Synchronize customers

Tinx Connector helps you manage customer information between your webshop and Business Central, ensuring webshop orders are processed correctly. When a customer places an order online, the connector must determine whether the customer already exists in Business Central, whether to create a new customer card, or to assign the order to a generic guest customer. Alternatively, you can publish customer records from Business Central to the webshop so customers can use their online accounts with the correct details.

The main customer synchronization scenarios include importing customers from the webshop, matching webshop customers to existing Business Central customers, handling guest checkout, and publishing customers from Business Central to the webshop.

Enable customer synchronization

The procedures in this article require that the appropriate synchronization dashboard and message definitions are running. Activate them depending on what you are going to achieve.

The following tables show the synchronization dashboard and message definition for some of the webshops. The codes for other supported webshops follow the same pattern.

When you import new customers who placed orders in the webshop, you must enable both IN-ORDERS and IN-CUSTOMERS synchronization dashboards to have new webshop customers automatically created as BC Customer cards. IN-ORDERS is the dashboard that imports the order to the Webshop Orders page, and the order contains the customer details, but never creates a customer card.

When using Shopify, see the following information.

For Shopify: Two synchronization dashboards for importing customers

• GQL_IN_CUSTOMERS: with the GQL-000 message definition, which imports customers as part of the order process. Tinx Connector downloads new customers from the webshop only when a customer places an order. This is the default approach used by most businesses.
• GQL_IN_OTHER: with the GQL-186 message definition, which downloads all customers from your Shopify store regardless of whether they placed orders.

Importing customers from your webshop to Business Central

When a customer places an order in a webshop, the connector first adds the customer’s information to the Webshop Customers page. At this stage, the imported record is raw data that doesn’t yet exist as a customer in Business Central. Before the new customer card is created, Tinx Connector verifies whether the customer already exists in Business Central based on the matching criteria you set up. If the matching customer is found, the order is linked to that existing customer. For more information, see Customer and item matching.

If there is no matching customer in Business Central, Tinx Connector checks whether the record meets the acceptance criteria you configure during implementation. The criteria can include whether the customer provided an email address, a phone number, or a shipping address. The required combination depends on your setup. The connector runs these checks automatically in the background. After all criteria are met, Tinx Connector creates the new customer card in Business Central and marks the customer record as processed. This staged processing approach, holding records until all criteria are met, works the same way as the webshop order import. For more information, see Webshop order processing status.

To review the imported customers, select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Webshop Customers, and then choose the related link.

When the customer card is created in Business Central, it is automatically linked to the webshop account. The Publish to Webshop toggle is turned on, and the Webshop Customer ID field is filled with the number the webshop uses for that customer.

To set up customer import

Customers can be imported from the webshop when they place orders, but you can also import them in bulk before any orders are placed. Before importing webshop customers, check or update the customer import settings. Check these settings when you are linking an existing webshop to Business Central or when you start importing customers through webshop orders.

The following steps describe the setup on the E-commerce Setup page. However, for some scenarios, the Sales Channel Card page is the appropriate method to set up the customer import. For more information, see E-commerce Setup and Sales Channel: Where to set up the webshop.

1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter E-Commerce Integration Setup, and then choose the related link.

   If you don’t find E-Commerce Integration Setup in Search, sign in to Business Central with the TINX E-Com Admin role. On the Role Center, select Setup, and then choose E-Commerce Integration Setup.

2. On the E-commerce Setup page, on the Customers FastTab, fill in the fields in the Match New Web Customers with BC customers section. The following table describes some of the key fields in this section.

   Field	Description
   Check E-mail New Customers	Specifies whether newly imported webshop customers are matched with existing Business Central customers based on email. Turn this toggle on to enable email-based matching. For more information, see Customer matching.
   Priority E-mail Check	Specifies where the system looks for an existing customer match based on email. - Select Customer to search in the Customer table 18. - Select Contact to search in the Contact table 5050. - Select Both to search in both tables. - Select Member to search in the LS Retail member list (table 50006). - Select Member + Customer to search in both the member list and the customer list.
   Match New Customer	Specifies how the system identifies matches for new customers. - Select E-mail to match on email address. - Select E-mail and Global Dimension to match on both email and Global Dimension. - Select Custom Field to match on any field in the Customer table 18. For more information, see Customer matching.
   Field No. Customer (18)	Specifies the field in the Customer table 18 to use when you select the Custom Field option in the Match New Customer field.
   Field No. TINX Customer	Specifies which field in the TINX Customer table stores the value used for matching on the Custom Field.
   No. of Address Checks	Specifies how many times a new webshop customer without an address can be imported. The system then checks again whether new addresses have been added.

3. Fill in the Apply Customer Template fields only for Business Central versions earlier than version 21. For version 21 and later, these settings are available on the Customer Templates FastTab on the E-commerce Setup page.

Assigning customer templates

You can define customer templates by country/region or by state/province. Configure these templates on the Extended Customer Template List page. Tinx Connector applies these templates when creating new customers during the import process. For more information, see Customer Templates.

Blocked customers

If a customer is blocked on the Customer Card page in Business Central, the blocked status is automatically applied to the Webshop Orders page.
As a result, the webshop order is not created in Business Central until the customer is unblocked. Blocked customers are a common reason for issues with the webshop order import.

