Most of our time goes on integrations: Business Central connected to webshops, banks, e-invoicing, warehouse systems and everything else a company runs on. What we have learned is that it is rarely the technology that sinks a project. It is the choice of pattern. A nightly CSV file that should have been an API call, or an iPaaS platform for an integration that could have been handled with twenty lines of AL.
Here are the seven patterns we use — when they fit, and when they do not.
1. API-first integration
Business Central's standard API (v2.0) covers customers, items, sales orders, general ledger entries and much more. If something is missing, we build a custom API page in AL. It is our default choice when the other system can call BC itself.
- OAuth through an app registration in Entra ID — never a user's password
- A limit of 6,000 calls per user per five minutes. The client must be able to handle 429 and retry
- Use batch calls and $filter on lastModifiedDateTime rather than fetching everything every time
2. iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service)
Azure Logic Apps, Boomi and similar tools give you flows, monitoring and ready-made connectors in one place. It makes sense when you have many systems that need to talk to each other, and an IT department that wants to run the platform.
- Central monitoring, retry and logging
- Licence and running costs that recur every month
- Overkill for a company with two or three integrations. There, an AL extension is often simpler and cheaper to run
3. Event-driven integration
Business Central can send webhooks when a record is created, changed or deleted. The other system is notified straight away instead of asking every five minutes.
- Push instead of polling — fewer calls and faster updates
- Subscriptions expire after three days and must be renewed automatically. This is the classic mistake
- The webhook only says that something has changed. The data still has to be fetched, and the receiver must be able to tolerate duplicates
4. Power Platform
Power Automate with the Business Central connector is the fastest route to simple flows: a Teams message when a large order comes in, or an approval in Outlook.
- Can be built and maintained by a power user
- Close to Teams, Outlook and SharePoint
- Not for business-critical flows in large volumes: flows are not triggered if more than 1,000 records change within 30 seconds
5. Azure Service Bus (queue-based)
When a message must not be lost — an order from the webshop on Black Friday, a payment from the bank — we put it in a queue between the systems.
- The message stays in the queue until BC has processed it, even if BC is unavailable for a moment
- A dead-letter queue for messages that fail, so they can be fixed and replayed
- Smooths out peak load, so BC does not hit the API limit
6. Dataverse synchronisation
If you use Dynamics 365 Sales or Customer Service, Business Central has a built-in synchronisation through Dataverse of customers, contacts, items and sales orders — without custom code.
- Two-way synchronisation, set up through table mapping in BC
- Match-based coupling, so existing records do not become duplicates
- Only relevant if the other system runs on Dataverse
7. Custom connectors and AL extensions
When there is no standard connector — or the one that exists does not fit Danish conditions — we build the integration as an AL extension directly in Business Central. That is how we made Invice WooCommerce Connector: web orders become sales orders, inventory and prices go back to the shop, and customers with a GLN number get the invoice as OIOUBL (the Danish e-invoicing format). It is also how we build integrations to banks, Magento, warehouse systems and older industry-specific solutions.
- The logic sits in BC, where users can see status and errors on a page — not in a log only IT can read
- Runs in the job queue with no extra platform to pay for
- Requires someone who knows AL and maintains the app at Microsoft's releases in April and October
Rule of thumb: choose the simplest pattern that meets the requirements for volume, latency and delivery guarantee. Over-engineering is the most expensive integration mistake.
Error handling and monitoring
- Telemetry from BC and the integrations in Application Insights
- Alerts on error rate and on missing activity — no orders for two hours on a Tuesday is also an error
- A page in BC where users can see failed orders and rerun them themselves
- Dead-letter or error queue on all asynchronous flows
- Documentation of who owns which integration — also when the consultant is on holiday
Should Business Central be connected to your other systems?
We map your systems and propose the simplest solution that holds. We are the ones who build it and support it afterwards.