In Xentral, you can control the language of receipts and business letters specifically for your international customers. The Language list function allows you to specify in which languages standard receipts – such as quotes, orders, delivery notes or invoices – as well as individual business letter templates should be output. This is especially important if you serve customers in different countries and want to ensure legally secure and linguistically adapted communication.
The language list allows you to add new languages, edit existing ones, and enable or disable them system-wide. Each language requires specific information, such as a two-digit ISO language code and a description in German and English.
Once you have activated a language, you can assign it to a customer, which automatically ensures that all related documents are generated in the desired language – provided the appropriate templates have been maintained.
In addition, business letter templates can be customized for each language, allowing you to create invoices or delivery notes with appropriate flow text and correct wording in the recipient's language.
Note
Controlling receipt language correctly:
Xentral distinguishes between the receipt language, which determines the language in which a sales order or other receipt is output, and the language mapping for e-commerce shops, which correctly transfers the language assigned to the sales order by the sales channel.
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How to define the document language in Xentral (on the customer, in the receipt, or in the Language list module) is described in chapter Defining receipt language in Xentral.
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To learn how to map the language of a shop to the correct receipt language in Xentral, see chapter Language mapping in e-commerce: Mapping shop language to sales order language
Both settings are related and ensure that sales orders from shops as well as manually created sales orders are created in the desired language.
You can find the Language list using the Smart Search or by going to Settings > Master data > Addresses > Language list.The list view shows all languages created in the system.
Proceed as described below to create a new language.
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Click on Add language in the upper right corner.
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Fill in the following mandatory fields:
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Two-digit ISO code: The ISO 639-1 language code (e.g. DE for German, ES for Spanish).
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Designation German: The German name of the language (e.g. Holländisch).
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Designation English: The English name of the language (e.g. Dutch).
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Active: Check the box if you want the language to be available for selection in the system (e.g. for customer receipts).
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Click on Save.
Follow these steps to edit an existing language.
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In the language list, click on the pencil icon to the right of the desired language.
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Carry out the desired changes.
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Click on Save.
The receipt language can also be defined individually per customer.
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Go to Sell > Contacts.
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Open the desired user by clicking on the pencil icon to the right.
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In the customer master data, in the Details > Address data tab, go to the Settings section and select the Language for receipts.
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Click on Save.
Note
The receipt language stored in the customer is automatically used when creating receipt, provided that the language is active in the system and that appropriate text modules are present in the templates.
For example, if a customer has been assigned the Spanish language, the Spanish text blocks are automatically accessed when creating a receipt – provided that they are maintained in the business letter templates.
All communication (position headings, footer texts, introductory texts, etc.) is then displayed in the selected language. No manual changes are required for the receipts.
Business letter templates must be maintained per language for correct linguistic representation.
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Open the Settings > General settings > Receipts > Text templates menu.
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Select the desired business letter type and click on the world globe icon to the right of the text box.
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Insert the translation.
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Click on Save.
Note
Insert the language and text blocks for all receipts. All translations can be edited and inserted directly in the Translations module.
Caution
Preview the receipt in the language to ensure that you have also translated elements such as the product table label, the total amount of the receipt and taxes completely and correctly. All translations can be edited and pasted directly in the Translations module.
Business letter templates must be maintained per language for correct linguistic representation.
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Open the Settings > General settings > Email > Email templates menu.
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Select the type of business letter you want in the system language and click on the copy icon in the Menu column on the right.
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Switch to the desired Language in the editing view.
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Maintain the following text boxes with content in the target language:
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Subject: Email template subject line
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Text: Text of the email template.
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Click on Save.
Note
When sending a receipt with the respective receipt language, the correct language template is now automatically used.
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Example: Invoice with Spanish receipt language
When the Spanish language has been stored for a customer and an invoice is generated, the following happens:
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The receipt text is automatically displayed in Spanish.
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The text blocks used come from the Spanish language version of the email template (business letter template).
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Shipping texts (e.g. in emails) are also output in the maintained language, if defined.
The receipt language determines in which language a sales order, delivery note or invoice is created. Xentral uses several levels that build on each other:
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Saving a language in the language list: For a language to be used or mapped at all, it must be created under Settings > Master data > Addresses > Language list. Only then can it be used for customers and receipts.
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Setting a receipt language on the customer: In the customer master data, the Settings section allows you to define a preferred language per customer by using the Language for receipts option. New receipts automatically adopt this customer language unless mapping or overwriting is performed.
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Selecting the receipt language directly in the sales order: If a sales order is created manually or if the language should be different, the receipt language can be set or adjusted directly in the receipt via the language field. This setting acts exclusively on the current receipt and overrides the customer language for this process.
Important
For a language to be accepted as a valid receipt language, it must always be maintained in the Language list module.
When importing sales orders from sales platforms (Shopify, Amazon, Shopware and other marketplaces), the language of a sales order is not automatically determined solely on the basis of customer data. Instead, Xentral can adopt the language from the shop. As a prerequisite, the language mapping must be set up correctly.
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Receiving language from the shop: The shop must transfer the language of the sales order or customer in its API.
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For example, Amazon does this via language/country mapping.
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For Shopify, it depends on the theme and checkout configuration.
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Setting up language mapping in the shop workflow: In the respective shop in Xentral (in the menu Settings > Sell > Stores/Marketplaces > Select shop or in the new Connect in the workflow "Sales order import") you can define which language passed by the shop corresponds to which receipt language in Xentral.
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Example: en_GB → English, fr_FR → French, de_DE → German.
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Prerequisite: Language must exist in the language module: Only if the mapped language is created in Xentral can it be set as a receipt language during import.
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Optional: Importing product texts in multiple languages: If additional product texts or descriptions are to be imported in a specific language, the following conditions must be met:
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The language must be enabled in the shop
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The shop interface transfers this data to Xentral. This functionality depends on the respective shop.
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Important
For a receipt language to be imported correctly, it must always be maintained in the Language list module.
Only when the mapping is correct and the shop supplies the language will the imported sales orders automatically appear in the correct language in Xentral.