What the solution is
ideal.shop is a Danish platform for websites and storefronts, sold as a subscription with Danish support. There are more than fifty integrations for payment, shipping, marketing and accounting, and Business Central is one of them. The integration is free with the Pro subscription.
The platform is not built around an ERP. It is built around the storefront, and the ERP integration is an addition that eases the accounting work. It is a different kind of product from the rest of the catalogue, and that is worth knowing before comparing figures.
How the integration works
The integration goes one way only. Sales orders are transferred automatically from the storefront to Business Central, so the accounts department does not have to key them in. We have found no documentation that items, prices, stock or customers come the other way.
That means the item catalogue, the prices and the stock figures are maintained in the storefront. If you set a price in Business Central, it does not take effect in the store, and if you sell the last item in the store, the ERP only learns about it once the order has been transferred.
It is the weakest integration in the catalogue measured on the mechanism this site compares. We have included the solution because it exists, because it is purchasable and because it is used, but it sits on the edge of the admission criterion that master data must be transferred automatically from Business Central. That is a fact which should weigh heavily if you had expected the ERP to be the one true source.
Prices, discounts and agreements
All pricing logic lives in the storefront. Customer-specific prices, volume discounts, discount groups, campaigns and bundles are set up in the store, not in Business Central, and the two systems do not keep each other updated.
For a consumer store with one price list that is not a problem. The price is the same for everyone, it has to be set in one place, and the store is a sensible place to set it.
For a company with agreed prices per customer it is decisive, however. There is no mechanism fetching the customer's own price from Business Central, and there is no customer portal. If you need to sell to business customers on agreed terms, this is not the solution that solves the job.
The order and the finance function
The order is transferred to Business Central, and that is the whole purpose of the integration. That part works and is the right help for an accounts department that would otherwise key orders in by hand.
Everything that comes after the order is handled in Business Central as normal. Partial shipments, back orders and credit memos are the ERP's job, but they are not reflected back into the store, so the customer's order status in the storefront is the store's own and not the ERP's.
VAT is decided in the store. If you sell to several countries, the VAT setup has to be maintained in the storefront alongside the one in Business Central, and that is two places to hold a rule.
Who the solution fits
The solution fits a smaller Danish company with consumer selling, one price list and a wish to get going quickly and cheaply. Danish support and a low subscription are real advantages, and they weigh heavily when the budget is small.
It also fits if the most important problem is that orders have to be keyed into the accounts by hand. The integration solves that problem, and it solves it at a price no other solution in the catalogue comes close to.
The solution does not fit B2B selling with customer-specific prices, it does not fit several companies or several countries, and it does not fit if Business Central is to be the one true source of items and prices. In all three cases there are other solutions in the catalogue built for the job.
What to settle before you decide
Pricing is public and sits lowest in the catalogue. The Pro subscription the integration requires is stated at around seven thousand Danish kroner, and the Business Central integration is included in it. Confirm the period and the current level on the vendor's pricing page before calculating.
Our large scenario stands as not served. Three companies, eight countries and sixty thousand items is not what this solution is built for, and a price band would be misleading rather than informative.
The most important question to ask is whether a route exists for fetching items and prices from Business Central. If you get a yes, the solution moves noticeably in the assessment. If you get a no, you know exactly which work stays with you.