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Microsoft Business Central integration with Tribe CRM

Updated over 2 weeks ago

Do you use Microsoft Business Central for your administration? The integration between Tribe CRM and Microsoft Business Central can save you a lot of time. Errors that may arise from manually entering relationships are a thing of the past. Moreover, invoices in Tribe CRM are also automatically created in Microsoft Business Central thanks to the comprehensive integration.
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Tribe has two different integrations with Microsoft Business Central (Microsoft BC). This article will explain what they are, when to use it, and how to use it.

  1. Differences Microsoft BC Accounting vs Microsoft BC Invoicing

  2. Microsoft BC accounting

    1. What functionalities does the integration with Microsoft BC Accounting have?

    2. Prerequisites Microsoft BC accounting

    3. How do I activate Microsoft BC accounting?

    4. Deactivating and deleting data

    5. What data is synchronized?

  3. Microsoft BC invoicing

    1. What functionalities does the integration with Microsoft BC Invoicing have

    2. Prerequisites Microsoft BC invoicing

    3. How do I activate Microsoft BC invoicing

    4. Deactivating and deleting data

    5. What data is synchronized?

1. Differences Microsoft BC Accounting vs Microsoft BC Invoicing

Tribe has two integrations with Microsoft Business Central. These are Accounting and Invoicing. Below you can find the differences.

Microsoft Business Central Accounting

Microsoft Business Central Invoicing

CRM leading

Can be CRM leading or ERP leading

Syncs relations and booked invoices from Tribe to Microsoft Business Central

Two way sync for relations, products and invoices (can be drafts or booked invoices).

Is set up via Chift API, so Chift extension is needed for the set up.

Is set up via direct API. No extra extension needed.

Builds on top of Microsoft Business Central Accounting. In order to use Invoicing, you need to have Accounting already set up.

2. Microsoft BC accounting

2.a. What functionalities does the integration with Microsoft BC Accounting have?

The Microsoft BC Accounting integration consists of two components:

  • Relationship synchronization

  • Invoice synchronization

Relationship Synchronization
When the integration is activated, during the initial synchronization, customers and suppliers from Microsoft Business Central are automatically loaded into Tribe CRM. A duplicates check is performed on the existing relationships in Tribe CRM. This check is based on a unique ID from Microsoft Business Central. If this is not found, an additional check is performed based on the debtor or creditor number.

After the initial synchronization, new relationships and changes in existing relationship data are automatically updated. This applies both from Tribe CRM to Microsoft Business Central and vice versa. The synchronization is based on the unique ID in Microsoft Business Central.

A new customer or supplier always receives a debtor or creditor number in Tribe. If Microsoft Business Central generates a debtor or creditor number, the number in Tribe is overwritten with the debtor or creditor number assigned by Microsoft Business Central.

Invoice Synchronization
When an invoice status is changed to "Sent", it will automatically synchronize it as a booked invoice to Microsoft Business Central. We ensure that you have all the necessary information complete by adding all relevant information to the booked invoice, such as date, invoice and product lines.

2.b. Prerequisites Microsoft BC accounting

  • User must be Admin in Tribe and in Microsoft Business Central.

  • Make sure you are already logged into your Microsoft Business Central account, before going through the activation steps below.

  • Since the Microsoft Business Central Accounting integration is created via Chift API, you need the Chift extension enabled to set up the connection. You can find more info on the extension here.

2.c. How do I activate Microsoft BC accounting?

  1. Open the Marketplace in the upper right corner of your screen.

  2. Go to the Financial tab and select Dynamics 365 Business Central Accounting.

  3. Activate the integration by clicking “Activate.”

  4. Click on “Log in to Dynamic 365 Business Central Accounting”.

  5. Set up the configuration. Make sure there is a name of the connection. Decide whether you want to retrieve and generate analytical accounting data.
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  6. Click on “Authorise”. This connects your Microsoft Business Central account to Tribe to integrate the two systems.

  7. Select the VAT group(s) and General ledger accounts.

  8. Select the entities that need to be synced in Other settings.
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2.d. Deactivating and deleting data

Over time, you may need to clean up your relationship or product data.

Deleting Data
If you delete data from Tribe, it’s important to know that the integration will never delete data from Microsoft Business Central. The same applies in the opposite direction. When you delete data from Microsoft Business Central, it will never be removed from Tribe CRM.

Deactivating Data
When you deactivate a relationship in Microsoft Business Central, it is not processed with the status "former" in Tribe CRM. The relationship remains active.

When you deactivate a relation in Microsoft Business Central, it is processed in Tribe CRM with the status "former."

2.e. What data is synchronized?

Organization (commercial relation/supplier)

Microsoft Business Central

Tribe

Name

Organization Name

Website

Website

Email

Email address

Phone

Phone Number

VAT Registration No.

