--- title: "Setting Up a Partner Company" slug: "overview-and-company-roles" description: "Automate your drop-ship transactions with the Abakion Intercompany app, streamlining orders, shipments, and invoices between Business Central companies." status: "update" updated: 2026-09-03T09:14:57Z published: 2026-09-03T09:14:57Z canonical: "docs.abakion.com/overview-and-company-roles" --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.abakion.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Setting Up a Partner Company ## Feature Overview Intercompany trading requires two Business Central companies — often in different environments — to agree on how they identify each other and how orders and documents will flow between them. This feature covers that agreement: creating the local Intercompany Partner record that represents your trading partner, configuring how you connect to them, and deciding what each side is allowed to see and do. There are two distinct setup paths. The **Intercompany Setup Guide** is a one-time assisted wizard that gets a single company ready for Intercompany the first time: it decides whether the company is acting as a **Sales Company** (the company placing orders, receiving goods) or a **Supply Company** (the company holding inventory, fulfilling orders), creates the matching Customer or Vendor record, creates the Intercompany Partner record, and optionally maps the chart of accounts. The **Connection Setup Guide** ("Connect Externally Setup") is used per partner, any time you need to link to a partner in a different Business Central environment: it walks through exchanging connection URLs and Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) app credentials, and lets you test the connection before saving. Once a partner exists, day-to-day configuration happens on the Intercompany Partner Card, which Intercompany extends with automation and permission settings, plus two related setup lists: which of your locations the partner is allowed to see, and which custom fields should travel with documents to and from that partner. | | | | --- | --- | | **Pages to use** | Intercompany Setup Guide, IC Partner Card, Connection Setup Guide, IC Partner Locations, IC Partner Custom Fields | | **Entity types supported** | Intercompany Partner, Customer, Vendor, Location | | **Key configuration fields** | Intercompany Partner Code, Inbox Handling, Price Source on Inbound Orders, IC Discount %, Auto-Release settings | | **Integration points** | Automatic Order Creation Between Companies (the automation flags set here control it), Sending & Receiving Documents Automatically (the connection this feature creates is what that traffic uses), Keeping Item & Stock Data in Sync (partner locations control what's visible) | ## Getting Started 1. In the company that will trade with a partner for the first time, run the **Intercompany Setup Guide** from the Assisted Setup list. 2. Choose whether this company is a **Sales Company** (the company placing orders, receiving goods) or a **Supply Company** (the company holding inventory, fulfilling orders). 3. Enter **your own** Intercompany Partner Code — the code the partner will use to identify you — and the **partner's** Intercompany Partner Code. 4. Depending on the company type, configure the matching Intercompany Vendor (Sales Company) or Intercompany Customer (Supply Company), including its Posting Group and Location Code. 5. Choose whether to map your chart of accounts to the partner's (only relevant if both companies share the same chart). 6. If this is a Supply Company, select which of your Locations the partner may see and order from. 7. Complete the wizard — this creates the Intercompany Partner record and the standard IC Setup for your company. 8. Open the new partner's **IC Partner Card** and, in the Connection group, run **Connect Externally Setup** if the partner is in a different environment. 9. In the Connection Setup Guide, exchange connection URLs, Web Service Instance/Tenant, and Microsoft Entra Client ID/Secret/Token Endpoint with the partner, then use **Test Connection** before finishing. 10. Back on the IC Partner Card, review the automation settings under *When I send orders to this partner* / *When orders arrive from this partner* and set them to match how you want transactions to flow. ## Related Features Setting up a partner is the prerequisite for everything else Intercompany does. **Automatic Order Creation Between Companies** reads the auto-release and auto-post settings configured here to decide how much of the order flow happens without manual intervention. **Sending & Receiving Documents Automatically** uses the connection details (URL, tenant, credentials) established here to actually move documents. **Keeping Item & Stock Data in Sync** is scoped by the partner locations configured on this partner. **Cross-Company Invoicing** relies on the Customer/Vendor and posting group setup done during onboarding to post correctly. ## User Stories ****Set up this company for Intercompany trading for the first time**** **As a** consultant configuring a new Business Central company for Intercompany **I want to** run a guided setup that creates the required customer/vendor, partner, and setup records **So that** the company is ready to trade with a partner without manually creating each record **Setup:** 1. Open the **Intercompany Setup Guide** from Assisted Setup. 2. Select the Intercompany type (Sales Company or Supply Company). 3. Fill in your own Intercompany Partner Code and the partner's code. 4. Complete the vendor/customer, posting group, and location steps as prompted. 