Business Central: Connect & configure

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Overview

The Alvys to Business Central integration exports, syncs, and posts customer invoices, carrier bills, and driver settlements from Alvys to Business Central (also called Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central or BC) and imports payment updates back into Alvys. After connecting, you configure which transaction types to export, how vendors are matched or created, and how subsidiaries and fleets map to Business Central dimensions. Each Alvys subsidiary is connected to Business Central separately. Complete this process once per subsidiary.

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Before You Start

Before initiating the connection within the Alvys platform, your Business Central environment must be structurally and administratively prepared. Ensure that your tenant has an active Business Central subscription with an administrator user and that the following items are configured:

• Company Architecture Setup (Standard Multiple Companies or MEM Entity Codes)
• Account Licensing & Permissions (Essentials/Premium License and Permission Sets)
• Chart of Accounts Configuration (Active Revenue/Expense Accounts with Direct Posting enabled)
• Posting Groups (Customer, Vendor, and General Business Posting Groups)
• Tax Setup & Calculation (Tax Groups and Tax Area Codes)
• General Journal Setup
• IRS 1099 Configuration (1099 Form Boxes and Vendor Card assignment)

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Steps

Navigate to the Alvys Integrations Page by clicking your username in the bottom-left corner and selecting Integrations, or by copying and pasting the following URL into your browser: https://app.alvys.com/#/manage/integrations. From the list of integration types, select Accounting. By default, the first subsidiary in your list is selected. If needed, choose a different subsidiary to add the integration to. Click the ✏ (edit) icon next to Business Central to open the integration dialog box. Select the subsidiary you want to connect to Business Central, then click Save. In the dialog box, click Login. You will be redirected to sign in using the integration user credentials. Enter the user email and password. After successful login, select the appropriate Business Central Company from the list. The companies shown here are those that exist within your Business Central environment. To view your companies within Business Central:

1. Click the Search icon (magnifying glass) in the top right of the Business Central header.
2. Search for Companies and select the related link.

Next, select the Default Journal you would like Alvys to use. Then, select the Default Payment Methods for Carriers. This configuration is relevant for vendor-related transactions, such as Purchase Invoices. When Alvys exports a bill to Business Central, it “stamps” that specific Purchase Invoice with the Payment Method Code you select during this setup to define the settlement type. Furthermore, if a vendor match is not found in Business Central during the export process, Alvys creates the vendor record and assigns this selected payment code directly to the Vendor Card. To create or view payment methods in Business Central, use the Search icon to find Payment Methods. Next, input the IRS 1099 Code. This is for vendors/carriers who are 1099-liable. If you do not have these types of vendors, you do not have to input this information. The IRS code must be configured in Business Central for the vendor to be reported correctly. Once these steps are completed the user can click the “Next” button to move on to the configuration settings

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Configuration Settings

After successful validation, use this section to define how transactions flow from Alvys to Business Central (BC). These settings determine what data is sent, when it is triggered, and how it appears in your General Ledger.

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Transaction Types

There are two (2) transaction types available for synchronization:

1. Revenue This option determines whether revenue transactions are synchronized. When enabled, income-related financial data such as customer invoices (sales invoices) will be exported.
2. Expense This option determines whether expense transactions are synchronized. When enabled, cost-related financial data, such as driver pay and carrier bills (purchase invoices), will be exported.

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Ignore Driver Bills

This setting prevents the export of all driver bills, including company drivers and owner-operators, to Business Central. When enabled, driver-associated bills will not be exported, giving users greater control over which transactions are sent to external accounting systems. This option is commonly enabled when driver pay is managed outside of Business Central, such as through a payroll system or a separate driver settlement solution. Please note that even when this setting is enabled, external carrier bills, subsidiary carrier bills, and company expenses such as fuel and tolls may still be exported if those options are configured.

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Single Bill for Driver Statement

This setting controls how bills for company drivers and owner operators are exported to Business Central. It is used to consolidate all charges and transactions related to a driver, including trips, fuel, tolls, and other expenses, into a single bill per driver statement. When enabled, a single bill is exported to Business Central for the total net amount of the paystub. All components of driver pay are consolidated into this bill, including trip pay, accessorials, deductions, credits, reimbursements, and any other adjustments. Each component appears as a separate line item on the bill, providing detailed visibility while keeping the accounting export grouped into one transaction. This option is commonly used when driver pay is processed on a scheduled basis, such as weekly or biweekly payroll cycles. When disabled, generating a customer invoice will also export the driver bill for the individual trip. Each trip or delivery is exported as a separate bill. When a paystub is generated, multiple bills are exported for each transaction type on the paystub, including separate bills for credits, deductions/reimbursements.

