Before you connect
- A Microsoft admin who may register apps and give admin consent in Azure (Microsoft Entra).
- A Business Central admin, to enable the app with read rights.
- An owner or admin account in Northdeck.
Connect Business Central
- In Northdeck, open Data → Sources and choose Business Central.
- As a Microsoft admin, in the Azure portal: App registrations, New registration, named Northdeck.
- Under API permissions, add Dynamics 365 Business Central, Application permissions, API.ReadWrite.All, and click Grant admin consent. Microsoft has no read-only permission here; step 5 makes the access read-only.
- Under Certificates & secrets, create a client secret. Copy its value and the application (client) ID.
- In Business Central, open Microsoft Entra Applications, choose New, fill in the client ID, set State to Enabled and add only the permission set D365 READ.
- In Northdeck, fill in your tenant (a domain of your organization or the tenant ID), the environment (in the address bar of Business Central, often Production), the company if there are several, and the client ID and secret.
- Click Connect Business Central.
Someone else holds the access? In Data → Sources, click Send an invite link: they fill in the key without a Northdeck account. The link is valid for 7 days and works once.
Keeping it up to date
Every hour Northdeck reads what changed in Business Central, and every night everything. The ledger is read per month, a few months per sync, so a long history comes in over the first syncs.
Troubleshoot
The message in Northdeck says what went wrong. These are the most common ones.
A Microsoft admin must first approve the app.
In Azure, open the app registration, API permissions, and click Grant admin consent.
Microsoft did not accept the client secret (wrong or expired).
Create a new one under Certificates & secrets and connect again.
This environment has several companies.
The message lists them. Fill in the company to read.
Business Central has no environment "…" in this tenant.
Check the name in the address bar of Business Central, often Production.
Microsoft does not know this tenant, or this client ID in this tenant.
Check the tenant ID or domain, and copy the application (client) ID again.
Good to know
- Documents dated from 1 January two years ago are read.
- Northdeck reports in euros: a document in another currency has no amount, and a company with books in another currency gets no ledger.
- E-mail addresses and phone numbers of customers and vendors are not copied.