System setup (Implementation)

The Xentral homepage in the NextGen design provides access to various sections. This includes the Smart Search, the Dashboard with business data and recommendations, the menu, the launchpad, the administration menu, and the system settings.

The menu contains fewer sections than the previous Xentral versions. In NextGen, you can customize the main menu according to your individual preferences. The launchpad displays all the important functions of Xentral from your main menu.

The Smart Search allows for a quick search for information such as customers, documents, products, Xentral modules through a combined search of objects. You can also create new objects like products, contacts, sales orders, invoices and more using Smart Search. This feature enhances user-friendliness by enabling the use of keyboard shortcuts. To access Smart Search, you can either use the homepage or use the keyboard shortcut ⌘ K (macOS) or Ctrl K (Windows). It's possible to search for modules or objects inXentral and access previous search queries. The operators + and - can be used to specify search terms more precisely, and filters can be applied to further narrow down the search.

The Dashboard displays important business data in the form of Widgets, such as revenue and sales order volume. In the Recommendations section, important actions are displayed, such as the number of sales orders in logistics that still need to be packed as well as information about products that are running low.

In the Administration menu, you will find the App Store, information about your Xentral subscription, system messages, and your individual user account settings, such as language preferences.

The Xentral Settings (= basic system settings) can also be accessed in the menu sidebar. They are visible to users with the Admin role. Here, you will find all settings related to the system, including configuring company data, customizing documents using text blocks, document language, and document number ranges.

You can also find the setup for integrating a central email address for sending your offers, sales orders, and tracking information, as well as configuring user permissions for your team, in this section.

The most important settings to get started with Xentralwill help you to navigate the system settings. You will also find a detailed overview sorted by categories there.

Enter your company data, including details like your VAT ID, country, and full address for communication with customers and suppliers. Your company name will be displayed in the Xentral system.

In the Stationery section, add your logo or upload your stationery as a PDF to display it in the background. Place your legally required company information, such as trade register and management, VAT number, bank details, and address, in the footer.

If you are using only one sales channel, such as an online shop, and your manually created sales orders may have the same number range, you can leave the project as STANDARD. You can do this in the preconfigured standard number range in the standard chart of accounts SKR04.

Further settings:

Document texts : You can customize the texts on your documents (text templates) such as sales order, offer, invoice, delivery note, etc. For example, you can insert variables and edit Xentral's standard templates (e.g., hide the tracking number on the delivery note, display the short delivery address instead of the extended one).

Document information: Customer information for a certain document type (e.g., customer number, editor, distribution) are listed in a box called the infobox. Here, you can add or remove elements. The configurations for different document types can be found in the System settings. For an extended option to define the infobox at the project level (= sales channels), you can use the Receipts info boxesmodule.

Document language: If you want your EU customers to receive documents in a language other than your default language, you can set the document language and also translate your text blocks.

Tax rates: The tax rates are set for Germany. You can edit your Tax / Currency in the system settings. You can also manually add additional tax rates through the Tax rates module. To configure tax rates for shipping to other EU countries, you can use the Delivery threshold module.

Shipping methods and payment options

In Xentral, you will find the most important Shipping methods and Payment options already created or pre-configured. You can select a shipping method and payment option in a document, such as an sales order. If you have an integrated online store, the payment method and shipping method are passed from the shop configuration. You can also assign a preferred payment method, such as invoice 14 days, or a preferred shipping method, such as DHL, to an address.

You can find the general usage of shipping methods and payment options in these articles.

We have compiled the most important shipping methods such as DHL, Sendcloud, digital stamps, self-collection, and other shipping methods. We also compiled the key payment options in the system settings, including prepayment and invoice, PayPal, and the integration of bank accounts.

Emails are an important mean of communication in Xentral. Typically, all documents (offers, sales orders, delivery notes) are sent via email. You can send your documents individually or use automated batch processing in logistics to send them.

You can connect the following email providers:

In the central settings, you can connect your email account. Connecting Google and Microsoft email accounts is particularly easy: click on the respective option to add the account and sign in to your email account. The technical connection settings will be automatically filled in for you. If you are adding another email provider, you will need to configure the settings manually.

With text templates and variables, you can customize your emails for each type of document. You can find the respective text templates in the Business Letter Template module. By default, there is a template provided for each typical use case, which you can freely customize to your needs. Typical variables in an email template include the document number, your customer's name, and the date. You can see which variables you can use when editing the respective text template. You can find a list of variables available to you here.

In the new Xentral plans, you have an unlimited number of users available. You can create a separate user account for each of your employees so that they can work independently in their respective areas. This allows one employee to focus entirely on accounting, while another manages the shipping center. You can control the visibility of data through permission management. Here, you can specify which modules your employees can use, assign them to projects, and determine which data they can access.

The basis for creating users is the Creating users and managing their rights module. Here, you can invite new users by their email address and specify whether the employee should have full rights (administrator) or limited rights (regular employee). Once the employee receives the invitation via email, they can log into the account and create their own password. They can also change their login credentials at any time.

If you have invited the employee using a Gmail address, they can conveniently log into your instance using the Social Login feature. This method identifies the user through their Google account.

Rights allow you to restrict access to data for each employee according to their roles within the company. Users cannot see functions for which they do not have permission in the user interface. You have the following options to grant rights: