merchantCENTRAL Setup (Reference)

The Setup card brings together all global settings of the merchantCENTRAL platform in one place. For first-time configuration, use the guided setup; this page is the complete field reference.

In-context help (F1)

Press F1 to open this page directly from Business Central. Every field also has a tooltip with a short explanation.

Open the page

Search for merchantCENTRAL Setup
Or from the Dashboard → Setup

General

Field	Description
Enable Dashboard	Controls whether the merchantCENTRAL dashboard is active.
Show in Role Center	Shows merchantCENTRAL in the standard role centers.
Default Marketplace	Marketplace pre-selected on the dashboard.

Synchronisation

Field	Description
Auto Sync Orders	Orders are fetched automatically (via job queue).
Auto Sync Inventory	Inventory is reported to the marketplaces automatically.
Auto Sync Prices	Prices are reported to the marketplaces automatically.

Inventory Calculation

Field	Description
Inventory Calculation Method	Defines how available inventory is calculated for all channels.
Default Stock Source	Own stock, supplier only (drop shipment), or combined.
Global Safety Stock	Safety stock deducted from available inventory (can be overridden per item).
Cross-Channel Deduction	Deducts open orders from other channels to prevent overselling.
Max. Supplier Offer Age (Days)	How many days a supplier offer may go without being confirmed by an import before its quantity no longer counts. Empty = no maximum age. Offers of switched-off suppliers and offers with the status Error never count.
Count Supplier Stock for Variants	Whether supplier stock counts for marketplace items with a variant code. Off by default: supplier offers belong to an item, not to a variant, so only the own stock of the variant counts. Switched on, every variant gets the full supplier stock of the item.

→ Background: Inventory Calculation.

Handling Time

How many working days pass from receiving an order to the shipment – for goods from your own stock and for vendors that have nothing maintained on the vendor card. Whether a marketplace uses the handling time is set on the Marketplace Card.

Field	Description
Own Stock Handling Time (Days)	Working days from receiving an order to the shipment from your own warehouse. 0 = same-day shipment. Default: 1.
Own Stock Order Cut-off Time	Orders received until this time are handled on the same working day; later ones count from the next working day. A vendor with an earlier cut-off time gets one working day more. Empty = all day.
Default Supplier Handling Time (Days)	Applies to vendors without a handling time of their own. Default: 3 – a vendor nobody knows is assumed to be slow.

→ Background: Handling Time.

Supplier Settings

Field	Description
Package UOM Code	Unit of measure for packaging units (e.g. VPE). Suppliers with "prices per piece" are converted to this unit.

Shipment Label Defaults

Field	Description
Default Shipment Provider Code	Provider pre-selected during label creation when the order has no shipping agent.
Default Shipment Service Code	Pre-selected service (e.g. STANDARD). Empty = system default.
Use Packaging Materials	Makes packaging materials selectable during label creation (auto-fills dimensions and tare weight).
Fill Standard Package Tracking No.	Also writes the tracking number to the standard BC field Package Tracking No. of the posted sales shipment, plus the Shipping Agent Code the number belongs to. On for new installations.

Fill Standard Package Tracking No.

What the standard field is needed for

merchantCENTRAL keeps the tracking number in a field of its own, because the standard field, at 30 characters, is too short for every format. Everything outside merchantCENTRAL reads only the standard field, though – the Shopify Connector from Microsoft, which passes the number on to Shopify from there, or the Track Package action. With this switch the number arrives there as well.

One number per shipment: a shipment of several parcels receives the number of the first parcel.
Number and carrier belong together: if the order was entered with another carrier than the label, the shipment takes the label's carrier. Otherwise a DPD number would stand next to DHL, and Shopify would link the wrong tracking page.
Numbers entered by hand stay: if the field already holds a number that did not come from merchantCENTRAL, it and the carrier next to it remain unchanged.
Numbers that are too long are left out, not truncated – a shortened tracking number would point at somebody else's parcel.
Existing installations: after the update the switch is off. Turn it on if you need the standard field.
An empty field counts as free: if you clear the field by hand, merchantCENTRAL fills it again with the next update. If you switch the setting off later, the numbers written until then remain.

Which number goes into the standard field

The standard field receives the shipment's lead number – the same number merchantCENTRAL keeps in the Tracking No. field of the posted shipment.

The lead number stays put: it belongs to the shipment's first label that carries a number. Further labels and new status reports do not change it.
It only changes after a cancellation: if the lead label is cancelled, the replacement label for the same shipment takes over the lead number – and the standard field follows, as long as it still holds merchantCENTRAL's previous number.
Cancelled labels do not count: the Tracking Numbers field of the posted shipment no longer counts a cancelled label; a parcel cancelled and replaced is still one parcel.
Return labels never supply the shipment's number – a return travels the other way.
Change of carrier: when the shipment takes over the label's Shipping Agent Code, the Shipping Agent Service Code is cleared – the service belonged to the previous carrier.
Not only our own labels: the switch works the same for tracking numbers a supplier reports for a drop shipment and for numbers you enter by hand on the posted shipment with Add Tracking Number.
New lead number too long: if the standard field still holds merchantCENTRAL's previous number and the new lead number is longer than 30 characters, the field is cleared. The old number no longer belongs to the parcel that is travelling.

