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Installing the Atlar app in Business Central

This guide explains how to install the Atlar extension in Microsoft 365 Business Central and outlines the steps needed in order to set up communication between the two systems.

The Atlar extension for Business Central seamlessly integrates with the Atlar platform, enabling automated payments and bank statement retrieval for reconciliation—all within Business Central. This eliminates the need for manual exports and imports.

This guide will help you with the installation and the integration between Atlar and Business Central. For a smooth setup, we'll need one or more team members with the right access levels to get involved.

First, you'll need access to the Atlar Dashboard. This is where you'll generate the necessary API secrets to be stored inside Business Central. You'll also set up a connection towards Business Central inside Atlar so that the communication goes both ways. Make sure you are either the Owner of an Atlar organization or have permissions to manage roles, users and third-party connections.

You'll also need the right permissions in Business Central to set up API secrets and install the Atlar extension. Usually, a Business Central administrator is the go-to person for this kind of access.

Atlar configuration

Begin by logging into your Atlar account. Ensure that you have a role with sufficient privileges to perform administrative tasks. Once you are logged in, you will need to carry out the following tasks within the Atlar Dashboard:

  • Create a Role: Establish a new role with specific permissions.
  • Create a Programmatic User: Set up a new user account that will interact with the system programmatically.
  • Set up Business Central integration: Set up a connection from Atlar towards Business Central.

Create role

  1. Navigate to Role Creation
    1. Go to User Management -> Roles in your Atlar Dashboard.
    2. Click on Create new to start defining a new role.
  2. Define Role Permissions
    1. Expand "ERP Access" and select the following permissions:
      1. Account balances: READ
      2. Accounts: READ
      3. Transactions: READ
    2. To enable payments the following permissions are also needed
      1. Counterparties: READ
      2. Credit transfers: CREATE
      3. External accounts: READ
      4. Entities: READ
  3. Select Accounts
    1. Click on Select accounts. Choose the accounts that will be included in this integration. For comprehensive integrations, it is typical to include all available accounts.
  4. Complete the Role Setup
    1. After selecting the accounts, click on See role summary to review the settings.
    2. Assign a descriptive name to the role, such as "Business Central", to easily identify its purpose.
    3. Click Create to finalize the role creation.

These steps will ensure your programmatic user has the necessary permissions to interact effectively with the Atlar API through the configured role.

Create programmatic user

  1. Initiate User Creation
    1. Navigate to User Management -> Users in your Atlar Dashboard.
    2. Click on Actions and select New Programmatic User from the dropdown menu to begin setting up a new user.
  2. Configure User Details
    1. Name the user Business Central to correspond with the role and purpose it will serve.
    2. Assign the user to the role you previously created, ensuring it has the appropriate permissions for the tasks it needs to perform.
  3. Access Key and Secret
    1. Upon completing the user setup, you will be provided with an Access Key and Secret. Note that the Secret must be generated by clicking Generate.
    2. It is important to store these credentials in a secure location as they are necessary for integrating and authenticating the user with Business Central. Ensure these details are accessible as you will need them shortly for setup in Business Central.

By following these steps, you will have successfully created a programmatic user with specific roles, ready to interact with the Atlar API securely. Ensure that the Access Key and Secret are handled carefully to maintain the integrity of your data interactions.

Set up Business Central integration

The Atlar system must be able to talk to Business Central and vice versa. Within Atlar, you can set up a new connection towards Business Central, specifying the necessary API secrets. Some of them already exist in your Business Central environment, and some of the secrets require a Microsoft Entra application to be set up. Microsoft has documentation on how this type of Service-to-Service authentication works.

💡

Heads up:

Check to make sure that the user has the required access to set up a Microsoft Entra Application.

  1. Go to https://entra.microsoft.com and click on App Registrations > New registration
    1. Name does not matter, but a good example could be: "Atlar BC Integration"
    2. Supported Account Types: Choose the preselected Single Tenant
    3. Skip the optional fields and click register
  2. Click on Add a certificate or secret > New client secret . Be sure to set the expiry to two years. Our system will notify us before it expires.
    1. Description can be a simple: "Atlar Integration"
  3. Copy the Value of the secret and store it in a safe, temporary location, since you won't be able to see it later again.
  4. Navigate to API permissions for you newly created Entra Application.
  5. Click on Add a permission > Dynamics 365 Business Central > Application permissions , add then tick API.ReadWrite.All.

Once you have created the Microsoft Entra app, you can start setting up the connection inside Atlar.

