Is EDI built into Dynamics 365?

Microsoft's documentation for Business Central describes APIs, Connect apps and a Data Exchange Framework with Peppol and bank file examples, but not a built-in trading-partner network. Business Central online can install partner apps from Microsoft Marketplace. For Finance and Supply Chain Management, Microsoft documents data management, recurring integrations and business events as the routes.

What is the difference between Business Central and Finance and Supply Chain Management for EDI?

Business Central is aimed at small and mid-sized organisations and connects mainly through a standard REST API. Finance and Supply Chain Management are separate apps with data management and recurring integrations, and Supply Chain Management adds an inbound despatch advice import. The EDI connection starts from whichever route your system uses, so settle that first.

Which documents can be exchanged?

Orders, order responses, despatch advices (ASNs) and invoices are the core set for most retailers and suppliers. Transalis offers API connectivity, with JSON, UBL or XML examples supplied, and agrees the route into your ERP when the connection is scoped. It translates each trading partner's format on its side, so your ERP sees one structure whoever the partner is.

Can we build EDI inside Dynamics 365 ourselves?

You can, and some teams do. The cost shows up later, in partner rule changes, onboarding and monitoring. A UK poultry supplier built EDI inside its own ERP to save budget, and lost £35,000+ in two weeks when a retailer rule change broke it at peak trading.

Do we need EDI expertise in-house?

No. With a managed service, Transalis handles the standards, formats, mapping and partner onboarding, and watches the flows for failed messages. Your team keeps working in Dynamics 365 and deals with orders, despatches and invoices as normal, without learning EDIFACT or maintaining partner maps.

Does this also cover eInvoicing and Peppol?

Yes. Transalis is a certified Peppol Access Point, and describes itself as a managed outcomes provider for B2B integration, EDI and eInvoicing. A new eInvoicing requirement from a customer then does not have to mean a second provider or a second project. How invoices leave your Dynamics 365 is agreed when the connection is scoped.

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Microsoft Dynamics 365 EDI, from Business Central to Finance and Supply Chain

Business Central and Finance and Supply Chain Management reach EDI by different routes. See each one and what a managed connection takes off your team.

Transalis22 October 2025Updated 13 October 2026

How do you integrate EDI with Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management are different products with different routes in, so the EDI connection starts from the one you run. With a managed service, Transalis runs the partner connections, the mapping and the monitoring, and your ERP exchanges orders, despatch advices and invoices with a single connection into the Transalis Trading Network.

Most EDI projects stall in the same place. The ERP side gets scoped as a technical task, and the trading-partner side is left to chance. Which ERP you run decides how much of each lands on your team.

	Business Central	Finance and Supply Chain Management
Typical buyer	Small and mid-sized organisations that want one business management system (Microsoft's own positioning)	Organisations running Finance and Supply Chain Management, separate apps that Microsoft groups as finance and operations apps
Integration route into the ERP	A Connect app over the standard REST API, or an app installed from Microsoft Marketplace	Data management and recurring integrations, OData, and business events
Documents that matter	Sales and purchase orders, invoices, returns	Orders, inbound despatch advices (ASNs), invoices
What the ERP leaves to you	Trading-partner onboarding, standards mapping, partner rule changes, monitoring	The same, plus the warehouse set-up an inbound despatch advice depends on
What Transalis manages	The connection to your retailers and suppliers, format translation, partner testing, real-time visibility in Transalis DataTrack™	The same partner-side service; the route into the ERP is agreed when the connection is scoped

Which Dynamics 365 are you integrating?

The name Dynamics 365 covers several products, and EDI behaves differently in each. Two matter for most EDI projects.

Business Central

Microsoft describes Business Central as a business management solution for small and mid-sized organisations. Its integration surface is built around standard APIs: a Connect app creates a point-to-point connection between Business Central and a partner service, usually over a REST API, and Microsoft directs production use to Microsoft Entra ID authentication. Every resource sits inside a company, so each call names the company it belongs to.

The pages Microsoft publishes on Business Central integration do not describe a built-in trading-partner network. The nearest first-party feature is the Data Exchange Framework, whose documented examples are Peppol invoices and bank files. Retailer orders, despatch advices and the rest of your EDI traffic come from a partner, either as an installed app or as a managed connection.

If you are on an older Dynamics NAV estate, the Microsoft Dynamics NAV integration profile shows what Transalis connects for it today.

Finance and Supply Chain Management

Finance and Supply Chain Management are separate Dynamics 365 apps, which Microsoft groups as finance and operations apps. Microsoft's documentation, checked in October 2026, lists several integration patterns: OData and custom services for synchronous calls, and batch data APIs, including recurring integrations and the data management package REST API, for asynchronous, high-volume work. Business events let outside systems receive notifications through Power Automate, Service Bus or Event Grid.

Document flows are well defined here. Microsoft documents an inbound despatch advice import that queues each message, processes it asynchronously and can wait for the source order to arrive first. It applies to items enabled for warehouse management processes, and the purchase or inbound shipment order must be registered before the despatch advice can be processed. Those are customer-side conditions that no EDI connection can waive.

How does a managed EDI connection work with Dynamics 365?

You make one connection from the ERP to the Transalis Trading Network. Transalis offers API connectivity, with JSON, UBL or XML message examples supplied, as one connection option. The route into your ERP is agreed when the connection is scoped, and Transalis handles everything on the partner side of that line.

