Business NXT : Severa

With the Severa–Business NXT integration, you can transfer sales invoices seamlessly as sales orders from Severa to Business NXT. The integration also enables transferring purchase invoice rows from Business NXT to Severa as project costs. You can manage project business in Severa and accounting in Business NXT, which minimizes the need for manual data synchronization.

The integration is in the pilot phase. If you want to start using the integration, contact Severa customer service by email at severa.support@visma.com.

Synchronization schedule

Data transfer in the integration runs automatically in a staggered cycle based on the time of day. This optimizes system performance and ensures that the data is as up to date as possible when it is needed the most. Data is synchronized according to the following schedule (times in Finnish time):

Day (08:00–19:00): Data is updated automatically every 10 minutes.
Evening (19:00–00:00): Data is updated every 1 hour.
Night (00:00–08:00): No data is transferred during the night. Changes made during the night are synchronized in bulk starting at 08:00 in the morning.

How does the integration work?

The integration synchronizes customers, products, business units/departments, projects and employees/users between the systems. Sales invoices are transferred from Severa to Business NXT by selecting an invoice status that is configured to trigger the transfer, and the subsequent statuses (sent, paid) are updated from Business NXT back to Severa.

Purchase invoices are transferred from Business NXT to Severa by allocating the cost in Business NXT to a Severa project and posting it. In addition, approved work hours can be transferred from Severa to Business NXT.

Account sets and currencies are not synchronized, but as part of the integration setup you must ensure that the account sets and currencies you want to use exist in both systems.

Before enabling the integration

Before the integration is enabled, it is important to ensure the following:

Make sure that existing data and registries (customers, products, travel expenses, work types, projects) match between the systems. For this, use the Registry comparison report available in Severa’s integration settings. The report calculates similarity scores for items and shows whether they will be linked correctly according to the integration logic.

Enabling the integration

The main steps for enabling the integration are:

Authenticate the integration
Configure the integration settings
Use the register comparison to ensure that registries are synchronized correctly
Enable the integration

Integration authentication

Authentication is the first step in enabling the integration. For this, we need to enter the Client id and client secret in Severa. Perform the steps in the following order:

The client credentials created in the last step are used to authenticate the integration.

Configure the integration settings

General configuration

Add the company number in Business NXT. For integration error situations, you can define email addresses to which error notifications are sent.

Main system settings in Business NXT (master)

Items created in synchronized registries are added to both systems regardless of which system they were created in. However, updates to existing items are transferred only from the defined master system to the other system. There are three options for setting the master system:

Master: Makes the selected system the master for organization units, users and customers (including customer contacts and addresses). Note that Business NXT is always the master for customer numbering (accounts in Business NXT).
Product registry master: Defines the master system for product synchronization.
Project registry master: Defines the master system for project synchronization.

If projects are configured to use one of the orgUnit 7–12 tables in Business NXT, Severa must be set as the master system for projects. This limitation is due to the fact that Severa projects must have numeric project numbers, whereas the orgUnit 7–12 tables are defined as alphanumeric.

Field mappings and allocations

Departments / business units

Severa business units must be mapped to Business NXT departments. The following settings are required:

The name of the table where departments are stored in Business NXT
The name of the field where the GUID used to link organization units and departments is stored
The field and value for those departments that are not linked between the systems

Products

To synchronize Business NXT products with Severa products, work types and travel expense types, you must configure the following fields:

The name of the field where the GUID used to link products between the systems is stored
The field and value for those products that are not linked between the systems

Default product numbers for work hours, products and travel expenses are used when an invoice is transferred to Business NXT if those fields are empty or not synchronized. Make sure that the default product numbers exist in Business NXT.

If you want to synchronize product categories, select the option transfer product categories and define the field that contains the product category information in Business NXT.

Partners (customers and employees)

Associates mappings must be configured to link customers and users/employees between Severa and Business NXT. For customers and employees, you can define which field in the associate table is used to store the Severa GUID so that items are identified between the systems.

