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Integrating Power Automate approvals with Microsoft Teams

If your team lives in Microsoft Teams, you can route Power Automate approval notifications for Tallyfy items directly into Teams. Approvers respond using interactive Adaptive Cards without switching apps, so processes keep moving.

Tallyfy has built-in approval features, but this integration makes sense when Teams is your team’s primary workspace.

Why integrate Power Automate approvals with Teams?

  • Centralized notifications - Approvers see and respond to requests without leaving Teams.
  • Less context switching - No more checking email for Tallyfy-related approvals routed through Power Automate.
  • Faster responses - Approvals that appear in Teams get answered in minutes instead of hours, keeping your Tallyfy processes and tasks on track.
  • Team visibility - Post approval requests to a Teams channel so the whole team can see them.

Prerequisites

Posting approval requests to Teams

Use Microsoft Teams connector actions in Power Automate to send approval requests to users or channels. Adaptive Cards work best here.

  • Adaptive Cards - Interactive widgets in Teams that show approval details with “Approve” and “Reject” buttons built in.
  • Teams connector actions (details in understanding Power Automate basics):
    • Post adaptive card in a chat or channel
    • Post a choice of options as the Flow bot to a user (for simpler scenarios)

Example: adding Teams to a Tallyfy budget approval flow

Say you already have a Power Automate flow using “Start and wait for an approval” for a Tallyfy budget request (covered in the building approval workflows article). Here is how to add Teams notifications:

  1. Find your existing approval action. Locate the “Start and wait for an approval” action in your flow.

  2. Add the Teams action after it. Right after the “Start and wait for an approval” action, add a new step. Search for Microsoft Teams and select Post adaptive card in a chat or channel.

  3. Configure the action:

    • Post as: Select Flow bot.
    • Post in:
      • Choose Chat with Flow bot to send the approval card as a direct message.
      • Choose Channel to post to a Teams channel (good for group visibility).
    • Recipient (if Chat with Flow bot): Use dynamic content to pick the approver’s email (e.g., the Mail output from a “Get manager (V2)” step, or the Assigned to email from your approval setup).
    • Team and Channel (if Channel): Select the target Team and Channel.
    • Adaptive Card: In the dynamic content pane, search for Teams Adaptive Card from your “Start and wait for an approval” action. This auto-populates the JSON that renders the approval card in Teams.

  4. Save your flow.

When your flow runs, the approver gets an Adaptive Card in Teams with approve and reject buttons - no app switching needed.

Approval flow visualization

Diagram

What to notice:

  • The flow pauses at step 5 while waiting for the approver’s response - this asynchronous “wait” is what makes the integration work
  • The Adaptive Card in Teams (step 3) contains approval details and action buttons, so the approver never leaves Teams
  • The round-trip from Tallyfy event to final update happens entirely within Teams for the approver

Handling responses from Teams approvals

  • Using “Start and wait for an approval” - The simplest path. The flow pauses until the approver clicks a button in Teams. The response comes back automatically, and you use the Outcome and Comments outputs to update the Tallyfy task or process via the Tallyfy connector actions.
  • Custom Adaptive Cards with Action.Submit - If you built a custom card, you will need a separate flow or additional logic to match the response back to the original Tallyfy item.

For most Tallyfy scenarios, stick with the standard “Start and wait for an approval” action and its Teams Adaptive Card output.

Notifying users in Teams about Tallyfy events

Approvals are just one use case. The Microsoft Teams connector in Power Automate can send any Tallyfy-related notification:

  • Tallyfy task overdue - Create a scheduled flow that checks task statuses through Tallyfy’s API or responds to a webhook. When a task is past its deadline, post to a Teams channel and tag the assignee.
  • Tallyfy process completion - When someone finishes the “New Client Onboarding” process, use the Teams connector to post a notification in your project channel. (Note: the Tallyfy Power Automate connector provides actions only, not triggers - so you will need a webhook or scheduled check to detect the event.)
  • New Tallyfy task assignment - Send the assignee a Teams DM with task details and a direct link so they see it immediately.

Best practices

  • Keep cards clear - Show only essential details in Adaptive Cards. Always include a link back to the Tallyfy task or process.
  • Verify Flow bot access - Confirm everyone involved has the Power Automate app installed in Teams before going live.
  • Test end-to-end - Run through the full Tallyfy-to-Teams flow before rolling it out.
  • Target notifications - Send individual approvals as DMs. Post team-wide Tallyfy updates to channels.
  • Avoid duplication - Tallyfy already has built-in notifications. Only add Teams notifications where they genuinely speed up response times for your processes.

Vendors > Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams handles communication but lacks process management capabilities like request tracking and accountability so Tallyfy fills this gap by converting Teams messages into structured workflows with assigned owners and deadlines through Power Automate or custom integrations.

Teams > Teams technical integration

Technical implementation details for connecting Microsoft Teams with Tallyfy including Adaptive Cards, Graph API examples, Power Automate patterns, and Bot Framework configuration for workflow integration.

Middleware > Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate serves as a no-code bridge between Tallyfy and your other business systems—including Office 365 and SharePoint and Dynamics—using a Premium connector with 13 actions and OAuth 2.0 authentication to automate data syncing and trigger Tallyfy processes from external events like emails or CRM updates.
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