I’ve been so excited about some new functionality in the Business Central connector, that I skipped right over the basics. In this blog, we are going to rewind back to the begging and I’ll spend some time quickly going over the high-level basics. This blog is definitely for my beginners. I’ll share my opinion on the pros and cons, and discuss the actions and triggers associated with the Business Central connector.
What is this connector?
It connects Business Central data to the rest of the Microsoft Ecosystem. It is a Low-code/no-code way to work with Business Central V2. API’s, and custom APIs published in a Business Central Environment. Check out Microsoft’s official documentation. To me, being able to easily automate and extend Business Central is an SMB dream come true! It allows SMB’s to automate processes, analyze data, and utilize AI. These are the same capabilities that large enterprises enjoy, but are now at the fingertips of entrepreneurs.
From Directions EMEA, Dynamicscon Live, and online forums I hear a common concern around the Business Central Connector, “It’s still in preview”. Yes, it is, but I have several flows in production with customers using the connector with zero issues. You can always use the HTTP connector, but that has more risk associated with it. This isn’t something that Microsoft isn’t going to suddenly pull the plug on, or not support. In fact, they continue to improve it and add more functionality with each major release.
ACTIONS
Actions can be thought of as “What are you going to do with the specified data?”
The Business Central connector has the following actions:
These actions correspond with HTTP request methods. You can think of it like this.
| Action Type | HTTP Method |
|---|---|
| Create | Post |
| Delete | Delete |
| Execute | Post |
| Get records | Get |
| Get Record Types | Get |
| Update | Patch |
You will see there is a V2 and V3 option. Make sure you use the V3 option. This will give you the option to select with API, and the table you want to use. You will have the option of the standard V2, Workflow, and custom API’s. Most of the actions will also require a Row ID as well. This is the GUID that is associated with the record that you want to do the action for.
Triggers
Triggers are specific events that cue the flow to start. There are two types of triggers currently, one for records being created, updated, or deleted, the other type is for approvals. Notice how I said currently? Based on what I have seen historically, and what I’ve heard at events, I would expect that we will see more innovation here, and functionality that is similar to Dataverse. Both trigger types have a significant impact in helping organizations become more efficient. These triggers are usually where another manual process would start.
Records: Records are very simple in the information required. It has just the basic elements on the connector.
Environment, Company, API, and table.
For basic scenarios, this is enough information for now. I can say from my experience that if you need more specific scenarios for your business case, you will likely have more questions. I realized it’s too much for this blog, so watch out for the next blog and I’ll dive in deeper on this topic.
Approvals: You will find approvals on items, customers, vendors, sales documents, purchase documents, and general journals. These approvals are aligned with the approval triggers you would see in standard Business Central Approvals. (Not associated with Power Automate). You can trigger the approval From Business Central, or the Outlook integration. The approval can be done via Outlook, Power Automate, or Teams. You can also set conditions on a header or line level for approval so that you can target specific situations. For example, invoices over a certain threshold.
The next time you wish you could automate something you do on a day-to-day basis, I encourage you to think about the Business Central Connector. While the connector is still in preview mode, it is being used worldwide in live customer solutions. By using a combination of triggers, actions, and other connectors in Power Automate, how much time can you save by automating a currently manual process? Spend some time familiarizing yourself with the basics, and I’ll get into more details in my next blog. ā