, not a broad service account.
- Do not paste sensitive figures such as margins into channels with broad membership; use direct messages or deep links.
- Limit the Entra ID app registration to required scopes and review consent grants regularly.
- Require signed-in identity for approval buttons, and reject responses from users who are not the assigned approver.
- Record the approval source (Teams versus web client) in your logs for audit.
Ways to get it done
Native Teams app and approval workflows
Effort: Hours to days of configuration
Basic sharing of records and standard approval flows with email-style notifications.
Power Automate with adaptive cards
Effort: One to three weeks
Custom alerts and approvals for teams already licensed for Power Platform. Watch connector licensing and flow ownership.
Teams bot with AL extension, built in-house or with Netray
Effort: Typically four to eight weeks
Conversational lookups, multi-step actions and local language models for sensitive data.
Pitfalls
- !Flows owned by a person's account stop when that person leaves; use a service account or solution ownership.
- !Approve buttons that do not update the Business Central approval entry leave documents stuck while people think they are done.
- !Alert fatigue: posting every ledger event trains users to mute the channel.
- !Card actions executed by a flow connection run under the connection owner, which can bypass the approver's own permissions if you are careless.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official Business Central app for Teams?
Yes, Microsoft provides a Business Central app for Teams that lets users share and open records in conversations. Capabilities and setup requirements change by release, so confirm the current behaviour in Microsoft's documentation for your version and tenant.
Can I approve Business Central documents directly in Teams?
Yes, commonly through Power Automate approvals or an adaptive card flow that calls back into the Business Central approval workflow. The key requirement is that the response updates the approval entry in the application, not just a Teams message.
Do I need a custom bot?
Often not. Native sharing plus approval cards cover most needs. A bot is worthwhile when people repeatedly ask the same lookup questions, such as stock by location, and you are willing to maintain authentication, permissions and logging for it.
How does authentication work?
Teams and SaaS Business Central both use Microsoft Entra ID. A bot or tab can use single sign-on and on-behalf-of flow to call the Business Central APIs as the signed-in user, which keeps permission sets and company access intact.
Can this run with on-premises Business Central?
Partially. Teams is cloud-hosted, so you need hybrid connectivity: a gateway or reverse proxy to the service tier and Entra ID based authentication. Some native features expect SaaS, so test your exact version before designing around them.
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