Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Basware integration

What moves between them

The main flow runs from NAV into Basware. ml-connector polls NAV for new purchase orders and invoices on a weekly or bi-weekly cycle (configurable), transforms them to Basware requisitions and accounting documents, and posts them for 2-way matching against received goods and supplier invoices. As Basware moves invoices through approval to payment, ml-connector reads the approved document status and payment confirmations back into NAV so your accounts payable ledger stays synchronized. Reference data such as vendors, GL accounts, and dimensions flow in both directions so invoices land on the correct NAV cost codes and suppliers.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector stores NAV OAuth2 and Basware credentials encrypted and refreshes both bearer tokens before expiry to prevent call failures. On the NAV side, it accepts your tenant ID and company ID for Business Central online or your on-premises server instance URL, and validates OData paths against that deployment. It prefers NAV webhooks where available (vendors, dimensions, invoices) to detect changes faster, but falls back to polling for purchase orders since they are not in NAV's webhook list. On the Basware side it detects your regional deployment from provisioning notes and routes all calls to the matching base URL (EU, US, AU, or CA). Basware webhook signatures are validated with HMAC-SHA256 against the X-BWAPI-Signature-256 header. Every outbound purchase order and invoice carries a deduplication key so retries do not create phantom records, and every record carries a full audit trail for compliance and troubleshooting.

A real-world example

A mid-sized industrial supplies distributor runs Microsoft Dynamics NAV on-premises for purchasing, inventory, and finance. They use Basware for AP automation and e-invoicing across their supplier base of 200+ vendors in EU and North America regions. Before the integration, the accounting team received purchase orders from NAV and manually entered them into Basware's web UI each day, then waited for supplier invoices to arrive and matched them by hand against the NAV records. When invoices were approved in Basware for payment, the AP manager re-entered each transaction into NAV's cash disbursements journal to keep the accounting ledger current. With NAV and Basware connected, new purchase orders flow automatically from NAV each morning into Basware for invoice matching, approval workflows run in Basware without human data entry, and approved invoices sync back into NAV's AP ledger in real time. The accounting team now focuses on exception handling and month-end reconciliation, and the manual re-keying step is eliminated.

What you can do

• •Post Microsoft Dynamics NAV purchase orders into Basware daily or weekly on your accounting cycle so invoices arrive pre-matched.
• •Sync NAV invoices and payments back from Basware to reconcile your accounts payable and cash disbursement journals.
• •Authenticate NAV with OAuth2 client credentials or legacy web service keys, and Basware with OAuth2 or HTTP Basic Auth.
• •Handle NAV webhook subscriptions with automatic renewal before 3-day expiry, and validate Basware webhook signatures with HMAC-SHA256.
• •Detect your Basware regional deployment (EU, US, AU, CA) and route all calls to the correct endpoint, with full audit trail and deduplication keys on every record.

Questions

Which direction does data move between NAV and Basware?

The primary flow is from NAV into Basware: purchase orders and invoices move into Basware for matching, approval, and payment processing. Approved invoices and payment confirmations flow back into NAV so your AP and cash ledgers stay synchronized. Reference data such as vendors and GL accounts are aligned in both directions to ensure accurate account coding.

Does NAV's 3-day webhook subscription expiry require special handling?

Yes. ml-connector tracks the expiry date on NAV webhook subscriptions and automatically renews them before they expire, so you do not lose change notifications. If a subscription does expire unexpectedly, ml-connector falls back to polling until the subscription is renewed.

How does ml-connector handle NAV on-premises vs Business Central online?

ml-connector accepts either deployment type. For Business Central online it uses OAuth2 client credentials against your tenant and company IDs. For on-premises it accepts your NAV Server instance URL and uses OAuth2 or legacy web service key auth. Both require proper firewall and NAV Server configuration to expose OData on port 7048.