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Generate Carrier Invoice Separately

This setting applies to brokerage-type trips where an external carrier and its assets are assigned to a load. When enabled, the system verifies that a carrier invoice document has been uploaded before exporting the carrier bill to Business Central. Specifically, when a brokerage trip is delivered or released and the user uploads a document of the type of carrier invoice, the system will export the carrier bill to Business Central. This can also be triggered when a user generates the customer invoice for a load; the system will verify that a carrier invoice has been uploaded, and if no carrier invoice is found, the carrier bill will not be exported to Business Central. This setting should only be enabled when carrier invoices are required as part of the workflow prior to exporting external carrier bills for payment. If this setting is disabled, generating the customer invoice for a trip with an external carrier will automatically export the carrier bill to Business Central, even if the carrier invoice has not been uploaded.

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Process Statement by Tax Category

When enabled, only bills for 1099 drivers are exported to Business Central. Bills for W-2 drivers are excluded, allowing users to manage W-2 driver payments in a separate payroll system. When disabled, bills for both W-2 and 1099 drivers are exported. This setting is typically enabled by tenants that handle W-2 driver compensation outside of Business Central and want to prevent those purchase invoices from being sent while still exporting 1099 driver expenses.

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Pay Subsidiary Carrier

This setting applies to trips involving a subsidiary carrier (i.e., a carrier operating under a subsidiary of the main company) that is assigned alongside the tenant’s internal assets. By default, when a driver statement is generated and assuming the Single Bill for Driver Statement setting is enabled, a bill is exported for the tenant’s driver on the trip. When Pay Subsidiary Carrier is enabled, this behavior changes; instead of exporting a bill/purchase invoice for the driver when a paystub is generated, the system exports a purchase invoice for the subsidiary carrier when the load invoice is generated.** E.g. Alvys Inc **

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Ignore Zero Valued Transactions

When enabled, this setting excludes invoices and bills with a total financial value of zero, meaning transactions that have no overall impact on the accounts will not be exported.

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Create Vendor Using 1099 Tax Company

The “Create Vendor Using 1099 Tax Company” setting allows users to determine whether vendors should be created in Business Central using the tax company details (Tax Company Name and Address) specified in the Tax Information section of the Alvys driver profile (for either company drivers or owner-operators with the tax category of 1099). When this setting is enabled: If the vendor does not exist in Business Central, a vendor will be automatically created when the driver statement is generated, using the Tax Company Name as the vendor’s name and the Tax Company Address as the vendor address. If the vendor already exists in Business Central, the user must ensure that the vendor’s name matches the Tax Company Name specified in the Alvys driver profile to avoid conflicts and create duplicates.

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Match Vendors by Name

The “Match vendors by name” setting controls how Alvys finds an existing Business Central vendor for a carrier. Alvys always tries to match a carrier to a vendor by MC number first. This setting decides what happens when no MC-number match is found:

• Enabled (the default). Alvys falls back to matching by name. This is the long-standing behavior, so leaving it on changes nothing.
• Disabled. Alvys matches by MC number only. When there is no MC-number match it creates a new vendor rather than matching on a name, which keeps carriers that share a name but hold different MC numbers separate.

Turn it off if carrier bills have been posting under the wrong vendor because two of your carriers trade under the same name. Because the fallback is what causes that, removing the fallback is the fix.

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Carrier Statements

This setting must be enabled to export carrier statements as bills when generating a Carrier Statement from the Carrier Settlements module. If you use the Carrier Settlements module to generate statements for external carriers and want these statements automatically exported to business central upon generation, this setting must be enabled. This is the only scenario in which this option should be turned on. If you do not use the Carrier Settlements module and want carrier statements to be exported only when the carrier invoice is manually uploaded for a trip, this setting should be disabled, and the option to generate carrier invoices separately should be enabled. Alternatively, if you prefer carrier statements to be exported only when the customer invoice is generated on a load, this setting should also be disabled, and the option to generate carrier invoices separately should remain disabled.

