Automatic Entry Processing

Automate Shop Floor import and posting with Job Queue. Use the graphical Queue Management Panel or standard Business Central job queue for scheduling.

📖 Introduction

Business Central offers advanced business process automation capabilities through job queuing mechanisms. We present two complementary approaches to queue management:

  • Shop Floor Queue Management Panel - intuitive graphical interface
  • Standard Job Queue Configuration - advanced technical configuration

Process automation for import and posting helps save time, minimize human errors, and ensure regular operation execution without manual intervention.

📊 Shop Floor Queue Management Panel

To simplify Shop Floor queue management, we've introduced a central management system, available on the Shop Floor Setup page.

Power App Queues list view

Panel Features

  • Access to all available Shop Floor queues in one place
  • Quick creation of new queues
  • Starting and stopping queues
  • Opening queue details
  • Operation status monitoring
  • Tracking time since last queue execution
  • Automatic settings validation (Automatic Import & Automatic Posting fields)

Using the Management Panel

After opening the information panel, you can perform the following operations:

  1. Create Queue - select the appropriate item and use the creation option

  2. Start Queue - select a queue and click the start button

    Queue row context menu with Actions panel

  3. Stop Queue - select an active queue and click the stop button

  4. View by Type - click on Queue Type to display all queues of that type

⚙️ Technical Job Queue Configuration

For users requiring more detailed control, you can configure standard Job Queues in Business Central.

Available Operation Parameters

Parameter Description
OUTPUT_IMPORT Import output entries to journal.
OUTPUT_POST Post existing output entries from journal.
CONSUMPTION_IMPORT Import consumption entries to journal.
CONSUMPTION_POST Post existing consumption entries from journal.
OUTPUT_IMPORT_WITH_POSTING Import output entries to journal and post automatically.
CONSUMPTION_IMPORT_WITH_POSTING Import consumption entries to journal and post automatically.
OUTPUT_AND_CONSUMPTION_IMPORT_WITH_POSTING Import both output and consumption entries with posting of both journals.

Execution Schedule

For each job queue, you can set a schedule specifying:

  • Earliest Start Date/Time: First execution moment
  • Recurrence: Execution frequency (daily, weekly, etc.)
  • Run on Days: Specific days of the week
  • Start Time / End Time: Time frame during the day

🔍 Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Execution Tracking

Queue execution can be monitored through:

  1. Shop Floor Panel - visual overview of statuses and recent executions
  2. Standard Job Queue Interface:
    • Queue status (Ready, In Progress, Error, Completed)
    • Message log
    • Verified output/consumption journals

Common Issues and Solutions

In case of queue malfunction, check:

  • Correctness of configured parameters
  • Availability of source data for import
  • Compliance of data to be posted with system requirements
  • Queue execution user permissions
  • Message logs for detailed errors

📝 Summary

The queue management system offers two complementary approaches:

  • Shop Floor Panel - for quick, intuitive management
  • Technical Configuration - for advanced settings and schedules

The choice of approach depends on user needs and process automation complexity.