Approval Flow Sends Email to the Wrong Manager: Root Cause and Fix

You set up a SharePoint approval flow, but the approval email goes to the wrong manager. This issue wastes time and can delay important decisions. The root cause is almost always a mismatch between the person field in SharePoint and the manager property in the Microsoft 365 profile. This article explains why the flow picks the wrong person and how to fix it step by step.

Why the Approval Flow Sends Email to the Wrong Manager

An approval flow in Power Automate uses the Start and wait for an approval action. This action requires an Assigned to field. You can populate that field with a static email address, a dynamic value from a SharePoint list column, or a formula that retrieves the manager from the Microsoft 365 profile.

The most common cause is using a SharePoint person column that contains the wrong person. For example, the column might show the requester instead of the manager. Another frequent cause is an outdated or empty manager field in the Microsoft 365 user profile. If the manager property is blank or points to a former employee, the flow sends the approval to that incorrect address.

A third cause is a formula error in the flow. When you use the Manager dynamic content token, Power Automate pulls the manager from the user profile. If the token is applied to the wrong user object, the flow sends the email to the wrong manager.

Step-by-Step Fix for Approval Flow Sending Email to Wrong Manager

1. Open the flow in Power Automate
   Go to make.powerautomate.com. Sign in with your work or school account. Select My flows from the left menu. Find the approval flow that is sending email to the wrong manager. Click the flow name to open it.
2. Check the Assigned to field in the approval action
   Click the Start and wait for an approval action. Look at the Assigned to field. If it contains a static email address, verify that this address belongs to the correct manager. If it uses a dynamic value, note the name of the SharePoint column or the formula being used.
3. Verify the SharePoint list column
   Go to the SharePoint list that triggers the flow. Find the column referenced in the Assigned to field. If the column is a Person or Group column, check that it contains the correct person. If it contains the requester instead of the manager, you need to change the column or use a different approach.
4. Update the Microsoft 365 manager property
   Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center. Select Users > Active users. Find the user whose manager is incorrect. Click the user name. Select the Organization tab. Under Manager, click Edit. Type the correct manager name and click Save. Wait up to 24 hours for the change to sync to Power Automate.
5. Use the Manager dynamic content token correctly
   In the flow, add a Get manager (V2) action before the approval action. Set the User (UPN) field to the email address of the person whose manager you want. For example, use the Created By Email dynamic content from the SharePoint trigger. Then in the approval action, set Assigned to to the Email output from the Get manager (V2) action. This ensures the flow always sends the approval to the manager of the person who created the item.
6. Test the flow
   Save the flow. Create a new item in the SharePoint list. Check whether the approval email goes to the correct manager. If it still goes to the wrong person, repeat steps 1 through 5.

If the Approval Flow Still Sends Email to the Wrong Manager

Flow sends email to the manager of a different user

If the flow sends the approval to the manager of a user who is not the item creator, check the Get manager (V2) action. The User (UPN) field must reference the correct user. For example, if you want the manager of the person in the Assigned To column, use the email from that column, not from Created By.

Flow sends email to a former manager

When a manager leaves the company, the Microsoft 365 profile may still show that person as the manager. Update the manager property in the Microsoft 365 admin center as described in step 4. If the change does not take effect within 24 hours, check the Organization tab again to confirm the new manager is saved.

Flow sends email to a distribution group instead of a person

If the Assigned to field contains a distribution group email, the approval action sends the email to all members of that group. This is not a bug, but it may cause confusion. To send to a single person, use the manager email from the Get manager (V2) action instead.

Approval Flow Methods: Direct vs Manager Lookup

Item	Direct Person Column	Manager Lookup via Get Manager (V2)
How it works	Flow uses the person selected in a SharePoint Person column	Flow retrieves the manager from the Microsoft 365 profile of the user who created the item
Setup complexity	Low: just add a Person column to the list	Medium: requires adding a Get manager (V2) action and mapping outputs
Risk of wrong manager	High if the list column is not updated manually	Low if the manager property is correct in the admin center
Best for	Small teams where the approver is always the same person	Organizations where the reporting structure is up to date

You can now identify why your approval flow sends email to the wrong manager and apply the correct fix. Start by checking the Assigned to field in the approval action. If the manager property is outdated, update it in the Microsoft 365 admin center. For a more reliable solution, use the Get manager (V2) action to dynamically retrieve the correct manager. As an advanced tip, add a Condition action after Get manager (V2) to check whether the manager email is blank, and if so, send the approval to a fallback person.