Dynamics 365 Business Central
Note:
Dynamics 365 Business Central connectivity is currently in feature preview.
Documentation for this feature is still work in progress
xpna Business Central App
To connect to Business Central, xpna has a dedicated Business Central app that can be downloaded from here.
This app will need to be installed into each Business Central company that is to be connected to xpna.
Microsoft has the following information on Business Central PTE (Per-Tenant Extension) here and there is a handy community youtube video on how to upload the extension here
Users performing this action must be a member of the D365 Extension MGT user group or have the EXTEND. MGT. - ADMIN permission set to be able to upload a PTE into Business Central.
Connectivity & Security
A Business Central data source within xpna is secured using the Business Central OAuth2 security flow.
This is a highly secure process provided by Microsoft, which allows Business Central users to grant access to one or more Business Central organiations, (that the user has access), to a verified third-party application, like xpna, with specific permissions.
Note:
At no time does xpna access, ask for, or store the user's Business Central credentials.
Authorization tokens are stored encrypted within xpna
On adding a new Business Central data source, when the user clicks on the Connect to Business Central action button, the following flow will occur to allow the user to grant xpna access and return us a token, that we store encrypted, we can use on behalf of the user to subsequently retrieve their Business Central data:
| Actor | Action |
|---|---|
| xpna | Opens a browser window in the user's default browser to Business Central |
| Business Central | Gets the user to login with their Business Central credentials (if not already logged in) |
| Business Central | Redirects the page back to xpna |
| xpna | Receives the authorization and attempts to connect to retrieve the information about all organisations the user has access to |
| xpna | Displays a message to the user about the success or failure of the connection |
Dimensional Mapping
If an organisation is using Business Central Dimensions, the option to create/map dimensions for each will be given on the initial connection.
For each, they can be mapped to an existing dimension or have a new one created to represent it.
If multiple connections (from other sources) within the same workspace are using them in the same way, the same dimensions can be reused across many of them. The name of the custom dimension in xpna does not need to be the same as what is in Business Central.
Initial Load Duration
To extract and process the data into the xpna data warehouse may take anywhere from 1 minute to several hours, depending on the number of transactions stored in Business Central.
Data Synchronization
xpna does incremental loads from Business Central on a daily schedule set by the user and will also load on demand when the Refresh data action button is used, (this looks like a 'Play' button).
Expect data refreshes to complete in less than a minute.
Managing the Connection
On disconnection, the user's Business Central data is not removed from xpna; only the connection that is used to update data is severed.
If removal of the data is also required, the user can open up a support ticket with us.
Planning Data
Business Central budgets are retrieved as a part of data synchronization, and each is stored in a separate scenario derived from the name in Business Central.
xpna does not write planning data back into Business Central because it allows planning data to be created against accounts that do not exist in Business Central. For example, non-financial accounts such as headcount cannot be created in Business Central, so if planning occurs against this account, reporting can only be done from xpna.
Nothing prevents the building of custom Business Central imports from xpna data for loading back into Business Central if that is desired by users.
Data Flows
xpna extracts a number of data sets from Business Central. These are listed below.
xpna does not push data back into Business Central for any data set.
| Business Central | xpna |
|---|---|
| GeneralLedgerAccount | Account dimension and hierarchies |
| GLRegisters | General ledger amount |
| GeneralLedgerEntries | General ledger amount |
| GeneralLedgetSetup | Entity |
| AccountingPeriods | Entity |
| Dimensions | Dimensions and members |
| DimensionSets | Dimensions and members |
| DimensionValues | Dimensions and members |
| GeneralLedgerBudgetEntries | Scenarios |
| Preferences | Entity Configuration |
| SourceCodes | Dimensions and members |
| AccountsReceivable | Data source |
| AccountsPayable | Data source |
| Employees | Business Partner |
| Customers | Business Partner |
| Vendors | Business Partner |