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Export Company Fuel Expense

The TMS allows users to record fuel transactions, either manually or imported directly from the fuel provider. These transactions can be viewed in the** **Alvys Fuel Report. In the fuel report, if a transaction is marked “Deduct Transaction” true, the cost will be deducted from the linked driver during payroll (statement generation). If it is not deducted, Deduct Fuel false (-), the transaction is treated as a company expense. When the “Export Company Fuel Expense” setting is enabled, fuel transactions where Deduct Fuel is set to false (-) (i.e., fuel costs not deducted from drivers) are exported to Business Central as purchase invoices. This allows the company to track and manage fuel expenses not charged to drivers, such as those for company-owned vehicles. Exports are scheduled daily at 6:30 AM UTC

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Export Company Toll Expense

The TMS allows users to record toll transactions, either manually or imported directly from the toll provider. These transactions can be viewed in the Alvys Toll Report. If a transaction is marked “Deduct Toll” true, the cost will be deducted from the linked driver during payroll. If it is not deducted, Deduct Toll false (-), the transaction is treated as a company expense. When the “Export Company Toll Expense” setting is enabled, toll transactions where Deduct Toll is set to false (i.e., toll costs not deducted from drivers) are exported to the Business Central system as bills. This allows the company to track and manage toll expenses not charged to drivers, such as those incurred by company-owned vehicles. Exports are scheduled daily at 7:30 AM UTC.

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Reference number prefix

This setting allows Alvys’ predefined prefixes to be applied to transaction reference numbers, altering how transactions are identified when sent from Alvys to Business Central. Different transaction types, such as Load Invoices, Bills from Trips, and Bills from Paystubs, have specific prefixes. For example, an invoice might appear as ALD-100000. Alvys Predefined Prefixes:

• ALD – Load
• ATP – Trip
• APS – Paystub
• AEK – E-Check
• AFL – Fuel
• ADT – Deduction
• ATL – Toll
• AAC – Accessorial

Users should enable this setting only if reference numbers will help organize and identify transactions originating from Alvys. In addition to the reference number prefix, users can configure a fleet prefix, which applies only to customer invoices exported to Business Central. Adding a fleet-specific prefix allows invoices to be easily differentiated across multiple fleets. See the following help center article to configure** **fleet prefixes Priority of Prefixes (Reference Number Prefix vs Fleet Prefix): If both the external accounting setting for the reference number prefix and the fleet prefix are enabled, the fleet prefix takes precedence for invoices and will be prepended to the invoice number. Other transaction types, such as bills, will continue to use the standard reference number prefix.

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Subsidiaries

Alvys subsidiaries can be mapped to an Entity Dimension created in Business Central. Entity dimensions are typically established to distinguish and report on multiple legal entities within a single database environment. For tenants using Multi-Entity Management (MEM), Business Central generally operates as a single database, or single company, that contains multiple legal entities. To ensure proper financial separation and reporting, a Global Dimension commonly labeled Entity, or Subsidiary is used to tag all transactions accordingly. In this structure, each Alvys subsidiary must be mapped to the corresponding Business Central dimension value. However, if the Business Central environment is configured with multiple separate companies, meaning individual databases, rather than a single company utilizing dimensions for MEM, the subsidiary mapping step within the integration is typically unnecessary. In this scenario, the integration logic differs because the Entity is inherently defined by the specific company connection itself.

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Prerequisites for Successful Subsidiary Mapping

Before completing this in Alvys, you must ensure your Dimensions are correctly established in Business Central: Dimension Definition: Ensure your “Entity” or “Subsidiary” dimension is set as a Global Dimension in your General Ledger Setup. Value Creation: Every subsidiary you intend to use must already exist as a Dimension Value within that dimension. For detailed instructions on establishing and configuring dimensions within Microsoft Business Central, please refer to the official documentation: Working with Dimensions - Business Central | Microsoft Learn** **Set up dimensions in Dynamics 365 Business Central

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How to Map Alvys Subsidiaries to Business Central

Select the Subsidiaries Checkbox: Within the Alvys integration setup, check the Subsidiaries box. Access the subsidiary mapping Step Choose the class option from the dropdown menu located under the Subsidiary heading. Link each relevant subsidiary to its corresponding option presented in the right-hand dropdown menu.

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Fleets

Mapping Alvys Fleets to Business Central Dimensions allows you to track profitability by specific fleet or truck groups within your financial statements. In Business Central, this is usually handled via Dimensions. In Alvys, this mapping ensures that every time a load is synced, the correct “Tag” is attached to the General Ledger entry.

