Small and medium business | Business Central, N...

Create new functionality to receive emails with attachments in Business Central.

(2) Share

Report

Posted on by CU08050848-0

236

Hi All,

We want to create a new custom functionality to process received emails with attachments and read the attached files. We cannot use the standard Incoming Documents or OCR functionality. Please suggest how we can implement this.

Thanks.

Categories:

Dynamics 365 Business Central

I have the same question (0)

All responses (8)

Answers (0)

Suggested answer

Sohail Ahmed 11,169 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like (2)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!
To build a custom email receiving and attachment handling feature in Business Central, here's a high-level approach you can follow:

🔧 Implementation Steps

Set Up Email Integration via Microsoft Graph API or SMTP/IMAP

Use Microsoft Graph API (preferred for Exchange/Outlook).

Alternatively, use DotNet types to connect to mailboxes via IMAP/SMTP.

Create a Scheduled Job Queue or Codeunit

Poll the mailbox at intervals.

Read unread messages with attachments.

Parse the Email and Attachments

Use AL code to extract the subject, body, sender, etc.

Use TempBlob or InStream to read attachments and store in custom tables or process further.

Store/Process Attachments

Save to custom table (e.g., Email Attachment Buffer).

Optionally, trigger workflows, validation, or auto-create documents (Sales/Purchase/etc.).

Add Logging and Error Handling

Capture failed emails or unsupported file types.

Log for audit trail.

📦 AL Code Hint

Example snippet for reading attachment (if fetched from external API):

var InStream: InStream; TempBlob: Codeunit "Temp Blob"; begin // Assume InStream is loaded from your email API TempBlob.CreateInStream(InStream); // Save or process the stream as needed end;

✅ Final Notes

You can’t directly receive email in BC, so external integration (Azure Function / API App) might be needed to push email data to BC.

You must handle authentication (OAuth2) if using Microsoft Graph.

✅ Mark the checkbox below if this answer helped you.

(For advanced implementation or support, feel free to connect via LinkedIn: Sohail Ahmad)

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Valentin Castravet 32,157 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like (3)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Can you explain why OCR can't be used? You could use existing third-party apps like Continia Document Capture.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

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

Like (2)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hello,

To implement custom email processing in Business Central without using standard Incoming Documents or OCR, you can build a solution using tools like Power Automate or Azure Logic Apps to monitor an email inbox, extract attachments, and send them to Business Central via a custom API. In Business Central, create a custom API page and Codeunit to receive, parse, and process the file content (e.g., CSV, XML, PDF), storing relevant data and logging email metadata. This approach ensures flexibility, automation, and integration while maintaining control over how attachments are handled and processed.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Ramesh Kumar 7,547 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like (2)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Could you please explain why you can't use the OCR functionality, or share the business case for what you're trying to implement?

Thanks

Ramesh

If this was helpful, please check the "Does this answer your question?" box and mark it as verified.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

YUN ZHU 99,084 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

If you can't use OCR service, you can't read the content of the file even if you use other methods, such as Azure Function, Power Automate. I recommend using the standard method first.

Incoming documents:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/across-income-documents?wt.mc_id=DX-MVP-5004336

Hope this can give you some hints.

Thanks.

ZHU

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
CU08050848-0 236 on at

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hello Ramesh,

Thank you for your response.

OCR is a third-party API, and we want to build our own extension.

Business Case:

We receive emails from customers via Outlook or Gmail accounts with Excel or PDF file attachments. Our requirement is to read the data from these attached files and create Sales Orders in Business Central.

The current OCR system does not provide a standard option for creating Sales Orders directly, which is why we are exploring a custom solution.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
CU08050848-0 236 on at

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hello Valentin Castravet,

Thank you for your response.

The current OCR system does not provide a standard option for creating Sales Orders directly, which is why we are exploring a custom solution.

Continia Document Capture is currently not available for the India (IN) localization.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
CU08050848-0 236 on at

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hello Sohail Ahmed,

Thanks for your reply. Could you please share any reference code or documentation?

Was this reply helpful? Yes No