Customer address mapping settings

For customers, address mapping must be configured. In Severa, the customer address type and address box can be mapped to Business NXT as follows:

Set the field where the address identifier is stored. Note that this field cannot be used for any other purpose.
Set the field where the address type is stored. In Business NXT, there can be only one billing address, which is marked with the value 1. All other addresses are marked with the value 0 and treated as delivery addresses.
Add the names of the address lines in Business NXT. The integration parses the lines of the Severa address box to match the first, second, etc. line in Business NXT. Note that the postal code, city and country in the address mapping are hard-coded in the integration to use the corresponding fields in Severa and Business NXT.

Status and exclusion rules

It is mandatory to define how inactive customers and employees are identified:

Set the group field used to mark active/inactive partners
Set the value that indicates a partner is inactive

In addition, you can define which customers and employees are not transferred in the integration:

Set the group field used to mark partners that should not be transferred
Set the value that indicates a partner is not transferred

Financial overrides and configuration

If you use multiple number series for customers in Business NXT, you must add this information to the Account number series setting field so that the integration creates customer numbers correctly.
You can set a default overdue interest rate. This rate is used if no overdue interest is set for the customer in Severa.
In Business NXT, the Account set cust field is used to define the correct tax and accounting treatment. In Severa, you can use market segments for this information. Create a main segment in Severa named Account set cust and add subsegments that correspond to your Business NXT account sets (for example, External transaction, Intra-group transaction). The value must match the name of the main account group, as Business NXT mappings are based on these segment names.

Projects

Sales cases with the status Won and regular projects in Severa are transferred to Business NXT. If you create a project in Business NXT, it is created in Severa with the sales status Won defined in the settings. If no sales status is defined, the first Won sales status is used.

Severa projects are mapped to the organization unit table in Business NXT. The following settings are mandatory in the setup:

Set the organization unit table where projects are created. Note that if projects are configured to use one of the orgUnit 7–12 tables in Business NXT, Severa must be set as the master system for projects. This limitation applies because Severa projects must have numeric project numbers, whereas orgUnit 7–12 is defined as alphanumeric.
Set the field where the GUIDs of Severa projects are stored. Note that this field cannot be used for any other purpose.

If there are projects in Business NXT that should not be transferred to Severa, this can be configured as follows:

Set the group field for projects that are not transferred
Set the value that indicates a project is not transferred

In addition, you can:

Store the project short name from Severa in Business NXT
Define which sales status is added in Severa for a project created in Business NXT
Transfer internal projects. By default, they are not transferred.

Transaction data transfers

Approved work hours

Approved work hours in Severa can be transferred to Business NXT. If you have work hour approval enabled in Severa, you can enable this option and then configure the following:

The Free information table in Business NXT where work hour entries are stored
The date from which hours are transferred. This refers to the time entry date, not the date it was created or approved. For example, if you set the date to 1 February 2027, a work hour entry for 31 January 2027 will not be transferred, even if it was created or approved later. You can leave this setting empty if you intend to transfer all work hour entries.

Vouchers / costs

Purchase invoice costs can be transferred from Business NXT as rows/fees to Severa projects by linking the cost to a project and posting it in Business NXT.

The integration can be configured to read costs from the Updated voucher table or from general ledger transactions. Usually voucher data is sufficient, but in some cases costs without VAT are available only in general ledger transactions.

The following settings can be used to fine-tune the transfer of purchase costs:

Sales value percentage: By default this is 100, which means that the unit cost and unit price are set to the same value in Severa. If you set it to 0, the unit cost is transferred but the unit price is zero. The value can also be set above 100, in which case the unit price is higher than the unit cost.
Product code: It is important to add a default product code, because without it the costs cannot be invoiced in Severa.
Voucher types: You can define specific voucher types that you want to transfer to Severa. Values can be given individually (for example 1, 2, 3, …) or as ranges (for example 1–10, 22–30).
Credit voucher types: As with voucher types, you can define which credit voucher types should be transferred to Severa.
Cost account numbers: You can define specific account numbers whose vouchers are transferred to Severa. Values can be given individually (for example 1200, 1209, 1210, …) or as ranges (for example 1200–1300, 2000–2100).
Description of item: You can select the information that is shown as the project fee description in Severa.

