eMessaging for Warehouse

Centara eMessaging for Warehouse extends the core eMessaging platform to support warehouse and logistics document exchange. It allows you to send PEPPOL-compliant electronic documents directly from Business Central warehouse workflows — no manual export, no separate systems.

What it does

When you ship goods from your warehouse, the extension automatically generates and transmits a PEPPOL BIS 3.0 Despatch Advice (document type 351) to your trading partner. This tells the recipient exactly what was shipped, when, and how — before the goods arrive.

For inter-company logistics, it also handles Transfer Orders as PEPPOL Orders, enabling electronic document exchange between your own locations or with 3PL providers.

Supported documents

Source document	PEPPOL output	Use case
Warehouse Shipment	Despatch Advice (type 351)	Notify customer that goods have shipped
Posted Sales Shipment	Despatch Advice (type 351)	Send ASN after shipment is posted
Transfer Order	PEPPOL Order	Inter-location or 3PL transfers
Warehouse Receipt	Despatch Advice (type 351)	Confirm receipt to supplier — vendor acts as supplier, receiving location as delivery customer

Why it matters

Without electronic despatch advice, your customers don’t know what’s coming until the goods arrive. This causes:

• Receiving delays — warehouse staff can’t prepare for incoming shipments
• Matching problems — purchase orders can’t be matched until goods are physically checked
• Manual data entry — shipment details re-keyed from packing slips

With eMessaging for Warehouse, the despatch advice arrives electronically before the truck does. Your customer’s Business Central (or any PEPPOL-connected system) can automatically match it against their purchase order and prepare the receiving process.

How it integrates

The module plugs into Business Central’s native E-Document framework — the same framework used by eMessaging for invoices and credit memos. Warehouse e-documents appear alongside other e-documents in the standard E-Document list, use the same status tracking, and route through the same CentaraIQ platform.

No separate configuration is needed beyond the core eMessaging setup. If you can send invoices, you can send despatch advice.

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Document flows

Sales Order → Warehouse Shipment → Despatch Advice

The primary flow for notifying customers about outgoing shipments:

1. A Sales Order is created and released in Business Central
2. A Warehouse Shipment is created from the sales order
3. The warehouse picks, packs, and posts the shipment
4. eMessaging generates a PEPPOL Despatch Advice containing shipped items, quantities, lot/serial numbers, and package details
5. The document is transmitted to the customer via the PEPPOL network through CentaraIQ

Transfer Order → PEPPOL Order

For inter-location transfers or communication with 3PL providers:

1. A Transfer Order is created between two locations
2. The user sends the transfer order from the Transfer Order page
3. eMessaging converts it to a PEPPOL Order and transmits it to the receiving location’s PEPPOL endpoint
4. The receiving location can process the order electronically

Posted Sales Shipment → Despatch Advice

For situations where the despatch advice needs to be sent after the shipment is already posted:

1. Open the Posted Sales Shipment
2. Use the Send Despatch Advice action
3. eMessaging generates and transmits the PEPPOL Despatch Advice

This is useful for:

• Resending a despatch advice that failed on the first attempt
• Sending to customers who were added to PEPPOL after the original shipment
• Retroactively notifying customers about recent shipments

Warehouse Receipt → Despatch Advice

This flow allows you to confirm receipt of goods to your supplier electronically. The vendor acts as the supplier and the receiving location acts as the delivery customer, supporting complex logistics workflows where receipt confirmation needs to flow back to the vendor.

1. Goods arrive and are received via Warehouse Receipt
2. eMessaging generates a Despatch Advice with the vendor as the supplier party and the receiving location as the customer party
3. The supplier receives electronic confirmation of delivery

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Sending a warehouse shipment

Step by step

1. Open the Warehouse Shipment page in Business Central
2. Verify the shipment details — items, quantities, lot/serial numbers
3. Post the warehouse shipment
4. eMessaging automatically creates an E-Document record and generates the PEPPOL XML
5. The document is queued for transmission to the customer via CentaraIQ

Note: If automatic sending is enabled (the default), steps 4–5 happen without user intervention. The despatch advice is sent as soon as the shipment is posted.

