Business Central has built-in email tools that most companies don’t fully use. You can control which address sends each type of document, attach files automatically, and track every email that goes out. However, many teams are still sending everything from a personal inbox. This guide covers the full setup from email accounts through to sent email tracking.
Email Accounts in Business Central
Business Central lets you set up multiple email accounts, each with its own sender address. The simplest option is a Current User account. With this, emails go out from whoever is logged in. The customer sees that person’s address and can reply directly. This works well when one person handles a client relationship from start to finish.
However, not every email should come from one person. A sales invoice, for instance, often makes more sense coming from an accounting department address. Similarly, a purchase order might belong in the purchasing team’s inbox. For these cases, you set up a shared account — something like info@yourcompany.com or accounting@yourcompany.com — and assign it to the right document types. You can add as many accounts as you need. In practice, most companies need only two or three.
Email Scenario Assignments
Email Scenario Assignments is the page that links document types to email accounts. Open it and you will see your configured accounts listed. Click Assign Scenarios on any account. Then Business Central shows a full list of document types that can be emailed. The list covers sales orders, sales invoices, purchase orders, quotes, reminders, service credit memos, and more.
Pick the document types for that account and save. From that point on, Business Central routes those emails automatically. For example, when someone sends a posted sales invoice, the From field shows the shared company address instead of the logged-in user’s personal email. As a result, replies go to the right place. Also, no one has to remember which address to use each time.
In practice, the initial setup takes only a few minutes. After that, the right address appears on every document, regardless of who is logged in. This is especially useful in teams where multiple people send the same document types.
It also removes a common problem. Before this setup, customers sometimes reply to the wrong person because they got an email from whoever happened to send it. With scenario assignments in place, that doesn’t happen. The right inbox gets the replies every time.
Automatic Attachments with Scenario Attachments
Inside Email Scenario Assignments, select any scenario line. Then look for Set Scenario Attachments in the ribbon. This feature lets you upload files that attach automatically every time that document type is emailed.
The most common use is terms and conditions. Upload your T&C file to the Sales Invoice scenario and tick Attach by Default. Then every invoice going forward includes it alongside the PDF. No one has to remember, and no one can forget. Furthermore, you can set up different attachments per scenario. Invoices get one set, order confirmations get another. Each scenario is fully independent, so there is no overlap between them.
Default vs. Optional Attachments
Not every file needs to go out every time. If you leave Attach by Default unticked, the file stays in a library. When a user opens the email compose window, they see an Add Files from Default Selection button. Clicking it shows the available files. They then pick what applies to this specific email and skip the rest.
This is useful when you have several files for different situations. For example, you might have different T&C versions for different markets, or separate spec sheets for different product lines. Instead of attaching all of them every time, you prepare them once and let the user choose at send time. As a result, customers only receive what is meant for them, and emails stay clean.
Attaching Documents from the Source Record
There is also an option called Add File — Source Document. This pulls in files already attached to the customer card or the source document itself.
If someone attached a signed contract to a sales order earlier, that file appears in the list when composing the email. Select it and it attaches. Therefore, there is no need to switch pages or search through shared folders. Documents added at an earlier stage are right there in the compose window. This is particularly useful for teams where more than one person touches a document before it goes out to the customer.
Email Outbox and Sent Emails
Two pages round out the email toolset. The Email Outbox shows messages waiting to be sent. If an email fails — for instance, because of an invalid customer address — it lands here instead of disappearing. You then fix the address and resend without starting the document over from scratch.
Sent Emails is a log of everything that has gone out. From here you can view the source document, resend with one click, or edit and send again. When a customer says they never received an invoice, you find it here and resend right away. It also helps with auditing, because you can confirm what was sent, when, and to whom.
One practical tip: if you open the email window and decide not to send, always discard the draft. Otherwise, Business Central saves it, and those drafts build up over time. Then you have to delete them manually, which adds unnecessary cleanup work.
Wrapping Up
Email Scenarios, automatic attachments, and sent email tracking are all standard in Business Central. They need no extra apps or plugins. Once in place, they run in the background and make every email cleaner and easier to trace. In addition, the sent email log gives you a clear record that is useful when questions come up later. At NAV SEAL, we help companies get this kind of setup right from the start. If you have questions about your email configuration, reach out at navseal.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.
▶ Are you already using Email Scenario Assignments in Business Central — or is this the first time you are hearing about it? Let us know in the comments. And if this was useful, share it with a Business Central colleague who is still sending every document from their own inbox.
