Projects in Xentral allow you to structure and customize your business areas effectively. They are especially useful if you want to separate various online shops, branches, or customer segments. The flexibility of projects enables you to tailor logistics processes, tax rates, or payment methods according to your needs. Projects also allow you to configure specific settings for logistics, POS, letterheads, payment methods, and more.
Projects are essential if your business:
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Operates across multiple sales channels or regions and requires specific processes.
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Implements different logistics workflows, such as separate shipping centers or returns management.
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Has unique requirements for tax and currency settings, such as in international trade.
Tip
Take note of the following points to ensure projects in Xentral run smoothly and do not disrupt your workflows:
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Define clear project names: Choose intuitive and concise names.
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Configure logistics and shipping: Ensure that every business activity is supported by the appropriate processes.
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Consider global settings: Some functions, such as accounting or payment transactions, cannot be customized for individual projects.
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Optional: Set up custom fields: Create additional data fields for project-specific information.
Projects in Xentral offer versatile options to clearly structure and manage your business processes. They are especially useful when you need to manage different areas, customers, or branches separately. Below are some examples of how you can utilize projects:
Projects allow you to distinguish between various business sectors and tailor them to your needs.
Examples:
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Online Shops: Projects such as “Shop1,” “Shop2,” and “Shop3” help separate processes and enable specific settings like logistics workflows or shipping methods for each shop.
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High-Volume Sales Channels: Use projects for high-transaction-volume channels like “Amazon,” with extended numbering formats to handle larger data volumes effectively.
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Retail Sales and Central Warehouse: Separate physical stores from a central warehouse with projects like “Retail Berlin” or “Main Warehouse Hamburg.” This ensures individual control over inventory, POS systems, and shipping processes.
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B2B Sales: Create a “B2B Sales” project with custom numbering formats tailored to your business customers, such as unique document numbers for wholesale invoices.
Note
Checklist: Effective use of projects
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Separate channels logically: Identify which areas of your business require clear separation, such as online shops, B2B channels, or retail sales. Examples: “Shop1,” “Shop2,” “Marketplace A,” “Retail Sales,” “B2B,” “B2G.”
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Use intuitive names: Choose short, clear project names that are immediately understandable. Avoid cryptic abbreviations or overly complex names that your team needs to learn. Examples: "AMAZON," "AMZ," "AMZ_FBM," "AMZ_FBA," "EBAY," "SHOPWARE," "B2B."
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Keep projects manageable: Only use projects when absolutely necessary. Too many projects can complicate management and reduce clarity.
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Adapt numbering formats: Configure custom numbering formats for specific projects. Example: Longer numbers for high-volume channels or separate numbering for B2B projects to improve traceability and organization in financial accounting.
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Structure logistics and workflows: Assign tailored logistics processes, shipping methods, or payment types for each project to create streamlined operations.
Example 1: "Shop1" and "Marketplace1" share the same logistics process (identical project logistics settings). Example 2: "Shop1" is managed in 'Warehouse1' with a pick list for packing, while "Marketplace1" is handled in 'Warehouse2' using multi-order picking.
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Design for team usability: Prioritize user-friendly structures that your team can understand without extra explanation. Conduct regular training sessions or check-ins to ensure projects are being used effectively.
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Review and optimize regularly: Evaluate your projects periodically for relevance and effectiveness. Deactivate projects that are no longer needed to maintain clarity. Especially in a fast-growing business, regular reviews and configuration updates are essential for scalability and efficiency.
For each project, you can define unique logistics processes and standard parameters.
Examples:
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Shared processing: Projects such as "Shop1" and "Marketplace1" can use the same logistics process, such as single-order picking. This approach handles each order individually, making it ideal for low order volumes or specialized items.
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Specific logistics processes per project: Different sales platforms can be linked to unique warehouse and shipping workflows:
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Example 1: "Shop1" is managed from Warehouse1 using a pick list for picking and packing.
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Example 2: "Marketplace1" is handled in Warehouse2 with multi-order picking, where multiple orders are processed simultaneously to save time and resources.
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Optional: Payment and shipping options per project: Define project-specific payment and shipping methods to meet customer requirements. Example: "Shop1" uses prepayment and DHL as the shipping provider, while "Marketplace1" employs credit card payments and UPS for delivery.
Organize geographically separate units, such as branches or warehouses, with tailored processes.
Examples:
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POS (Point of Sale): A branch with a POS system is managed as its own project, distinct from an online shop or a headquarters with a central warehouse.
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Geographical separation: Projects like “Main Warehouse Munich” and “Sub-Warehouse Augsburg” simplify inventory and process management across different locations.
If you need to manage multiple companies within one Xentral instance, you can differentiate them using projects.
Warning
It’s important to note that not all modules can be fully configured project-specifically for multiple companies. Limitations may arise, especially in cases where the companies have inter-company transactions.
Note
To ensure your projects operate effectively, consider the following during onboarding:
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Use standard shipping methods and payment options across all projects or define them individually for each project.
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Customize letterheads and tax rates for each project as needed.
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Ensure projects are clearly separated to avoid overlaps in processes, such as numbering sequences, debtors, and creditors.
In project settings, you can configure specific parameters such as letterheads, logistics processes, numbering sequences, and more.
With basic settings like name, code, status, and responsible person, projects can be clearly structured and easily managed.
Details on the logistics settings in Xentral, including a comprehensive description of various logistics workflows such as single-order picking, batch picking, or multi-order picking, are available in our article Overview of logistics processes As well as in the corresponding article on the Selection and settings of the logistics process.
Each project allows for specific tax and currency settings. These project-based configurations override the global default settings and apply exclusively to the selected project.
Important
You can only use project-specific tax settings if the setting Use your own tax rates is activated in the Tax / Currency tab of the project settings.
Projects can be configured with custom numbering sequences to ensure unique document numbering for orders, invoices, delivery notes, and more. To enable this feature, activate the "Custom Number Sequences" option in the respective tab, and use the "Edit" function to set the next number. Note that a complete number sequence—including customer, supplier, and document numbers—must be defined for each project. It is not possible to use a single, differing number only.
For detailed guidance on setting up number sequences, refer to our article Using Number Ranges - Document Number, Customer Number, Supplier Number, Item Number.
The following chapters contain additional information on how projects interact with products, sales channels, permissions, and more, as well as further links.
Xentral’s permission system allows employees to be assigned to specific projects, clearly defining access and responsibilities. An employee can be assigned to one or multiple projects. This assignment is managed under Addresses in the user administration section.
Sample project assignments:
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Employee 1 (User Account: Shop1): Access to Online Shop 1.
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Employee 2 (User Account: Logistics): Access to Online Shop 1 and Shop 2.
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Employee 3 (Admin Account): Access to all projects.
For more information on setting up and managing user permissions, visit our article: User Permissions Assignment (Workflow).
Xentral allows you to configure project-specific letterheads to address unique requirements such as language differences or B2B/B2C distinctions. These settings override the default letterhead and apply to all documents associated with a project.
For more details on configuring project-specific letterheads, check out our article Document template (letterhead) and stationery.