5. Select **Create** to generate the records. > **Note:** The wizard must be completed in both companies that will trade with each other — running it in only one company is not sufficient. ****Reuse an existing Vendor, Customer, or Partner instead of creating a new one**** **As a** consultant who already has a Vendor/Customer/Partner record for this trading relationship **I want to** point the setup guide at the existing record instead of creating a duplicate **So that** existing history and settings are preserved **Setup:** 1. In the relevant step of the Intercompany Setup Guide, enter the existing Vendor No., Customer No., or Intercompany Partner Code. 2. When prompted that the record already exists, choose whether to **modify** the existing record with the wizard's values or leave it and let the wizard skip creation. > **Note:** Choosing to modify will overwrite posting groups and location code on the existing record with the values entered in the wizard. ****Map the chart of accounts between two companies sharing the same G/L structure**** **As a** consultant setting up two companies with an identical chart of accounts **I want to** automatically create matching IC G/L Account entries **So that** intercompany G/L transactions post correctly without manual account mapping **Setup:** 1. During the Intercompany Setup Guide, on the G/L Account Mapping step, enable **Create IC G/L Account Entries?**. 2. Complete the wizard. > **Note:** This creates a 1-to-1 mapping using each account's own number — only use this when both companies use the same chart of accounts. ****Make all items immediately orderable through the intercompany vendor**** **As a** consultant configuring a Sales Company **I want to** add the intercompany vendor to every existing item **So that** items can be ordered from the supply partner without editing each item individually **Setup:** 1. During the Intercompany Setup Guide (Sales Company type), on the Item Vendor step, enable **Create Item Vendor Entries?**. 2. Complete the wizard. ****Connect to a partner company in a different Business Central environment**** **As a** consultant linking to a partner outside this tenant **I want to** exchange connection and authentication details through a guided wizard **So that** the two environments can communicate without manually configuring web service records **Setup:** 1. Open the partner's **IC Partner Card**. 2. Select **Connect Externally Setup**. 3. Note your own company's Connection URL, Web Service Instance, and Web Service Tenant shown on the first step, and share them with the partner. 4. Enter the partner's Connection URL, Web Service Instance, Web Service Tenant, and Company Name as provided by them. 5. Enter the Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) app registration's Client ID, Client Secret, and Token Endpoint that will be used to authenticate to the partner. 6. Select **Test Connection** and confirm it succeeds. 7. Select **Finish** to save. > **Note:** The connection details entered must not be identical to your own company's — the wizard blocks saving a partner that points at itself. ****Verify a partner connection is still working**** **As a** consultant troubleshooting a partner that has stopped exchanging documents **I want to** manually re-test the connection **So that** I can confirm whether the problem is authentication/connectivity or something else **Setup:** 1. Open the partner's **IC Partner Card**. 2. Select **Test connection** (IC Partner action group). > **Note:** A successful test only confirms the web service call succeeds — it does not confirm document content or business logic further down the chain (see Monitoring & Resolving Exceptions). ****Choose how incoming transactions from a partner are handled**** **As a** consultant configuring a partner **I want to** control whether incoming transactions are processed manually, on a schedule, or immediately **So that** processing matches how quickly the business needs transactions turned around **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card, in the Connection group, set **Inbox Handling** to *No Handling*, *Handle with Job Queue*, or *Handle with Web Service*. > **Note:** *Handle with Web Service* pushes transactions through in real time; *Handle with Job Queue* relies on a scheduled background job; *No Handling* requires someone to process the inbox manually. ****Automatically release outbound purchase orders to a supply partner**** **As a** consultant in a Sales Company **I want to** have the purchase order automatically released and sent once the matching sales order is released **So that** staff don't have to manually release each purchase order **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card (Sales Company), under *When I send orders to this partner*, enable **Auto-Release Outbound Purchase Order**. ****Automatically release inbound sales orders received from a partner**** **As a** consultant in a Supply Company **I want to** have sales orders created from the IC inbox automatically released **So that** they are immediately ready for picking and shipment without manual review **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card (Supply Company), under *When orders arrive from this partner*, enable **Auto-Release Inbound Sales Order**. ****Control which price is used on an inbound sales order**** **As a** consultant in a Supply Company **I want to** choose whether the sales order uses my own prices, the price sent by the sales company, or zero profit **So that** intercompany pricing matches the commercial agreement between the companies **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card (Supply Company), set **Price Source on Inbound Orders** to *Normal sales prices*, *Accept prices from IC customer*, or *Zero Profit*. > **Note:** "Accept prices from IC customer" requires the sales company to actually send its price — see the Sales Company's IC Discount % setting (US-11). ****Apply a fixed intercompany discount when sending orders to a supply partner**** **As a** consultant in a Sales Company **I want to** apply a fixed discount percentage when sending orders to the supply partner **So that** an agreed transfer price is used automatically **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card (Sales Company), set **IC Discount %** to the agreed percentage. 2. Set **Discount Price Basis** to control whether the discount applies to the purchase price or the sales price sent. > **Note:** For the discount to take effect on the receiving side, the supply partner's Price Source on Inbound Orders must be set to *Accept prices from IC customer*. ****Automatically post purchase receipts and journal lines from a partner**** **As a** consultant in a Sales Company **I want to** have purchase receipts and intercompany journal lines post automatically on receipt **So that** inventory and financial postings stay current without manual posting **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card (Sales Company), under *When I receive documents from this partner*, enable **Auto-Post Purchase Receipt**. 