To let customers order directly into Business Central, give them an online channel that creates sales orders through Business Central’s APIs. The main options are EDI, a Shopify store with Microsoft’s connector, a Power Pages portal, or a dedicated B2B ordering portal that reads each customer’s prices, stock and credit from Business Central.
Why do orders still get keyed in by hand?
Most Business Central businesses take trade orders by email, phone and PDF purchase order. Someone then re-enters each line as a sales order. It works, but it’s slow, error-prone and hard to scale as order volumes grow.
The fix is to let customers place the order themselves, in a way that creates a proper sales order in Business Central with the right customer, prices, location and terms.
What are the options?
| Option | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| EDI | Large customers with their own procurement systems | Setup per trading partner; not for smaller trade customers |
| Shopify with Microsoft’s Business Central connector | Simple pricing, businesses that also sell to consumers | Customer-specific pricing, credit limits and locations can need workarounds |
| Power Pages portal | Teams with in-house Power Platform skills | You design and maintain the ordering experience yourself |
| Dedicated B2B ordering portal | Trade customers on account with their own prices | Choose one that reads pricing and credit straight from Business Central |
What should a Business Central ordering integration do?
- Create sales orders, not just emails. Orders should arrive as Business Central sales orders, ready for picking.
- Use Business Central pricing. Price lists, customer price groups and line discounts should come from Business Central, not a second price list.
- Respect credit and locations. Credit limits and stock by location should be checked before the order is placed.
- Show the account. Customers should see posted invoices and balances, so they stop calling accounts.
- Fail safely. If Business Central is briefly unavailable, orders should queue, not disappear.
How does ordern do it?
ordern connects through Business Central’s standard APIs and creates each web order as a sales order. Customers see their own prices and stock by location, and the customer portal shows posted invoices and balances. See the Business Central B2B portal for what syncs and when.