What happens behind the scenes

1. An E-Document record is created and linked to the Warehouse Shipment
2. The shipment data is serialized into PEPPOL BIS 3.0 Despatch Advice XML (document type 351)
3. The XML is validated against PEPPOL schematron rules
4. The document is submitted to CentaraIQ for transmission
5. CentaraIQ delivers the document to the recipient’s PEPPOL Access Point
6. A delivery confirmation (or error) is returned and recorded on the E-Document

Shipment status

A Status field on the Warehouse Shipment Header tracks the document lifecycle:

Status	Meaning
(blank)	No e-document has been created for this shipment
New	E-document created, not yet processed
Waiting to be sent	XML generated, queued for transmission
Sent	Transmitted to CentaraIQ, awaiting delivery confirmation
Delivered	Confirmed delivered to the recipient’s Access Point
Failed	Transmission or validation failed — see error details

Finding the tracking identifier

After a document is sent, the CentaraIQ Tracking ID is stored on the Warehouse Shipment Header. You can use this identifier to:

• Track delivery status in the CentaraIQ portal
• Reference the document in support requests
• Correlate with the recipient’s incoming document

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Sending a transfer order

1. Open the Transfer Order in Business Central
2. Use the Send via eMessaging action
3. The transfer order is converted to a PEPPOL Order and transmitted
4. The receiving location (or 3PL provider) receives the order electronically

The status tracking works identically to warehouse shipments — check the Status field on the Transfer Order header.

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Sending a posted sales shipment

1. Open the Posted Sales Shipment in Business Central
2. Choose the Send Despatch Advice action
3. eMessaging generates the PEPPOL Despatch Advice and queues it for transmission
4. Monitor the Status field for delivery confirmation

This action is available on any posted sales shipment, regardless of when it was originally posted.

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Status tracking

All warehouse e-documents follow the same lifecycle:

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> New : Document created
    New --> WaitingToBeSent : XML generated
    WaitingToBeSent --> Sent : Transmitted to CentaraIQ
    Sent --> Delivered : Recipient confirmed
    Sent --> Failed : Transmission error
    Failed --> WaitingToBeSent : Retry / Resend

    state "New" as New
    state "Waiting to be sent" as WaitingToBeSent
    state "Sent" as Sent
    state "Delivered ✓" as Delivered
    state "Failed ✗" as Failed

Where to check status

Where	What you see
On the document	The Status field on the Warehouse Shipment, Transfer Order, or Posted Sales Shipment header
E-Document list	All warehouse e-documents alongside invoices and credit memos — search for “E-Documents” in BC
CentaraIQ portal	Detailed delivery status using the CentaraIQ Tracking ID from the document header

When a document fails

If a document shows Failed status:

1. Open the E-Document record linked to the shipment
2. Check the Error Message field for the specific failure reason
3. Common causes:
   • Missing PEPPOL endpoint for the customer
   • Validation error in the XML (e.g., missing required field)
   • CentaraIQ connectivity issue (transient)
4. Fix the underlying issue
5. Use the Resend action to retry transmission

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Troubleshooting

Common issues

Issue	Cause	Resolution
Document not sent after posting	Automatic sending disabled, or customer has no PEPPOL endpoint configured	Check Document Sending Profile for the customer; verify PEPPOL endpoint in customer card
Status stuck at “Waiting to be sent”	Job queue not running, or CentaraIQ connectivity issue	Verify the Centara Send job queue entry is active and set to Ready
XML generation error	Missing required data on the shipment (e.g., no item cross-reference, missing UoM code)	Check the E-Document error log; ensure items have valid PEPPOL codes
Delivered but customer didn’t receive	Recipient’s Access Point accepted but their system hasn’t processed	Confirm with the CentaraIQ tracking ID; contact recipient
Transfer Order send action not visible	eMessaging for Warehouse extension not installed or not enabled	Verify the extension is installed in Extension Management

Telemetry events

When Application Insights is configured, the warehouse extension emits telemetry events with codes CTAWHSE00001 through CTAWHSE00015. These help administrators monitor document processing and diagnose issues:

Code	What it means
CTAWHSE00001	Warehouse Shipment header lookup
CTAWHSE00002	Shipment has no lines to send
CTAWHSE00003	Customer PEPPOL endpoint not configured
CTAWHSE00004	XML generation — missing required field
CTAWHSE00005	CentaraIQ submission — authentication
CTAWHSE00006	CentaraIQ submission — network (transient)
CTAWHSE00007	PEPPOL schematron validation
CTAWHSE00008	Transfer Order conversion
CTAWHSE00009	Posted Sales Shipment lookup
CTAWHSE00010	Duplicate document detected
CTAWHSE00011–15	Reserved for future use

These are telemetry log entries for monitoring — not user-facing error messages. For persistent issues, contact Centara support with the CentaraIQ Tracking ID.