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How to Map Alvys Fleets to Dimensions:

Select the Fleets checkbox, which will create an additional step called Fleets. Click on the Fleets step. Choose the class option from the dropdown menu located under the Fleets heading. Proceed by mapping each specific Alvy’s fleet to the corresponding option presented in the right-hand dropdown menu.

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Shared Billing/Intercompany Billing

Shared Billing is used when a load is invoiced by one subsidiary (Invoice As) and tendered by another subsidiary (Tender As), and both subsidiaries have separate accounting integrations. This setting ensures that all financial transactions are correctly recorded across the two subsidiaries. Invoice As Subsidiary (e.g., Alvys Inc)

• Creates a customer invoice for the load
• Creates an intercompany bill to the Tender As subsidiary (Alvys Brokerage) for the carrier/driver cost

Tender As Subsidiary (e.g., Alvys Brokerage)

• Creates an intercompany invoice back to the Invoice As subsidiary
• Creates a vendor bill to the carrier or driver for the load

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Send E-Check on Generation

This setting controls whether e-Check transactions created in Alvys are automatically exported to Business Central at the moment the e-Check is generated. When this setting is enabled, Alvys immediately creates and transmits a journal entry to the selected General Journal Batch in Business Central. The journal entry will post according to the journal batch configuration and the user permissions established in Business Central. It is important to ensure that the designated General Journal Batch exists, is not blocked, and that the integration user has sufficient permissions to create and post journal entries. If this setting is disabled, e-Check journal entries will not export automatically. Instead, the export occurs when the e-Check is included on a generated driver statement or when a carrier bill is exported.

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Add Asset Dimensions

The Add Asset Dimensions setting allows users to map Alvys Assets (trucks and drivers) to Dimensions in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. In BC Dimensions are used to categorize financial data for reporting and analysis, enabling organizations to track profitability and performance by specific operational assets. Before enabling this feature in Alvys, the required Dimension Codes and Dimension Values must be created in Business Central. Create Dimension Codes (in Business Central):

• Navigate to the Dimensions page (🔍 Search → Dimensions).
• Click New.
• Create a dimension code such as DRIVERS (Name: Drivers).
• Create a dimension code such as TRUCKS (Name: Trucks). Create Dimension Values (in Business Central):
• Open the DRIVERS dimension and select Dimension Values.
• Click New and create a value for each driver (for example, Code: JOHN).
• Open the TRUCKS dimension and select Dimension Values.
• Click New and create a value for each truck (for example, Code: T01). **Microsoft documentation reference: **Work with dimensions After the Dimension Codes and Values are created in Business Central, the user must map the Dimension Codes in the Alvys integration settings. In Alvys, you will map:
• Alvys Driver → Business Central Dimension Code: DRIVERS
• Alvys Truck → Business Central Dimension Code: TRUCKS

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Configuration Dependencies and Incompatible Settings

Some Configuration settings in the Alvys Business Central integration are mutually exclusive (meaning they cannot be enabled at the same time) or render others inactive when enabled. In addition, certain settings may not require configuration at all, depending on the initial selection of Revenue and or Expense transactions

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The Revenue Checkbox

If only the Revenue transaction checkbox is selected (customer invoices, etc.), **do **not configure any settings related to Expenses, including:

• Single Bill for Driver Statement
• Generate Carrier Invoice Separately
• Process Statement by Tax Category
• Pay Subsidiary Carrier
• Create Vendor Using 1099 Tax Company
• Ignore Driver Bills
• Carrier Statements
• Export Company Fuel Expense (not deducted from a driver)
• Export Company Toll Expense (not deducted from a driver)

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Single Bill for Driver Statement

Do not configure this setting with:

• Ignore Driver Bills
• Pay Subsidiary Carrier

Why: Single Bill for Driver Statement assumes that driver bills are being created and exported. If driver bills are ignored (not sent to Business Central) this consolidation logic no longer applies and will conflict with the export process. Also, if configured with pay subsidiary carrier bills, the single bill for driver statement will take precedence.

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Process Statement by Tax Category

Configuration Dependency:

• Single Bill for Driver Statement must be enabled along with this setting Do not configure this setting with:
• Ignore Driver Bills
• Pay Subsidiary Carrier Why: This setting depends on driver bill data to separate payments by tax type. If driver bills are ignored or billing is redirected to a subsidiary carrier, tax-based filtering cannot function correctly.

