Business Central Add-in for Outlook

Install and use the Outlook add-in to view and create Business Central records.

The Business Central add-in for Outlook lets you view and interact with your business information directly from Outlook. It consists of two elements:

Contact insights

This provides users with Business Central customer or vendor information in Outlook emails and calendar appointments. It also enables you to create and send Business Central business documents, such as sales quotes and invoices, to a contact.

Document view

When an email refers to a business document number in the email body, this add-in provides a direct, in-line link from the email body to the actual business document in Business Central.

For more information about the add-in's features, see Use Business Central as your Business Inbox in Outlook.

For more information about deploying the add-in, see Get the Business Central Add-in for Outlook.

Prerequisites

Business Central SaaS environment.

Access to your M365 Admin centre.

Setup

The add-in can be set up in three different modes:

• SaaS Centralised deployment
• SaaS Own use deployment
• On-Premise deployment

Details for all deployments can be found below. This article summarises the most popular mode, SaaS Centralised deployment.

Microsoft: Get the Business Central Add-in for Outlook

SaaS Centralised deployment setup

Before you start, make sure you have access to your company's Microsoft admin centre, as you will need to log on as part of the installation setup guide.

1

Open Assisted Setup

Open your live Business Central company and search for the Assisted Setup page.

2

Start the Outlook add-in setup guide

Once open, find the Outlook Add-in Centralised Deployment record, double-click the title. Continue even if it says the setup guide has previously been run.

3

Complete Requirements and Privacy

Follow the setup guide pages, clicking Next through Requirements and Privacy pages.

4

Download with Deploy enabled

When you get to the Download page, make sure Deploy is ticked on both lines. Click Download & Continue.

5

Confirm the zip file download

This will download a file to your device, OutlookAddins.zip.

6

Open Microsoft 365 admin centre

On the Now Configure Microsoft 365 page, click Go to Microsoft 365 admin centre. You will now need to log on with Admin Credentials.

7

Extract the manifest files

Go to the folder where the OutlookAddins.zip was downloaded, and extract the Contact Insights.xml and Document View.xml files from the .zip to a folder of your choice.

8

Open Integrated Apps

From the Microsoft 365 admin centre, go to Integrated Apps. Choose Upload custom apps.

9

Upload the first manifest and deploy it

On the Upload Apps to deploy page, choose Upload manifest file (.xml) from device > Choose file. Select one of the add-in files you extracted earlier, for example, Contact Insights.xml. Follow the instructions to assign users and deploy the add-in.

10

Upload the second manifest

Repeat the previous step for the other add-in file.

It can take up to 24 hours before users see the add-in in the Outlook app. Users might have to restart Outlook as well.