Guest customers

When a customer places an order as a guest, without creating an account, Tinx Connector can assign all such orders to a dedicated guest customer card in Business Central. This means guest order data is stored in Business Central under a single shared customer record.

If you choose to assign a dedicated guest customer card, verify that this approach complies with the data protection regulations that apply to your country.

To enable order import for guest customers

If your webshop allows customers to place orders as guests without creating an account, you can assign a specific customer number to these orders.

1. Create a customer card in Business Central. For more information, see To create a new customer card.

2. On the Customer Card page, set up the webshop guest customer.

   • Enter the Name, such as Webshop Guest Customer, to distinguish this specific customer card.
   • Set up posting groups (financial details) for the guest customer.
   • You can leave all the remaining fields blank, or you can populate them as needed.
   • Don’t publish the guest customer to your webshop.

3. After creating the guest customer card, select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter E-Commerce Integration Setup, and then choose the related link.

   If you don’t find E-Commerce Integration Setup in Search, sign in to Business Central with the TINX E-Com Admin role. On the Role Center, select Setup, and then choose E-Commerce Integration Setup.

4. On the E-commerce Setup page, select your webshop guest customer in the Webshop Guest Customer No. field on the Orders FastTab.

   With this setup, when a customer orders as a guest, the order is assigned to the guest customer card you created. The Webshop Customer ID field on the Webshop Orders page is blank or contains the value 0 for orders placed by guest customers.

When using Shopify, see the following information.

For Shopify: Guest customer number setup

If you use default mapping for Shopify, set up the guest customer number on the Sales Channel Card page, not on the E-commerce Setup page.

To apply a guest customer number to all webshop orders

If you don’t need any information about your webshop customers in Business Central, you can apply a guest customer number to all webshop orders. The following process describes how to set up the message definition for the orders imported from Shopify.

1. Follow the steps to enable guest customers. For more information, see Importing customers from your webshop to Business Central.

2. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Synchronisation Dashboard List, and then choose the related link.

3. On the Synchronisation Dashboard List page, select the dashboard that is related to importing orders, and then choose the Edit action. For more information, see Enable webshop orders import.

4. On the Synchronisation Dashboard page, on the Lines FastTab, select the message definition that is related to creating sales orders in Business Central, and then choose the Message Definition action.

5. On the Message Definition page, on the Lines FastTab, select the Sales Header line, and then choose the Fields action.

6. On the Message Line Field page, select the line with the Field Name set to Sell-to Customer No., and then select the Ignore Field checkbox to deactivate the default mapping for the customer number.

   Selecting Ignore Field preserves the original mapping so you can reactivate it later. Choose Delete only if you are certain you will always use a fixed guest customer number and will never restore per-customer mapping.

7. To insert a new mapping line above the ignored line, on the Message Line Field page, choose the New action.

8. To create a new mapping for the Sell-to Customer No. field, in the Field field, enter 2.

9. Select the Validate Field checkbox.

10. In the Default Value field, enter the customer number you set up for guest customers.

    The following screenshot shows an example of the new mapping for the Sell-to Customer No. field for Shopify, where the guest customer number is C00010.

    

11. Return to the Synchronisation Dashboard page, select the same message definition, and then choose the Filters action.

12. On the Inbound Line Filter page, select the Ignore Filter checkbox for the Default Customer No. field. For Shopify, ignore the Customer No. Sales Channel filter.

You can also create a separate guest customer card for each country with different posting groups. Name each card clearly, for example, Webshop Guest Customer Netherlands or Webshop Guest Customer Austria. Then, in the mapping of the appropriate message definition, use a conversion template to apply the correct webshop guest customer number based on the country. For more information, see Conversion tables.

Publishing customers from Business Central to your webshop

Synchronization can also work in the other direction. Updated customer details can also be pushed back to the webshop, keeping the online account current.

You can export existing customers from Business Central to the webshop in bulk. This creates a customer record and one default billing address. Some webshops also support exporting multiple shipping addresses.

The required fields vary by webshop platform. Find the general requirements in the following list, but also check the specific requirements for your webshop platform.

• A Country/Region Code must be specified on the customer card. If this field is blank, the country/region on the Company Information page must have an ISO Code defined.

• The phone number must be in E.164 format. Accepted formats include: - xxxxxxxxxx - +xxxxxxxxxxx - (xxx)xxx-xxxx - +x xxx-xxx-xxxx For more information, see customerCreate: phone.

After identifying all required fields, enable data validation to check that all mandatory fields are filled in before the export runs. For more information, see Data Validation.

After publishing customers to Shopify, you can send them account activation invitations.

To publish the customer to the webshop

If a customer account was created in Business Central, for example, after a purchase in a physical store, you can publish it to the webshop. This lets the customer access their account online.

1. Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Customers, and then choose the related link.

2. Open the customer card you want to publish.

3. On the Customer Card page, on the TINX - E-Commerce Connector FastTab, turn on the Publish to Webshop toggle.

   You can also force customer synchronization. On the Customer Card page, on the action bar, in the E-Commerce group, choose the Synchronize action.

   

   Publishing a customer to the webshop does not automatically make their offline purchase history visible in the webshop. Making offline purchases available online requires additional setup.

Related information

Customer and item matching
Customer templates
Synchronize orders
E-commerce Setup and Sales Channel: Where to set up the webshop
Automate order processing after import
Synchronization dashboards
Key concepts in Tinx Connector
Troubleshooting checklist