Dynamics 365 Business Central

How to connect your Dynamics 365 Business Central account: what you need and how to connect.

🚨 Prerequisites

• You must have administrator permissions to enable the connection
• You must use the Online version of Business Central, the “On Premise” version is not supported by the connection
• Depending on your use case, you might have to install the extension and some additional configuration (see extension section below)
• To receive bank transactions: the Chift extension in version 1.0.6 or later, shown for example as 26.1.0.6. See Installation or Update.

⚡️ Connection

Step 1: Choose a name for your connection

Step 2: Choose whether to enable the analytical accounting data exchange (OPTIONAL)

Step 3: Deferral Codes (OPTIONAL)

If this option is visible, the integration with Business Central supports deferral codes when creating sales and/or purchase invoices. Select Active to enable this support. Once activated, an additional dropdown menu will appear on the next page of the setup process, allowing you to select the deferral template to apply when creating invoices that require revenue or expense deferral.

Step 4: Click “Authorise” to finalise the connection.

✅ Authentication

You will be redirected to a Microsoft Dynamics login page to authenticate your account.

Configuration

Step 1: Select the environment you wish to connect

Step 2: Select the company you’d like to activate the integration for

Step 3: Select the deferral template to use when recording deferred revenues and/or expenses on created invoices (OPTIONAL)

Step 4: Click “Submit” to finalise the integration configuration

Extension

The Chift extension for Dynamics 365 Business Central is designed to expose additional data that is not available through Business Central’s standard API. It does not modify or create new behaviour within Business Central but enhances the existing capabilities by providing access to more data and functionalities. The extension is only available when you have access to the Microsoft AppSource. The extension file cannot be shared for on-premise installations nor environments not having access to the Microsoft AppSource.

Installation

The Chift extension can be easily installed from the Microsoft AppSource store. Follow these steps to install the extension:

1. Navigate to the Chift extension page on Microsoft AppSource.
2. Click the “Get it now” button.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

The installation process is straightforward and typically requires just one click.

Troubleshooting

If the user activating/using the connector lacks sufficient permissions, you may encounter this error:

Could not read extension version using the current account. Please add the “Chift - API” permission set to your user.

To fix this, assign the “Chift - API” permission set to the affected user:

Compatibility

Available with Business Central version 23 and higher. The extension is only available when you have access to the Microsoft AppSource. The extension file cannot be shared for on-premise installations on environments not having access to the Microsoft AppSource.

Update

The extension evolves over time to add new features. To update the extension to benefit from the latest version you need to follow the steps below:

1. Go to the “Admin Center”

   

2. Select the environment in which you want to update the extension

   

3. Go to the “Apps” menu

   

4. Select App Type “Global” and click “Install Update” on the Chift extension (if any update is available)

   

⚙️ Setup

Bank entries

Posting bank entries in Business Central requires a correct setup at two levels:

• Bank accounts
• General journal templates

Bank accounts

For each bank account you want to post entries to, you need to:

• Set the correct currency on the bank account card
• Assign a Bank Account Posting Group: this determines which General Ledger account will be impacted when entries are posted

General journal templates

Each bank account also needs a dedicated journal template that will be used to create the related bank entries as journal lines.

Go to General Journal Templates and open or create the template you want to use. You need one journal template per bank account.

The journal template must be configured as follows:

• Type → General
• Bal. Account Type → Bank Account
• Bal. Account No. → the bank account code (e.g. B030)

Generated entries

When journal lines are posted with the setup above, each journal line generates the following entries:

• 1 Bank Account Ledger Entry

  • recorded against the bank account

• 2 General Ledger Entries per journal line

  • 1 entry on the GL account defined in the Bank Account Posting Group linked to the bank account
  • 1 entry on the other account specified on the journal line itself

• Optionally, if a customer or vendor is used on the journal line:

  • 1 Customer Ledger Entry
  • 1 Vendor Ledger Entry

Bank transactions

Bank transactions arrive in a Payment Reconciliation Journal for their bank account. You review and post them from there.

Before you use bank transactions, check whether your company needs a bank reconciliation template and batch in General Ledger Setup. You set them once for the whole company, not for each bank account.

1. Search for General Ledger Setup and open it.
2. Look for the Journal Templates section. If there is none, you have nothing to set up.
3. Fill in Bank Acc. Recon. Template Name with the general journal template to use, and Bank Acc. Recon. Batch Name with a batch of that template.

