Comprehensive Business Central extension for electronic document exchange — PEPPOL, EDI, AI extraction, approval workflows.
What is eMessaging
Centara eMessaging is a comprehensive Business Central extension (BC 27.x, Cloud) that automates electronic document exchange across your entire accounts payable and accounts receivable workflow. Built on Microsoft’s E-Document Framework and the PEPPOL BIS 3.0 standard, eMessaging connects your Business Central environment to the PEPPOL network, EDI partners, and email/PDF sources — without requiring any external software or middleware.
Published by Centara (current version 1.21.0.0), eMessaging delivers end-to-end document automation: from multi-engine AI extraction of incoming invoices to fully automated outbound PEPPOL delivery through Centara’s own CentaraIQ Access Point.
Five core modules
eMessaging is organized into five integrated modules that work together seamlessly:
| Module | Purpose | Key capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| eDocuments | Core document processing | Inbound PEPPOL parsing, vendor routing via Vendor Posting Setup, PO comparison, auto-posting, outbound XML generation |
| Approvals | Multi-level approval workflows | Line-level approval (each line routes to a different approver), four-eyes principle, user groups, mobile/portal approval |
| Attachments | External document storage | Uploads BC document attachments to CentaraIQ API (Base64, GUID); BC stores only metadata. Result: 50-80% database size reduction |
| Accounting | Outbound data synchronization | Chart of Accounts sync, Inventory sync, message/receiver generation for PEPPOL participants |
| Common | Integration hub | 70+ page extensions, event subscribers, notifications, REST API, setup wizard |
What you can receive (inbound)
eMessaging accepts documents from virtually any source your suppliers use:
| Source | Format | Details |
|---|---|---|
| PEPPOL network | PEPPOL BIS 3.0 | Invoices and credit memos — the primary standard |
| EDI networks | X12, EDIFACT, BASDA, X400, SFTP | Traditional B2B document exchange |
| API / integration | XML, JSON | Custom structured formats via REST API |
| Email / portal | AI/OCR extraction from emailed or uploaded invoices | |
| Scanning | Paper documents | Scanned documents processed through the AI/OCR pipeline |
What you can send (outbound)
All outbound documents are generated as PEPPOL BIS 3.0 XML and delivered through the CentaraIQ:
- Sales Invoices — auto-sent on post
- Sales Credit Memos — auto-sent on post
- Purchase Orders — auto-sent on release
- Despatch Advice — auto-sent on warehouse shipment
AI-powered processing pipeline
Incoming documents pass through a multi-engine AI extraction pipeline that maximizes accuracy and minimizes manual intervention:
- Azure Document Intelligence — primary OCR and field extraction
- Mistral Medium — secondary extraction for validation
- Claude Opus 4.6 — intelligent field mapping and interpretation
- Azure Document Intelligence — flags unusual patterns, duplicate invoices, and potential errors
This multi-engine approach delivers significantly higher accuracy than single-engine solutions, particularly for non-standard invoice layouts and multi-language documents.
How it works
eMessaging integrates directly into Business Central’s posting and document workflows. When a supplier sends you an electronic invoice, it arrives in your Document Inbox, gets validated, matched to a purchase order, coded to the correct G/L accounts via the Vendor Posting Setup engine, routed through approval workflows, and posted — with as much automation as you choose.
When you post a sales invoice, eMessaging converts it to PEPPOL BIS 3.0 and delivers it to your customer’s access point through CentaraIQ. Purchase orders are sent automatically on release, and despatch advice is generated automatically from warehouse shipments.
CentaraIQ
Centara owns and operates CentaraIQ, a complete PEPPOL Access Point and SMP (Service Metadata Publisher). All document routing, transmission, and storage flows through CentaraIQ:
- No third-party access point dependency — Centara controls the entire delivery chain
- TLS 1.3 / AES-256 encryption — all data in transit and at rest
- European-hosted dedicated infrastructure — protected by Cloudflare edge security
- GDPR compliant — full data sovereignty and processing controls
- External attachment storage — offloads document attachments from your BC database
Installation
eMessaging is installed from Microsoft AppSource and runs entirely within Business Central Online. There is nothing to install on-premises.
To get started, see the Installation guide.
Key concepts
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Document Inbox | Where incoming electronic documents land before processing |
| Vendor Posting Setup | The smart routing engine that maps vendor + item + cost centre to G/L accounts and dimensions |
| Approval Groups | Groups of users who can approve documents, with delegation and line-level routing |
| Job Queues | Background processes that automatically send, receive, and process documents |
| Document Sending Profile | Controls how outgoing documents are formatted and delivered per customer |
| CentaraIQ | Centara’s PEPPOL Access Point and document delivery platform |
For a complete glossary, see Key Concepts & Glossary.