2. Under *When orders arrive from this partner* (Supply Company side of a matching relationship) or the equivalent group, enable **Post IC Journal Lines** and select the **IC Journal Template** and **IC Journal Batch** to post to. ****Automatically send shipments, invoices, and credit memos to a partner**** **As a** consultant in a Supply Company **I want to** have posted shipments, invoices, and credit memos automatically sent to the sales partner **So that** the partner receives documents without a manual export step **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card (Supply Company), under *Documents Sent to Partner*, enable **Auto-Send Shipment to Partner**, **Auto-Send Invoice to Partner**, and/or **Auto-Send Credit Memo to Partner** as needed. ****Allow the supply partner to adjust quantity or variant on an inbound order**** **As a** consultant in a Supply Company **I want to** allow limited editing of the sales order created from a partner's order **So that** stock or variant substitutions can be handled without rejecting the order **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card (Supply Company), under *Order Adjustments*, enable **Allow Quantity Change on Inbound Orders** and/or **Allow Variant Change on Inbound Orders** as needed. ****Control which locations a partner is allowed to see and order from**** **As a** consultant managing inventory visibility between companies **I want to** restrict which of my locations a specific partner can see stock for and order from **So that** partners only interact with the locations relevant to them **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card, select **IC Partner Locations**. 2. Add a line per Location the partner should have access to. 3. Optionally set a location-specific **Auto Post Sales Order** override and toggle **Allow Inventory Lookup**. > **Note:** Auto Post Sales Order at the location is automatically reset to *None* if the location requires shipment or picking, since those require a physical warehouse step before posting. ****Map a custom field to travel with documents sent to or received from a partner**** **As a** consultant with a business requirement to exchange a field not covered by standard Intercompany **I want to** configure a custom field mapping for a specific partner **So that** the extra data travels with the order without custom development **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card, select **IC Partner Custom Fields**. 2. Add a line specifying Direction (Incoming/Outgoing), Document Type, Record Type (Sales/Purchase Header or Line), and the source Field. 3. For incoming custom fields, optionally enable **Validate** to run standard field validation when the value is applied. > **Note:** Custom Field No. above 10 requires the Extended Custom Fields feature to be enabled in IC Setup. Incoming custom values can only be mapped to sales documents — not purchase documents — and Validate cannot be enabled for outgoing fields. ****Set the default automatic posting behaviour for sales orders received from a partner**** **As a** consultant in a Supply Company **I want to** define a partner-wide default for how far inbound sales orders are auto-posted **So that** new locations for this partner inherit a sensible default without configuring each one **Setup:** 1. On the IC Partner Card (Supply Company), set **Auto-Post Sales Order** to the desired default (e.g. Ship, or Ship and Invoice). > **Note:** This value is used as the default for new IC Partner Location records (US-15) but can be overridden per location. ## Field Reference | Field | Where to find it | What it does | Default value | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Intercompany Partner Code (own) | Intercompany Setup Guide | Identifies this company to its trading partners. | *(blank)* | | Intercompany Partner Code (partner's) | Intercompany Setup Guide / IC Partner Card | Identifies the trading partner. | *(blank)* | | Inbox Handling | IC Partner Card (Connection) | Controls whether incoming transactions are handled manually, via job queue, or via web service. | No Handling | | Price Source on Inbound Orders | IC Partner Card | Determines which price is used on the sales order created from an inbound order. | Use normal sales prices | | IC Discount % | IC Partner Card | Fixed discount percentage applied when sending orders to the supply partner. | 0 | | Discount Price Basis | IC Partner Card | Whether the discount is based on purchase price or sales price. | Purchase Price | | Auto-Release Outbound Purchase Order | IC Partner Card | Automatically releases the purchase order when the matching sales order is released. | Disabled | | Auto-Release Inbound Sales Order | IC Partner Card | Automatically releases the sales order created from the IC inbox. | Disabled | | Auto-Post Purchase Receipt | IC Partner Card | Automatically posts purchase receipts received from the partner. | Disabled | | Post IC Journal Lines | IC Partner Card | Automatically posts intercompany journal lines created from inbox transactions. | Disabled | | IC Journal Template / IC Journal Batch | IC Partner Card | The journal template and batch used when posting IC journal lines. | *(blank)* | | Auto-Send Shipment / Invoice / Credit Memo to Partner | IC Partner Card | Automatically sends the posted document to the partner. | Disabled | | Allow Quantity Change on Inbound Orders | IC Partner Card | Allows editing quantity on an IC sales order line. | Disabled | | Allow Variant Change on Inbound Orders | IC Partner Card | Allows editing item variant on an IC sales order line. | Disabled | | Auto-Post Sales Order | IC Partner Card | Default auto-post behaviour for inbound sales orders. | None | | Location Code (per partner) | IC Partner Locations | A location the partner may see/order from. | *(none)* | | Allow Inventory Lookup | IC Partner Locations | Whether the partner can look up inventory at this location. | Enabled | | Direction / Document Type / Record Type / Field No. | IC Partner Custom Fields | Defines a custom field mapping for this partner. | *(none)* |