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Pay Subsidiary Carrier

Do not configure this setting with:

• Single Bill for Driver Statement
• Process Statement By Tax Category
• Create Vendor Using 1099 Tax Company
• Ignore Driver Bills

Why: When this setting is enabled, billing responsibility shifts away from the driver entirely. Any configuration that assumes driver-based billing, or driver vendor creation becomes invalid.

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Ignore Driver Bills

Do not configure this setting with:

• Single Bill for Driver Statement
• Process Statement By Tax Category
• Create Vendor Using 1099 Tax Company

Why: Each of these settings relies on driver bills being generated and exported. Ignoring driver bills removes the underlying data required for these settings to work.

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Create Vendor Using 1099 Tax Company

Configuration Dependency:

• Single Bill for Driver Statement must be enabled along with this setting Do not configure this setting with:
• Pay Subsidiary Carrier
• Ignore Driver Bills

Why: This option assumes driver-based billing based on tax category. If billing is redirected to a subsidiary carrier or driver bills are excluded, vendor creation using tax data is no longer applicable.

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Match Vendors by Name

Configuration Dependency:

• Leave enabled if this subsidiary is a carrier subsidiary that exports driver statements

Why: Vendor matching by MC number only works for parties that have an MC number. Drivers do not, so they are resolved by name. Disabling the name fallback to keep same-named carriers distinct also removes the only way Alvys can match a driver, and driver statement export stops finding its vendor.

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FAQs

Q: Can I configure the integration for multiple subsidiaries simultaneously? A: No. The integration must be configured one subsidiary at a time. Return to Management > Integrations and repeat the connection steps for each additional subsidiary. Q: What happens if I enable only the Revenue transaction type? A: Only customer invoices are exported to Business Central. Carrier bills, driver settlements, and expense-related settings have no effect. Do not enable expense-specific settings when only Revenue is selected. Q: What happens if I enable only the Expense transaction type? A: Only carrier bills and driver settlements are exported to Business Central. Customer invoices are not exported. Q: What does “Ignore Driver Bills” do? A: It excludes driver-level bills from export entirely. Use this when you do not need individual driver payroll entries in Business Central, such as when drivers are paid through a separate payroll system. Q: Can I enable “Single Bill for Driver Statement” with “Pay Subsidiary Carrier”? A: No. These settings are incompatible. Single Bill consolidates driver-level billing, while Pay Subsidiary Carrier redirects billing away from drivers entirely. Enable only one or the other. Q: How do I exclude W-2 driver payments from exporting to Business Central? A: Enable Ignore Driver Bills. This excludes all driver bills from export. If you need to export only certain types of driver payments, review the Process Statement by Tax Category and Single Bill for Driver Statement settings for more targeted control. Q: Why am I receiving a digit expectation error when exporting a previously $0 transaction? A: This error can occur when a transaction that previously had a $0 value is updated and re-exported. Enabling Ignore Zero Valued Transactions prevents$0 transactions from being sent in the first place, which avoids this error on subsequent updates. If the error persists after enabling this setting, contact Alvys support. Q: Can I enable both Ignore Driver Bills and Single Bill for Driver Statement? A: No. These settings are incompatible. Single Bill depends on driver bills being exported; Ignore Driver Bills removes them before export. Q: When do fuel and toll expenses sync to Business Central? A: Fuel and toll expenses sync when the associated load transaction is exported. If Export Company Fuel Expense or Export Company Toll Expense was not enabled when past transactions were processed, those past transactions will not be retroactively exported after the setting is turned on. Q: Do I need to manually map every individual driver and truck as a Dimension Value? A: No. Subsidiaries and Fleets are mapped as groups, not as individual drivers or trucks. After enabling the Subsidiaries or Fleets setting, you map each Alvys subsidiary or fleet to its corresponding Business Central Dimension value. Q: Can I map both Fleets and Subsidiaries to Business Central Dimensions? A: No. These settings are mutually exclusive. You must choose to map by either Subsidiaries or Fleets, not both simultaneously. Q: Why has a carrier bill not exported even though the load invoice was generated? A: If Generate Carrier Invoice Separately is enabled, the carrier bill will not export until the physical carrier invoice has been received and verified in Alvys. Confirm that the carrier invoice has been marked as received on the load. If the invoice is marked received and the bill still has not exported, contact Alvys support. Q: What happens if a vendor match is not found in Business Central during export? A: If no matching vendor is found by name or External Accounting ID, Alvys automatically creates a new vendor in Business Central using the carrier or driver’s profile information, along with the Default Payment Method you selected during setup.

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Go Deeper

• Business Central: Account Mappings