If you skip this, Business Central shows Bank Acc. Recon. Template Name must have a value in General Ledger Setup, or the same message for Bank Acc. Recon. Batch Name.

Customer & vendor setup

Suppliers creation

Supplier reference

By default Business Central will automatically assign a code/reference to a newly created supplier/vendor. The code/reference is defined based on the “No. Series” linked to the suppliers/vendors. This can be found in the “Purchases & Payables Setup”:

If you want to be able to define the code/reference of the newly created supplier by API you need to check the “Manual Nos.” configuration on the number series:

Posting groups

Creating a supplier invoice requires posting groups to be set up on the supplier. Business Central does not allow Chift to set the Posting Group when creating a vendor. This needs to be configured manually or set using templates.

To create a template:

1. Navigate to “Configuration templates” from within your Business Central app

2. Create a new template by clicking ”+ New”

3. Set the “Table Id” field to “Vendor” (23)

4. Start adding fields to default by clicking the first empty cell in the “Field Name” column

5. Search for the fields linked to “Posting Groups”

6. Make sure the following fields are filled in with the correct default value: “Gen. Bus. Posting Group”, “VAT Bus. Posting Group”, “Vendor posting Group”

To use the template when creating a vendor from the API, you need to add the template to the API Setup (see “API Setup” below).

Customers creation

Customer reference

By default Business Central will automatically assign a code/reference to a newly created customer. The code/reference is defined based on the “No. Series” linked to the customers. This can be found in the “Sales & Receivables Setup”:

If you want to be able to define the code/reference of the newly created customer by API you need to check the “Manual Nos.” configuration on the number series:

Posting groups

Similarly, when you wish to create customers and invoices via the API, the following template needs to be configured:

1. Navigate to configuration templates, and create a new template
2. Set the “Table Id” field to “Customer” (18)

Add the fields: Customer Posting Group, Gen. Bus Posting Group, Payment Terms Code & Payment Method Code, and their default value

The “Payment Method Code” and “Payment Terms code” is only mandatory for ES customers

API setup

Link the configuration template(s) to an API Setup to automate the use of that template

Table ID: 18 for Customers, 23 for Vendors.

Page ID:

• Search “Customer” and choose “Customer Posting Group” for Customers.
• Search “Vendor” and choose “Vendor Posting Group” for Vendors

Each configuration template can be linked to an API Setup that can be triggered based on some conditions (e.g. specified country of the vendor). You can set up multiple configuration templates and link each template to a specific condition

VAT-exempt invoicing

This setup is for companies that do not charge VAT on any of their sales, for example under a full VAT exemption regime. It only supports full exemption: it does not cover companies with a mix of taxed and exempt sales.

Create a VAT Posting Setup entry

Chift does not create VAT configuration on your behalf. Before invoicing through Chift, you need a valid VAT Posting Setup entry in Business Central that represents your exempt rate.

Before you can combine them in VAT Posting Setup, make sure you have a dedicated VAT Business Posting Group (e.g. “NO VAT”) and a dedicated VAT Product Posting Group (e.g. “EXEMPT GL”). Create them if they don’t already exist.

In Business Central, go to VAT Posting Setup and create a new line with:

Field	Value
VAT Bus. Posting Group	Your chosen Business Posting Group assigned to the relevant customers/suppliers
VAT Prod. Posting Group	Your chosen Product Posting Group linked to the ledger accounts used on invoices
VAT %	0
VAT Calculation Type	Normal VAT

Setting the rate to 0% with Normal VAT as the calculation type tells Business Central to calculate VAT normally, just at a 0% rate, as opposed to types like Reverse Charge VAT or Sales Tax, which behave differently and are not covered by this exempt setup. This must be the only VAT Posting Setup line in Business Central: this setup does not support companies that also have taxed sales.

❓ Troubleshooting

Bank Acc. Recon. Template Name or Batch Name must have a value in General Ledger Setup

Your company requires journal templates, and the bank reconciliation template or batch in General Ledger Setup is empty.

Fill them in as described in Bank transactions.

The Business Central extension version is not supported for this operation

The installed Chift extension is older than the operation needs. The message gives your version and the minimum one, for example 26.1.0.6 for bank transactions.

Update the extension as described in Update.