The flows are the ones your retailers and suppliers care about:

Orders in. A customer's purchase order arrives in its own format and reaches the ERP as a sales order in the structure the ERP expects.
Despatch advices out. When goods ship, the advance shipping notice goes back to the customer in the format that customer requires.
Invoices out. Your invoice leaves in the right format for each recipient. Transalis is a certified Peppol Access Point.

The same connection reaches the 15,000+ organisations already on the network, so adding a trading partner is an onboarding task, not a new integration project. Transalis DataTrack™ watches every message in real time, so you can see where an order or despatch advice is. The Transalis Integrations Network lists the business systems Transalis connects, and Transalis OpenEDI™ is the managed EDI service behind it. The integrations page lists a Microsoft Dynamics connector. For a Dynamics example, the QVS Global case study shows how the DataCapture managed service brought orders that customers sent as PDF, Excel or typed emails into the manufacturer's Microsoft Dynamics ERP.

What do the native and marketplace routes leave to you?

Microsoft gives you the plumbing: APIs, data management, events, and a marketplace where partners publish apps. What the plumbing does not do is run your trading relationships.

Three jobs stay with your team under a build-it-yourself or app-only route:

Partner rule changes. Retailers revise validation rules, and each change needs a mapping update, a test and a deployment.
Onboarding. Every new trading partner means another specification to read, map and test.
Monitoring at peak. Someone has to notice a failed message before a truck is turned away.

A UK poultry supplier built EDI inside its own ERP to save budget. A retailer rule change broke it at peak trading, and the supplier lost £35,000+ in two weeks from failed orders and chargebacks. The in-house ERP case is covered in why native EDI in your ERP quietly fails.

How long does it take to go live?

There is no fixed figure. The date depends on which Dynamics 365 product you run, how ready the ERP side is, how many trading partners you start with and how much testing each one needs.

The steps, in order:

Confirm the Dynamics 365 product and route. Business Central and Finance and Supply Chain Management need different connections, so settle this first.
Agree the documents and partners. Start with orders, despatch advices and invoices for your most important trading partners.
Connect the ERP. One connection to the Transalis Trading Network, with the mapping done for you.
Test with the first partner. Run real documents end to end before anything goes live.
Go live, then add partners. Use the first partner as the template for the rest.

What should you check before choosing an EDI route?

Does it support the standards your partners use, such as EDIFACT, X12, XML, CSV and JSON?
Who maps each partner, and who maintains the mapping when a retailer changes its rules?
Who watches the flows, and how quickly will you know that a message has failed?
Is the pricing predictable, or does it grow with your success?
Does the provider cover eInvoicing and Peppol as well as EDI, so a mandate does not mean a second project?

Ready to connect Dynamics 365?

Bring your Dynamics 365 set-up and your trading-partner list. Book a meeting with the Transalis team to find the route that fits, or see the Transalis Integrations Network to map your network.

Frequently asked questions

Is EDI built into Dynamics 365?: Microsoft's documentation for Business Central describes APIs, Connect apps and a Data Exchange Framework with Peppol and bank file examples, but not a built-in trading-partner network. Business Central online can install partner apps from Microsoft Marketplace. For Finance and Supply Chain Management, Microsoft documents data management, recurring integrations and business events as the routes.
What is the difference between Business Central and Finance and Supply Chain Management for EDI?: Business Central is aimed at small and mid-sized organisations and connects mainly through a standard REST API. Finance and Supply Chain Management are separate apps with data management and recurring integrations, and Supply Chain Management adds an inbound despatch advice import. The EDI connection starts from whichever route your system uses, so settle that first.
Which documents can be exchanged?: Orders, order responses, despatch advices (ASNs) and invoices are the core set for most retailers and suppliers. Transalis offers API connectivity, with JSON, UBL or XML examples supplied, and agrees the route into your ERP when the connection is scoped. It translates each trading partner's format on its side, so your ERP sees one structure whoever the partner is.
Can we build EDI inside Dynamics 365 ourselves?: You can, and some teams do. The cost shows up later, in partner rule changes, onboarding and monitoring. A UK poultry supplier built EDI inside its own ERP to save budget, and lost £35,000+ in two weeks when a retailer rule change broke it at peak trading.
How long does a Dynamics 365 EDI integration take?: There is no fixed figure. The timeline depends on which Dynamics 365 product you run, how ready the ERP side is, how many trading partners you start with and how much testing each partner needs. Starting with your most important partners and documents keeps the first go-live focused.
Do we need EDI expertise in-house?: No. With a managed service, Transalis handles the standards, formats, mapping and partner onboarding, and watches the flows for failed messages. Your team keeps working in Dynamics 365 and deals with orders, despatches and invoices as normal, without learning EDIFACT or maintaining partner maps.
Does this also cover eInvoicing and Peppol?: Yes. Transalis is a certified Peppol Access Point, and describes itself as a managed outcomes provider for B2B integration, EDI and eInvoicing. A new eInvoicing requirement from a customer then does not have to mean a second provider or a second project. How invoices leave your Dynamics 365 is agreed when the connection is scoped.

Want this working in your business?

We will look at how you trade today, and show you what moving to Transalis involves, while your business keeps trading.