VAT number

Number

Creditor Number

Number

Debtor Number

Address

Visiting Address

Person (individual customer)

Microsoft Business Central

Tribe

Name

First Name, Middle Name, Last Name

Number

Debtor Number

Phone

Private phone

E-mail

Private email

Mobile

Private mobile

Invoice

Microsoft Business Central

Tribe

Journal

Configured journal

Currency

Currency

Total amount

Invoice total amount

Tax amount

Invoice VAT amount

Untaxed amount

Invoice total ex VAT

Invoice date

Invoice Date

Due date

Expiration date

Your reference

Number

Invoice lines (grouped by GL account)

Product Lines

Attachment

Attachment

3. Microsoft BC invoicing

3.a. What functionalities does the integration with Microsoft BC Invoicing have?

The Microsoft BC Invoicing integration consists of three components:

  • Product synchronization

  • Invoice synchronization

  • Inventory synchronization

Product Synchronization
The integration also supports product synchronization. Similar to relationships, products are applied through a two-way synchronization. Duplicate checks are performed based on the ID from Microsoft BC and by product number.

Invoice Synchronization
When an invoice status is changed to ‘Sync as draft’ or ‘Send’ in Tribe (depending on the configuration), it will automatically be synchronized as a (draft) invoice to Microsoft BC (is dependent on the integration settings). We ensure that you have all the necessary information complete by adding al relevant information to the booked invoice, such as date, invoice and product lines.

The synchronization of Credit invoices in one way, from Microsoft Business Central to Tribe. To maintain correct payment and linking logic we recommend to create Credit invoices in Microsoft Business Central. These will then sync back to Tribe, ensuring that all records remain consistent in both systems.

Inventory Synchronization

The integration also supports inventory synchronization.

3.b. Prerequisites Microsoft BC invoicing

The Microsoft Business Central Invoicing integration builds on top of the Accounting integration. Make sure you have set up the Microsoft Business Central Accounting first.

Before activating the Microsoft Business Central Invoicing integration, make sure to add the following OData v4 endpoints in Microsoft Business Central.

  1. Go to Search → Web Services

  2. Click '+New' button

    1. set:

      1. Object Type: Page

      2. Object ID: 31

      3. Object Name: Items (should be automatically set)

      4. Service Name: Items

    2. mark the Published checkbox and click outside of the row (OData v4 url should be set automatically)
      ​

  3. Click '+New' button

    1. set

      1. Object Type: Page

      2. Object ID: 471

      3. Object Name: VAT Product Posting Groups (should be automatically set)

      4. Service Name: VATProdPostingGroups

    2. mark the Published checkbox and click outside of the row (OData v4 url should be set automatically)

3.c. How do I activate Microsoft BC invoicing

  1. Open the Marketplace in the upper right corner of your screen.

  2. Go to the Financial tab and select Invoicing Dynamics 365 Business Central.

  3. Activate the integration by clicking “Activate.”

  4. Select for Environment “Production”

  5. Fill in the Company key. This is the name of your company in Microsoft Business Central.

  6. You are prompted to fill in some settings.

    1. General settings

      1. Synchronize products (two way): When creating new products in Tribe that need to be synced to Microsoft Business Central, select a default inventory booking group.

      2. Synchronize invoices: You can decide if you want to synchronize the final invoice or only the drafts. You can also select both. Moreover you can decide if you want the invoices to be created from Microsoft Business Central.

    2. Units: Define what kind of unit your products are and link the Units in Tribe to the Units in Business Central.

    3. VAT groups: Map the VAT products posting group and the General product posting group to the Tribe VAT group.

  7. Click on “Activate link and start initial import”.

3.d. Deactivating and deleting data

Over time, you may need to clean up your relationship or product data.

Deleting Data
If you delete data from Tribe, it’s important to know that the integration will never delete data from Microsoft Business Central. The same applies in the opposite direction. When you delete data from Microsoft Business Central, it will never be removed from Tribe CRM.

Deactivating Data
When you deactivate a relationship in Microsoft Business Central, it is not processed with the status "former" in Tribe CRM. The relationship remains active.

When you deactivate a relation in Microsoft Business Central, it is processed in Tribe CRM with the status "former."

3.e. What data is synchronized?

Invoice

Microsoft Business Central

Tribe

Customer

Relationship

number

Number

“Invoice_{number}”

Subject

invoiceDate

Date

pricesIncludeTax

IsVatIncluded

Calculated based on totalAmountExcludingTax/discountAmount

DiscountPercentage

Invoicing date + Payment term (in days)

Due Date

Product lines

Microsoft Business Central

Tribe

description

Description

quantity

Quantity

itemId

Product.[ExternalID]

unitPrice

Product.SalesPrice

unitCost

Product.PurchasePrice

item.vatProdPostingGroup

VatGroup

sequence

sortIndexField

lineDiscount

Discount

Product

Microsoft Business Central

Tribe

Blocked

IsInactive

DisplayName

Name

Number

Code

DisplayName2

Description

UnitPrice

SalesPrice

UnitCost

PurchasePrice

VAT_Prod_Posting_Group

VatGroup

Unit

Unit

Inventory

StockLevel

“true”

IsPriceEditable

“true”

IsVatEditable

Auto-created Product group “BusinessCentral”

ProductGroup

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