Onboarding Bank Connect banks with direct communication

  • 30/11/2021
  • 5 minutes to read

Bank Connect is a collaboration between the Regional Bankers' Association, local banks, and the three data centers; SDC, BEC, and Bankdata. As a customer of one of the banks in this collaboration, you can send and retrieve bank files between Bank Connect and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central using the Payment Management Direct Communication service.

This article explains the onboarding process of enabling direct communication between Bank Connect banks and Payment Management.

Prerequisites

Before you start setting up direct communication with Bank Connect, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

  • Update the Payment Management app. To enable direct communication, the Payment Management app must be updated to the newest version or as a minimum version 2.0.0.0.
  • Subscribe to a Bank Connect Web Service agreement. To establish the direct communication service between Payment Management and Bank Connect you must have access to your bank's online banking solution. A certificate must be activated in Business Central for authentication and authorization. The activation of the certificate requires a technical EDI Web service user and PIN code which must be requested from your Cash Management adviser at the bank. When the agreement has been approved, a web service user is automatically created by Bank Connect and you will receive a letter with the required PIN code.

To set up direct communication

  1. In Business Central, select the icon Search for page or report, enter Bank Account Setup, and then select the related link.

  2. In the bank account overview, select the Bank Connect bank account for which the direct communication service must be established. Verify that the Communication column is set to Direct Communication, or make sure to activate this during the setup. You can switch between Direct Communication and Manual Communication by using the dropdown menu.

  3. Select Next to run the bank account setup, and fill in the fields as necessary.

  4. On the Create certificate for direct communication page, type in the information that you received in the letter from the bank. For more information, see Prerequisites.

    FieldDescription
    User No.This is the function ID which as a minimum consists of 11 characters (the 5-digit customer number cannot be used).
    PIN CodeThis is the activation code.
    Main Bank Branch CodeThis is your bank's main branch number which you can find here (the number is mentioned in parenthesis after the bank name).

  5. Continue the bank account setup until you are back at the bank account overview. The bank account's Status, displayed in the bank account overview, should now have been updated to Ready, which means that you are ready to start using direct communication.

Important

Once the access to Bank Connect has been established you should log in to your bank to order the files that you wish to receive in Business Central from the bank. It can take up to a day before you are able to receive the files, as the files are generated during the night or early morning and not by request.

To get an overview of the files supported by your bank, see Bank Integration. To read more about the bank information that is included in the files, see Importing and Exporting Bank Files.

See also

Integration to Bankdata
Integration to BEC
Integration to SDC
Importing and Exporting Bank Files