B2Brouter connector for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

B2Brouter for Business Central is a native extension that automates the sending of electronic invoices from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central through the B2Brouter platform. When you post a sales invoice in Business Central, it is sent automatically to B2Brouter for processing, with no additional manual action on your part.

B2Brouter converts the document into the format the recipient requires and delivers it over the corresponding network (FACe, FACeB2B, Peppol, eFACT, email, among others), and returns the status of each document so it can be checked from Business Central.

The connector is published on the Microsoft marketplace in two versions, each one with the tax logic of its country:

• B2Brouter Connector (Spain)
• B2Brouter Connector (Belgium)

Prerequisites

Before configuring the connector in Business Central, you need the following:

• A B2Brouter account. If you don’t have one yet, see Register as a user and First steps.
• Your company data configured in B2Brouter: tax identification, bank accounts and, if you are going to send through Peppol, the network activated. See Setting up your company.
• An active subscription that includes API access. See Subscribe to a Premium plan and, to understand what consumes your quota, Transaction.
• The Account ID and the API Key for your B2Brouter environment, generated from the web platform itself. See Configure your B2Brouter API connection.
• The E-Documents module available in Business Central.

Installing the connector

The B2Brouter Connector is installed from Microsoft AppSource. It is available in two versions, one for Belgium and one for Spain, each with the tax logic of its country. Install the one that matches the country of the issuing company.

1. In Business Central, open AppSource.
2. Search for B2Brouter Connector.
3. Select the version for your country, Belgium or Spain, and install it.

Selecting the environment in Business Central

The Business Central configuration page includes a checkbox labelled Staging Mode:

• If the checkbox is selected, the connector points to the Staging environment.
• If the checkbox is cleared, the connector points to the Production environment.

Each environment has its own credentials

Credentials are not interchangeable between environments: a Staging Account ID and API Key do not work in Production, and vice versa. Each environment requires its own account and its own key. See How to generate an API key.

General configuration

The general configuration is done from the B2Brouter Setup page, which you reach through the page search by typing b2brouter setup.

Step 1: Enter the connection details

On the configuration page you have to enter the connection details. Always check that both values belong to the same environment.

• Account ID: numeric identifier of the issuing account in B2Brouter. It determines which account the invoices coming from Business Central are issued from.
• API Key: the key Business Central uses to authenticate against the B2Brouter API. The key is not tied to a specific account: it can give access to several accounts in the same group, and it is the Account ID that determines where each invoice is created.

Both steps are described in full in Configure your B2Brouter API connection: where to find the account_id and how to generate an API key.

Step 2: Retrieve the configuration information from B2Brouter

Once the Account ID and the API Key are set, go in Business Central to Actions → Get Setup B2B. This action retrieves from B2Brouter the information needed to complete the configuration: document types, transport types, invoice states and identification schemes.

This information is loaded into a set of internal tables that you then have to complete with the equivalent values in Business Central, as explained in the next section.

Step 3: Set the transport type and the document type

You have to define the transport type and the document type used to send the electronic invoices:

• Transport type: the channel the electronic invoice is sent through, for example FACe, FACeB2B, Peppol, eFACT or email.
• Document type: the format the electronic invoice is sent in, for example Facturae 3.2.2. The available options vary depending on the transport type selected.

Depending on the channel, the recipient will also need a routing code filled in on their record: DIR3 for FACe, a Peppol identifier for Peppol, and so on. See Managing routing codes.

Mapping payment methods and payment terms

Payment methods

In Business Central, go to Actions → Payment Methods to open the payment methods imported from B2Brouter. For each B2Brouter payment method you have to indicate which Business Central payment method it corresponds to. You can check the meaning of each code and its equivalent in Facturae, UBL and CII in Payment methods.

Payment terms

In Business Central, go to Actions → Terms Payment. As with the payment methods, you get a list of payment terms retrieved from B2Brouter, and for each one you have to indicate the equivalent payment term in Business Central.

Both mappings are mandatory

Posting is not possible without them. If a value used on the invoice has no mapped equivalent, the check performed when posting will flag it.

