Microsoft Business Central Integration - Setup

Our Microsoft Business Central Integration provides a bidirectional syncing of Companies and Contacts between Membrain and Microsoft Business Central. Implementing the integration simplifies data management by reducing manual entry and keeping company and contact information consistent across platforms. This improves efficiency by maintaining an aligned, up-to-date system.

What This Integration Does

• Sync Companies and Contacts - Automatically update companies and contacts in Membrain and Microsoft Business Central
• Effortless Data Maintenance - Keeps Company and Contact details aligned between systems without manual intervention.

Why It Matters

• Reduce manual data entry and eliminates discrepancies.
• Ensure consistency between Microsoft Business Central and Membrain.
• Gain better control over which records are included in Membrain, improving data accuracy.

Step-by-step Guide

Setting up the integration is quick and easy, and with the step-by-step instructions below to help you get started, you'll be up and running in no time.

1. Connect Membrain to Microsoft Business Central - Authenticate and connect your environment
2. What to Sync - Create a filter for what Companies and Contacts to sync
3. Fields to Sync - Map the Company and Contact Fields to be synced
4. Sync Status - Monitor the status and usage of the integration
5. API Log - Access the integration's log to review data flow, errors and execution status

Connect Membrain to Microsoft Business Central

1. First, log into your Microsoft Business Central account
   
2. Then go to Membrain, and from the left menu, click on the cogwheel icon to access System Setup.
3. Scroll down to the Integrations area and click on the Microsoft Business Central link.
   
4. Expand the Authentication tab, click on the Authenticate button and select Production as the environment to integrate with. Press Save.
   
5. Now, you're authenticated.
   
   

What to Sync

The integration allows you to sync companies and their associated contacts from Membrain to Microsoft Business Central and vice versa. This is achieved by creating a filtered list of companies in Membrain that you'd like the integration to consider in the sync. These companies and their associated Contacts will then be synced progressively when any new records appear and/or any of the integration's mapped fields are updated.

Microsoft Business Central

First, select the name of your company in Microsoft Business Central that you'd like Membrain to sync with.

Microsoft Business Central Id

To successfully identify and sync companies and their associated contacts from Membrain to Microsoft Business Central, the integration searches for the Microsoft Business Central Id provided in the custom field below. If no Microsoft Business Central Id is found, Membrain will search companies based on the Membrain Company Name. 

1. From the left menu of Membrain, go to System Setup > Custom Fields > Company Custom Fields.
2. Click on the Create New Field button, select "Text", name the field to "Microsoft Business Central Id", and press Save.
3. Then in the "What to Sync" section of the integration, map the field you just created, as shown below.

Membrain to Microsoft Business Central

Membrain will attempt to locate in the filtered list that you've set up (read next paragraph) already existing companies and contacts and: 

• If a match is found, Membrain will update the existing Company, respectively existing Contact in Microsoft Business Central.
• If no match is found, Membrain will create a new Company, respectively a new Contact in Microsoft Business Central.

Microsoft Business Central to Membrain

Membrain will attempt to locate in the filtered list that you've set up (read next paragraph) already existing companies and contacts and: 

• If a match is found, Membrain will update the existing Company, respectively existing Contact in Membrain.
  
• If no match is found, no new companies or contacts will be created in Membrain

Company Filter Creation

From this menu, you may create a new Company filter OR use an existing Company filter.

• Create new Company filter - Click on "New Filter" and add your filtering criteria.

Example 1: You want to sync all companies, in which case, leave the Company Filter with "No Filters" as shown below and press Save.

Example 2: Alternatively, you might want to reduce the list to only include your customers, so filtering on a custom field or label for "Company Type: Customer" would be the way to go.

• Use existing Company filter - Tick one or more of your existing company filters, as shown below.

Fields to Sync

Mandatory Fields

By default, there are some mandatory company and contact-level fields that are synced both ways automatically and that cannot be configured. See pictures below.

Additional Fields to Sync

In this section of the integration, you may also configure additional company and contact information to be synced from Microsoft Business Central to Membrain, and from Membrain to Microsoft Business Central.
You can set up a one-way sync or a two-way sync on each specific field. The bold arrow shows in which direction the field's sync is activated.

Sync Status

That is a helpful area to check on the status of the sync and how each field sync is performing in the Status Area.

• See when the sync ran last. By default, the sync runs every 3 minutes.
• Initially, you may "Run One Sync Round" to test the integration, then click on "Start Sync Service" to sync fully.
• Stop the sync at any time, and restart when ready.

Updating Sync Timestamp

During the initial sync process, if the data set to be synced has not been modified recently, change the sync timestamps to an earlier date. To update the sync date:

1. Disable Sync by clicking on "Stop Sync Service".
2. Update the date on timestamp by hovering and clicking on it.
3. Press Save and "Enable Sync Service".

API Log

This log can be useful for those with a more technical background. The log lists every event related to the sync in date order and can be very useful for analyzing or troubleshooting the sync.

1. From the left menu, click on the cogwheel icon  to access System Setup
2. Scroll down to Integrations > Microsoft Business Central Integration > Log
   
   
   
   
3. Click on Show Individual Logs to view logs by run dates.
   
   
   
   
4. Click on Back to Main Log to go to the full view of the logs.
   
   
5. Download All Logs allows you to download the entire log.