Label before or after posting?

When the label is created on the order before posting, the number is part of the shipment from the moment it is posted. When it is created after posting from the posted shipment, merchantCENTRAL writes the number right after the label was created. Another extension picking up shipments in between sees no number yet – in that case, create the label before posting.

Shipping Costs (Order Import)

Field	Description
Shipping Line Type	Sales line type for shipping costs: Charge (Item) distributes, G/L Account posts directly.
Shipping No.	Charge item or G/L account for shipping cost lines.
Free Shipping Method Code	Shipment method when shipping is free (amount = 0).
Charge UOM Code	Unit of measure for charge lines (payment and shipping).

Dimensions (Order Import)

Field	Description
Customer Group Dimension Code	Dimension used to assign a customer group per marketplace (e.g. KUNDENGRUPPE).

Settlements

What posting the settlements of the marketplaces needs. The bank and transit account are set per marketplace on the marketplace card.

Field	Description
Settlement Journal Template / Settlement Journal Batch	General journal used to post the payouts. Another template clears the journal batch if it has no batch of that name.
Settlement Clearing Account	G/L account for amounts without a document and without an account mapping, and for the unexplained remainder of a payout.
Settlement Tolerance	How large the unexplained remainder of a payout may be at most; if it is larger, the payout is not posted. Default: 0.

Details: Settlements – Setup.

Item Creation

Field	Description
Item Creation Enabled	Allows items to be created from supplier data. Unlocks the fields below.
Def. Item No. Scheme Code	Item no. scheme for items whose item category names none. The item creation wizard can override it for a single run.
Def. Gen. Prod. Posting Group	Default general product posting group for new items.
Def. VAT Prod. Posting Group	Default VAT product posting group.
Def. Inventory Posting Group	Default inventory posting group.
Def. Base Unit of Measure	Default base unit of measure.
Auto-Match by GTIN	Automatically match unmatched supplier data by GTIN. Applies to every supplier import and to the item proposals.
Auto-Match by MPN	Automatically match unmatched supplier data by manufacturer part number together with the manufacturer. If that finds nothing - say, the manufacturer is kept under another name - the number alone links, provided exactly one item carries it and that item belongs to no other manufacturer. Applies to every supplier import and to the item proposals.

The import searches in this order: manufacturer part number with the manufacturer first, then the GTIN, and the manufacturer part number alone last. A GTIN only links when it names exactly one product: placeholders such as 5656565656562 or 0111111111111 (at most two different digits before the check digit) do not count, nor does a GTIN carried by several items, nor an item whose manufacturer part number contradicts the offer's. Placeholders are not copied to new or existing items either.

The import links an offer only while it has no item yet. An existing link - set by hand or by the item creation - is kept, as long as its item exists. The exception: if the item carries the same placeholder GTIN as the offer and its manufacturer part number does not confirm the offer's, the import searches again.

Cleaning up wrong links: Run the supplier import first - it releases the links only the placeholder can have made and searches them again by manufacturer part number. Then delete the placeholder GTIN from the item and enter the manufacturer part number in Common Item No. there. In the opposite order the wrong links stay. A link set by hand to an item that still carries a placeholder GTIN is released by every import - it holds once the placeholder is removed from the item.

Entra ID & Azure Blob Storage

Field	Description
Entra Tenant ID	Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) tenant ID for OAuth2 authentication.
Entra Client ID	Application (client) ID of the Entra ID app registration.
Storage Account Name	Azure storage account that holds supplier files.
Client Secret	Status of the OAuth2 secret. Click to enter/change - stored encrypted in Isolated Storage.

Media Storage (Product Images)

Field	Description
Media Storage Account	Azure storage account for product images (e.g. `stmcmedia`).
Media CDN Hostname	CDN hostname for public image URLs (e.g. `media.merchantcentral.de`).
Media Container Name	Blob container for images (default: `images`).
Image Storage	Where downloaded image files go: Media Storage (the only place a channel can serve them from under a stable address), Main Image in Business Central (only an item's first image goes into the database, the rest stay links) or All Images in Business Central.

Duplicate images are only recognised where the file is fetched

The same photo arrives from Icecat, from ITscope and from the shop, each under its own address. What recognises it is the checksum of the file - and that only exists once the file has been downloaded. With Image Storage on Main Image in Business Central and no media storage configured, nothing past an item's first image is fetched on purpose, so a duplicate stays in the gallery as a tile of its own. With a media storage, or with All Images in Business Central, the detection applies. The address is compared either way, so the same URL never enters the gallery twice.

Maintenance

Field	Description
Activity Log Retention (Days)	Number of days activity log entries are kept.

Email Notifications

Field	Description
Enable Email Notifications	Enables email notifications globally for all connectors.
Default Notification Email	Default recipient (separate multiple addresses with semicolons).
Sender Email Account	Sender account; empty = the Business Central default email scenario.
Notify on Success	Notification for successful operations.
Notify on Error	Notification when errors occur.

Actions

Action	Description
Setup Wizard	Opens the guided setup.
Payment Mappings	Opens the payment type mapping used for order import.
Settlement Account Mapping	Opens the Settlement Account Mapping of all marketplaces.
Cleanup Activity Log	Deletes log entries older than the retention period.