Your First Document

This guide walks you through both receiving an incoming PEPPOL invoice and sending an outbound sales invoice to confirm that eMessaging is correctly configured end to end.

Part 1: Receive a PEPPOL invoice

This is the most common scenario — your supplier sends you an electronic invoice, and eMessaging turns it into a Purchase Invoice in your Business Central.

Step 1: Trigger the receive

1. Search for Centara Document Inbox in Business Central.
2. Select Receive Documents from the action bar.
3. eMessaging contacts the CentaraIQ API and downloads any waiting documents.

If your supplier has already sent you a test document, it should appear in the inbox with status New.

Step 2: Review the incoming document

1. Open the document from the inbox by selecting its line.
2. Review the Header section: vendor name, invoice number, dates, currency, total amount.
3. Review the Lines section: individual line items with descriptions, quantities, unit prices, and VAT.
4. Check the Original Document tab to see the raw PEPPOL XML.

Step 3: Process the document

1. Select Process from the action bar.
2. eMessaging runs the processing pipeline:
   • Validates the document structure and required fields
   • Identifies the vendor by VAT number and maps to your BC vendor card
   • Matches to a Purchase Order if an order reference is present
   • Applies Vendor Posting Setup rules to code each line to the correct G/L account and dimensions
   • Creates a Purchase Invoice in Business Central
3. The document status changes to Matched (if a PO was found) or Review (if no PO match).

Step 4: Approve (if required)

If approvals are enabled in your setup:

1. The document status changes to Pending Approval.
2. The assigned approver receives a notification.
3. The approver reviews and selects Approve.
4. The status changes to Approved.

See Approving Documents for the full approval workflow.

Step 5: Post

1. Select Post (or the document posts automatically if auto-post is configured).
2. Business Central creates the Posted Purchase Invoice.
3. The document status changes to Posted.
4. The original electronic document is linked to the posted invoice for audit trail.

You can find the posted invoice in Posted Purchase Invoices with a link back to the original electronic document.

Part 2: Send a sales invoice

This confirms that your outbound delivery chain works correctly — from posting in BC to PEPPOL delivery via CentaraIQ.

Step 1: Configure the customer

1. Open the Customer Card for your test customer.
2. Verify the VAT Registration No. is filled in and registered on PEPPOL.
3. In the Document Sending Profile field, select a profile that uses eMessaging (or the default electronic profile created by the setup wizard).

Step 2: Create and post the invoice

1. Create a new Sales Invoice in Business Central.
2. Select your test customer.
3. Add one or more invoice lines as you normally would.
4. Select Post to post the invoice.

Step 3: Send the electronic document

If Auto-Send on Post is enabled, the document is sent automatically via the Send job queue. Otherwise:

1. Open the Posted Sales Invoice.
2. Select Send Electronic Document from the action bar.
3. eMessaging converts the invoice to PEPPOL BIS 3.0 XML.
4. The document is transmitted to the customer’s PEPPOL Access Point via CentaraIQ.

Step 4: Verify delivery

1. On the Posted Sales Invoice, check the Electronic Document Status field.
2. A status of Sent confirms successful delivery to the recipient’s access point.
3. Select Electronic Document Log to see the full transmission history, including timestamps and document identifiers.

Part 3: Send a purchase order

To test the outbound purchase order flow:

1. Create a new Purchase Order in Business Central.
2. Verify the vendor’s VAT number is registered on PEPPOL.
3. Add order lines and Release the purchase order.
4. If auto-send on release is configured, the order is sent automatically. Otherwise, select Send Electronic Document.
5. The purchase order is delivered as PEPPOL BIS 3.0 to your supplier’s access point.

Verify your setup checklist

After your first successful send and receive, confirm the following:

• Inbound documents appear in the Document Inbox with correct vendor identification
• Vendor Posting Setup rules correctly map lines to G/L accounts
• Outbound documents are delivered successfully (status Sent)
• VAT numbers and company details are correct on sent documents
• Job queues are running and processing on schedule (see Automation)
• Approval workflow routes to the correct approver (if enabled)
• Document attachments are stored externally (if Attachments module is configured)

Troubleshooting first-document issues

Problem	Likely cause	Resolution
Receive returns no documents	No documents waiting, or certificate issue	Verify your certificate is valid; confirm your supplier has sent a document to your PEPPOL endpoint
Document appears but vendor is unknown	Vendor’s VAT number not on a vendor card	Create a vendor card with the matching VAT number, or enable Create Vendor if Missing in General Setup
Processing fails with G/L error	No Vendor Posting Setup for this vendor	Set up posting rules in Posting Setup
Send fails with “Recipient not found”	Customer’s VAT number not registered on PEPPOL	Verify the VAT number format and confirm the customer is a PEPPOL participant
Send fails with certificate error	Certificate expired or not uploaded	Check certificate status in General Setup

For more help, see FAQ & Common Errors.