A Microsoft Business Central connection can be established in Consignly to push Client Partner Financial Schedules to Microsoft Business Central as invoices.
An Illustration of data mapping between Consignly and Microsoft Business Central
Getting Started
To establish a connection, Add the App into Consignly.
You will be redirected to the Microsoft login page where you must log into a Microsoft account, then you will be prompted with a permission screen to choose the organisation to allow Consignly to work with.
After you have authorised with Microsoft, you will be returned to Consignly to configure you Microsoft Business Central connection.
The Microsoft Business Central Connection Detail card
Business Central Company
In the Microsoft Business Central configuration, define the Environment and Company within Microsoft Business Central that schedules will be pushed to.
Once these two factors have been configured, the remaining configuration will appear.
The Business Central Company card
General
In the Microsoft Business Central configuration, you can specify how schedules are exported. You can choose to Export Schedules As either Sales Invoices or Sales Orders.
Choose the Invoice Status that invoices to Microsoft Business Central will be pushed in. By default, invoices go in a Draft status.
Define the Default Attachment, which may be None, Schedule PDF or Schedule XLSX.
You can also define the Default Line Description and the Default Credit Memo Line Description. When schedules are pushed to Microsoft Business Central, line items are summarised into the narratives defined here.
The General card of the Microsoft Business Central configuration
Export Triggers
The Microsoft Business Central configuration supports Export Triggers. There is currently one export trigger, which is based on the Schedule Status.
Export triggers in the Microsoft Business Central configuration
You can activate a trigger for the Approved status. If you check this trigger, when a Client Partner Schedule moves into an Approved status, it will automatically trigger an export to Microsoft Business Central.
If you choose not to activate a trigger, then Exports to Microsoft Business Central will be a manual operation.
If you have activated the trigger for the Approved status, you can optionally choose to support updates to the Microsoft Business Central invoice. If you have enabled updates, then changes to the schedule whilst it is in an Approved status will cause a re-export of the schedule to Microsoft Business Central.
Income Accounts
The Microsoft Business Central configuration requires Income Accounts to be selected. The default income account is used when Consignly hasn't got a Revenue Account mapped to the transaction.
Choose the default Income Account in Microsoft Business Central that you'd like to use in Consignly when one is not specified.
Default Line Grouping
The Default Line Grouping Method option must be selected as Summary.
The Default Line Grouping Fields option allows for line grouping fields to be grouped by Unit Price, by Date, or by Unit Price and Date.
The Default Line Grouping Fields selector displaying each configuration option
Revenue Account Mapping
Advanced Consignly subscriptions support Revenue Accounts. If your subscription of Consignly has Revenue Accounts defined, you can map your Consignly Revenue Accounts to Microsoft Business Central Accounts.
This lets you push invoice lines to Microsoft Business Central with appropriate lines coded against the correct Account.
If a schedule contains transactions that map to different Accounts, then the Microsoft Business Central invoice will contain a line per Account.
Each Revenue Account configuration allows for the Line Grouping Method, Line Grouping Fields, Line Description and Credit Memo Line Description fields to be defined. These may be left blank to use the Default.
An example of the Income Accounts card with a Revenue Account Mapping configuration
Cost Centre Tracking
Advanced Consignly subscriptions support Cost Centre Codes. If your subscription of Consignly has Cost Centres defined, you can map your Consignly Cost Centres to Microsoft Business Central Dimensions.
This lets you push invoice lines to Microsoft Business Central with appropriate lines tracked against the correct dimension.
If a Tracking Category cannot be matched in Microsoft Business Central, then the invoice line will not be tracked.
If a schedule contains transactions that are tracked to different Tracking Categories, then the Microsoft Business Central invoice will contain a line per Tracking Category.
An example of Cost Centre mapping from Consignly to Microsoft Business Central
Customers
If your Microsoft Business Central Customer code differs from your Consignly Client Partner code, you should select the appropriate Microsoft Business Central customer from the list.
The attachment type can be selected for each partner/customer to override the default option.
The Customers configuration of the Microsoft Business Central configuration
Pushing an Invoice to Microsoft Business Central
Transactions for a Client Partner will build up as consignment activity is charged for, and as storage charges are raised.
When it is time to invoice a Client Partner, head over to the Schedules menu item under the Client Partner menu on the sidebar. Any existing schedules will appear here.
To create an invoice to a client in Microsoft Business Central, create a new schedule of transactions or select an existing schedule that has not yet been sent to Microsoft Business Central.
If you have an export trigger set up, the export will take place automatically once the schedule moves into the appropriate status.
The Reference Number that you have created in the schedule will be used as the Reference Number in the Microsoft Business Central invoice that is created.
An example Client Partner Schedule
Manually Exporting to Microsoft Business Central
If you have not set up an Export Trigger, then you will need to manually export invoices to Microsoft Business Central.
To begin this process, visit the Connections tab in the schedule.
The Connections tab will show you all connected apps for this schedule. If you have a Microsoft Business Central connection established, you will see Microsoft Business Central in the list of connected apps.
The Connections tab for a schedule displaying the Microsoft Business Central connection
To export to Microsoft Business Central, select the action menu at the end of the app record and choose Export to Microsoft Business Central.
This will trigger the export of the schedule.
The action menu displaying the Export to Microsoft Business Central option
Export Errors
If the export fails, a notification will appear.
To view the notification, choose the bell icon to expose the notifications, then select the notification to view the details.
You will be presented with a screen that shows the details of the error encountered.
Correct the problem and consider re-exporting the invoice manually to get the data into Microsoft Business Central.
The Export Error detail view
Successful Exports
A successful export will appear in Microsoft Business Central.
An example of an invoice pushed to Microsoft Business Central from Consignly