Customer-level configuration

The configuration defined on the customer record takes precedence over the general configuration. This lets each customer be served, through the Transport Types and Document Types fields, with a method other than the default one.

Sending an electronic invoice

Once the configuration is complete, sending an electronic invoice to B2Brouter is fully automatic from the user’s point of view:

1. The sales invoice is created in Business Central as usual and posting is started.
2. Within the posting process itself, the connector checks the configuration and the mappings, creates the invoice in B2Brouter, validates it and sends it to the recipient.
3. If any of those checks or the sending itself returns an error, posting is interrupted: you have to fix the problem in Business Central and post the invoice again.
4. Once posted and sent, the invoice lets you check from Business Central, at any time, the status of the delivery and the responses received.

Note on sending errors

Sending happens inside the posting transaction. That is why a connection, configuration or data error does not leave a posted invoice waiting to be resent: it prevents posting. The reason for the failure can be checked in the history and, once fixed, the document is posted again.

History inside the posted invoice

The posted sales invoice includes a history accessible from Business Central, B2B History, which records the full flow of what happened to the document: posting date, document number, method and result of each call.

Checking the request and the response

From the B2B History lines you can open:

• View Request: the exact data that was sent to B2Brouter.
• View Response: what B2Brouter returned after receiving the invoice.

Country specifics

Beyond the general fields, some countries have specific e-invoicing requirements that appear as additional fields on different pages of the application.

Belgium

An additional field appears on the customer record, available only for Belgian customers: Enterprise No., where you enter the customer’s company number.

This number is always sent using the Belgian Peppol scheme EAS 0208 (CBE/KBO). See Peppol identifier.

Peppol resolves the document format

When using the Peppol network, the Document Types field in the configuration can be left empty: in Peppol the document format is resolved automatically by the recipient’s SMP. Remember that the network must be activated on the issuing account; see Setting up your company.

Spain

DIR3 codes

Invoices addressed to a Spanish public administration need three routing codes: Accounting Office, Managing Body and Processing Unit. You can fill them in on each invoice or set them on the customer record so they apply by default. See DIR3 codes to find out how to look them up.

VeriFactu

If you want to use VeriFactu with us, activate it in your B2Brouter account before you start issuing invoices from Business Central. Activation is not done from the connector but from the account settings on the web platform, and it is explained step by step in How to activate VeriFactu in B2Brouter.

Activating VeriFactu is irreversible

By activating it, you commit to the AEAT to report every invoice you issue from the activation date onwards, and that date cannot be changed afterwards. See Important information before activating VeriFactu.

With VeriFactu active, invoices issued and posted from Business Central are reported to the AEAT automatically, with no additional action on your part. The copy of the invoice you hand to the customer can be downloaded from Business Central itself, from the actions on the posted invoice, and the PDF already includes the QR code required by the regulation together with the verifiable invoice statement. The document is generated by B2Brouter and the connector downloads it already rendered, so there is no need to go into the web platform to get it.

Best practices

Test before going live

• Use Staging Mode to run a full end-to-end test, validation errors included, without issuing real documents. You will need a Staging account and Staging credentials of your own; see Environments.
• Post test invoices with different setups: domestic, intra-community, export and invoices with no VAT amount.
• Bear in mind that the transaction quota also applies in Staging, so a long test run can use it up. See Transaction.

Review the mappings after every change

• Run Get Setup B2B again whenever the catalogues change on the platform, so that the options available in Business Central match what the platform actually accepts.
• Review the payment method and payment term mappings after adding new values in Business Central.

Use the customer record for exceptions

Keep the most common channel and format in the general configuration, and use the customer record only for the customers that need different ones. That way the general configuration stays stable while you can still serve, for example, public administrations through FACe and private companies through Peppol.

Contacting support

If you still have questions or run into an issue you cannot solve, contact the B2Brouter support team from your own account:

1. Log in to your account in B2Brouter.
2. Click the question mark icon in the top right corner.
3. Select Support.
4. Click Open ticket and fill in the subject and the message. You can attach files with Select files if you think it is useful.

See Open a support ticket for more details.

If you don’t have a B2Brouter account yet and would like information about the connector, you can contact us through the website.