Invoices

A key part of the integration is transferring invoices from Severa to Business NXT as sales orders. Severa invoice statuses are used to trigger data transfer and to track the status, so first make sure you plan and configure the Severa invoice statuses you want to use with the integration.

Mandatory settings

Set the data field where the invoice number is stored in Business NXT
Set the Severa invoice status that triggers the transfer of the invoice to Business NXT
Set the Severa invoice status that the invoice receives in Severa after a successful transfer
Set the Severa invoice status for invoices sent to the end customer
Set the Severa invoice status for paid invoices

Optional settings

Set the date from which invoices are sent to Business NXT. The date evaluated is the invoice date created in Severa, not for example the date when the invoice status is changed to transfer to Business NXT.
Set whether you want to transfer invoice notes. Invoice notes consist of the Invoice notes (free text) in the Severa invoice and the free text that can be added above or below the invoice rows. They are transferred to Business NXT as invoice rows / order lines. If you decide to transfer them, you can set a default product number for these invoice rows. Just make sure that the product code exists in Business NXT.
Set the field where the Severa order number is mapped
Set the field where the billing contact person is mapped. By default, the mapping is to the Owner field in Business NXT, so in this setting you can define an additional field.
Add the VAT code you use in Business NXT for reverse charges. The code is added if you have an invoice with reverse charge.
Transfer costs related to the invoice row
Use the Business NXT product description on the invoice row / order line. If this is selected, the order lines in Business NXT show the Business NXT product description, while the Severa description is on the line below.
Transfer the invoice PDF and attachments to Business NXT. You can choose to transfer nothing, only the invoice, only the breakdown and other attachments, or everything.
Set how the organization unit / department is linked to the order line. The options are to select the organization unit based on the invoiced project or based on the user’s organization unit. In the latter case, the user’s organization unit is used when the work, travel expense or product is entered as a work hour entry; otherwise, the project’s organization unit is used (for example, if you add a cost to the project).

Invoice statuses and numbering

Configure the invoice statuses in Severa under Billing > Invoice statuses. Name the invoice statuses (examples below) and define the mandatory settings for them:
1. Draft
2. Ready for ViBu (not editable)
3. In ViBu (not editable)
4. Sent to ViBu (not editable, Invoice number, sent)
5. Paid (not editable, Invoice number, sent, paid)
In Severa under Billing > Invoice statuses, make sure that the Default status for credit note is a status where the Invoice number option is not selected.
In Severa under Billing > Invoice numbering, make sure that the setting Generate invoice number for credit note is not selected.

Additional mapping settings

Language mappings

Severa uses ISO codes to define languages, whereas Business NXT uses country codes. By default, the integration includes a predefined mapping between the main languages. If needed, you can edit how the mapping is done in the language mapping settings or add new language mapping pairs.

Payment term mapping

In Severa, each payment term is unique based on the number of payment days, whereas in Business NXT there can be several terms with the same number of payment days. By default, the integration uses the first payment term that has the corresponding number of payment days in Business NXT. If you need to define a specific payment term to use, you can use the payment term mapping field. Add the number of net days and the payment term key in Business NXT. It should be formatted as follows: payment days=key, for example 14=2, 30=5, 60=3.

Period key mapping

Period key mapping allows you to allocate recurring fee revenue to the correct months by mapping the recurring fee frequency in Severa to period keys in Business NXT. For example, if period key 1 means 3 months in Visma Business, map 3=1, which means that frequency 3 in Severa corresponds to period key 1 in Visma Business. If you also have period key 2, which means 6 months, map 3=1, 6=2.

Invoice VAT mapping

In Severa, you must set the tax code to match the TaxCode in Business NXT (named Vat Code in the user interface). In Business NXT, TaxCode is linked to VatNo, which contains the exact tax rate. By following this configuration, we can ensure that taxes are reconciled correctly for both invoice and supplier cost synchronization based on the defined tax rate.

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