Skip to main content
Academy Community Sign in

Setting up the basics

  • Updated

Goal

Every Xentral journey starts with the Basic settings module. This guide shows you where to find them and set them correctly. 

Prerequisites

There are no requirements to start with Basic settings.

Workflows

The following procedures describe best practices for setting up Basic settings in Xentral.

  1. Finding Basic settings
  2. Adding your company address
  3. Configuring Number ranges
  4. Configuring Payment methods
  5. Configuring Tax and Currency
  6. Configuring System settings and Free fields

Finding Basic settings

To go to Basic Settings click Administration > System > Basic settings or search for Basic Settings in the search bar and click Go to module.

Hint: To navigate to a specific section in Xentral, either use the standard navigation by clicking your way through the system or directly open a module by just searching it in the search bar. This search engine is powerful, and it contains modules as well as products, customers, orders, and any other main component of the system.

The page of the basic settings contains many different aspects of your Xentral. These are the most important tabs:

  • Company address
  • Letterhead (Editing your business letters)
  • Text templates (Editing your business letters)
  • Email (Connecting your email accounts)
  • Number ranges
  • Payment methods
  • Tax / Currency
  • System
  • Free fields

Adding your company address

  1. Log into Xentral and go to Administration > System > Basic settings.
  2. Open the Company address tab and fill the corresponding fields:
    1. Name - Name of your company.
    2. Street - Address where your company is registered.
    3. ZIP code - Postcode of your company.
    4. Place - City of your company.
    5. Country - Country where your company is located. Use a two-digit ISO code (DE for Germany, GB for Great Britain).
    6. VAT ID  - enter the VAT ID for the country you operate from.
    7. SEPA creditor ID - this field is optional. Fill it out only if you use the SEPA direct credit procedure in Xentral.
  3. Click Save.

Configuring Number ranges

Xentral identifies each object by a unique number. Every customer, product, order, or invoice has a number that you or Xentral assign. You can decide what number range Xentral should choose for an object in the Number ranges tab. This number range will count up with each new object. You can define the number Xentral should choose next in the corresponding fields.

A few points to note:

  • Your tax consultant may demand specific numbers for customers, invoices, or credit notes. If you want to use the Xentral accounting tools, you should ask your tax consultant if any specific number is required.
  • Xentral always starts the number range with the first number that you’ve entered. This means that if you enter 10000 in the Next offer number field, Xentral will generate the number 10000 for the next offer and will increase the number to 10001. Xentral never resets the number unless you do it manually. 
  • Please avoid duplicate number ranges. We recommend against using a number range that may create the same number for different objects, like order and delivery notes. Although this will not cause more significant technical issues, it could confuse your users when searching for a specific document number.
  • Xentral will always count up the suffix of your number. Therefore, the last digits must be numbers and no letters. You can add any prefix to your number, like O-1234. A configuration like 1234-O is invalid.
  • Please do not use semicolons in any of your numbers. This could cause issues in later CSV imports or exports.
  • To ensure a seamless transition from your old system to Xentral, enter the number ranges on the day you start using Xentral for your daily business. 

Note: Using Number ranges in Xentral for products, customers, or suppliers is not mandatory. You can define each number manually when creating the object or via a CSV import. This means you will not have to create new numbers for your existing data.

Configuring Payment methods

Each order in Xentral contains a payment method. Add each payment method you offer to your customers in Xentral. This is especially important if you plan to connect an online shop to Xentral. You need payment methods to indicate whether Xentral is allowed to process unpaid orders or wait for a payment transaction before sending products to your customers.

  1. Log into Xentral and go to Administration > System > Basic settings.
  2. Open the Payment methods tab.
  3. Enter your standard payment target in days. 
  4. If you offer a cash discount, you can add the specific payment target and discount percentage (this is a common use case in Germany, but rarely for other countries). Leave these fields empty if you don’t offer any cash discount.
  5. Click Save.
  6. Click Payment methods in the gray infobox.
  7. Add payment methods you offer to your customers to this list. You can remove the payment methods you do not need by clicking the X icon.
  8. Most payment methods are already created by default, such as Invoice, Prepayment, PayPal, or Amazon. If you use Shopify Payments or Klarna, please add them. You don’t have to add any method you offer exclusively via Shopify Payments.

Note: If you add Klarna or PayPal, Xentral will request API credentials to communicate with these payment providers. You don’t have to add these credentials in this early stage of your setup. You only need these credentials, if you want to connect these providers directly to Xentral. Refer to Klarna, Paypal articles to see what features the corresponding interfaces offer.

Adding a new payment method

  1. Log into Xentral and go to Administration > Payment methods > Select your provider.
  2. Enter Description and Type for your payment methods
  3. Select a module for your payment method in the dropdown menu. Leave it empty in case it’s not available.
  4. Enter any text you want to include in your order confirmation or invoice. This text will appear at the bottom of each document associated with the payment method, such as  Paid with PayPal.
  5. Enter the project in the Project field only if you use this payment method for a specific part of your business.
  6. Select  Invoices are automatically set to paid if you don’t want to track payment transactions for this kind of payment method. You can use this setting if you only import paid orders from your shop and don’t need the payment information in your Xentral.
  7. The check box Payables are automatically set to paid has the same effect but only affects payments you owe to your suppliers.
  8. Select one of the options in the Behave like dropdown menu if the payment method represents an invoice or a prepayment logic.
    1. Invoice - Xentral transfers the order to logistics before the payment.
    2. Prepayment - Xentral transfers the order to logistics after the payment.
    3. Direct debit - Xentral uses the payment method for your direct debit procedure.
  9. Select the Active check box.
  10. Click Save.

Configuring Tax / Currency

The Tax / Currency tab contains the basic settings for invoicing and accounting. You must enter your standard tax rates, and you may fill out the fields for your chart of accounts if you want to use the Xentral accounting tools.

  1. Log into Xentral and go to Administration > System > Basic settings.
  2. Open the Tax/Currency tab.
  3. Enter your standard and reduced tax. You only have to do this if your country charges different taxes than the German standard (19% standard, 7% reduced).
  4. If you don’t want Xentral to use Euro as a default currency, you can change this in the Standard currency field.
  5. If you plan to use Xentral as part of your bookkeeping, enter your chart of accounts in the Financial accounting Export Chart of accounts area. Accounts on the left-hand side are for revenue. Accounts on the right-hand side are for your payables. Talk to your tax consultant about your chart of accounts. It is possible to add additional accounts for product categories or specific business processes. 
  6. The remaining fields are optional. You can find a detailed description here.
  7. Click Save.

Configuring System settings and Free fields

The System and Free fields tabs are optional and you usually don’t need them for the initial setup. Nevertheless, you should keep them in mind:  

  • The System tab offers many specific options for special use cases or slight changes in your process. This page gives you a complete overview.
  • The Free fields tab allows you to define additional data fields in Xentral if the standard fields are insufficient. You can create new fields for products, addresses, and projects. Some shops like Shopware allow synchronization of such custom fields. This manual gives you an introduction to Free fields in Xentral.

Related Articles

Deep dive articles

 

 

Related articles