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Creating User Notifications for Approval Requests

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Posted on by Ahsan baig 123

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I have successfully implemented the vendor approval workflow. Now I want to create a notification (under the notification icon) whenever a request is sent to a user for approval.

Since the workflow notification setup does not provide this functionality, should I write custom code to trigger a notification whenever an approval entry is created and its status is Open?

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Gerardo Rentería Ga... 25,555 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi

Notifications appear at the top,

Using Notifications in Business Central via AL - CloudFronts

Best

GR

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OussamaSabbouh 12,808 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hello,

No custom code needed.

Use standard approval notifications:

Approval User Setup → Notification Method = Note, Recurrence = Instantly

Workflow step must include “Send approval request… and create a notification”

Workflow notification job queue must be running.

That’s all you need for the bell icon notifications.

Regards,

Oussama Sabbouh

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Gregory Mavrogeorgis 992 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi

The notification bell in Business Central does NOT fire automatically when an approval request is created.
Even though you’ve got your vendor approval workflow working, BC’s built-in workflow notifications only send emails or approval requests, not bell-icon notifications.
That’s why nothing shows up under the bell.
So yes — if you want that little bell icon to light up whenever someone gets an approval request, you do need a small piece of custom code. There’s no standard setting for it.
What you’d do is:

When an Approval Entry is created (and its status is Open),

You trigger a notification through AL code,

And assign it to the specific user who needs to approve.

It’s a tiny customization

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YUN ZHU 99,055 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi, This notification was sent by Microsoft; partners cannot send notifications here, including customized ones.

Hope the following helps.

Specify when and how to receive workflow notifications

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/across-how-to-specify-when-and-how-to-receive-notifications?wt.mc_id=DX-MVP-5004336

Thanks

ZHU

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Rishabh Kanaskar 6,219 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi,

We cannot inject notifications into the standard notification icon (bell) in Business Central. That area is reserved for system-generated notifications from Microsoft.
If you need to alert users when an approval entry is created, the alternatives are:

Email notifications using Workflow Notification Setup (standard feature).
Task creation via approval workflow responses.
Custom Role Center cues or factboxes showing pending approvals for the user.

Thanks

Rishabh

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Jainam M. Kothari 15,732 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hello,

Yes, you’ll need custom code because the standard workflow notifications only handle emails. The best approach is to subscribe to the Approval Entry table’s insert event, check if the status is Open, and then use the AL Notification data type to create a message for the approver.

Set the recipient to the Approver ID, add an action to open the approval page or vendor card, and send it so it appears under the bell icon.

This ensures real-time, in-app alerts for approval requests without relying on email.

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