  1. Go to Settings > Third-party connections and click on the Business Central connection. If you don't have one, ask your Atlar contact to help you create it.
  2. Click on the Secrets tab and then Actions > Create secret.
  3. A dialog will show with a dropdown that holds all required secret types. One can be created at a time. When selecting a secret, a descriptive text will explain what it is and how it can be obtained. Some of the secrets will be related to your Entra application, and some will be related to Business Central.
    1. ENVIRONMENT – your Business Central environment name.
    2. ACCESS_AGREEMENT_ID – your microsoft tenant id.
    3. CLIENT_ID – your Microsoft Entra Application id.
    4. ´CLIENT_SECRET´ – the secret value retrieved in step two of the Microsoft Entra application creation process.

Business Central configuration

Log into your Business Central account. Ensure that you have a role with sufficient permissions. You will need to complete the following tasks to properly set up the Atlar extension:

  • Install the Atlar extension: Add the Atlar extension to your Business Central setup.
  • Business Central service-to-service configuration: Add a Microsoft Entra Application in Business Central to enable access to BC.
  • Configure API secrets: Set up the essential credentials for API interaction with Atlar.
  • Pair accounts: Link your Business Central accounts with Atlar accounts for seamless data exchange.

Install the Atlar extension

Your contact at Atlar will provide you with details about how to install the extension.

Business Central service-to-service configuration

Once the Atlar extension has been installed and the Entra application has been created, we need to create a Microsoft Entra application in Business Central. So, that Atlar can authenticate towards Business Central.

  1. Inside Business Central, go to the Microsoft Entra Applications page (easily found by using the global search function).
  2. Click on New and create a new application.
  3. Copy the Application (client) ID from the list of applications under App registrations on Microsoft Entra.
  4. Give the application a suitable name, such as "Atlar integration".
  5. Set the State field to be Enabled
  6. Under User Permission Sets you can grant the app the required permissions. Search (pressing the three dots in the first cell) for the ATB SYSTEM (Atlar system access), D365 BANKING, and D365 BASIC permission sets and add the three of them.
  7. Check in the top right that the configuration has been saved.
  8. Ask your Atlar contact to validate that the Atlar platform can access your Business Central environment.

Configure API secrets

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Make sure that no value contains any extra characters!

After generating the Access Key and Secret from the Atlar dashboard, these need to be entered into Business Central. Search for "Atlar Configuration" in the search box and go to the configuration page. Copy and paste the Atlar credentials into the Access Key and Secret fields.

By setting these configurations, you ensure that both the Atlar Access Key and Secret are securely integrated into Business Central, allowing for controlled and safe interaction with the Atlar platform. Make sure to follow these steps meticulously to maintain security and functionality.

Pair entities and accounts

Log into the Atlar Dashboard and go to Settings > Third-party connections and click on your Business Central connection. Navigate to the tab called GL Entities. Here you can see your Business Central companies listed, they have to be matched with your respective Atlar entity. Click Edit and match the desired entites. Then, make sure to click Save.

Log into the Atlar Dashboard and go to Cash Management > Accounts and click on of the accounts you want to pair with a Business Central bank account. Copy the ID that is the top most field in the view. Now open Business Central and go to Cash Management > Bank Accounts. Open the account you want pair with the Atlar account and paste ID in the field called Atlar Account ID.

Getting started

Bank Account Reconciliation

The accounts you have paired in the previous step are synced with Business Central. To start fetching transactions and balances automatically for these accounts, you need to head over to Job Queue Entries and set status to Ready for the job ATB Reconciliation.

Additionally, you can manually pull transactions from Atlar by navigating to Cash Management > Bank Account Reconciliation and clicking Actions > Atlar > Fetch Transactions. Business Central will retrieve all transactions for the specified number of days on the Atlar Configuration Page inside Business Central.

To verify that the transactions were successfully fetched, go to Cash Management > Bank Account Reconciliation and select a statement for a bank account that has been paired. You should see the transactions listed on the left-hand side under Bank Statement Lines.

Payments

  1. Inside Business Central, go to Cash Management > Bank Accounts and select a Bank Account you would want to execute payments with Atlar.
  2. Verify that it has been matched with an Atlar account. By checking that Atlar Account ID has been populated underneath the section Atlar.
  3. Scroll down to the section Transfer. Click on Payment Export Format, then select ATLAR-CSV.
  4. Prepare an entity you want to transfer money to, for example a vendor. This part be done in bulk by following Importing Bank Details.
    1. Choose Payment Method Code ATLAR.
    2. Then, open or create bank account for the entity. Enrich Country/Region Code and relevant fields under the section Atlar.
  5. Naviagte to Cash Management > Payment Journals.
    1. Create a new Payment Journal using one of your configured bank accounts.
      1. Example name: "ATL Bank Code" --> "ATL B020"
    2. Next, select the Payment Journal and add a line with your configured vendor.
    3. Follow the guide: Using the Payment Journal.

Updated about 3 hours ago

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