Continia eDocuments Flows

• 02/04/2024
• 7 minutes to read

Continia eDocuments supports multiple different document flows, currently involving the following four types of documents:

• Purchase orders
• Sales invoices
• Order responses
• Invoice responses

More document types will be added in the future, meaning that even more flows and scenarios will be possible with Continia eDocuments at a later stage.

The sections below outline two typical document flows between two parties (customer and vendor) using Continia eDocuments in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Although quite common, these flows are just two of many examples of how documents may be exchanged in Continia eDocuments.

For actual user guides on how to carry out the various actions related to these flows, see the following articles:

• Continia eDocuments Customer Flows
• Continia eDocuments Vendor Flows

Ordering flow

A classic Continia eDocuments ordering flow involves a customer (buyer) who places an order with a vendor (seller), who then responds to that order. Such a flow will typically look as follows:

1. The customer creates a purchase order in Business Central and sends it to the vendor using Continia eDocuments (via the PEPPOL Network).
2. The vendor receives the order and registers it as a Business Central sales order. One of the following three types of order response will then be sent either manually or automatically from the vendor to the customer, indicating if the order can be fulfilled:
   • Order Acceptance: The vendor can fulfill the order and accepts it fully. Here, the vendor may also add additional details that are useful to the customer, for example to assist in item identification.
   • Order Changes: The vendor can only partially fulfill the order, because changes must be made to one or more lines (due to price changes, item availability or similar).
   • Order Rejection: The vendor can't fulfill the order at all and therefore rejects it.
3. The customer receives the relevant order response in Business Central and registers it. This will update the original purchase order with any changes the vendor made.

   Note

   If the vendor rejects the order, the customer will have to start the flow again by creating a new purchase order and sending it to the vendor.

4. The vendor posts the sales order, and a posted sales invoice is created automatically.

The posted sales invoice can then be sent to the customer as part of the billing flow that's outlined below.

Billing flow

A classic Continia eDocuments billing flow involves a vendor (seller) who sends an invoice to a customer (buyer), who then responds to that invoice. Such a flow will typically look as follows:

1. The vendor creates a sales invoice in Business Central for the items that were ordered by and shipped to the customer, for example by posting a sales order as part of the ordering flow above.
2. The vendor sends the sales invoice using Continia eDocuments (via the PEPPOL Network).
3. The customer receives the invoice, and one of the following two types of invoice response is sent either manually or automatically from the customer to the vendor, indicating the status of the invoice:
   • In Process: The customer is reviewing the invoice.
   • Under Query: The customer needs clarification or has questions about the invoice and may contact the vendor via phone or email.
4. When no more information is needed, the customer matches the invoice against the original order. One of the following three types of invoice response will then be sent either manually or automatically from the customer to the vendor, depending on the result of the matching process:
   • Rejected: The invoice and the order don't match, so the customer rejects the invoice.

     Note

     If the customer rejects the invoice, the vendor will have to start the flow again by creating a new sales invoice and sending it to the customer.

   • Conditional: The invoice and the order almost match, so the customer accepts under certain conditions – for example, provided that the vendor adjusts the price.
   • Accepted: The invoice and the order match, so the customer accepts.
5. Following successful matching, the customer registers the invoice using Document Capture, thereby creating a purchase invoice.
6. The customer pays the invoice, and a Paid notification is sent to the vendor.

The eDocument Status field

For all flows, both customers and vendors can monitor the status of a document throughout the process using the eDocument Status field. This field is available from a number of key pages, such as the Sales Order, Purchase Invoice, and Posted Sales Invoice pages. For all of these pages, it's located on the General FastTab.

If you select the status message in the eDocument Status field for a given document, the eDocument Overview page opens. This page lists all document statuses and activities that have been automatically logged for the document. It also provides additional useful details like Change (if changes have been made) and Conditionally Accepted (if a document has been accepted under certain conditions).